1 6 
NATURE NOTES 
Ring-Ouzels. - I noticed in your notes of the November number “ Rare 
Visitors,” by J. Hiam ; I was glad to see this, for what Mr. Iliam tells us one can 
rely 7 on, but the locality is not defined, that is, not to the public. For many 
years I have noticed a few (a very few) ring-ouzels in this neighbourhood, both 
spring and autumn, and have on several occasions been told by persons that 
they had seen a “blackbird” with a white ring round its neck, which means 
the same species. I have little doubt that the ring-ouzel passes through this 
locality twice annually on migration, nor is this to be wondered at, as one of its 
favourite breeding places is the Black Mountains. I have found many nests in 
the Llanthony Valley, and my eggs were collected on the Black Vat, a wild 
country in Radnorshire, not many miles north of the Black Mountains. Redditch 
is nearly in the centre of England, and as nearly as possible east of the locality 
where I find these birds breeding in the last half of May. I am of opinion that 
these birds move in an eastward direction in autumn and a westward in spring, 
that is, as far as the birds frequenting the centre of our island are concerned. The 
principal winter home of the ring-ouzel does not at present seem to be well 
known. 
Redditch. Donald Mathews. 
November 29, 1 902. 
Black Woodpecker. — In Nature Notes for December, in my note on 
the black woodpecker, I notice there is a little mistake. It should not read “a 
beautiful black crest ” but a “ beautiful red crest.” I expect in writing the 
description in a hurry, I put black instead of red. 
Melford Bridge Road, Thetford. W. S. Sparrow. 
December ti, 1902. 
Devil's Coach-Horse. — Mr. Smallman’s explanation that this beetle turns 
up its tail to “ try and mimic a scorpion,” is ingenious. Scorpions are nocturnal 
animals. A friend of mine, when in India, was much disturbed at night by a 
small owl which lived in a tree close to his house. At last he killed the owl, 
and on opening it was surprised to find that the contents of its stomach consisted 
entirely of scorpions. Aftei this he left the owls alone. This leads one to think 
that trying to pass off as a scorpion would often prove a dangerous experiment. 
Market tVeston, Thetford. Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
December, 1902. 
Earwigs. — I am quite willing to concede to Mr. Daubeny (see Nature 
Notes for December, p. 230), that the common earwig may be a useful insect 
in so far as it is carnivorous; but superstitions die hard, and I must protest 
against his revival of the exploded superstition, originated, I believe, by Kirby 
and Spence, and which I have had occasion to refute over and over again, that 
earwigs do not get into the ear occasionally. I need not here repeat what I have 
said before, further than to mention that an earwng once got into the ear of a 
member of my own family, and that Mr. F. Enoch tells me that they have some- 
times dropped into his ears when beating trees in woods. I do not believe they 
do any harm in the ear other than by the iriitation they may cause; and any 
insect that happens to get into the ear may easily be dislodged by dropping a 
little oil in, if it cannot be got rid of otherwise. 
Natural History Museum, W. F. Kirby. 
South Kensington. 
The Holly. — With reference to Capt. Daubeny’s interesting note on the 
holly tree near his house in South Hants, I wish he would tell us the nature of 
the soil in which it flourishes. Christchurch, from the neighbourhood of which 
he writes, seems to be on the Bagshot sand formation, and I think sand must be 
the soil most congenial to the holly. In the Leisure Hour for January, 1894, 
page 201, will be found a copy of a letter addressed to The Times by Col. Lloyd 
Verney, giving some particulars of a remarkable holly close to his house at 
Llanidloes, Caermarthenshire, which he believed to be the largest in Great 
Britain, and which, according to the figures he gave, exceeded Captain Daubeny’s 
specimen both in height and circumference of bole, and had been reported as 
