96 
NATURE NOTES 
What is the Barley-Bird ? — In reference to the notes hereon in the 
April issue (p. 74), I am pleased to see that my little “ Handbook of British 
Breeding Birds ” has been of service to Miss Caroline E. Harley. Since that 
manual was compiled, however, I have collected the names of four further species 
of British birds which are called in some districts the barley-bird, namely, the 
common gull, nightingale, grey wagtail, and wryneck. It may be that the 
species, in the neighbourhood of Poole, which is called the barley-bird, is, as “the 
Dorsetshire clergyman ” surmises, the wryneck, although the note uttered, i.e., 
“a short, sharp, ‘tweet,’” leads one to suppose that it might perchance be the 
nuthatch, and the note of the wryneck, moreover, cannot very well be written 
down as “tweet.” Although the siskin may for aught I know be unknown at 
or very near Poole, I have recorded it in the neighbourhood of Bournemouth 
during the winter and early spring. These notes may perhaps lead to the 
identification of the avine stranger. 
St. Albans , Herts, W. Percival Westell, M.B.O.U. 
April, 1903. 
The barley-bird queried in Nature Notes (p. 74) is, according to Hudson 
in his “ British Birds,” a local name given to the yellow wagtail. The bird is 
so-called on account of its habit of frequenting the fields while spring sowing is 
in progress, and following the plough. In some districts it is called the “oat- 
seed-bird,” and in Scotland the “ seed-bird ” and “ seed-lady.” The call note 
is a sharp and double one. This bird is common in all parts of England, but in 
Scotland is found only in the southern counties. It arrives in this country about 
the end of March and the beginning of April. 
19, Dalziel Place, Augustus H. Duvall. 
Abbey hill, Edinburgh, 
April 9, 1903. 
Earwigs. — My memo, on Earwigs in your issue of December last has resulted 
in quite an interesting discussion. Mr. Kirby’s explanation of the origin of the 
name “earwig” shows the advantage of ready access to books of reference 
possessed by those who live in town, of which he has made full use. In “ Insects 
at Home,” Rev. J. G. Wood says that earwigs “ have been the occasion of more 
disputes among entomologists than all the other insects put together. Some 
asserted that they were an aberrant branch of the Brachelytra, and allied to the 
common rove beetles ; while others strenuously asserted that they belonged by 
right to the Orthoptera, and were allied, though distantly, to the cockroach. 
The use to which they put the forceps with which their tails are armed, furnished 
another fertile source of dispute ; while even their popular English name was 
cause for abundant quarrel, one party considering the name to be properly 
ear wig, in allusion to the popular idea that they were in the habit of crawling into 
the human ears ; and the other spelling the word ear wing, because the spread 
wing of the insect is shaped like a human ear.” 
Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
Slugs. — With reference to note on food of slugs on p. 77, it is not the 
inclination but the opportunity that slugs usually lack for varying their diet. The 
garden-frequenting species of both Arion and Limax are regular scavengers, and 
nothing eatable comes amiss to them. The genus Testacella, however, is car- 
nivorous and feeds chiefly, if not exclusively, on earthworms. 
68, North Hill, J. E. Cooper. 
Highgate, N. 
Thunderbolts. — In reply to the query of Mr. E. T. Daubeny, it may be 
said that thunderbolts are practically non-existent. They are to be regarded as 
myths and the simple offspring of popular credulity. Thunderstorms represent 
electrical discharges between certain clouds and between clouds and the earth. 
Such storms, consisting of light, sound and aqueous vapours, induce a good deal 
of atmospheric commotion while they last, but there are no solid bodies, sus- 
pended high in the air, which are implicated in these disturbances and liable to 
be dashed to the ground. It is true that objects of rather a peculiar form and 
appearance have often been dug out of the earth and termed “ thunderbolts,” 
but they have no claim whatever to the distinction, their origin being otherwise 
sufficiently accounted for. Pieces of flint, some of them the rudely formed axes 
of the early Britons and ancient arrow heads, have frequently been discovered and 
