CHAPTER OF MISCELLANIES. 
275 
c|uite Wet. The surface of the tree was entirely sound, and there was no appear¬ 
ance of a communication to this hidden cavity .’—Gloucestershire Chronicle^ 
June IT- 
Instance of the Wood Snipe (Scolopax rusticola) caerying its Young in 
ITS Bill.— -A rare fact occurred a short time since in this county. A boy fishing 
disturbed a nest, the birds from which flew in different directions, one with a bird 
in its bill. The boy followed the weakest of the brood, and discovered it to be a 
young Wood Snipe, which is now in the possession of Mr. Burgoin, gamekeeper 
to the Duke of Devonshire, at Chatsworth. The bird which the boy first saw 
was one of the parents conveying its offspring from the impending danger, across 
the river at Ashford .—Derby Mercury. 
The Egyptian Goose, the Bluethroated Fantail, and the Wood Snipe’s 
Nest, found in Dorsetshire.— Mr. Knight tells me that two Egyptian Geese 
were shot last year in Dorsetshire, and Mr. C. Henning has one of them. The 
Bluethroated Fantail \_Pandicilla Siiecica .— Ed.] has also been killed in the 
same county, and is in the museum of Mr. R. A. Cox. A Woodcock’s nest was 
found in Middlemarsh Common in April 1837. Sir R. C. Hoare has a white 
Woodcock, another dusky, and a third with white wings.—J. C. Dale, Glanville 
Wootton, Dorsetshire., June 19, 1837. 
Utility of the Hedge Urchin.— The Hedgehog is, in general, the object 
of persecution, not only of idle boys, but is often obnoxious to the farmer and 
gamekeeper, on account of its mischievous propensities. It is, in fact, one which 
the agriculturist should endeavour to preserve. A garden in which a Hedgehog 
is kept, will, in the course of a few nights, be entirely freed from Slugs ; and 
that enemy to fruit trees, the Millepede, is always a favourite food with him. 
An eminent professor, now living, has communicated the following circumstance. 
He states that Hedgehogs prey on Snakes. He saw one seize its prey, crack its 
bones at interval of half an inch or more, and then, placing itself at the tip of 
the Snake’s tail, begin to eat upwards till about half was consumed, when it 
ceased from repletion, but during the night finished the remainder. The usual 
aliment of the Hedgehog is insects, Worms, Slugs, and Snails, but it goes higher 
in the scale of gastronomic enjoyment, devouring Frogs, Toads, and Mice. The 
Snake experiment was made by Professor Buckland, as above described. The 
fondness of the Hedgehog for insects, occasions it to be kept in many houses in 
London, for the purpose of ridding the kitchens of the innumerable hosts of Cock¬ 
roaches with which they are infested .—Gloucestershire Chronicle. 
Instinct of Birds. —-K curious and pleasing instance of the instinct of birds, 
and their anxious affection for their offspring, was observed last week in Chelten¬ 
ham. A gentleman who had discovered a Starling’s nest, in which were several 
young birds, being desirous to domesticate them., had the nest removed from its 
No. 11, Vol. 11. 2 0 
