COUNTRY LIFE

British Hoopoes

In a record of the birds seen this year in the south-eastern counties some special emphasis is laid on the hoopoe and the thick-kneed plover. These two were much the most con- spicuous birds, except for the kites and other hawks, in the island of Majorca. That delectable spot has not much general likeness to Britain in its birds or its flowers, so the parallel is the more surprising. The hoopoe impresses itself on all beholders. It impressed the Greeks, from Aristophanes downwards ; and it is tame- as well as salient. It is good news that it has nested in England. There seems no reason why it should not. It visits us quite often ; and both climate and conditions should suit it. It may be compared with the golden oriole in this regard. Both species move up to the southern edge of the channel and send a few of the braver spirits across. Either they do not breed successfully or their young fail to inherit the instinct of cross-channel migration. * *

Naturalised Birds

Experiments in the deliberate teaching of this instinct, if an instinct can be taught, are being made, also in the south- eastern counties, with the stork. Some vigorous youngsters are in a specially constructed nest in Kent, and a number are being hatched by our local herons. The idea is that they will remember the place of their birth and next year duly return from Africa and become established as a British species. This consummation may of course be achieved, but memory of this sort seems to take an aeon or so to create. I once watched one experiment very parallel in method. American robins (which are thrushes) were bred in good numbers both in captivity and in the nests of wild blackbirds and thrushes. They flourished abundantly and duly migrated ; but never a one ever returned. No one knows even where they journeyed. It may perhaps be taken as a good omen by those who are experimenting with the storks in Kent that a pair of cranes has been watched in Sussex. An interesting account by more than one observer is given in that most excellent of county papers, the Sussex County Magazine. A pair of bittern, now common enough in Norfolk, nested this year in the south ; and the species is doubtless extending its range. One sees no good reason why the little bittern also (quite common—at any rate in 1914 round St. Omer) should not nest with us from time to time.

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A Big Nest

Some references made lately to the enormous size of some nests (parakeets in Argentina and buzzards in Radnor) suggests a parallel to a veteran reader of The Spectator. He writes : " My earliest recollection of a thunderstorm dates about 1856 (within a year or so), when the tower on Glastonbury Tor . . . was struck. We had been taught to know the pair of ravens, whose enormous nest crowned the N.E. tower, and that it had been theirs for at least some hundred years. Repairs involved the destruction of the nest which was thrown down into a space about 15 feet square. This it filled to a depth of six feet. The ravens never returned." My own rather limited experience of ravens suggests that they are peculiarly faithful to one site (as to one spouse), but often leave the actual nest fallow for alternate years.

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The Marathon Iris

Readers are very kind, and indeed very " far-flung," like the British Empire. Recently I expressed a desire to know the name and nature of a little dark iris that I once found on the plains of Marathon, and was not Goth enough to eradicate. Two correspondents, one from our legation in Athens, give the desired information. It is Iris tuberosa (Hermodactylus tuberosus), a suitably Greek name. The flowers' of Greece are many and lovely, and they encroach even on the sea. At Marathon I remember with particular pleasure a bed of little mauve stocks growing out of the pebbles on the beach, as the horned poppies grow at Alde- burgh. Both the flowers and the birds have found their greatest authorities in British residents. On the general subject of irises—the sweetness of scent is remarkable in a number of the newer varieties (though " Moonlight " excels

them all) and is a great addition. Nevertheless the least sweet—to say no more—is worth growing if only for the colour of the seeds. Is anything else so bright in the North Devon dunes as the seedheads of Iris foetida, which grows there in mass

Hay Fever

A new virtue has been discovered in the new haymaking. Since the essence of it is the cutting of the grasses before they come into seed, it does away with the chief cause of hay fever ! That curious and distressing complaint may doubtless be caused by other things than grass seed. Any dust (or what a medical witness once called any " micaceous spicules of triturated vegetation " may produce the symptoms ; but grass seed is certainly one cause, and a victim, whose farm is now hayed in the new fashion, finds with joy that the seasonal fever has not appeared. There was a scare at one time that the seed-cases of the planes that are the most popular of London trees, were of a dangerously irritative nature to the throat and nose, but happily corroboration has been lacking. Though some one once said that London was " a plane tale " we could ill spare the tree, which has every advantage for urban conditions.

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Superior Exotics

It is surprising, though explicable enough, that a number of our native plants are much more susceptible to certain maladies than exotics or hybridised varieties, as some personal experiences indicate. In one small patch reserved solely for wild flowers I have had to cut down or cut short some mag- nificently tall mulleins because they were " black with bugs " as the gardener said. Long ago I had to root up that lovely shrub, the wild spindle, because it too was " black with bugs." You could see its blackness even from a distance, so thick were the bean flies settled upon it. At various dates the Government has encouraged the complete eradication of the wild berberis because it harbours one of the chief enemies of wheat. Some of the newer mulleins and the garden berberises are more or less immune from such disqualification. In regard to the mulleins if they are cut short at this date they send up a sheaf of flowery shoots later and thus by reason of their lateness escape the insect enemy. It is often worth while to change the natural dates for the sake of dodging maladies. In gardens plagued by the white grub that delights in the carrot, it is quite safe to sow carrots in the summer instead of the spring ; and though they do not grow big they provide a delightful vegetable in winter.

Who Took It ?

Here is a little problem in natural history. A large adder, very conspicuous for an immense bulge in its body, came up to the door of a cottage in Oxfordshire, and was despatched. The lump proved to be a swallowed toad. The dead adder was put under the shadow of a bush to await the inspection of some summoned naturalists. When they came, no sign of the snake was to be seen. The question arose what could have carried it off. We keep no Secretary birds in Britain. It is probable that a hedgehog was the ghoul. There are on record several instances of the hedgehog's hostility to the snake tribe and its capacity for dealing with them.

A Dog's Inference

Everyone who owns both knows the fondness of a dog for a motor-car. Its speed and the succession of smells give him Paradisiacal conditions. Dogs love a car but are subject on occasion to car sickness, and are often delighted when the journey is over. More than that, they know when the end is approaching, by sight and smell and, in the case of one puppy at any rate, by sound. The turn up to the dog's home is abrupt and steep. It is therefore necessary to put the car into its lowest gear when turning in. The law of the association of ideas always works strongly in the dog's mind ; and this puppy (of eight months old) so associates the noise of the ,low gear with the arrival home that his master is quite afraid of using the gear on other occasions. The dog is so firmly convinced that he is at home that his ex- citement becomes uncontrollable. W. BEACH THOMAS.