Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/200

178 greater mischief might have ensued. "And yet," says Gilbert White, "sheep and turkeys, and, as park-keepers say, deer, will crop these trees with impunity." Are Goats, then, also exempt from any ill effects? Assuming that the Goats referred to by Mr. Colquhoun were feeding on the Irish yew, and not the common species (he does not say which it was), this seems to be equally poisonous, at least in the case of other animals. Pheasants have been poisoned with both (see 'The Field' of Nov. 25th and Dec. 2nd, 1876). This makes me doubt whether it can be possible that turkeys can eat yew with impunity, as stated by Gilbert White, not from his own observation, be it remarked, but apparently from hearsay only. If true, it is as remarkable a fact as that sheep, deer and goats suffer no ill effects, while cows and horses are invariably poisoned. How is this to be explained?—

—Mr. Miller's note (p. 100) on the difference in the mode of feeding in the Rabbit and the Hare, I can neither confirm nor question, for Hares are scarce here; but I have always observed a marked difference in the method pursued by a Rabbit and a Rat when eating a turnip—a difference somewhat similar to that which Mr. Miller has noted in the case of the Rabbit and Hare. Rats and Rabbits prefer Swedish turnips to every other kind grown about here. If the turnip is growing, and portion of the bulb is still in the ground, a Rat generally eats all round the turnip, and leaves the centre for the last; whereas a Rabbit begins at the side and works right across to the other side. A Rat bites off the skin or rind and leaves it in little pellets around the bulb; a Rabbit eats skin and all. This I have noticed for twenty years, Rats and Rabbits being very common here. Thus one can readily know when Rats have been at work and when Rabbits have been the depredators. Rats very often leave a turnip half-eaten and go to another; but if they mean to finish the bulb they invariably conclude in the middle. The top falls over at last, with a truncated portion of the bulb attached.— (Fassaroe, Bray, Co. Wicklow).

—Kingfishers are amongst our early breeders. I have found their eggs on the 12th April; but from the 23rd to the 30th of that mouth is the best time to secure them in the Midland Counties, unless the season should be an unusually late one, in which case the first week in May will be a more likely time. They choose either a deserted Water Rat's or Sand Martin's hole, or, what is more usual, make one for themselves. It is generally from a yard to a yard and a half