568 



NA TURE 



[April ii, 1901 



the section of most importance to the naturalist. The 

 following passage, from p. 37, may be quoted as a good 

 example of the closeness of the author's observations : — 



" Most sportsmen," he writes, "will have noticed that 

 duck when travelling prefer flying over water ; even when 

 passing from one sheet of water to another they will avoid 

 the land if they can. This may be said to be a hard and 

 fast rule with all the true diving ducks, but not with the 

 surface feeders, such as mallard, wigeon and teal ; for 

 when they in their flight observe the waters for which 

 they are heading, they are as likely as not to cut over 

 large extents of land to reach their desired haven, espe- 

 cially if they have been much shot at at any given point 

 on their usual water route." 



The text-figures in the appendix are especially intended 

 to illustrate the modes in which different species of duck 

 rise from the water, and the formation they assume when 

 in the air. One exhibits the manner in which mallard 

 and teal " scoot " along the surface of the water in close 

 phalanx before rising ; a second (herewith reproduced) 

 displays the "bunched" formation assumed by eiders 



COOPERS HILL COLLEGE. 



THE report on this institution by the body called, on 

 the lucus a non lucendo principle, the " Board of 

 Visitors," was published last week so shortly before the 

 House of Commons adjourned for the Easter recess that 

 there was not time to take any parliamentary action. 



The day after we went to press a letter appeared in 

 the Times from Colonel Pennycuick, the president of 

 the College who preceded Colonel Ottley, from which we 

 make the following extracts : — 



Sir, — The final decision of the Secretary of State for India, 

 after the inquiry promised in his letter to Sir William Anson, 

 has now been announced, and has justified the opinion expressed 

 by every one acquainted with the facts, that the inquiry in 

 question would be a farce, the Board of Visitors, by whom the 

 inquiry was conducted, being already committed to an opinion, 

 and its own competence being one of the very questions on which 

 an inquiry was most urgently required. 



Lord George Hamilton's letter to Sir William Anson repeats 

 the libels contained in his reply to the deputation which waited 

 on him earlier in the year, that the college " is in such a condi- 



FiG. 2. — Eiders rising and sliouing bunched formation. From " The Wildfowler in Scotland. " 



when rising ; while a third shows the swallow-like flight 

 and linear formation so characteristic of the long-tailed 

 duck. 



For many of the species referred to the author well 

 says that the illustrations best display the manner in 

 which they severally leave the water when alarmed. 

 When illustrations are lacking, excellent descriptions are 

 given, as witness the following : — 



" Shovellers are easily recognised when they rise from 

 a marsh by the rattling noise they make, and I have 

 heard them designated as 'rattle-wings' in more than 

 one locality. They ascend abruptly at first, and fly 

 rather like wigeon, but more easily and gracefully. They 

 are adepts at turning, and seem to enjoy in spring beat- 

 ing up and down for hours together over the marsh which 

 they intend to make their summer home. They do not 

 fly very high as a general rule." 



With this quotation we take leave, regretfully, of what 

 is in every respect a very charming book, acceptable 

 alike to the lover of art, the sportsman and the naturalist, 

 and forming a handsome addition to the works allowed 

 a permanent place on the drawing-room or library table. 



NO. 164I, VOL. 63] 



tion that it must be either reformed or abolished," and that it is 

 " a burden upon the Indian revenues." Both these statements, 

 unless they have been justified by something that has happened 

 since the end o^ 1B99, are absolutely untrue. At that date the 

 number of candidates for entrance far exceeded the number for 

 whom accommodation was available ; the standard of the 

 entrance examination had been steadily raised during the three 

 previous years, and was still further raised in 1900; the college 

 accounts during the same years showed a handsome surplus of 

 income over expenditure ; and the reputation of its students for 

 practical efficiency stood at the highest possible level ; its 

 associate's diploma was accepted by the Institution of Civil 

 Engineers as equivalent to their own associate's examination, 

 and this latter examination was passed, while still at the college, 

 by many students who did not succeed in obtaining that diploma ; 

 every student who obtained the ordinary diploma of the college, 

 and some who did not, obtained useful employment within a few 

 months after leaving the college. When and whence arose the 

 necessity for "reform or abolition" in an institution which 

 eighteen months ago was producing such results as these? 



In his reply to the deputation Lord George Hamilton stated 

 that shortly after he came into office — i.e. in the end of 1895 or 

 early in 1896— he " determined to reorganise" the college as 

 an alternative to abolition. If he did, I can only say that he 



