278 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[Decembee 1, 1899. 



necessities of life, done something to advance the studies 

 to which he gave his heart very early in his career. He 

 was obliged to give much of his time to popular exposition, 

 and he loved teaching. The ease and facility of his papers 

 for general readers sometimes, I think, concealed from his 

 readers the amount of care and thought he had given to 

 the subjects he was treating. It has long been to me 

 regretful that Allen had not the leisure that would allow 

 him to pursue learning rather than romance ; and I know 

 that it was a real regret to him, though he was the last 

 man to grumble at fate. He would have laughed at any- 

 one who would have described him as in any way perfect, 

 but he was an honourable man, a steady friend, and a 

 good citizen, a sincere seeker after truth, and an honest 

 worker, and to those who have known him his loss will 

 assuredly be deeply and continually felt." 



BRITISH 



ORNiTH0L0Grc/\ ^ 



;^- X„ . NOTES 



CondiKted by Habby F. Witherbt, f.z.s., m.b.o.u. 



The Food of the Hobby. — It is well known that the 

 Hobby Falcon (Fnlco subhuteo) is an insectivorous bird, but 

 it is known to persecute the hirundines, and even to catch 

 the Swift itself. The true nature of the Hobby's food was, 

 however, made pretty clear on the ground beneath a nest 

 of these birds which I visited when away from home this 

 summer. There was no doubt as to the identity of the 

 species, for the old birds were well known to the people at 

 the place. While I was there one of the old ones returned, 

 and we heard a young one calling to it from a big tree. 

 The castings under the nest were composed almost wholly 

 of insect remains and short fur, presumably that of mice. 

 There were a few feathers of other birds under the tree, 

 but these may have been blown there from a distance, for 

 they included rook and magpie feathers, and these large 

 birds could hardly fall victims to a Hobby. A great 

 quantity of the castings had been trampled by cattle 

 resting in the shade, with the result that in places the 

 ground was actually covered with the remains of beetles. 

 The old Hobbies were accustomed to take a short flight, 

 together with their young, to a clump of trees on a near 

 hUl, but at evening they all returned to the tree which held 

 the nest. — Chakles A. Witchell, Charlton Kings. 



The Maksh Tit's Sense. — I grew some sunflowers this 

 year for my fowls. Tits, of course, came for the seeds. I 

 tried to scare them harmlessly, but in vain. I then set 

 some horsehair nooses on the seed-heads. After several 

 nooses had been broken, I caught a Marsh Tit (one of a 

 solitary pair), and the same day a Great Tit. The latter 

 was left hanging as a scarecrow, and two days later the 

 surviving Marsh Tit came and perched within a foot of the 

 corpse and within two yards of myself. It then took a 



seed from the seed-head from which the dead bird was 

 suspended. Up to the time of writing this Tit has remained 

 solitary. It still comes to the flowers. But the Great 

 Tits left them alone after the hanging. — Charles A. 

 Witchell, Charlton Kings. 



Barred Wabbler (Sylvia nisoria) in Lincolnshire. — I 

 was fortunate enough to shoot, on October 17th last, an 

 immature female of this species. It was on a nearly bare 

 thorn bush, not far from the coast, at Marshchapel, and 

 was not at all shy. A strong migration was in progress, 

 grey crows, rooks, larks, and starlings, passing over to 

 north-west all day, and the hedges and other cover 

 along the coast were full of robins, goldcrests, redwings, 

 great and blue tits, and other migrants. The weather 

 had been fine, and the wind from the east since the 15th 

 of October. — G. H. Caton Haigh, Grainsby Hall, Great 

 Grimsby. 



Young Cdckoo ejecting Young Meadow Pipit. — At the 

 meeting of the British Ornithologists' Club, held on 

 October 18th, Mr. Scherren exhibited interesting photo- 

 graphs of a young Cuckoo, taken at two separate stages of 

 its work of ejecting a young Tit-lark from a nest. The 

 neat was found and watched by Mr. John Craig, and the 

 photographs were taken by Mr. Peat Millar, of Beith, 

 N.B. These photographs are of considerable interest, as 

 although the fact of the ejection of the offspring of its 

 foster-parents by the young Cuckoo is well established, 

 many people are still disbelieving, and a photograph forms 

 incontrovertible evidence. 



Two-harred Croxsbtll (Loxia hifasciaia) in Sussex flhis, October, 

 1899, p. 647). At a meeting of the British Ornithologists' Club, held 

 on June 2 1st, Mr. N. F. Ticehurst exliibited an example of Loxia 

 hifasciata which had been obtained in East Sussex on February 23rd, 

 1899. 



The Occurrence of the Sociable Placer in Ireland. By Edward 

 Williams (Irish Naturalist, November, 1899, pp. 23.3-4). The 

 claim of this bird to a place on the British list has hitherto rested 

 upon a single example shot in Lancashire in 1860. Mr. Williams 

 now records the occurrence of a second example shot on August Ist 

 last at Bobinstown, near Naran, County Meath. Mr. Williams 

 considers the bird a female, in second year's plumage. Vanellus 

 r/regarius, which is closely allied to the Lapwing, inhabits the steppes 

 of the Crimea and Turkestan, while in winter it travels to India, 

 Ceylon and North-East Africa. 



Fungoid Disease in Razorbill {The Field, October 7th). Mr. T. 

 H. Nelson has sent a Razorbill, shot at the Tees mouth, to the 

 editor of The Field. The bird's mouth showed a disease which, the 

 editor remarks, is " closely analogous to, if not identical with, that 

 which occurs so frequently in domestic fowls and pigeons, and 

 resemble the diseases in trained hawks which is known to falconers as 

 ' fromice.* It is a deceased condition of the mucous membrane in 

 the head and throat." As far as we are aware, the occurrence of this 

 disease in a wild bird has never before been recorded. 



All contributions to the column, either in the way of notes 

 or photographs, should be forwarded to Habby F. Witherby, 

 at 1, Eliot Place, Blackheath, Kent, 



Science i^otrs. 



Mrs. Farquharson, of Haughton, is carrying on an 

 active crusade La favour of admitting women to the full 

 membership of learned societies. Although not agreeing 

 with all Mrs. Farquharson's tenets, we see no reason why 

 women should not be admitted to membership of the 

 learned societies, provided always that they remain as 

 ordinary members, and are debarred from executive 

 positions. 



An astronomical and scientific society, which is destined, 

 we hope, to do some good and useful work, has been 

 started under the presidency of Mr. Edward Bond, M.P., 



