320 Ornithological Observations and Reflections in Shetland. 



happen were it dependent on my understanding it, and I 

 include others — in fact everybody — in this modest view. A 

 point is soon reached, as we proceed backwards in the chain 

 of cause and effect, where the human intellect is quite baffled, 

 nor can we really be said to understand what is consequential, 

 only, when what is causal to it cannot be grasped, or even 

 dimly conceived of by us — we are acquainted with such things, 

 and that is all. Essentially, therefore, the nature and origin 

 of the sense-organs is not less obscure than that of any feeling 

 or faculty — assuming such to exist — that does not manifest 

 through these. Do such feelings and faculties exist ? It is a 

 question of evidence. The only possible cause, that I can see, 

 for such sudden unanimous movements, or cessations of 

 movement, amongst numbers of birds, as I am here considering, 

 is an inward impulse, collective or transfused — in the latter 

 case with extreme rapidity — not originating in or dependent 

 upon any extraneous influence cognisable by those senses 

 which we share with birds and other animals. By cessations 

 of movement, I mean the sudden silences — since sound here 

 represents muscular action — and of this I have recorded an 

 instance more surprising even than those here given, because 

 extending over a wider area, whilst an independent observation, 

 made by two witnesses, is still more remarkable, both in this 

 respect and, also, perhaps, by reason of the combination of 

 the two forms of simultaneous action.* I will quote both 

 cases, for I confess I think the subject more important — at 

 least more fascinating — than much in ornithology which is 

 much more reported on, as, for instance, the period of gestation, 

 in any species, and the size, colour and markings of (so far as 

 procurable) all its eggs. 



{To he continued). 



Large Wasp's Nest at Huddersfield. — Recently my 

 friend Mr. Whiteley Tolson, of Oaklands, Dalton, sent me 

 an enormous wasp's nest, which had been built on the floor 

 of his disused pigeon loft. It is forty inches in circumference, 

 fourteen inches in diameter, and seven inches in depth. In 

 shape and appearance it is very much like one of the old- 

 fashioned straw beehives, but is of a slaty earth colour. Mr. 

 Tolson's gardener says it was built during the summer of 1916, 

 so probably it has become somewhat sullied in appearance. 

 Perhaps some hymenopterist will be able to tell me whether 

 wasps' nests of this size are of frequent occurrence, and also 

 what species of wasp is hkely to have made it. — Geo. T. 

 PoRRiTT, Elm Lea, Dalton, Huddersfield, September 9th, 1918. 



* See, however, post. 



Naturalist, 



