Field Note. 109 



BIRDS AS HEAD-GEAR. 



It is pleasing^ to find that in response to a memorial from the 

 Society for the Protection of Birds, the Queen has caused the 

 following- letter to be forwarded to the president of the society, 

 which was read at its annual meeting- on the 20th March : — 

 ' The Queen desires me to say, in answer to your letter, that she 

 gives you as president full permission to use her name in any 

 way you think best to conduce to the protection of birds. You 

 know well how kind and humane the Queen is to all living 

 creatures, and I am desired to add that her Majesty never wears 

 osprey feathers herself, and will certainly do all in her power to 

 discourage the cruelty practiced on those beautiful birds.' As 

 the ' fashionable ' people, likely to meet her Majesty, will 

 probably now take care that they have no dead birds strung 

 about their person, and as all ' fashionable ' people are pre- 

 sumably likely to meet her Majesty at some time or other, it 

 will probably now become fashionable not. to wear such orna- 

 ments, and undoubtedly in this way more has just been done to 

 protect the birds than is even at present dreamt of. 



iy\AMiy[ALS. 



Pleistocene Mammalian Remains near Doncaster. — In 



excavating for a deep cutting on the Dearn Valley Railway 

 near Conisboro' some fragments of bone were thrown out by 

 the steam navvy. These were taken to the office of the resident 

 engineer, Mr. Gibbs, and were kind!}- given by him to me. 

 They consisted of part of an antler, probably Cerviis elaphiis, and 

 two bones of Rhinoceros.'*' These latter have been submitted for 

 identification to Mr. T. Sheppard, and by him to the British 

 Museum Authorities. Close to the place where the bones were 

 found is a cave in the Magnesian Limestone, and it is hoped 

 that when this is further opened up, more bones, &c. may be 

 found. Mr. Gibbs has given orders that anything of interest 

 discovered is to be handed over to me for our local museum. — 

 H. H. CoRBETT, M.R.C.S., Doncaster. 



* These are the ulna and tibia, and one of them is distinctly gnawed, 

 apparently by hyaenas. It is to be hoped that further researches will result 

 in as interesting- a set of specimens being- found as occurred in the Creswell 

 Caves, which were also in the Mag-nesian Limestone. — T.S. 



1906 April I. 



