Obituary.



79



OBITUARY.


We regret to announce the death, on the 12th of November,

of Sir WALTER Gilbey at Elsenham Hall, who had been a member

of the Avicultural Society since 1907. Well known as a great lover

of horses, he was also fond of birds, of which he had some rare

species. He found time to be a connoisseur of art, of old furniture,

silver, and china.


To the last he was slight and straight. He was wont to dress

in the style of a country squire of the early nineteenth century. He

was eighty-three when he passed away. Several of Sir Walter’s

rare birds were received at the London Zoological Gardens a few

weeks before his death, including a Hunstein’s Paradise Bird.



CORRESPONDENCE, NOTES, ETC.



THE NOCTURNAL FROLICS OF STORMY PETRELS AND MANX

SHEARWATERS.


The Editor finds a letter in his editorial drawer written by a lady to him

on the 28th of May, in which she gives an interesting account of how she and

four companions camped out on an island off one of the coasts of England. She

wrote : “ We camped out one night just to see what the birds were up to. We

reached the island about 5 p.m. and pitched our tents. Soon after dark the

Stormy Petrels began to come out, and by 10 p.m. thousands of them were flying

about in all directions. They were rather like great moths. One hit one of the

party on the head. They flew quite close to us, coming in and out from under

the stones and making a jolly sort of buzzy noise. Very soon after the Stormy

Petrels began to fly about, out came the Shearwaters. Thousands of them !

They make a weird harsh cry as they fly around, and they keep it up till the first

sign of dawn ; then all is quiet-


We turned into our tents at about 10.30 p.m., but it was impossible to

sleep ; the Shearwaters were much too noisy and they kept flopping up against

our tents and scrambling up and down them, but we did not go to the Island for

a good night’s rest!


Two of us turned out at 3.30 a.m. and walked to the head of the island.

It loas lovely, with just the first signs of dawn, and the sun rose at 4.30, such a

glorious cloudless morning. We would have stayed another night if it had not

been for the very heavy dews, which came through our tents and dripped down

on us. There was a large puddle on each side, and one would have thought it had

been pouring with rain.



