EDITOBIAL GLEANINGS. 47 



We have previously remarked on the value of private collections, 

 especially when estimated by their ultimate reception in some public insti- 

 tution. We are glad to see there are collectors in Australia. From the last 

 number of ' The Wombat,' published at Geelong, and just received, we read ; 

 •■ We have much pleasure in offering our congratulations to Mr. A. J. 

 Campbell on the occasion of his collection having entered upon its sixth 

 hundred species of Australian eggs, and upon the success of the entertain- 

 ment which he gave to brother collectors in celebration of that event." 



In the ' Naturalist ' for January, 1897, our old contributor, Mr. John 

 Cordeaux, in his " Bird-Notes from the Humber District : Autumn of 

 1896," writing on the third recorded appearance, for the British Islands, of 

 the Indian Houbara Bustard (Otis macqueeni), remarks : — " Much nonsense 

 was written at the time, in both the London and local press, on the 

 enormity of shooting this Bustard — ignorantly called by the writers the 

 Great Bustard— a former inhabitant of the wolds of Yorkshire. The 

 Indian Houbara Bustard comes from Central Asia, where it is abundant, 

 and there was not the slightest chance of this far wanderer ever finding its 

 way back, or becoming naturalised in this country. No doubt its fate 

 would have been decided by the first prowling Fox that came that way, or 

 by Stoat or Weasel." We are no advocate for the extermination of birds, 

 even for museum purposes ; but there can be little doubt that Mr. Cordeaux 

 makes out his case in this instance. 



In the 'Field ' for January 9th, 1897, Mr. George Hewlett, Surgeon, 

 H.M.S. 'Barracouta,' gives the following account of an enormous stranding 

 of W T hales at Teal Inlet, East Falkland Island :— 



'■ In the end of September, 1896, an enormous school of a species of 

 Whale, called the Caaing Whale, ran ashore in Teal Inlet. Teal Inlet is 

 a small creek, one and a half miles long, opening into Port Salvador, which 

 m turn opens into the South Atlantic by a very narrow opening. 



11 One morning a whirlwind appeared to be approaching over the water 

 in the bay of San Salvador, and soon this was made out to be an enormous 

 school of Whales, so thick that they seemed to be jostling each other, 

 nothing but fins and tails, and the water in foam all round ; this was on a 

 flowing tide, and they came on into the inlet itself, describing a sort 

 of cycloidal curves, until the inshore part of the squadron took on a kelp 

 reef, and then a sudden panic seemed to seize them all, and the unfortunate 

 animals came up the inlet full speed ahead, with the sea boiling in front of 

 them and a great wave coming after them, and they piled up in hundreds 

 on the beach. Then, as there was a rising tide, they got off again, but 

 only to charge the opposite beach, and so on till the falling tide and loss of 

 strength left them high and drv all round the dreary bay ; then could be 



