HAMLYN'S MENAGERIE MAGAZINE. 
39 
to be the usual number. Outside Westminster 
Abbey I have seen them returning to the natural 
life of feeding on the seeds of grass and other 
weeds on an unmown grass-plot; while it is no 
new thing for them to frequent the shores of the 
Thames between bridges at low tide, though what 
the get there to cat I cannot say. It may be 
noticed that birds showing a lot of white used to 
be practically confined to places like the British 
Museum and St. Paul's, and that these got very 
dirty, though the delicate-tinted plumage of the 
typical blue-rocks which form perhaps 20 per 
cent, of street Pigeons does not soil, showing that 
it is of better texture, or secretes more of the 
natural powder in which pigeon plumage abounds. 
The light birds in wet weather also seem to get 
more draggled than the blues. 
London Wood-pigeons also get very dirty in 
many instances, and I have seen two or three with 
an approach to the Fantail type of tail when closed 
being quite three or four times as broad as it 
should have been and with a decided transverse 
arch; in one case the feathers were even ruffled 
as in fantaMs. I have also seen a bird with a 
slight crest at the back of the head (this perhaps, 
was due to some injury); while several colour- 
variations have occured to me. 
Some years ago I saw a bird in the Zoo 
grounds with the bar at the end of the tail silver- 
grey instead of black Another time one in 
Regent's Park with one white feather on the 
wing, and recently another with not only a small 
feather but one of the great wing-quills white. 
On the same day I saw a bird with the white 
neck-patches much enlarged and joined, covering 
the whole back of the neck except a sma'l patch 
of grey in the middle, while some years before I 
had noticed one with the opposite variation — no 
patch on the neck at all on one side, and a small 
one only on the other, although an adult. 
Wood-pigeons in London, too, are so much 
larger than in the country that when I first saw- 
country birds again last winter after a long time 
w ith the bulky cockneys, I actually hardly recog- 
nised them at first, so light on the wing and small 
did they appear; but it is quite possib'e that this 
increase in size may occur in the individual bird, 
even though adult, through an easy life, as has 
been recorded, in Wright's "Book of Poultry," 
vv'th imported Mandarin and Carolina Ducks. 
Even allowing for this, however, it is obvious 
that the Wood-pigeon is showing decided tenden- 
cies to such variation as affects domestic birds, 
under the easy conditions of its life in London at 
the present day. 
(To be continued.) 
GENERAL NOTES. 
By Joux D. Ha.mlyn. 
THAT 1 am grieved to inform my numerous 
readers of the first loss sustained during the 
war. By the Atlantic Transport steamer which 
left the Tilbury Docks, September 3rd, there 
sailed for New York twenty packages of Live 
Stock in charge of one of my attendants, Joseph 
Card. On Saturday, 8th inst., 1 received to my 
sorrow the following telegram from my ship- 
ping Agent : — < 
" Outward Canaries, Cranes, general live 
"stock, sank off Ireland. Card safe. Forty 
"crew missing." 
The Stock consisted of the following : — 
700 Canaries, 700 Budgerigars, 300 British 
Birds, 17 Upland and Cereopcis Geese, 11 
White Swans, 1 Seychelles Tortoise, 2 Naked- 
throated Bell Birds, 1 Barbary Ape, 1 Anubis, 
2 Sphinx, 1 Lapunda, 1 Putty-nose, 5 Mandrills 
(11 Monkeys in all), with other small stuff of the 
value of ;£607. 
The Monkeys have my special sympathy. 
They were all tame, acclimatised pets, in the 
finest possible condition, certainly deserving a 
much better fate than drowning- at sea. May 
the sanguinary Huns reap their reward lor such 
senseless slaughter. 
On wishing Card good luck and good bye, 
I asked him to open all possible cages if any 
accident happened. I had never given such 
instructions before, but I wished the live stock 
to have a chance of life if trouble overtook them. 
THAT Mr. E. H. Bostock has bought the remain- 
ing portion of Sedgwick's Menagerie, including 
front wagons and many empty wagons, so long 
on exhibition at the Fair Ground, Sheffield. The 
wonderful Elephant has gone to Menagerie No. 
1. 
THAT a charming photograph of Private 
Tvrwhitt-Drake, Deputy Mayor of Maidstone, 
riding one of the Llamas in his private zoo, 
while home on a few days leave, appeared in 
the " Daily Sketch" recently. 
THAT Private Tvrwhitt-Drake has to be con- 
gratulated on the birth of two Lion Cubs, which 
interesting event took place at Cobtree Manor, 
Maidstone. 
THAT the "Manchester City News" gives the fol- 
lowing remarkable information : — 
"At the foot of Mount Kovvang, in North 
Manchuria, live strange animals called taru- 
nanban-kau, says a bulletin of the Japan 
