128 REPORTS. 



evidently just caught it on the beach or rocks just opposite. Curiously- 

 enough on my way home afterwards I saw another specimen on the 

 rocks." There is no Little Auk in the Gruille-Alles Museum, and Dr. 

 Creswell's kind offer of the bird for the collection was gratefully ac- 

 cepted. Mr. Sinel, to whom the bird was sent for preserving, said of it : 

 "A splendid specimen. I had one here [Jersey] about two years ago, 

 but not nearly so fine. There is one in the Museum of the Societe Jer- 

 siaise. It is a rare visitor. ' Smith in " The Birds of Guernsey " says : 

 "The Little Auk can only be considered a rare occasional wanderer to 

 the Channel Islands, generally driven before the heavy autumnal and 

 winter gales." I may add that just previous to the capture of the Cobo 

 specimen a strong to high east wind had raged for several days. 

 Moorhen. — "A rather strange looking bird," according to the Star, was 

 caught, apparently in an exhausted condition, by Mr. Alfred Le Maitre, 

 in his garden at Pike's Corner, St. Sampson's, on November 23rd. The 

 captive was brought to the Library alive for identification, when it proved 

 to be a Moorhen — another bird not at all common here. For several 

 years past, as recorded in recent numbers of our Transactions, a Moorhen 

 has been in the habit of wintering in the Sausmarez Manor grounds at 

 St. Martin's, disappearing as regularly in the spring. Curiously enough 

 nothing has sd far (Dec. 9th) been seen of the bird there this winter. 

 About the Moorhen I have an interesting communication from Dr. 

 Creswell. He writes : " Although Cecil Smith treats the Moorhen as a 

 rarity it is certainly to my knowledge a resident and a breeder in Guern- 

 sey. I have seen its nest and for the last four winters it has been shot in 

 more than one part of the Castel." 



Basil T. Rowswell, 



Hon. Sec. Ornithological Section. 



Report of the Folklore Section, 1014. 



THE PASSING OP GUY PAWKBS. 



Members who are interested in Folklore may perhaps 

 call to mind that in the Report of this Section three years ago 

 (1911) I drew attention to the gradual passing away of the 

 interest that used to be felt in the Guy Fawkes Celebration 

 on the Fifth of November. The Gunpowder Plot, as you 

 know, was hatched at London in the reign of King James I. 

 (1605) — just over three hundred years ago — and apparently 

 ever since then, in England, the anniversary has been kept up 

 by the lighting of bonfires, the burning of tar-barrels, the 

 firing of squibs, and other similar amusements. 



In Guernsey, the celebration seems to have been first 

 introduced about a hundred years ago, near the beginning of 

 the Nineteenth Century, when a considerable number of 

 working-class families came over from the southern counties 

 of England and settled in this Island, bringing with them 

 various popular ceremonial customs — of which this Guy 

 Fawkes business was one. It has therefore been celebrated 

 here for about a century, and now (1914) it seems to have 



