288 



Northern News. 



Referring- to the note on the large Guillemot egg; from Speeton (ante, 

 p. 245), Mr. Thos. Midg-le}', of the Chadwick Museum, Bolton, writes : — 

 'On reading; the note re larg^e Guillemot egg from Bempton, I measured 

 some of ours— we have about 700 well-selected examples. I could not find 

 any exceeding- yours in width, in., but we have two or three over 3^^ in. 

 in length and well proportioned, and one I measured 3^ in. by i"- from 

 Speeton." 



Wilberforce House, the birthplace of William Wilberforce, an Elizabethan 

 building of particular interest, is to be opened ere long as a museum illus- 

 trative of the history of Hull. Part of it will also be occupied by relics of 

 Wilberforce. At the present time it is being restored to its orig-inal con- 

 dition, as near as possible, having- been used as offices in recent years. 

 The new museum is under the charg^e of the city curator, Mr. Sheppard, 

 who will be g-lad to hear of suitable objects for exhibition therein. 



Dr. F. A. Bather contributes a note on ' A Wind-worn Pebble in Boulder 

 Clay' [Lancashire] to the August ' Geolog-ical Mag-azine.' In the same 

 journal Mr. C. Davies Sherborn gives a few extracts from the Catalogue of 

 the Humphrey Museum (1779), which has been discovered in the Hancock 

 Museum, Newcastle. From this we quote three items : — Two Mag-pies, a 

 devil, a painted Cockle, a sun, two false Guinea admirals, and two Otaheite 

 cowries ; two Ass's ears, a devil, two figs, two blackamoor's lips, and six 

 more ; an oriental devil of the first mag-nitude, very fine ! Mr. Sherborn 

 prints the extracts [ as an illustration of the matter that interested the 

 scientific, and awed the vulgar, in those days.' 



Two British interments, accompanied by ornaments, etc., of bronze and 

 g-old, are reported from Luton. The find was reported to the coroner, who 

 sugg-ested that the remains should be interred in the churchyard. Strangely 

 enough this was acted upon, an undertaker placed them in two coffins, and 

 they were taken in a hearse to Biscot churchyard, where the vicar, in the 

 presence of a policeman, officiated. In addition to the human bones buried 

 in this way was ' a rib bone of a sheep, a piece of a rib of beef, a bone of 

 a rabbit, and another of roebuck.' Shining; breastplates were screwed on 

 the coffins, inscribed ' Bones found at Leagrave, July, 1905.' We know 

 one or two Yorkshire museums which could supply work for the coroner 

 and clergy in this way for months ! 



The theories of g-lacial g-eolog-y are evidently beginning to filter into the 

 popular mind with not much more than the amount of transmogTification 

 usual with scientific theories in such cases. At the recent meeting of the 

 Yorkshire Geological Society in Teesdale, a member retailed — and vouched 

 for the accuracy of his version — a science lecture which he had overheard 

 on Seamer Station respecting the great boulder of Shap in the station- 

 master's garden : — First countryman: ' Diz tha see that steean ? ' Second 

 countryman: ' Ey ! an' a big un it is, an all.' First countryman: 'Ah've 

 heeard tell at it rowled here fra Lake Disthrict.' Second countryman : 

 ' Thoo nivver says ! ' First countryman : ' Bud ah deeah ; an' what's mare, 

 when it started rowlin', it ivas a lahtle canny steean, Jieeah bigger than a hen 



The following note appears in the ' Hull Daily Mail ' of 20th June : — 

 ' For some time the movements of a pair of gulls in Pearson Park [Hull] 

 had been under observation. In course of time it was seen that a nest had 

 been built near the bandstand, and that an egg was receiving- the attention 

 of both birds. One morning- the parkmen found the egg- had been stolen. 

 . . . Later in the day a lad turned up with the egg-. He had taken it 

 from the nest and conveyed it home as a troph}', and his father ordered 

 that it should be restored. By this time there was an ominous chip in the 

 side of the eg-g. It was replaced in its nest. The mother bird soon 

 discovered her lost propert}-, and straightway resumed her sittings. 

 Incredible as it may seem, a young- bird was hatched during the same or 

 the following day, and when last I lieard of it it was flourishing apace. 



Naturalist, 



2 S£fi m 



