358 



Notes and Comments. 



BIRD PROTECTION IN CUMBERLAND. 



We have been asked to give publicity to the foUowing 

 communication from Mr. Linnseus E. Hope, the Curator of the 

 Carhsle Museum : — * As some misleading statements respecting 

 the protection of birds in Cumberland have been recently 

 published by scientific journals, I should like, through " The 

 Naturalist," to correct some of these mis-statements. In the 

 September number of " Knowledge " Mr. W. P. Pycraft states 

 that the Cumberland County Council have made the unfor- 

 tunate blunder " of removing protection from the Common 

 Buzzard and the Black-headed Gull. 



These statements are untrue, and may prove mischievous 

 by leading collectors to believe that eggs or examples of the 

 Common Buzzard may be taken with impunity in Cumberland. 



The Buzzard is fully protected, eggs and birds, in this 

 county, and the Black-headed Gull still enjoys the protection 

 afforded it by the Act of 1880. 



I do not know why anyone should make this unwarranted 

 attack upon the Cumberland County Council and its advisers 

 (one of whom I have the honour to be), but it would have been 

 more satisfactory if he had taken the trouble to ascertain the 

 truth of any communication he may have had or seen on this 

 matter before perpetuating such mis-statements.' 



POLICE PROTECTION AT SHEFFIELD. 



Even the policemen at Sheffield can make the most of 

 things ! The following is an extract from a heart-rending 

 report in the ' Sheffield Telegraph ' for September 21st, under 

 the heading ' Attacked by an Eagle ; Police Constable's start- 

 hng experience ' : — ' When near to Wadsley Asylum, his ear 

 was pierced, and his heart scared by a shrill penetrating wail, 

 as of some bewildered soul wandering through the vale of its 

 bodily experience, and there was seen a mighty form with wings 

 outstretched, looming through the air like unto a rapacious 

 eagle seeking a stray lamb. And in this instance the lamb from 

 the fold appeared, at least to the eye of the bird, to be the con- 

 stable, for it made pugnaciously for that guardian of the peace. 

 Without hesitation he grappled with the|foe, using such force 

 that its neck stretched beyond its natural limits, dislocated its 

 cervical vertebrae, leaving a dead mass of still glowing feathers in 

 his hands.' Needless to say, this terrible beast with the ' glowing 

 feathers,' was an escaped baby sea-gull, with its wing clipped. 

 We hear that the specimen has been sent to the Sheffield Museum! 



Naturalist, 



