NA TURAL HIS TOR V NOTES. 
139 
opinion. The following reply was sent: — “The two pieces of feather received 
and returned are undoubtedly what milliners call osprey — the egret of naturalists. 
The short piece is the quill or stump of a long feather of the large egret, and cut 
into two or three lengths. The other is of a smaller and inferior bird, with the 
plume feather just developing. Being wild birds they are killed when the oppor- 
tunity offers. If they were domesticated they would be allowed to live until the 
plume was more fully developed.” 
Another correspondent begs us to direct attention to the subject, but what 
more can be said ? It is only too evident that the human “ bird of prey ” (see 
Nature Notes, 1892, p. 115) has hardened her heart against the dictates of 
humanity, and that her savage instincts are stronger than her instincts of pity. 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 
The Kingfisher (pp. 49, 115). — I am pleased to find that my old friend, 
the Rev. A. C. Almack, can give such a good account of the kingfishers of the 
Thames. I can quite bear him out as regards the Cherwell and Isis ; many have 
been reported to me in this neighbourhood since last October, and I have 
frequently seen them myself. The recuperative power of the species seems indeed 
quite astonishing. Hard winters reduce their numbers and bring them within 
reach of wanton shooters, yet in a couple of years they are once more quite com- 
mon. A correspondent in Nature Notes recently lamented the diminution of 
their numbers in North Wales. I felt inclined at the time to ask if he had good 
grounds for believing them to have ever been abundant there. I have asked more 
than one North Welshman the question, and can learn very little about king- 
fishers, and in South Wales I have the evidence of my own e)’es. Though I have 
been in the habit of prowling about by Welsh streams for the last thirty years, I 
have very rarely met with the bird. And the reason is, I think, not that they 
have been persecuted there more than elsewhere, but that swift streams do not 
answer their purpose so well as the slow rivers of England, either for the purposes 
of feeding or nesting. In the Alps, for example, I never saw a kingfisher bi^t once, 
and that was on a bit of still water, an inlet off a rushing river. But it would be 
interesting to obtain some trustworthy evidence as to the Welsh kingfishers, and I 
hope some of your correspondents may be able to supply it. 
Oxford. W. Warde Fowler. 
It may interest your readers to know that on different occasions in the last few 
years I have seen kingfishers in my garden in Edgbaston (which is a residential 
suburb), only a mile and a-half from the very centre of Birmingham, a small pool 
of water containing fish being the cause of their visits. 
Harriet Peyton. 
Swallows. — This evening (June 13th) while sitting in Kew Gardens, opposite 
Sion House, 1 saw a flight of swallows, about a hundred, alight in the long grass 
in the meadow where cattle were grazing. Presently one of the company came 
across the river into the Gardens, and skimmed about and went very low down, 
as if to see what sort of a place it was. He went back and returned with 
another swallow, and they did the same. Then those returned bringing a third 
one ; they went a little away, then came back, seeming to be very unsettled and 
fatigued. The others in the field rose and fell and went into some bushes near, 
keeping very close together. To my great regret I had to leave this very pretty 
and interesting sight. 
Richviond, Surrey. Maybell G. Fullvvood. 
The Land Rail and Early May (pp. 117-119).— We have never been 
without land rails here in summer on the banks of the Thames ; and this season, 
since the rain first came, the land has been full of them. I believe I saw the May 
in bloom earlier than Miss Hickey ; and it has been more beautiful than ever this 
year. 
Buscot, Berks. 
Oswald Birchall. 
