35 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 
77. A Remarkable Cat Story. The following incident came to my 
hearing lately. A miserable, half-starved cat appeared one day at the doorstep 
of a house in Birmingham, where the man and woman lived from whom I heard 
this story. The creature felt no inclination to leave the house, and after being 
adopted as one of the family, took a great liking to the baby of the house. One 
day the parents were both out and no one in the house but the baby and the cat. 
The mother, on returning, heard the most frantic " mewing” proceeding from the 
cat upstairs, and rushing up found the baby on the top of the stairs almost falling 
over, but prevented from doing so by the cat, who was supporting its weight with 
its front paws, thus saving it from falling downstairs. The cat had evidently 
realised the danger, and it held the child up till the mother came to the rescue. 
Tibberton Court, near Gloucester. M. I’. PRICE. 
78. Diving Birds.— In your last issue Mr. Daubeny cited some interest- 
ing examples on the diving power of birds and other phenomena. I should like to 
be allowed to record a few experiences. Off the west coast of Ireland I noticed 
the cormorants always swimming with body submerged and head and neck 
appeared above water. At the approach of danger they never tried to fly but 
always dived. On the other hand, when they were seated on a rock by the 
water’s edge they never dived into the water, but always flew off with their heavy- 
flight. It seems then that the cormorant can, at will, lower his body in the water 
till only his head and neck are above, and in this position they are safer and can 
dive under more easily when danger approaches. This was what struck me as 
being the probable cause. 
From observing divers I have generally noticed that they dive and reappear 
some distance ofl', and that the device of keeping still under water is not often 
resorted to. Far more often have I observed this in birds flying in the air. I 
have seen house-marlins soaring for immense spaces of time without a single flap 
of their outstretched wings, raising and lowering themselves at will, the atmosphere 
being practically still. Perhaps a vacuum could be formed in a part of a bird’s 
body at will. This would be the most effective way of raising themselves in the 
air. Any way, it must be some mechanical means of making their bodies lighter 
or heavier than the pressure of their existing surroundings, whether it be air or 
water. I once caught a moorhen easily in my hand, after following it up and 
down a stream in which it had been swimming under water. The feathers of the 
wings were all saturated with moisture, so that the creature could not fly when I 
threw it into the air, but simply flopped to the ground and ran back to the stream. 
Its wings had evidently absorbed a lot of moisture, and it had done so, I conclude, 
to keep its body heavy and underneath the water. 
Mr. Daubeny’s remarks on the feats of buzzards and \'irginian plovers are 
most extraordinary, but I think that a lot of unnecessary mystery is attached to 
migration. Mr. Charles Dixon's book on the “Migration of Birds” tries to 
establish a law for all the movements of birds, and one of the facts he tries to 
prove is that the migration is accomplished, in all probability, quite slowly, birds 
taking several days to compass overland routes, resting during the day-time, and 
travelling high in the air at a reasonable speed over the seas. 
As for young birds preceding the old ones, there is very little foundation for 
this theory, and it is quite probable that the vast army of young is piloted to its 
destination by an advanced guard of a few old birds. This is far more probable, 
and has been in many cases almost proved to be true. Great as the wonders of 
the study of natural history are, we are apt, I think, to rather overrate them at 
times, and cause unnecessary mystery. The fact remains, however, that the 
diving and flight of birds contains the most extraordinary puzzles, as Mr. Daubeny 
has pointed out. 
Tibberton Court, near Gloucester. M. P. Price. 
79. Waxwing. — A waxwing appeared recently in this neighbourhood. Of 
course it shared the regrettable fate common to all interesting visitors, and was 
promptly shot. I can find no mention of this bird in Bewick’s “ British Birds,” 
nor in White’s “ Selborne ” ; but Yarrell (“ British Birds,” vol. i., p. 356 ) has a 
