78 NATURE NOTES 
SELBORNE SATURDAY AFTERNOONS. 
February 27, 1904. — On this date Mr. W. P. Pycraft once more placed his 
knowledge and services at the Society’s disposal by giving the members a demon- 
stration on Birds at the Natural History Museum, South Kensington. Mr. 
Pycraft at the outset alluded to the difference between birds and reptiles. It, 
he explained, was greatest in the highest and least in the lowest birds. There 
were some birds which, having no enemies, had lost the power of flight and were 
endowed with legs of great size. These birds had but rudimentary wings and 
lacked the keel to the breast-bone. Then they came to game birds, which 
emerged from the egg fully clothed, the downy stage having been passed in the 
shell. They had next before them, in the case, the ancestor of all our domestic 
poultry, which was of extreme importance as showing descent from a common 
stock. Mr. Pycraft pointed out the old English pheasant, which no longer 
existed as a pure breed, because it had crossed with other introduced kinds. 
There, too, was the capercailzie, once nearly exterminated, but now doing 
fairly well. The sand grouse, it was pointed out, sometimes came to this 
country in thousands and afterwards did not come again for years. In the 
penguins the wing had been transformed into a paddle, which organ, and 
not the legs, the birds used for swimming through the water. Attention was 
directed to the petrel tribe, while Mr. Pycraft dilated upon the flying powers 
of the albatross, which could soar for an hour without moving wing. Puffins, 
razorbills and gulls were passed in review. To terns Mr. Pycraft specially 
adverted and denounced the fashion that should place them in mangled and 
distorted form upon hats as things of beauty. The species could not stand the 
drain upon it. To game preservers and milliners was due the wiping out of 
whole crowds of birds. Some of the plover tribe were in danger of extermination, 
as eggs were taken year after year to satisfy epicures, but inasmuch as the birds 
lived on wire-worms and noxious insects they should enjoy protection by farmers. 
In scathing words Mr. Pycraft, when before the egret, denounced the trade 
in ospreys, which were torn from the birds while living and the young were left 
to starve. Milliners stated the feathers to be artificial, which was quite untrue, 
for they could not be imitated. Environment was next touched upon and the 
accuracy of presentation now in vogue at the Museum was contrasted with the 
old practice when specimens were practically stuck upon a stick or twig and then 
left to speak for themselves. The eagle still held its own ; but, in the interests of 
game-preserving, buzzards, kites, and harriers had been obliterated. There was, 
Mr. Pycraft affirmed, no more ignorant man than the game-keeper. .Some land- 
owners had been converted, but generally speaking the persecution continued. 
For instance, the hobby lived almost entirely on beetles and dragon-flies and the 
kestrel on the first, yet the process of obliteration went on. 
On Saturday, March 12, the members of the Selborne Society had the good 
fortune to have Mr. L. Fletcher, M..\., F.R.S., Keeper of the Mineral Depart- 
ment, as an expositor and demonstrator. During his demonstration Mr. Fletcher 
confined his remarks to what are generally known as “precious metals” and 
“ precious stones.” 
Of the precious metals gold perhaps commands the greatest universal respect, 
and it is interesting to know that gold seems ever anxious to claim silver as a twin 
sister, for it is never found without this companion. The silver gives an artistic 
touch, and helps to weave the gold into beautiful forms. The pale gold from 
Transylvania is the most beautifully woven of all gold, and its crystals are more 
sharply defined because it contains a great amount of silver, .sometimes reaching 
38 per cent. When the silver alloy reaches 20 per cent, the gold is known as 
electrum. 
The diamond, (]ueen of precious stones, keeps herself in unsullied purity 
from all combinations, and at the same time holds the secret of her birth and 
education locked .securely within her own breast, so that the cleverest of our 
scientists cannot tell us how or when she was formed ; neither can they explain 
why pure carbon in one part of the world should appear as a sparkling gem, 
and in another should present itself as the very useful but hardly ornamental 
plumbago or black lead. The Colenso diamond uncut, presented by Ruskin, 
is exhibited in the gallery. It weighs 130 carats and cost 4i,<xxj. 
