96 
NATURE NOTES 
pass, as possibly some light may be thrown upon it by your readers. The bands 
on the wings were too decided, I think, to be a variety of blackbiid. 
Moorcrofl, Hillingdon, Middlesex, G. T. MAURICE. 
March 2, 1 904. 
108. A Sea Gull as a Companion.— In 1875 a herring gull came into 
my possession, from his plumage evidently a young bird, most prol)ably of that 
year, but possibly of the year before. Instead of the usual three years, he took 
about six to mature the hues of his plumage, eye, bill and legs. I believe it was 
a male bird. His weight was 20^ oz. and his length 20 in. ; both under the 
average. To prevent his escaping, and so coming to harm, I pinioned him ; and 
he remained in my garden until 1904, vigorous and healthy, and preferring no 
other shelter from the weather than a lee wall, until a few months before his 
death, when I brought him under cover at night, so that his last winter was passed 
without discomfort. Mis end came with a gradual loss of power and activity, and 
seemed painless. 
He proved a most sensible, useful companion, hailing me whenever I 
appeared, and then remaining by me, and trying to express himself to me. And, 
when dying, he craved and welcomed my company even more than ever before. 
Were ever man and bird such close, long friends before ? 
I am my own gardener, and he would follow up my spade, or other tool, 
with unerring rapidity, for worms, wire-worms, beetles, earwigs, grubs, woodlice, 
or snails, &c. ; and in the twilights he patrolled the whole place for his morning 
and evening meals. At certain seasons I caught him a good many birds, and he 
would swallow a sparrow, or even a thrush, whole and head foremost, after well 
shaking it, returning the feathers and bones in a clean, neat pellet, alter digestion 
was completed. Occasionally he caught them for himself, and constantly he 
robbed the sparrows of the scraps they flew down with. When not otherwise 
sufficiently supplied, I fed him at midday with a piece of meat as large as my top 
finger joint and a little bread and vegetable or fruit. No one else was ever 
allowed to do so. A shallow tank supplied his drink, bath and swim. 
Bognor, 1904. C. C. E. 
109. Humming in the Air. — Most persons living in the country must 
have noticed this humming in the air referred to more than once in your pages; 
and as it occurs so close above our heads, I have frequently strained my eyes in 
every direction in vain attempt to ascertain the kind of insect that produces the 
sound. That it is caused by bees I do not believe. When it takes place it is 
ubiquitous, and at a season of the year when bees are far too busy to spend their 
time amusing themselves by merely buzzing. Their harvest is too short for play ; 
and there are not a sufficient number of them, at all events in the locality in 
which I have lived for the last twenty years, to produce the humming noise that 
may be noticed mile after mile during a walk or a ride. In June and July there 
is a great profusion of insect life, which rises above the earth beyond our sight ; 
though where it is and how high it goes we have only to watch the swallow 
tribe to ascertain. It seems to me that in.sects, little and big, sport and pl.iy in 
the air. During the height of summer flocks of starlings may be .seen cutting 
ridiculous figures in their attempts at fly-catching, 200 or 300 feet above the 
ground ; and, being bad performers, must be in quest of large and feebly flying 
insects ; while swallows, swifts and martins take toll of all, whatever their powers 
of flight may be, and irrespective of their size. I look upon this humming in the 
air as the annual jubilee of insect life in which the busy bee does not participate. 
SoiUhacre, Swaffliam, Norfolk. Edmund Titos. Uaubeny. 
March, 1904. 
110. Primrose Beetle. — The connection between old maids and clover 
through cats, field mice and humble bees has ofttimes been quoted in natural 
history periodicals, and I think I have elsewhere suggested in print the mediation 
of sparrows in the pollination of the primrose. Nothing happens without a 
cause. Sparrows pluck off primrose blooms — why? For mere mischief? Cer- 
tainly not : but in order to gain possession of and feast upon, at a season when 
insect food is scarce, the special and abundant primrose beetle (Eusphaterum 
primuUe'), which, but for the sparrow and other finches, would carry the (ertilis- 
