74 
NATURE NOTES 
an asylum for rare creatures, and I had hoped this bird would have found a 
mate and reared some young. Some prowling beast of prey has upset it all. 
March , 1906. Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
342 . Elder. — I have come across a curious growth on an Elder tree. Six 
feet from the ground a small branch, the thickness of a finger, bends downwards 
two feet, and then turns upwards. From a single spot in this turn eighteen shoots 
rise perpendicularly in a bunch, many being from two to three feet long and 
thicker than the bunch that bears them. Contact with the ground at the bend 
is impossible. 
March, 1906. Edmund Thos. Daubbny. 
NATURAL HISTORY QUERIES. 
72 . Goldfinches in London. — While dressing at my window the other 
morning, I saw three Goldfinches sitting on the tree just opposite. I watched 
them for some minutes, and saw them fly over to a piece of spare ground close by 
and feed on some decayed thistle tops, which, I think, is food for the Goldfinch. 
Is it not a very uncommon thing to see Goldfinches in the streets of London? 
37, Iverna Gardens, Kensington, IV., F. Mackenzie. 
March 1, 1906. 
73 . Guardian Birds. — On page 191 of vol. xv., attention was drawn in 
these notes to an article having reference to the habit of Cranes carrying various 
smaller birds across the Mediterranean, without, however, eliciting any further 
information as to whether such habit is an authenticated fact. 
In the Morning Post of February 24, 1906, in an article entitled, “ The 
Coming of the Wild Birds,” by Mr. F. G. Aflalo, the matter is again referred 
to, in connection with a Bulletin edited by Mr. Ogilvie-Grant for the Migration 
Committee of the Ornithologists’ Club, in the following passage : “ Another 
fascinating episode observed in the wintry voyages of these birds, but not so far 
paralleled in the annals of spring migration, is the altruistic way in which the 
larger Owls help the little Golden-crested Wren over the intervening belt of 
greedy waters that it could, in all probability, never cross at all if not given a ride 
on the back of such powerful friends. Such records, trivial only to those with 
no soul for any study of birds beyond that of larks on toast, open up wonder- 
fully fascinating possibilities of a deep-rooted socialism among the fowl of the air, 
compared with which our vaunted mutual helpfulness is meaningless in its effort 
and tutile in its aims. It is for these reasons to be hoped that Mr. Ogilvie-Grant 
may one day induce his Committee to furnish naturalists with a corresponding 
Bulletin dealing with some of the more interesting and important winter fowl. 
Such an end would crown the work indeed.” 
It will be observed that here it is the larger Owls that are given the credit of 
carrying Golden-crested Wrens across the sea, and we are again led to ask, is this 
an authenticated fact ? Other questions naturally suggest themselves, e.g., do the 
Owls help the Golden-crested Wrens to the exclusion of other small birds? 
Are the latter the only small birds that are unable to make the passage by their 
own unaided exertions ? And do they help themselves to a ride without asking 
leave of the Owls? Are the carriers limited to the Cranes and Owls? &c., &c. 
Seeing that such operations must necessarily be carried on over seas, direct 
observation is, of course, a difficult matter, but it would appear that there must 
be some substratum of fact to have given rise to the assertions, and the subject is 
such an intensely interesting feature of bird-migration that it is surely worthy of 
more extended observation and verification. 
W. 
