SELBORNIANA. 
U 
Bird Netting. — I enclose cutting from the Standard of December 7th, and 
as this “ netting ” is now so common, and carried on by so many loafers on 
Sunday, do you not think that the Selborne Society could protest against this 
cruel practice ? Always on Sunday, whether it be glorious spring or bitter winter, 
it is the same ; and in the summer one cannot go for a walk on Sunday morning 
without continually passing groups of these men pursuing their cruel occupation. 
I think that this letter should do something towards bringing the matter under 
the public notice of our bird lovers. 
“ Last Sunday, during a walk from Upper Norwood to West Wickham, I 
counted thirteen sets of men and children, bird netting in each case. One-half 
had fires, the fuel being collected on the spot. Three sets were in the large field 
adjoining St. John’s Church, Upper Norwood ; and of the children two were 
females. Shooting game is prohibited on Sunday ; why should not this abomin- 
able slaughter of little useful innocents be likewise dealt with ? ” 
Arthur J. Ely. 
A paper by Miss Edith Carrington, on “The Extermination of Birds,” will 
be read at a meeting of the Humanitarian League, at 32, .Sackville Street, 
Piccadilly, on Friday, January 12, at 8 p.m. Admission free. 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES AND QUERIES. 
A Friendly Swallow. — On the morning of the 13th September I was 
awakened by a noise in my room. On looking up from my bed I saw what I 
thought first of all to be a bat flying round the room near the ceiling ; but as I 
watched it I discovered it to be a swallow, and at last it settled on a box on my 
wardrobe. As it flew, I noticed it did not hit the ceiling except with its wings as 
they rose over its body, hence causing the noise which awoke me. I further 
noticed it had had a good breakfast, having cleared my room of every species of 
insect, such as flies, &c. P'rom his perch he seemed to watch me with interest. 
He then flew a few times round the room and settled on the top of my bed, which 
has a curtained head ; here he sat and watched me. I then drew up the blind, 
first opening the top of the window and blocking up the bottom, so that he could 
see the light without fear of dashing himself against the glass. I got on to the 
bed and gently put my hand near him, in fact, within a few inches, before he 
moved. He then flew round the room a few times and settled on the top of the 
bookcase, which nearly reaches the ceiling. He sat on this longways, as a night- 
jar sits, not crossways, and surveyed the window and me. He seemed to have 
made up his mind to stop. I, however, thought it kinder to let him go, so put 
my hand up within three inches of him before he attempted to fly ; then he took 
a swoop and was gone. He was a young bird, not yet having the full length of 
the tail feathers. The curious part is that he must have come in the night before, 
as the window was then closed about eight o’clock, and the chimney is blocked 
up, there thus being no exit or entrance to the room till I opened the window 
next morning. I went to bed about twelve o’clock, having my gas full up for 
quite an hour. He seemed to have roosted inside the head of my bed, as his 
droppings were on my pillow. 
Bhickheath. J. N. Smith. 
Do Snails Squeak? — Has anyone ever hearrl a snail squeak? I was 
doing some rough sort of gardening lately, and, kneeling upon some long grass, 
took up with a handful of soil and weeds a large black snail, which I thought I 
heard squeak. I must have squeezed it. I should have thought it fancy had 
not the same occurred again. The sound was a low but not unmelodious sound, 
but the strangeness of it made me throw the snail down in some trepidation. 
As this is a neighbourhood where cats are destroyed by scores in the cruel gins 
and traps set in the hedges, we have for some years kept our cats in small kennels 
placed upon the grass in the field. When the cats are taken in at night, scraps of 
meat and potatoes and a saucer containing some milk are often left behind. To 
