NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 
179 
perhaps they are seen to the best advantage on the wing, when the clearly defined 
white tips to the tail feathers are very conspicuous. It is too late to try to attract 
them to a new place this season, as about the beginning of August they go away to 
the fields, but a pint or so of white peas and a handful of salt thrown down on 
the gravel will almost certainly decoy them into a garden. I have not the least 
doubt that the same birds come back to us here year after year. 
Toslock Rectory, IVest Suffolk. Julian G. Tuck. 
A Wren in a Passion. — I saw a wren in a passion one evening on the 
occasion of her bringing out her young brood ; my cat was walking on the grass 
plot, and the wren sat on a low bough of an apple tree, scolding with all her 
might, her tail spread out like a fan. I observe that the cat ignores the bird 
which scolds at her. E. Price Saver. 
Romance in Swan-life. — These birds are objects of peculiar habits. For 
several years I have been interested in observing thejr amours, and the uniform 
constancy to each other, when once a pair has pledged their troth. This summer 
a new phase of their character was noticed. In the spring we had three couples 
who formed an attachment for each other, each betaking themselves to separate 
lakes in the public park. All went well with two pairs for the season ; not so 
with the third. After spending weeks in love-making in their fashion, and 
getting even so far advanced in their intended cares of family life as to partly 
build their nest, one morning as I passed from the Observatory I noticed a 
few feathers on the lake side, but the svvans were not to be seen. Later in the 
day I found the female on the lake at the extreme west end, and the rnale on the 
one at the extreme south-east boundary of the park. The cause of this sudden 
“breach of promise’' lam unable to explain. None of their neighbour swans 
have supplied any slander ; their continued enforced separation from each other 
avoids any renewal of the bother of that unhappy night, and altogether they 
seem to have a nobler idea of life than to bring their folly into the law-courts 1 
Bolton Museum. \V. W. Midgley. 
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