SELBORNE SOCIETY NOTICES 
139 
pulled off, and eaten no doubt, while its companion was gibbeted on a large 
thorn, the butcher bird having crushed the skull and brains in forcing the young 
sparrow to the bottom of the thorn : the thorn ran right through the head. Such 
is nature ! 
Astwood Bank, Redditch. JAMES HlAM. 
Th.e Cuckoo. — The Rev. Mr. Daubeny’s note, p. 72, April issue, as to young 
cuckoo being discovered in a hole in a hollow tree, states that it shows that this 
bird introduces the egg into the nest other than by the ordinary process of laying. 
Of course it is now an indisputable fact that the cuckoo does not lay the egg in 
the nest it chooses to entrust its oflspring with, but lays the egg elsewhere and 
carries it thither in its mouth. This has often given rise to the ridiculous asser- 
tion that cuckoos suck little birds’ eggs, for the reason that they have been shot 
carrying their oivn eggs. 
St. Albans, Herts, W. Percival Westell, M.B.O.U. 
May 2, 1901. 
SELBORNE SOCIETY NOTICES. 
New Members. — Mrs. Heaton, Gomshall ; F. Bingham, Esq., Stoke 
Newington ; John Connery, Esq., Friday Street ; Mrs. Ellen Frank, Maida Vale ; 
Mrs. A. M. Bonns, Croydon ; Miss Bentall, Weybridge, 
A new Branch has been formed at Market Weighton with the following new 
members : — Earl of Londesborough, Lord Herries, Lord Hotham, T. N. 
Calverley Rudshire, Esq., Captain and Mrs. Langdale, Colonel Brooksbanks, 
Rev. M. C. F. Morris, M.A., Rev. W. D. W. Rees, J. Stephenson, Esq., Dr. 
Jefferson, Dr. and Mrs. Ashwin, Rev. H. II. Shaw, Richd. Simpson, Esq., Mrs. 
C. L. M. Rees and Rev. Cwyn L. M. Rees, Hon. Sec. 
Donations and Subscriptions. — The Council begs to acknowledge, 
with thanks, the receipt of the following donations ; — Alfred Waterhouse, Esq., 
R.A., 20S., Thomas Layton, Esq., 15s. ; and the following subscriptions over 5s. : 
Miss II. M. Dodds, los. , R. B. Litchfield, Esq., los. ; and, for the Library, 
“ Some Wild Flowers Worth Knowing,” presented by J. S. Comrie, Esq. 
NEWS FROM THE BRANCHES. 
A lecture was given to the Ilaileybury College Natural History Society (Junior 
Branch), on June 3 by Professor Boulger, on Earthquakes, with lantern illustrations. 
SOUTH-EASTERN UNION. 
The Haslemere' Congress of the South Eastern Union of Scientific Societies 
was, thanks to lovely weather and scenery, bounteous hospitality, exceptionally 
excellent papers, and the splendid organization of the General Secretary, Dr. 
Abbott, and the Local Secretary, the Rev. G. Stallworthy, one of the most suc- 
cessful the Union has held. Members of the Selborne Society can become 
Members of the Union and receive its transactions on payment of 2s. 6d. per annum. 
FIELD CLUB RAMBLES. 
The rambles of the Field Club have been very well attended. The season 
opened on April 13, when Mr. Nicholson arranged to take the members to Brox- 
bourne. Unfortunately the weather was not favourable and the excursion had to 
be abandoned. On April 27 Mr. Marshman Wattson, in the unavoidable absence 
of Professor Boulger, through illness, conducted a ramble through Epping Forest. 
On May 4 the country round Southfleet and Darenth was visited, the guide being 
Mr. A. B. Wilkinson, and on May 1 1 Mr. Miihlberg conducted a party of fourteen 
through the pretty lanes and woods in the neighbourhood of St. Mary Cray. 
The rambles on April 20 and May 18 were arranged by the Croydon Branch, the 
former being to Croham Hurst, the latter to Chipstead and Coulsdon. 
On June l a party of a dozen or more started from West Drayton Station and 
proceeded along the’ foot of the railway embankment to the River Colne. The 
stream is the boundary between Middlesex and Buckinghamshire, and its western 
bank was followed until the pretty ford and bridge at Iverwere reached. Thence 
the ramble was continued to Uxbridge, where tea was provided at the celebrated 
