238 
SELBORNIANA. 
Familiar Wild Flowers.— In March last Messrs. C.assell & Company 
announced prizes for the best collections of Wild Flowers. Several hundred 
collections have been sent in, and much interest has been manifested by 
competitors. .So satisfactory was the general result that somewhat more than 
the entire value of the prizes offered has been awarded, and the publishers trust 
that, inasmuch as the collection will, in accordance wdth the provisions of the 
scheme, be distributed to institutes and schools throughout the kingdom, a 
valuable impetus may be given to the study of the wild flowers of our country. 
The collections have been judged by Mr. James Britten, of the Natural History 
Museum, who considers them, taken as a whole, very encouraging. 
“Brutal Sport.” — Humanity for October contains the following para- 
graph : “ An eye-witness writes to us about a most brutal (and presumably 
illegal) piece of blackguardism which is practised by pleasure-seekers on Crum- 
mock Water, one of the Cumberland Lakes, with the connivance of the hotel- 
keepers and water-bailiffs. The ‘sport’ consists in turning out a duck to be 
hunted in the water by terriers. ‘ It made one sick,’ writes our correspondent, 
‘ to hear the shouts of laughter of men, women, and children, from at least three 
boats, packed to overflowing, at the agony and struggles of one poor little bird.’ 
An attempt to get the names of the ruffians w'as unsuccessful, the hotel-keepers’ 
only reply being that ‘these parties are our bread-and-butter’; and the water- 
bailiff also refused to take action.” 
The Fate of the Kew Pelican. — The last performance of the game- 
keeper has naturally excited universal reprobation ; the Daily Telegraph records 
it in its best style, as follows : “ Sad to relate, the famous pelican of Kew 
Gardens, which took to the wing about a week ago, has come to an untimely 
end. The inhabitants of Brightling, in Sussex, were wonderstruck the other 
<lay to see hovering about the village a feathered animal whose dimensions were 
quite beyond those of any bird that had ever been known to visit that secluded 
part of the world. Apparently indifferent to the fact that its movements were 
being closely fallowed by a motley crowd, the creature quietly settled down in a 
pond in Mr. Percy Tew’s park, and drank copiously of the waters thereof, after 
the manner of one w'ho has been painfully long without refreshment. Whilst it 
was thus innocently satisfying its thirst messengers were sent to notify the arrival 
of the stranger to the nearest gamekeeper. That individual soon made his 
appearance, and, guided by the instincts of his calling, at once levelled his gun 
and brought down the ornithological trespasser in the middle of the pond. A 
retriever recovered the carcass, which, on examination, proved to be that of the 
strayer from Kew. It measured 9ft. loin. from tip to tip of wings, 5ft. qin. from 
bill to tail, and 3ft. round the body. The bill was I5in. long, and opened to a 
width of lyin. ; weight 2ilb.” 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Congregating Swallows. — The assembling of sw.allows before migration 
has often been noticed and written of, but I have not seen it mentioned for how 
long a time beforehand they thus assemble. On September 17, while walking by 
the river Ver here at 6.30, I heard a loud noise in some willow beds which 
sounded like rushing water, or a machine of some kind, but on getting close I 
thought the sound came from birds, and on clapping my hands out flew many 
hundreds of swallows, which after a short flight settled down again in the thick of 
the willows. After this I went again to the same place, near the same time, for 
a fortnight, and they came with perfect punctuality just about sunset. At 5.55 
they began to assemble — some evenings there must have been thousands. After 
circling in the air for a .short time, they hurled themselves down and settled into 
the willows with mighty chattering. \ servant who was with me one evening 
said “it looks as if a chimney was on fire, and the soot falling I” and really it 
