NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 
255 
tute notwithstanding) for anything like a representative collection of the insects of 
our own colonies, to which we are always adding, but of the natural productions 
of which we are, in many cases, deplorably ignorant. 
W. F. K. 
SELBORNIANA. 
Protection of Birds. — The International Congress on the Protection of 
Birds, inaugurated at .\ix-en- Provence on Xovember 9, under the auspices of the 
Ligue Ornithophile Kran^aise, of whom M. Louis- .\drien Lcvat is the able 
President, has lately been concluded. The protection of insectivorous birds 
useful to agriculture was the chief matter treated of, and it was decided to 
forward to the Governments of Furope, through the French Minister for P'oreign 
Affairs, the resolutions which were formulated. Public educational bodies are 
also to be memorialized in order to obtain, if possible, the serious conshleration 
of this important subject by .schoolmasters and Government .School Inspectors. 
Numerous French and Italian agricultural, horticultural and sporting societies 
were represented at the Congress, and delegates from the Selborne Society and 
the Society for the Protection of Birds were also present. 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Wren feigning Death. — I know some birds will simulate death when 
in danger, but I was not until very lately aware that the little wren ever did. 
Hearing a sort of rustle in some newspapers under one of the dining-room 
windows and at the same time a scream of “ There is a rat in the room, there 
is a rat in that paper,” I went to investigate. The screamer of course ran away. 
I found in the paper a little wren, and thought my cat “Dr. Jim,” had been 
transgressing. On taking up the bird it felt quite warm, and I could not see a 
trace of injury. It lay quite still and I thought I could feel its heart beating. 
Anyhow I decided to keep it until next morning, so I laid it in an empty mouse 
cage, one of the cages with glass fronts, where people keep white mice. It had 
been left here by one of my grandchildren whose pet had died. I took cage and 
occupant, a to all appearance dead bird, to my bedroom, and early next day 
heard a fluttering noise in the cage ; the wren was moving about. As soon as 
the maid came in, I got her to open the window and put the cage on a table close 
by, where I could see it, and to pull up the glass slide. The wren by that time 
was flat on its side at the bottom of its cage, a dead bird once more ; but in a 
minute or two when all was still, it flew out and on to a pot of ferns standing on 
the window sill, when with a sort of note of joy, it saw the open window and was 
out in a second. 
Helen E. Watney. 
A “Solitary Wasp”? — During last June I have been much interested, 
whilst sitting daily on my balcony, to watch the movements of an insect much 
resembling a wasp, but thinner in body, and with somewhat longer wings. When 
I first noticed it it seemed to be much disturbed about something, but, on my 
moving my seat, it made a dart against the wall against which I was sitting and 
hurriedly entered a small hole, about the size of a pea, in the brickwork. After 
remaining a few seconds it came out of the hole backwards and flew away, but 
It returned again several times during the day, at different intervals, and in- 
variably went through the same performance. The presence of several persons 
on the seat did not appear to concern it in the least. Yesterday morning, to my 
surprise, I found the hole covered up, and fancying that one of my grandchildren 
had done this, I removed the dirt, but soon afterwards the insect made its 
appearance again and seemed unusually busy about something. I fancied it was 
removing a portion of the dirt which I had left at the entrance of the hole, but 
