SELBORNIANA. 
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to bring with them a recurrence of the bird adornment, there may be so strong 
an opposition to the re-introduction of this barbarous fashion that a less question- 
able mode must perforce be adopted, to adorn that part of the human family 
which should be the first to encourage all that is gentle, humane, and Christian.” 
The Earliest Cuckoo. — The Rev. A. Rawson writes from Fallbarrow, 
Windermere: — “In the May number of Nature Notes, page 79, Mr. Rawns- 
ley says, * The first cuckoo was heard here in the Keswick Valley, on April 2nd.’ 
He must surely be mistaken. In their annual migrations to this country the 
cuckoos probably strike the English coast from Hampshire to Norfolk! and will 
be heard first within those limits. Nearly forty years’ observation of the arrival 
of migrants in Kent has given April 3rd as the earliest date, and this was most 
unusual, April nth being the next earliest, while the ‘mean’ date was about 
April 1 6th. If I remember rightly, this question was discussed in The Field not 
long ago, and the mean date of arrival for this country was given April 12th or 
13th. Mr. Rawnsley does not say whether the observation was his own, or of 
his paid observers. The imitation of the note of the cuckoo is of the most 
simple and easiest kind, and it requires a most practised ear to distinguish between 
the real and the unreal. I merely write in the interests of ornithology ; accurate 
observers are very much needed, but I question if we can rely on boys who are 
paid for an early (or the earliest) intimation of the appearance of birds whose 
look they do not know, as I have often practically proved. If Mr. Rawnsley 
can verify the fact, it is worth noting, for if an unusual one in the South-east of 
England, it is doubly so in the North-West : the occurrence is probably unique.” 
Outrages in Ireland. — We owe the following extract to the kindness of 
Mr. John O’Leary, a high authority on all matters relating to Ireland. It is from 
a letter to the Daily Express, by Mr. Allan Ellison, who writes from Trinity 
College, Dublin, and calls attention to ‘ * the wanton slaughter of one of our rarest 
and most beautiful birds which, in defiance of the law, is carried on within a few 
miles of our city [Dublin]. The lesser tern ( Sterna minuta) is a scarce summer 
visitor to this country from May to September, and breeds in small numbers at a 
few places along our coasts. It may be found breeding on the coasts of Dublin and 
Wicklow, in one place within six miles of the General Post Office. Here there 
were a few years ago about fifty pairs nesting annually, but, owing to ruthless 
persecution, I doubt if there are ibis year as many as a dozen. Even of these a 
good many have been shot within the last fortnight, since their arrival in the 
country ; and a day or two ago ten or twelve fresh specimens were seen in the 
shop of a Dublin taxidermist, ready mounted for hat-trimming, a use for which, on 
account of its beauty, this bird has always been a favourite with the fair sex ; 
consequently it fetches a very high price. The public must bear in mind that to 
shoot these birds, or to have in possession freshly killed specimens at the present 
season is a breach of the Wild Birds’ Protection Act, and that persons doing so 
are liable to a severe penalty. Before the Act was passed numbers of ‘ sportsmen ’ 
and holiday makers used to visit the breeding places of some of our sea-coast 
birds, and work an indiscriminate slaughter of the helpless birds and their young on 
their nesting rocks, simply for the cruel pleasure of killing them. Of late years 
this practice has almost become obsolete, for the most part without the necessity 
of enforcing the Act ; but surely in a case like the present, when one of our most 
uncommon birds is still ruthlessly slaughtered for the profit of a few individuals, 
the law ought to be vindicated and offenders punished.” 
The Song of Birds. — We have received many communications on this 
subject. Dr. Francis, of Richmond, sends us the following lines, not so much 
for their poetical merit, as for the accuracy with which they imitate the note of the 
American robin — 
When the willows gleam along the brooks, 
And the grass grows green in sunny nooks, 
In the sunshine and the rain 
I hear the robin in the lane, 
Singing “ cheerily, 
Cheer up, cheer up ; 
Cheerily, cheerily. 
Cheer up.” 
