I 12 
SELBORNIANA. 
A Sea-Bird’s Rock and its Brutal Visitors.— Several communica- 
tions have been received on this subject, which was fully dealt with in the last 
number of Nature Notes, all expressing the greatest indignation at the disgrace- 
ful outrage, and most of them demanding that some punishment should be inflicted 
on the perpetrators. The attempts that are apparently made to screen the 
offenders have caused several of our correspondents to say very hard things of the 
authorities for their culpable remissness in this matter. We should be very loth to 
“speak evil of dignities, ’’but it must be confessed there seems to be some reason for 
the wrath of those who draw comparisons between the merciless rigour with which 
the poor ignorant peasant poacher is prosecuted and the complete immunity 
which apparently awaits the infinitely more culpable criminal who is supposed to 
be an “officer and a gentleman”! “Justitia” says : — “If some poor fellow 
were to knock over a rabbit to give food to a sick wife or hungry children, a. gen- 
tleman of this ‘ chick smashing ’ type, sitting on a bench of county justices, would 
be the first to send the ‘ low poaching fellow ’ to the tread-mill. If some Irish 
Pat were to ‘ look crooked ’ at a constable’s cow, the ‘ chick-smasher ’ sitting in 
judgment as a resident magistrate, would hale him off to gaol for four months on 
the plank bed. Here is a case of aggravated cowardly cruelty, of theft from the 
national property, and beyond a formal reprimand, at w'hich the offender would 
probably laugh, not the slightest notice has been taken of the offence. Surely it 
is an absolute farce to say that in England we have the same law for the rich and 
for the poor.” We believe that the remarks of “ Justitia” are considerably too 
severe, when applied to whole classes, but in this particular instance it must be 
confessed that the action, or rather inaction, of the authorities, gives ample ground 
for such criticism. Letters have been written in pursuance of the resolutions 
passed at the last meeting of the Selborne Society. The answers have not yet 
been laid before the Council ; but we think that we are not betraying any official 
secrets by saying that these answers are eminently unsatisfactory. There is no 
vindictive feeling on the part of Selbornians, but it is strongly felt that the least 
punishment which would satisfy public indignation, would be the publication of 
names of the culprits. 
The Earliest Cuckoo. — I thank Mr. Rawson for his kind note. I have 
questioned the lads carefully and they are sure that it was a cuckoo, and not a 
human voice they heard on the date in question. It is quite clear that for some 
unaccountable reason the cuckoo was earlier this year in the vale than has been 
generally the case. I heard one in the same neighbourhood, the sunny sheltered 
side of the valley under Skiddaw, on the loth of April, and generally we do not 
look for the cuckoo before the 15th. A cuckoo was, so I w r as informed, also 
heard near Carlisle this year on the 10th ; but I am not willing to do more 
in the matter than assert that the boys who heard the bird believe they heard a 
bird and not a human being or a cuckoo-clock on April 3rd, and that they 
obtained 3d. each for what 1 believe tvas not a false report. 
Crosthiuaite Vicarage, Keswick. H. D. RaWNSLEY. 
Will some of your readers tell us something of the voice mechanism of the 
corncrake. I have been astonished at the tirelessness of the constant call of the 
bird. When does it find time for food necessary to support the strain, and how 
does it escape the weasel and the stoat ? 
Porri wiggles. — I notice in your “ Selborniana ” of June 14th, an extract 
from a letter of Lord Tennyson’s mentioning “/<?r;-Aviggles” as a “ provincial 
name ” of tadpoles. In Book iii. , chap. 13, of the Vulgar Errors, Sir Thomas 
Browne has — “that which the ancients called Gvrinus, we a Porwig/e (sic), or 
Tadpole.” (I quote from the second edition.) Any member of the Selborne 
Society who cares for tadpoles, or for style, will, I am sure, be glad to be reminded 
of this chapter, and will divide his admiration between “the high curiosity of 
nature ” and the not much lower curiosity of art with which it is described. 
Clifton College, Bristol. Sidney T. Irwin. 
Sparrows and Mice.— Mrs. Musgrave, of Furze Bank, Torquay, sends 
the following note she has received in answer to her paragraph in Nature 
