36 
NATURE NOTES 
strewed with small potatoes, all, he assures me, of about the same size, ‘ in the 
form of eggs,’ and ‘ showing no signs of having been pecked at.’ 
“ The explanation given by an old parishioner is that the rooks use potatoes 
for measuring the insides of their nests, to satisfy themselves by practical experi- 
ment that they are neither too large nor too small to hold the eggs comfortably, 
and that, when they have done this, they ‘ chuck them away.’ The potato sent 
to me is, my reverend informant tells me, ‘ a typical form.’ It was picked up the 
morning he posted it ‘ beneath an aged oak-tree on which the rooks had been 
recently repairing their nests.’ ‘ In the early spring,’ he writes, ‘ there are heaps 
of them beneath the trees. . . . The birds never carry them away again, 
which they would do if they were brought them for eating purposes.’ 
“ I have compared my potato with a series of rooks’ eggs, and find that, 
though less pointed, its measurements agree, in length exactly and in girth very 
closely with those of the eggs. 
“ It is sad that no prophetic voice can be raised to warn the rooks of the 
gathering clouds that threaten them. With the growth of artificial pheasant 
rearing, temptations to egg-stealers have grown and are proving, if hostile 
witnesses are to be believed, too strong for the honesty of many of the family. 
“ Gamekeepers are influential, and, with honourable exceptions, unforgiving 
when the offence is against pheasants. In the crusade already begun the good 
deeds of the farmer’s friend.’ 
“ ‘ Crushing the beetle in his coat of mail 
And crying- havoc on the slug and snail, 
are forgotten. 
“ ‘ The evil that birds as well as men do lives after them. 
The good is oft interred with their bones.’ 
' “ Your obedient servant, 
“5, Ovington Gardens, “ T. Digby Piggot i. 
“ December 26.” 
43. Swifts and Cockchafers. — Is it a well-known fact that swifts prey 
upon large coleoptera ? On two occasions last summer I noticed them taking 
cockchafers, 
Caincross, Stroud, R. H. Roc.ERS. 
yanuary 19, 1 905. 
SELBORNE SOCIETY NOTICES. 
[Noth.— All Annoonckmunts with re<;ard to Meetings of itik 
Central Society or Branches will he found together at the end 
OF these Notices.] 
New Members. — Central Society — Francis L. Berry, Esq., St. James’s 
Street ; George Brooks, Esq., New Southgate ; G. Page Cawthorn, Esq., 
Pirbright ; B. T. I.owne, Esq., Calford ; Kenneth W. Mumford, Esq., West- 
combe Park ; Miss Edith Poole, Miss Winifred Poole, Seaford. 
Birmimham Branch — Miss G. Harold, Mrs. Allan Tangye, Miss Younger- 
man, Birmingham. 
Brighton Branch — Charles A. Creifer, Esrp, Arundel ; Mrs. Nicholson, 
Brighton. 
Croydon Branch — Miss Dorothy Meihe, Mi.ss A. E. Willson, Streatham. 
Ealing Branch — Miss Grout, Richmond. 
Hampstead Branch Miss Winifred E. Bell, Gospel Oak ; Edward Bolus, 
Esq., Mrs. Bolus, Stoke Newington Common ; Miss Bessie Clissold, H. P. 
Cooper, Esq., Mrs. S. M. Cooper, K. Falkenheim, Esrp, Hampstead; Miss 
Lucy Holmes, South Hampstead; Miss K. W. Kinns, Wood Green; Mrs. 
Temple Moore, Myer S. Nathan, E.sq., Miss I). Parsons, Hampstead ; Miss C. 
A. M. Pearce, Camden Road ; Henry Wilkins, Esq., Hampstead ; P. Macleod 
Yearsley, Esrp, F.R.C.S., F.Z..S., Wimpole .Street. 
