86 
NATURE NOTES 
out of the box, thus placed, on to the floor, and their age at the 
time, I have only the woman’s assurance. But how could she 
have been mistaken, and what interest could she have in 
volunteering such statements if not true ? P'or myself I have 
no doubt that the facts were as she stated. I believe, too, that 
the pigs must have leapt rather than fallen down, for though it 
would have been easy for them to have fallen backwards from 
the edge of the box, they could hardly have got over it without 
such an exertion of force as must have amounted, practically, 
to a leap. I make these remarks because I do not think that 
this extreme precocity in the pig is generally known and ac- 
cepted. Mr. Lloyd Morgan, in his recent interesting work Habit 
and, Instinct , quotes an observation of the late Mr. Douglas 
Spalding as to a two-days old pig leaping from a chair, and then 
says, “ When I suggested to a worthy farmer that he should 
repeat the observation for me his indirect reply, ‘ But who will 
pay for the pig ? ’ sufficiently indicated what, in his opinion, 
would be the result of the experiment .’ 1 With regard to the 
farmer’s query, I may remark that even this woman who had 
found the pigs uninjured by their exploit, would not allow them 
to leap again from the box or even from the chair or a stool, and 
on this, I would suggest that people — “worthy” or otherwise — 
whose pockets are interested are the last to look favourably on 
experiments where there is even a remote possibility of their 
being injured in so vital a spot. Of what value can be the 
mere opinion of a money-thinking farmer on such a point as 
against Spalding’s direct observation which, I submit, is now 
strengthened by what this cottage woman told me and what I 
myself saw ? 
Wamil Hall, Mildenhall, Suffolk. Edmund Selous. 
MY BIRD BOARD, AND HOW I CIRCUMVENTED 
THE SPARROWS. 
HEN at the beginning of winter I set up a bird board 
I had only two guests, a robin and a hedge sparrow. 
It was not long before a solitary house sparrow (the 
only one that appeared to be about) joined the party ; 
this I did not object to, but in a few days the house sparrow 
brought a friend or two, and I suppose the friends in turn 
invited their neighbours. At any rate these unwelcome guests 
swooped down in such numbers every morning as to swamp the 
whole concern. The robin and the hedge sparrow were nowhere, 
and were obliged to get a stray crumb or two when the sparrows 
had eaten their fill. A quarrelsome, rowdy, bickering lot, fighting, 
setting up their feathers and using all sorts of bad sparrow 
language by the hour together, these cheeky lawless vagabonds 
