416 CURIOUS GROWTH OF WILD RUBBER-VINE 
CURIOUS GROWTH OF WILD RUBBER-VINE 
By C. M. Dobbs 
In Sotik, Lumbwa District, on the farm of Messrs. John 
Morgan & Sons, is to be seen a most extraordinary freak 
growth of a wild rubber vine. The vine, 1-1J in. thick, 
passes right through the trunk of a tree about 18 in. 
in diameter. The most probable explanation of this 
phenomenon is that when the vine and tree were both very 
young, the vine grew across a fork in the tree. The vine by 
constant friction rubbed away the bark of the tree, and in the 
course of time the fork closed over the vine and the wound 
healed up. At the present time the joint where the vine 
passes through the tree is about 9 or 10 in. below the fork. 
EUROPEAN CRANE 
By V. G. L. VAN Someben 
A specimen presumably of the Common European Crane, 
Megalornis grus grus, Linn., was procured at Kepsaret, Uasin 
Gishu, on June 7, 1915. 
Attached to one of its legs was an aluminium ring bearing 
the following inscription : 
Ornith. Kozpon 
Budapest 
Hungaria 8 - 7 - 14 
Mr. Wood of the Forest Department, who shot the bird, 
reported it as being a specimen of the Crowned Crane, but 
I hardly think this is correct, unless a bird of this species, 
which had been in captivity and had been 6 ringed,’ had 
subsequently escaped. 
As is well known, the ringing of migratory birds is carried 
out on a large scale, both at home and abroad, with the idea 
of being able to keep track of such birds during their 
wanderings, either of spring or autumn. 
