SELBORNE SOCIETY NOTICES 
237 
dozen of them, and they were flying in a straight line, not wedge-like, as I thought 
they always did ; but there was no mistake about the “ cackle.” They were 
going in a N.E. direction. Is this early, and is it a sign of a hard, early winter? 
The Oaks Vicarage, Loughborough. William R. Tagart. 
October 8, 1903. 
[There is a Morayshire rhyme : — 
“ Wild geese, wild geese, ganging to the sea, 
Good weather it will be ; 
Wild geese, wild geese, ganging to the hill, 
The weather it will spill.” 
There is also a saying that these birds fly in the form of figures which denote 
the number of weeks of frost that are coming. 
If, in North America, wild geese go south in October, but return in great 
numbers in a few days, it is said to be a sign of a mild winter. — Ed. N.N.] 
13. Late Nesting of the Wood Pigeon.— I do not know whether the 
following instance is insufficiently uncommon to deserve notice. On September 12, 
I found, near Kineton, Warwickshire, a nest of a wood pigeon (or cushat) con- 
taining one egg. A few days later two eggs were in the nest, but it had been 
deserted. However, on September 2 I found another nest containing two eggs 
on which the bird was sitting. Is not this very late in the season ? 
Ernest Parke. 
14. Toads. — At this time of the year I frequently come across toads barely 
a quarter of the normal size ; and as they will shortly hide up for the winter, and 
during hibernation do not take food, they will probably increase very little if at 
all in size between now and next spring. I do not remember seeing very small 
toads emerge from hibernation ; and wonder what becomes of these dwarfs. 
Are they unable to survive the ordeal of hibernation ? 
October, 1903. Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
15. Hybridisation. — Have any of our readers ever come across an 
example of this between the oak and the beech ? While on a ramble in Somerset 
last week one of our party noticed a lot of beech mast beneath an oak tree, and 
on looking about for the reason saw that the acorns of the oak had for their usual 
“cup” one that was entirely like the outer covering of the beech nut, covered 
with spines. Close by was a beech tree. 
T. A. Appleton. 
[We are afraid our correspondent’s observation is at fault. It was not beech 
mast that he saw, nor was the acorn cup “entirely like the outer covering of the 
beech nut.” If, as we strongly suspect, the oak was the Turkey or mossy-cup 
species, Quercus Cerris, its cup, though furnished with more or less recurved 
woody processes, does not split into four segments as does that of the beech, but 
is and remains cup-shaped. — Ed. N.N.] 
SELBORNE SOCIETY NOTICES. 
Council Meetings. — September 28. — The Council having drawn the 
attention of the Agents General of the Colonies concerned, to advertisements 
involving the destruction of the rare fauna and flora of Australia, had their 
several replies under consideration, some of which are noticed in another column. 
An interesting agreement between the Audubon Societies of America and 
Milliners’ Association, was brought to the Council’s notice. 
The usual monthly meeting of the Council will be held at 20, Hanover 
Square, W., on Monday, November 23 (not third Wednesday as formerly), at 
5.30 p.m. ; and the Publications Committee on Tuesday, November 10. 
New Members. — Miss Furnival, Bishopstone ; Col. H. H. Thurlow, Liss ; 
G. Whitehurst Cripps, Esq., Kensington ; Miss Winifred D. Wilson, Brondesbury. 
Subscriptions. — The Council beg to acknowledge the following subscrip- 
tions over 5s. : Rt. Hon. Sir Mountstuart E. Grant-Duff, G.C.S.I., &c., 21s. ; 
h. Alfred Currey, Esq. and Mrs. Currey, £1 3s. ; G. Whitehurst Cripps, Esq. 
(two years), £1 5s. 
