Chirps and 
Chatter. 
(H3) 
THE BIRD WORLD- 
Nightingale, which were hatched and reared by 
their foster mothers. The- young Nightingales 
when they were full fledged seemed perfectly at 
home near the places where they first saw the 
light, and in September, the usual period of 
migration, they departed. But the Nightingales 
never returned to Scotland. 
FALSE CUCKOO CRIES. 
There is no doubt, however, that most of the 
Cuckoo cries heard before the second week in 
April are to be put down to the vagrant village- 
boy, who delights to anticipate nature in this 
manner, or even to the cuckoo clock. A game- 
keeper informed the writer only last year that 
his son had a Cuckoo call with which he had 
deceived many persons, and one enterprising 
individual had written off to 1 the papers announc¬ 
ing the arrival of the vagrom bird. This year, 
judging from the brisk sale of Cuokoo-calls the 
itinerant vendors at the Oxford and Cambridge 
Boat Race were favoured with, deceptive instru¬ 
ments of the kind must 'be very much in evidence. 
The air was, so to speak, alive with Cuckoos on 
the Middlesex side near the bridge. But the 
Cuckoo has been declared by trustworthy obser¬ 
vers to have been heard in Sussex and Wiltshire 
in March, and although much scepticism exists 
with regard to Martian Cuckoos, very rarely has 
the bird had a better opportunity than this year 
of asserting himself in March, for towards the 
latter part of the month there was much warm 
sunshine and sometimes southerly and south¬ 
westerly winds. 
A JUDGE ON LADIES’ PLUMES. 
They do some things better in the United 
States than we do. For example, Judge Cretein, 
of New Orleans, has just fined a merchant ;£>io, 
with the alternative of sixty days’ imprisonment, 
for selling Aigrette plumes, and has stated that 
in future he will also hold women who are found 
wearing them responsible. The remote feeding 
grounds of the birds, he remarked, made it 
impossible to detect persons who killed them, 
but to meet the case sellers and wearers of the 
plumes would be made responsible. We heartily 
wish that there were similar legislation similarly 
enforced in this country. 
ANOTHER RARE BIRD SHOT. 
Mr. Weaver, gamekeeper, shot a Buzzard in 
Guiting Wood, near Cheltenham, one day last 
month. The bird is a rare visitant of these 
parts. The wings extended are a yard across, 
and the claws formidable weapons for seizing 
and tearing prey. 
A DOCTOR’S AERIAL ASSISTANTS. 
A doctor in the north of Scotland finds carrier 
Pigeons of much use to him. He has a scat¬ 
tered practice, and when on long rounds he takes 
several Pigeons with him. If one of his 
patients needs medicine immediately he writes 
out a prescription, and by means of the birds 
forwards it to his surgery. Here an assistant 
gets the message, prepares the prescription, and 
dispatches the medicine. If, after visiting a 
patient, the doctor thinks he will be required 
later on in the day, he simply leaves a Pigeon, 
with which he can be called if necessary. 
BIRD SKINS AND FEATHERS. 
The returns for the six plume-auctions held at 
the Commercial Sale Rooms, London, last year, 
are not encouraging reading for the bird-pro¬ 
tector. The numbers catalogued of Birds-of- 
Paradise and of packages of “ Osprey ” feathers 
were as follows : 
Osprey Feathers 
Birds-of- 
Packages. 
Paradise. 
February 
. 327 ••• 
8,508 
April . 
7,188 
J une . 
11,841 
August . 
. 242 ... 
3 > 94 & 
October . 
. 4*5 — 
5.7oo 
December 
. 265 ... 
3,600 
This gives a total of 1,868 packages of “ Osprey,” 
but owing to the fact that the packages are of 
varying sizes the actual quantity of feathers can 
be only roughly estimated. An average of be¬ 
tween 2ooz. and 300Z. to the package seems to 
be a fair estimate, and at 200Z. the total would 
be over 37,ooooz., or, on Professor Newton’s 
calculations, the feathers of nearly 150,000 birds. 
The total number of the Paradise skins is 
40,785. 
IS THE BLACK BACKED GULL PROTECTED? 
Referring to a case decided at the West Pen¬ 
rith Petty Sessions, when Mr. Eric Coming- 
wood was fined 7s. for shooting a Black-backed 
Gull, a correspondent says : “ Having always 
understood that both the great and lesser Black- 
backed Gulls are exempt from the operation of 
the Wild Birds’ Protection Act, and can be shot 
at any time of the year, I shall be glad if any 
of your readers can tell me if I am correct. The 
Act reads, • Gull (excepting the black back),’ and 
if I understand it rightly I fail to see how Mr. 
Corningwood could possibly have been fined for 
shooting one.” 
NATURE’S REASON. 
Writers on Sea-birds have for generations 
admired and wondered regarding the shape of 
the Guillemot’s egg, which by its pyriform or 
obconical shape is prevented from rolling off the 
ledge or smooth rock on which it is laid. . But 
the Plover’s egg has the same form, and it, cer¬ 
tainly, has no chance of rolling off a rock or of 
anything else. 
SPRING FLOWERS AND BIRDS. 
Brilliant weather in the second half of March 
often brings out the flowers to their undoing. 
With the natural optimism of unsophisticated 
things they conclude that warm sunshine spells 
spring, and sometimes they have to endure an 
April blizzard for the discouragement of too much 
faith. The birds are occasionally deceived in 
