Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/54

28 being disturbed, run from the eggs, and then fly near to the ground for a short distance, without uttering any alarm-cry. The males, on the contrary are very clamorous, and fly round the intruder, endeavouring by various instinctive arts to divert his attention." Quite true. The solitary flaw, to my thinking, in the paragraph I have reproduced, is the introduction of hethe? [sic] word "invariably." There is no rule without an exception, it is said. Still, it is manifest to me that Selby took his description from the birds themselves in their nesting haunts. The question of Ducks quitting their young and flapping along the water in front of an intruder has no bearing whatsoever on the points involved. Eggs are one thing; young birds another. In the case of the latter, the maternal affection is infinitely stronger. I have stroked a Partridge sitting on her nest; she seemed not at all disconcerted. I have also walked suddenly on to the top of a brood of "cheepers," and been furiously attacked, after a fashion, by the old bird—the female. It is frequently only when cunning is at a discount that birds and animals have recourse to strategy of another kind.

I, too, have picked up Swifts and tossed them into the air—so long ago, alas! as the summer of 1865; but this in nowise affects or discredits my original contention—that tens of thousands of people are under the impression that Swifts can not rise from the ground,—any more than does the fact of Mr. Fox having ten years ago found an individual Lapwing doing only what I should have expected it to do under somewhat novel circumstances, invalidate what I said on the subject of that species being the medium of a popular fallacy.— (Ormandyne, Melton Mowbray).

Notes from Scarborough.—Whilst Codling fishing off Filey Brig on October 10th, 1897, I found in the stomach of one of my captures a Pogge, or Armed Bullhead (Agonus cataphractus). This is, I believe, a common fish in many places, but is only the second time it has come under my notice in the Scarborough district. During the heavy sea which prevailed during November 6th and 7th, a Garfish (Belone vulgaris) was picked up on the North Sands, and a living example of the Lesser Forkbeard or Tadpole-fish (Raniceps trifurcus) was also stranded. It was unfortunately mutilated by some lads before I obtained possession of it.— (44, Huntriss Row, Scarborough).