Another correspondent from British Columbia records a rare example of
tameness in a wild swan, which settled down in a pond close to Victoria. The bird took bread from the hand at the first offer. The instance, though remarkable, can be paralleled and suggests that the bird has some naturally domestic quality. Last year a whopper swan settled for some time on a London reservoir and showed peculiar tame- ness. Another instance of the adoption of town life by wild birds comes from a South London vicarage. Jays have come to live in the " large but very noisy " garden ; and prove friendly. They have, it seems, a peculiar fondness for cooked potatoes, and at once fly down from a tall chestnut tree when this delicacy is offered. The date would suggest that they are building in the garden; and it would be an event indeed if a family of such birds were reared in such a populous district.
W. BEACH THOMAS.
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