14 NOVEMBER 1914, Page 18

"A PILGRIMAGE IN SURREY."

[To TUX EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR."1

Sin,—In your notice of my Surrey book in your issue of the 7th inst. your reviewer appears to doubt the truth of my description of a swan diving at Vachery Pond. I am not a professed naturalist, and when I described the incident certainly had no idea that I had discovered a new fact in natural history, but merely that the movement of the swan was novel to me. Fights between these birds are common, and I have witnessed their tedious progress at several places,. including the great swannery at Abbotsbury, but I never saw one dive before; there is nothing in the build of the birds to. make it surprising, and I would be surprised indeed if many field naturalists have not seen them do so, or that they would be puzzled by my statement of the fact.—I am, Sir, &o., JAMES S. OGILVY.