TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume L, Issue 8479, 10 May 1893, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

- The note sent to ua Martins at yesterday by Mr Murphy New to the effect that he had Brighton. seen some martins at New Brighton will be gratifying news to many a lover of natural history. The swallows, swifts and martins are insect eaters pttre-and simple, and .hero is no more graceful or interesting bird on the wing. The pleasure experienced by English lovpr.. of nature at the sight of the first swallow in spring is lovingly referred to on many occasions by Gilbert White, of Selborne, who has given us some most interesting gossip about these birds.- "As for myself," says Jesse, another well-known naturalist, "I love the swallow and its congeners, and would (supposing I had the choice) give up any other bird we have rather than this. Independent of its wonderful intelligence, its plumage, as will be found on minute inspection, is very beautiful; its song interesting and melodious, its form graceful, and its utility in clearing the air of insects beyond perhaps any estimate we can form." It is sincerely to be hoped, as Mr Murphy suggests, that the interesting little strangers who have arrived in our midst wdl not be destroyed or even disturbed.

At present it is a An Ornithological mystery where the Mystery. charming little visi-

tors have come from. But then there is a good deal that is mysterious about the swallow family. We are not sure that it has been authoritatively settled where they go to when they migrate from England for the winter. It was a theory firmly fixed in the minds of some of the older writers that the birds—or, at any rate, some of them—remained in England in a torpid state during the cold weather. Others, who had noticed tho birds' fondness for ponds and lakes, actually declared that they hibernated under water, although, so far as we are aware, they were never able to bring forward any evidence in support of this extraordinary assertion.

There are three members of Swallows, the swallow family found in Swifts and England. The chimney Martins. swallow, which builds its

nest of mud or clay, stuck together with straw and twigs, open and cup-shaped, and placed in a situation where it is sheltered from wind and rain—a few feet down an unused chimney, for instance, or under the roof of an open shed. The window swallow, or house martin, constructs its nest of the same material, but makes it hemispherical in shape, and attaches it to a rock, or very frequently to the wall of a house in the eaves, or in the upper angle of a window. Lastly, there is the sand martin, smaller than the preceding, which makes its home in sandy riverbeds, the sides of sand pits, and so forth. Its tail is only moderately forked, and it is brown and white in plumage, instead of rejoicing in the glossy bluish black and the chestnut sported by the chimney and window swallows, in addition to the snowy white of which they can also boast. The swifts belong to a different family altogether, although somewhat similar to the swallows in habits and outward appearance. Swallows and swifts are to be found in nearly every part of the world, except New Zealand, which strangely enough is destitute of a single native species. Australia is more fortunate. The needle-tailed swift, which is found in Eastern Siberia, China, and Japan, and other places during the summer, migrates as far south as Eastern Australia and Tasmania in the winter. The fairy martin, a small Australian species, builds a flaskshaped nest attached to a rock or the wall

of a house, while another Australian species, according to a standard authority, is of a culpably lazy disposition, laying its eggs in a hollow tree without taking the trouble to get together any nest material. It is to be hoped that some bird-lover, without destroying or disturbing any of the New Brighton visitors, will be able to tell us to what particular species they belong.

Some consternation has " Egg Powder." been caused among thrifty housewives in England by some disclosures which came out in the Liverpool Police Court regarding a substance known as "egg powder." which it appears is extensively used by economical cooks, especially when eggs aro dear, under the impression that they are getting an efficient substitute at a less cost. Tho powder in question was of a well-known brand which had been many years on the market. Not only was it found on analysis to be absolutely void of any resemblance in composition to eggs, but to be positively deleterious to health. It was proved to. contain no less than 40J per cent, of alum, the other component parts being ground rice, carbonate of soda and colouring matter. Needless to say such a coirtposition contains not an atom of nutrition' except the small quantity comprised in the rice, and its continued use ia likelyi&o be very prejudicial to the consumer, a baking powder -prosecution not long ago &*-*W*s deposed that the use of the article fc\ad afflicted quite a large proportion of the population with constipation and indigestion owing to the alum with which it was adulterated. There is no question that the use of such misleading names as egg powder for a substance possessing not the remotest affinity to eggs, ought to be strictly prohibited and severely punished. In the present case the purchaser was not only defrauded by not getting a nutritive article of diet, such as ita name might reasonably lead him to expect, but he ran an excellent chance of being half poisoned as well.