HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17349, 14 May 1924, Page 6

HERE AND THERE.

AN EYE FOR EVERYTHING. RINGING THE BIRDS The ringing of birds so that t-beir migrations may be traced has awakened interest in many countries,'and the extent of the practice may be judged by some facts which have just been published. The Rossi ter Observatory, in East Prussia, gave out. 1903 and 1919, as many as 123,569 rings, and also marked 777 ft birds. Of these, 2011 were found again. Heligoland dealt, with 14.172 birds, and of these 492 were caught and sent back. Hungary was less successful. From 25,621 birds marked and sent forth Hungary received only 492 back. In England 46,ft23 birds were recorded as marked and let loose in five years, with results that were regarded as quite satisfactory. Japan, the United States and Northern Africa are busy with experiments which may throw a steady light at last on the subject of bird migration. *. • ‘•THAT ONE-ARMED. ONE-EYED BEGGAR !” Sir Basil Thomson, formerly Assistant Commissioner 'of Scotland Yard, tells of an incident at the Admiralty after the Battle of Jutland in his book 4 Queer People.” The editor of a certain daily newspaper called on an officer of the Admiraty and said. “We are not .satisfied with Admirals Jellicoe and Beatty.” Who is ‘wo’?” asked the officer. “ The public.” “Oh, ’ said rhe naval officer, “then you are one of those people who, if you had lived a Hundred years ago, would have said. Who’s that onO-oved, one-armed beggar in charge of ‘our fleet? Hayc him out!’ Now. look here, supposing you and T had a row in this room, and you knocked my teeth out. and T kicked you out of that door and you stood cursing in the passage, not daring to come in. Would you say you had won a victory?” TALES OF STOIC I SAL Lord Dunraven. in his book. •'• Pastimes and Past Times,” tells two stories of stoicism and resource on tho part of hunters:—One I met up in Alontana, having been very badlv mauled by a bear, cut off his own leg. Hacked one hunting knife into a rough saw. sharpened the other, put the axehead on the fire, amputated the leg and staunched the blood by actual cauntery. It sounds incredible, but I believe it to be true. There I also met a man who had been lost for over thirty days, and had kept himself alive on roots and grass and things. He developed the psychical aberration of numerous personalities; thought his limbs and organs, arms, legs, stomach, biain and so on were distinct individuals, and held long conversations with each other. I think that phenomenon has occurred since in other cases atnong Arctic explorers, if T remember right Fortunately for him. he was found bv some hunters who had killed a bear 'They drenched him with hot melted bear fat; and that probably saved his life. CZAR’S CUTLERY AT LONDON RESTAURANT. Imperial cutlery, once the property of the late Czar of Russia, is in public use at a restaurant in Upper Street, Islington. There are 600 of such knives at the establishment, each hearing the royal arms engraved upon the blade. Some of them have the device filled in. with gold. but these the proprietor is not using in the restaurant. The history of the knives since they left the Russian Court is not known, but they came into the hands of the previous owner of the lestaurant they all had massive handles of solid gold. These were replaced by more conventional—and less tempting—ones., Though the cutlery is used daily by customers it is seldom that these historical relics are recognised One curio hunter, upon identifying them as genuine, prevailed upon Air Schiller to allow him to purchase a few. and went away delighted with his find. WHERE JS EL DORADO? Some time ago. when the ruins of an. Aztec city were discovered in the Amazonian forest, they were popularlv supposed to be those ot El Dorado, the golden city to which Raleigh and many other adventures were said to have been lured, some to their death and a few to fortune, in Elizabethan times, when the wildest stories of the New World found credence. El Dorado sounds like the fanciful names which the. Spaniards and Portuguese gave to the cities they established, such as Buenos Aires, Santiago. Los Angeles, and so on. But- the fact is that Ei Dorado is not a city at all. and never was. although it would make a finesounding name for some new capital. The story goes that Orellana, the lieutenant of the great- Pizarro. pretended he had discovered a land of gold between the Orinoco and the Amazon, but when these high hopes proved delusive the ruler was smeared with oil and rolled in gold dust, and dubbed El Dorado, the gilded man. Whether there is any truth in the story is difficult to determine. HUSSAR OFFICER AS BANDIT. Chief of a robber band which has terrorised mountain districts of Transylvania for years, Stephan Blenesi formerly a Hussar officer, has been captured after a desperate fight, by a de- i tective, who arrested him single-hand-ed in the open country From Klausenburg to Constanza (the ‘‘ Daily Alai! ” j states). Blenesi was known as tho j “ Ning of the Mountains.” His ex- | ploits included the bolding up of trains ■ in “ Wild West ” style.. organised at-; tacks on farmhouses, and highway robbery of wealthy travellers, whom Ins bandits stripped of their clothing as well as all their money and valuables. Tie deposited the net profits of hi* ' business ” at regular intervals in * bank at Gulatz. with the intention of going to the United States when he had enough. But one of his hand found

out all about this deposit, when Blenesi was drunk, and collected some £IO,OOO, with which he fled to America. Blenesi arrived a few days later at Galatz, to find his money vanished. Penniless and furious, Blenesi returned to A.larosvasarhely. where his mother lives, and legged and borrowed enough to live upon for the time being, hoping to reassemble the comrades bo had deserted. But they were all captured in their stronghold in the mountains, where they were starving, and gave the police a T-ery full descriptioi of him and his probable disguise* and by this means he was tracked down. He has confessed to a long series of robberies, but expresses no contrition for any of them, except the theft of asmall sum from a railway servant who took a letter for him to his mother. He stole the money from the man’s room when left alone in it for a few mimvtes. and wept with sham* 1 that he had ever stolen such a trifling sum* and from a man poorer than himself.