Feb &—A statement was made ju the newspaper this week that the game of badminton twas originally called "Poona" and that it got iis name in England from being played with quill-studded champagne cork over the Duke of Beaufort's dinner table at Bedmington by '2 number of young officers just returned from India, This caused the question -to be put me, "lg It correct to call a shuttlecock bird," and if so, why?" I was forced to reply that' the question was beyond me but that 1 would do my best to explain the meaning of tering used in connection with the game in Lis various forms....all of which I have found very dificult, 'To' begin with, nobody knows for certain whether the shuttlecock was orig Inally the cork which went back and forth Uke a shuttle, or whether the last syllable was Intended to be cOck because of the feathers. The "battledore" which ly always associated with the shuttlecock in the earlier forms of the game is equally dimMeutt to place:
obviously some kind of a "bat" with which a ball is "beaten" in most games, and the grandiloquent flavour was probably added to the single syllable by association with such g.word as "batallador," meaning a great com-
In vain I searched the Chinese edition of the game, only to find that it is a winter game, of to be played by girls, in which the shuttle or bird is struck with the foot: but the Chinese shultlecock is the most baffling thing; for 1 find that it it is correctly made, it consists of several layers of shark-skin with two outer layers of snake-skin—which hardly seems. to qualify it for anything in the nature of a bird, So I have given up the problem in disgust, and can only imagine that the original name with which the game came to England had to be given up, because all the Pukka. Sahibs who played it at the Duke of Beaufort's house would insist on calling it "Poo-nah,"—rs.w, Feb. 9.—A friend tells me that he has for some days been watching a Pied Woodpecker boring a nest in a telegraph pole easily observed from his window: after many hours of work spread over several days, the Woodpeck= er was able to enter the riesling-hole, but before long it disappeared and the "nest" Is now cupied by sparrows, This raises an interest= question; did the Woodpecker leave of its own accord, or was it driven out by the much smaller sparrows? And, if to, how? I cannot five a definite answer to this question but can, at Jeast, review the evidence which governs such cases. To begin with I must say that telegraph poles are quite a favourite nest ing site for woodpeckers; the wood is soft, often partly rotten, and therefore easily and, rapidly worked. I remember reading years ago" how one species of woodpecker in America extended ils known habitat owing to the Jay= {ing of a telegraph line: the poles were nested in-each year and the habit spread along the me until the species became common hund= eds of miles from its place of origin; but that is not the point. at issue, It is a known fact that Mrs, Woodpecker is a very particular lady and will'not have any ditty bedding about the house: her 5 or 6 glossy white eyes are ald on a few clean chips at the bottom of the nesting hole: and {t is just this cleanly habit which causes her to be victimized in England where the Starlings are always on the lookout for a cheap home without any key money. As soon as the Woodpecker has hewed out her est and gone out to have a Uttle something (shall we say?)—a wretched sterling starts dragging her dirty bits of grass and teathe into the hole: Mrs, W, returns to find her home thus desecrated and, presumably holding her avian equivalent of a nose, leaves the scene in disgust and slarts a new nest, Tf the Starlings can do this in England I have no doubt the sparrows can do it here, and my friend's Woodpecker is probably now wander Ing round the Western District looking for a cleaner and better ole.—rs.w, Feb. 12—Rubber hi come to stay in the Chinese counteysid in days gone by no vehicle but the narrow-tyrod wheelbarrow carried burdens in the country: now the soft-tyred bicycles take sacks rice as well as passengers, while rubber-tyred rickshas ply the widened ways... and, "greatest miracle of all, hand-carts with great wide rubber tyres carry heavy loads of brick or timber as if they were but feathers while a paternal "Kungboo" grants licenses for' carts thus tyred at but a fraction of the former cost. But how to find these magi wheels which grow upon the foreign *Moloka, like rarest fruits which can alone be plucked parks and ranks of foreign settlements, where Motokas abound? Just where and how these wheels are found, this little tale will fell. Father has been busy all week at the office trying to prove that two and two make four: wearied of his sordid task he hies him a place where sylphlike ladies lift the light fantastic toc, and soft-shoed servants swiftly answer to the call of "Boy!" In other words, Father craves relaxation. Mother sits at home alone and gently sings (as well she may) "Oh Father, dear Father, come home fo me now. for the clock in the steeple strikes one": but the clock, alas, strikes more than one as Father emerges in search of his car: he presses the button, throws in the cluteh...and the ear crashes down on its axle! For two of his wheels have been removed avid Father, with alibis skill cannot make the remaining two equal four. But what of Mother? What is she doing while Father rolls home in a hire-car? Mother is in her little Kitchen looking for the rolling-pin: perhaps she is going to make Father some sausage-rolls for breakfast. Perhaps. But Farmer Wang now smiles broadly. for he lias just bought a hand-cart with two lovely Motoka wheels and tyres ay broad as his smile—rswv.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.