A VISIT TO LAKELAND. 191 forms may be studied in unrestrained development, is a bit of nature which the Selborne Society would preserve, as it would preserve a rare fern or a bird visitor to our shores. It is entirely at one, therefore, with the Open Space Societies in such work as the exclusion of railways from the Lake District, the protection of the New Forest, and the guardianship of foot-paths and roadside strips. Each of the Societies we have named—the Commons Preservation Society, the Kyrle Society, the Metropolitan Gardens Association and the Selborne Society-is an expression of the need of man to be in touch with nature, and it is a striking testimony to the reality of that need that it should have expressed itself in so many different forms. It would perhaps be a mistake to sink the individuality of each agency in the attempt to produce one large and powerful body. But there can be no doubt that constant intercourse between the several Societies would be most beneficial, and NATURE NOTES might perhaps be made the means of communication. Every "interest" now-a-days has its organ in the Press. The Open Space Societies have hitherto relied on the popularity of their work to command sufficient attention from the general newspaper. They have not been disappointed. But it is worth consideration, whether there should not be something like an official record of the progress made in the work of preserving open spaces and natural objects, now that that work has so many branches. Not only would such a publication chronicle results, but it would afford a convenient means of discussing and furthering new projects. ROBERT HUNTER. NOTE. In the foregoing paper my design has been to give a general view of the movement for securing to the public the enjoyment of open spaces and natural beauty, and I have naturally only alluded to societies which have worked on national or, at least, Metropolitan lines. I am far, however, from under-rating the valuable work of local societies; in some cases the central bodies have acted as the advisers, in others as the allies, of such societies. Foremost among them may be mentioned two societies formed to protect the New Forest: one consisting entirely of land-owners and commoners, the other of wider scope more recently founded by Mr. Auberon Herbert. Of equal importance is the Lake District Defence Society, which has played an important part in saving the mountains and valleys dear to poets and painters from profanation at the hands of railway promotors and other speculators. Then, in former days the Wimbledon Common Committee and the Hampstead Heath Committee, and more recently the Heath Extension Committee and the Banstead Common Committee, have raised large funds and fought hard fights; and many other committees formed to protect particular commons might be named. Local effort is essential to the protection of open spaces, and local effort is seldom of much value unless it takes the definite shape of a society or committee.--R. H. A VISIT TO LAKELAND. S I have recently spent seven weeks in the English Lake District, it has occurred to me that Selbornians may be interested in hearing the result of my observation as to plant destruction in the portions of Lakeland which I visited. I may mention that I divided my visits into three periods, spending a little over a fortnight at Ambleside, Keswick and Glen Ridding (Ullswater), respectively. I had heard a great deal about fern destruction in the Lake Country, and had. been led to believe that I should have great difficulty in finding anything like rare plants in the neighbourhood of the ordinary tourist routes. As upwards of twenty years had passed since my former visit to the district, I provided myself with Mr. Baker's admirable Flora, and determined to see for myself whether some of the rare plants were to be found at the stations mentioned in the Flora. I am pleased to be able to say that I found nearly every plant I sought for in the locality indicated by Mr. Baker. It must be admitted that this affords tolerable evidence that no very serious amount of plant destruction has been going on since the date of publication, 1885. I believe it is the ferns only that have suffered in any appreciable degree, and that the fern destroyers are chiefly the fern dealers. It is the rarer species, such as the Flowering Fern (Osmunda regalis L.), and the Forked Spleenwort (Asplenium septentrionale Hull), that are most preyed upon. I found two favourite lake ferns, the Oak Fern (Polypodium Dryopteris, L.), and the Beech Fern (Polypodium Phegopteris, L.), in tolerable plenty, the Parsley Fern (Allosorus crispus, Bernh) in abundance. I also found that lovely little Filmy Fern (Hymenophyllum Wilsoni, Hook.), in, at least, half-a-dozen localities. I happened to be at Ambleside on the August Bank Holiday, when some three or four thousand "excursionists" visited that easily accessible town. I observed these "excursionists" closely; I am pleased to be able to record the fact that I saw no plant destroyers amongst them. I made a point of paying a visit to "Stock Ghyll (the favourite resort of excursionists) on the following day. I found that graceful little plant, the Wild Balsam (Impatiens Noli-metangere, L.), and the White Foxglove or Giant Bell-flower (Campanula latifolia, L.), growing within a few yards of the path the tourists must have trodden to get a view of the Stock Ghyll Force, in full bloom and apparently unmolested. I have often heard that there are many plant lovers among the artisans of Lancashire. Perhaps this may in some way account for their conduct towards the Lake Flora on this Bank holiday, for doubtless the majority of these "excursionists" hailed from Lancashire. Be this as it may, for one fact, and that alone, I can vouch, which is that very little, if any, plant destruction took place at Ambleside on the day named. I think you will agree with me that the facts I have related are encouraging, and that Selbornians may take heart and persevere with the good work they have begun. One word as to the "trade" of the fern dealer. A friend, who resides in the neighbourhood of Windermere, informed me that the fern dealer's business is not nearly so "brisk" as it was a few years ago, and that some are even lamenting over the fact that their occupation is fast going. Has the Selborne Society had anything to do with this? This is a PUGNACITY IN MALE BIRDS. 193 question which naturally arises. I have no data upon which to found an answer. I shall be delighted to receive one from some one who resides in the Lake District. Before I close this rather lengthy letter, I feel that I must inform such of our members as are not acquainted with the fact, that, thanks mainly to the exertions of two of our members, Miss Frances Power Cobbe, and the Rev. H. D. Rawnsley, a memorial is about to be (perhaps by this time has been) erected on Helvellyn, to the memory of that faithful dog, "a sort of yallar tarrier," as I heard him described in Lakeland language, who guarded his master's body for some three months after the life had passed out of it, owing to a fall from one of the Helvellyn cliffs. following quotation from Wordsworth's poem, "Fidelity," will best recall the incident to the minds of your readers: "But hear a wonder, for whose sake, This lamentable tale I tell! A lasting monument of words This wonder merits well. The dog, which still was hovering nigh, Repeating the same timid cry, This dog had been through three months' space A dweller in that savage place. "Yes, proof was plain that since the day On which the traveller thus had died, The dog had watched about the spot, Or by his master's side: How nourished here through such long time And gave that strength of feeling great Bath, 17th November, 1890. The W. G. WHEATcroft. PUGNACITY IN MALE BIRDS. N "Darwinism" Dr. Wallace pronounces against that branch of Darwin's theory of sexual selection which depends upon the display of decorative plumage by the males and the choice of the most beautiful by the females. The display by the males is undoubted, as all observers will testify. That of the goldfinch is a good typical example, and I believe that it is customary with most of the species of our birds whose males are differently coloured to the females. And where the colours are alike in both sexes the display is often of the vocal accomplishments of the male, which might afford a field for choice. But if sexual selection depends primarily upon the struggles of the males, there is, as Dr. Wallace shows, very little room for the theory of choice by the females. I am sorry that this theory should have to be relegated to the background, for it is a very pretty theory and appeals to our civilized human nature. But it is undoubtedly true that all the male birds, whether polygamous or not, fight when occasion arises, and the strongest wins. As one of the many instances which I have observed of this fighting between otherwise gentle and peaceable birds, I will give a short description from my note-book of a disgraceful scene I witnessed between two males of our smallest British bird: "April 15th, 1889.-I have just been watching two goldencrested wrens fighting. They first attracted my attention by getting up from the ground almost under my feet, and engaging again and falling to the ground. Then rising again one chased the other into a yew tree near, where I had a good close view of them as they challenged each other, ruffling their feathers, shaking their bodies, singing and dancing about with crests erected, the sun shining on the orange-coloured crests— such a pretty sight. After they had been talking big at each other for some minutes the hen arrived on the scene, and a desperate fight ensued, the two cocks falling to the ground in fierce embrace, rolling over each other occasionally, but for the most part lying still on the ground with their claws buried in each other's feathers for about a minute. "The hen was close by them on the ground, moving about and looking very much concerned at the affray. Her pale yellow crest contrasted notably with the rich orange of the males. After getting up, renewing the combat in a currant bush, falling again and struggling on the ground, they rose and had a chase round the yew trees, the hen following to see the fun, and presently went off and were lost to view." AUBREY EDWARDS. THE BOOKS OF RICHARD JEFFERIES. THE re-issue in cheaper form of Mr. Richard Jefferies' works will introduce them to a fresh class of readers, and in this way will tend to the spread of the principles which animate the Selborne Society. We are glad, therefore, to call attention to the most recent additions to the series--not with any intention of noticing them at the length to which they would be entitled if new, but to remind our readers of their existence and to suggest their suitability for Christmas-boxes. This is especially the case with Bevis: The Story of a Boy, of which Messrs. Sampson, Low & Co. have issued a handsome illustrated edition in one volume. It is just the book for an intelligent country lad, or for boys who, although living in towns, have nevertheless strong country sympathies. The adventures of Bevis and his companion are not, indeed, of the kind usually clear to the writer and reader of " boys' books"; but they are not on that account less interesting-indeed, we think the possibility and vraisemblance will in many cases render them additionally attractive. Readers of Mark Twain will be reminded from time to time of the adventures of Tom CHILDREN'S COLUMN. 195 Sawyer and Huck Finn; and, although the experiences of Bevis and Mark are less broadly comic, they are nevertheless not wanting in quiet humour. Messrs. Longmans have done well to bring out at a moderate price these essays—the last we shall ever have from his pen--of Richard Jefferies.* It is unnecessary to describe or criticise them: they differ in no respect, save perhaps in the wide range of subjects, from other volumes by the same author, and, like them, are reprinted from various magazines. Here, as in his former works, we have the same almost photographic representation of country scenes; the same faultlessly accurate rendering into words of country sights and sounds. He has no theory to propound, no pet ideas to be supported. "The more thoroughly the artificial system of natural history ethics is dismissed from the mind," he says, interesting wild creatures will be found, because while it is adhered to a veil is held before the eyes, and nothing useful can ever be discovered." Unlike many preachers, Mr. Jefferies follows his own advice, and it is this that gives his books their peculiar charm; many have imitated him, but none successfully. "the more Jefferies was a true Selbornian; evidences of this are of frequent occurrence, scattered up and down the pages of this and his former books. "The wild flowers go to London from all parts of the country, bushels and bushels of them. Nearly two hundred miles away, in Somerset, a friend writes that he has been obliged to put up notice-boards to stay the people from tearing up his violets and primroses, not only gathering them but making the flowery banks waste; and notice-boards have proved no safeguard. The worst is that the roots are taken, so that years will be required to repair the loss " (p. 200). One or two slips in names may be noted for correction in a later edition. "The white cotton of the plane tree" (p. 178), the poplar is evidently intended; and for "the blue comfrey to which the bees and humble-bees come in such numbers" (p. 218), borage should be substituted. Such mistakes are so rare in Mr. Jefferies' writings that they attract immediate attention. Every lover of nature should add this volume to his collection. Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co. have re-issued the illustrated edition of what is perhaps the author's best-known work, The Gamekeeper at Home, in a fiveshilling volume; and also, at a somewhat higher price, his Hodge and his Masters. This is a less known work, and deals with a somewhat wider range of subjects than Mr. Jefferies' other books. The author deals with the landowner and the agricultural labourer from a social, not from a political, standpoint; and he writes with one who has intimate knowledge of the classes he depicts. The picture he gives us is not a pleasant one, although it is not characterised by the entire absence of any lighter shades which marked that powerful but hopeless story, A Village Tragedy, but it is full of interest, and deserves to be read carefully by those who would obtain a knowledge of the agricultural outlook at the present day.. We would gladly dwell longer upon these interesting volumes did space permit, but we must be content with advising our readers to obtain them for themselves. CHILDREN'S COLUMN. Natural History Society for Children.--Miss R. C. Chichester, of Arlington Court, Barnstaple, writes:-" Having noticed among children, even in a part of England where nature is more attractive than elsewhere, great ignorance in the simplest subject of natural history, I determined to start a Natural History Society for the girls of our village school. I think some of your young readers may like to hear how it has, so far, succeeded. The Society is not yet a year old, but already the children seem to take a greater interest in the banks and hedges around them. The parish being a thinly populated one, our members are few, but, notwithstanding the distance that some have to come, scarcely any missed regularly attending the fortnightly meetings held last sunimer. Weather permit * Field and Hedgerow, being the last essays of Richard Jefferies: London, Longmans. |