NOTES AND QUERIES. 351 



to wound ; no hunter would shoot at a non-vital part, or wish to spoil the 

 best part of the beast. Another, and an interesting point to me, is to be 

 found in the line : — 



"First for his weeping into the needless stream." 



Dyce, in his comment upon this line, says, " Here Pope altered into to in, 



rightly perhaps .... when Mr. Collier, objecting to the alteration, 



remarked the stag did not weep in, but into, the needless stream, he forgot 



the line — 



" ' But first I'll turn yond fellow in his grave.' " 



On such subjects the commentators ought to study natural history. The 

 weeping deer then is not weeping into the stream, as if to augment it * 

 needlessly, but in distress of body is dropping those tears while standing in 

 the stream, which is needless to him — i. e. failing in his need to give him 

 the protection required. Then, once more, — 



" Being alone 

 Left and abandoned of his velvet friends." 



Here commentators alter friends into friend. Caldecott, Knight, and 

 Collier do so, in consequence of Whittier's observation " that the singular 

 is often used for the plural with a sense more abstracted and therefore more 

 poetical." Thus we see Natural History is not thought of. " Friends " is 

 certainly the true reading, for the herd had swept by. — C. J. Wilding 

 (Arley Vicarage, Bewdley). 



BIRDS. 



Protective Colour of Birds' Eggs. — Under this title there is an 

 interesting note by Mr. Ellison (p. 310). It is a curious fact, which I have 

 noticed from time to time, that birds which lay conspicuous eggs (like the 

 Song Thrush, Hedgesparrow, or Bullfinch) are much closer sitters than 

 many whose eggs are dull in colouring. Becently a Bullfinch in my outside 

 aviary built a nest and laid eggs in a small yew tree. When the bird was 

 sitting it was extremely difficult to distinguish the nest, but as soon as 

 the bird went off to feed the blue eggs made it quite a conspicuous object. 

 Apropos of the subject of protective colouring, I can give a hint to owners 

 of insectivorous birds : white butterflies are at present very abundant, and 

 they always go to rest after sundown on white flowers or plants with white 

 or yellowish leaves. I go round every evening and easily pick off from 

 fifteen to twenty of these butterflies from the flowers of white penstemons, 



=:< u 



Augmenting it." This may refer to his weeping as passing on into 

 the stream ; and, grammatically, on this point much seems against me, but 

 I am writing from what I have seen and know. 



