SELBORNIANA 
63 
which the little marauders extract the winged seed. The long, 
sweet whistle of the curlew, the cry of the plover, belong to the 
wild and lonely charm of the moorland, and, as in the days of 
the moss-troopers, the croak of the corby still sounds ominously 
over these wastes. Among the pines the harsh note of the jay 
breaks in on the cooing of the wood-pigeon, and twilight brings 
eerier music as the owl sails past and the nightjar dashes by. 
But on this one summer's day, 'twere vain to attempt to learn 
what are the many lesser birds that flit through the woodland, 
or the rarer waterfowl that in winter stray up here from the 
tidal river. 
Turning homeward by another route we reach, ere long, the 
part of the moss cut for fuel. The ground is lowered eight or 
nine feet, and set with little stacks of drying peats. The exposed 
vertical section shows no embedded trees, but an old canoe was 
once discovered and promptly dried and used for “ kindling” by 
the finder. From the peatfield and back through the fir wood 
we follow the cart track, its surface overgrown with green 
velvety moss embroidered with stars of yellow tormentil, and 
he delicate trefoil leaves of the wood-sorrel. On either hand 
the broad shield fern grows in wonderful lu.xuriance, one isolated 
‘‘ shuttlecock ” showing eleven great fronds, some of them four 
feet in length, scarcely recognisable as the same plant, which, 
outside, barely peeps through the heather. A narrow path now 
skirts the peaty ditch at the edge of the wood. In the brown 
water grows the bur reed, dear to designers, with its spiked 
green balls and ribbon like leaves, while on the banks great 
plants of hard fern with their tall, narrow central spore-bearing 
spikes and broad shining barren fronds, suggest a kinship with 
forms in tropical regions. And now we again reluctantly set foot 
on the prosaic Macadamised road, glad to think that absence of 
fall in the land prevents in this case any attempt at “ reclaim- 
ing ” one of Nature’s flower-gardens, and that it will continue 
in the future as it has been in the past, a sanctuary for bird, 
beast, and the rarer plants of the moorland. 
SELBORNIANA. 
The Selborne Society. — The Annual Soiree will be held 
on Friday, April 26, in the theatre and halls of the Civil Service 
Commission (Old London University), Burlington Gardens, by 
kind permission of the First Commissioner of His Majesty’s 
Works. The Rt. Hon. Lord Avebury will deliver an address. 
The Council has decided to make a small charge for all 
tickets, which must be obtained from the head offices of the 
Selborne Society, 20, Hanover Square, London, W. (See 
page 79 of this number.) 
