26 
NATURE NOTES 
though the Kingfisher may be gaudy, what a nest he makes, 
and how you can smell it ! Decayed fish-bones and disgorged 
pellets — puh ! 
The Bullfinch also, either piping amongst the outskirts of 
our woods here, or amongst the pines, is not at all an uncommon 
visitor. 
If you want to hear the Chaffinches sing, go you into the pine 
woods early one spring morning, and you will be rewarded by 
hearing them everywhere. They are gay little chaps, and good- 
looking into the bargain. They frequently sing here in the 
seclusion of the pines in mid-winter. 
We will conclude with our rare and powerful finch, the 
Hawfinch. He inhabits the orchards and woods here, and 
breeds with us, though once considered rare in this country. I 
have seen many here. Hawfinches have no song. They use 
their bill in splitting the kernels of cherries, &c., which they 
do quite easily, and create great damage in an orchard, but 
they are magnificent birds. 
Finally, when you are out of the smoke and grime of our 
city and see perhaps a good-looking Sparrow, it may be a 
different species from our black, begrimed House-Sparrow — 
probably the Tree-Sparrow; but they are not over numerous. 
Tree-Sparrows may be confused with the ordinary Sparrow, but 
the difference is very great, the Tree-Sparrow being a much 
handsomer bird, and having quite a musical note in the spring. 
So in a year perhaps, by careful observation, you may come 
across all the species named in my short article ; but many 
of the birds enumerated have only been seen by myself once 
or twice during the whole of ten years’ careful observation, and 
perhaps may never come to these parts again. The total 
number seen of these smaller birds is seventy-seven, thirty- 
three of which may be considered true migrants to our shores, 
and others amongst them, besides, may have been migratory 
birds ; but our list goes to show how extensive bird-life is in 
this country, and quite near London. 
Ernest Edgar Howe. 
SELBORNIANA. 
Nature Study for Rural Schools. — In the report of the 
Departmental Committee appointed by the Board of Agriculture 
and Fisheries, to enquire into the subject of small holdings in 
great Britain, it is recommended that in all rural and semi-rural 
elementary schools. Nature study and manual work (both based 
on rural needs) should after the “three R’s” be made compul- 
sory subjects of the curriculum, and that the system of school 
gardens should be encouraged as much as possible and on 
practical lines. 
