NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
213 
“ Flowers of ihe Field” Johns says it has “increased to such an extent as to 
impede the navigation of some of our canals.” In Narford Fake it held 
universal sway for a long time, but of late has been dying out. At last the 
whole of it is dead, leaving nothing in the shape of vegetable growth in its place. 
The mud in the lake is s >ur and disagreeable. The wild fowl have gone, as it 
would appear from want of suiiable feeding ground ; while the fish have greatly 
deteriorated and decreased. It looks as if this weed monopolises water that 
suits it : that it kills off other aquatic plants with which it comes into competition ; 
and that after a time the mud at the bottom of the water becomes so surfeited by 
it as to refuse to support it any longer, in spite of the water continually changing, 
as at Narford. 
The.se seem to be the causes of the death of the American weed, and of the 
disappearance of wild fowl from Narford Lake. 
South-acre, Siuaffham. Ft)MUND Thos. DAUltENY. 
[It is amusing that there should be the Oxford tradition as to Elodea 
canadensis alias Anacharis alsinastrum, to which Mr. Daubeny alludes, since 
at Cambridge the same story related of the late Professor Habington gave the 
plant the nick-name of Babingtonia pcstifeia. The dying-out of this ditvcious 
species, which has of late years been often remarked upon, raises an interesting 
biological (|uesiion — En. 
568. Bird Notes from Highg^ate. — I think it may probably interest 
readers of Naturk Notes and bird lovers generally to know that a pair of 
brown owls have nested and reared three youngsters in a tree at the bottom of my 
garden. I think this rather remarkable, as we are barely two minutes from the 
railway station and less than that from the high road, where electric trams run 
every few minutes, and there is always a lot of ordinary traffic from very early 
morning to quite late at night. We have had the birds flying about the garden 
every evening for the last four months, sometimes quite an hour before dusk. Two 
or three years since it was quite the exception to hear these birds ; but now 
there seems to be quite a number of them in the immediate neighbourhood, and 
it has been possible to see or hear them any evening this past summer, especially 
in Hampstead Lane or on the West Hill. 
We have also had, these last two months, a pair of jays visit us. They come 
quite close to the house, generally in the early morning, and do not seem at all 
shy. I notice the starlings resent their presence, as each time I have seen the jays 
they have had one or two starlings flutteiing and swearing at them. I am sorry 
to say a pair of carrion crows have also taken up their residence near by and have 
this year reared their brood. This augurs ill for the successful nesting of the 
smaller birds in the future, as crows are such terrible robbers of eggs and squabs. 
I am afraid these marauders found out the blackcap’s nest which was also built 
at the end of the garden. I had the pleasure of seeing the cock bird every day 
this last spring, generally on the branch of a May’ tree, and listened with delight 
to his lovely warble ; but, unfortunately, I never saw anything of his youngsters 
nor those of his neighbour, a whitethroat, which I hoped would be able to rear 
his little family in safety. The birds in suburban gardens have a terrible job to 
get safely through with their family troubles. We are overrun with cats which 
are under no control ; and being so near the roads it is impossible to keep the 
boys from the nests. I have been amused in the early morning to watch this 
pair of crows stripping a cherry tree close by. It was quite funny to watch such 
heavy, ungainly birds trying to balance themselves on the end of a thin bough, 
endeavouring to get purchase enough to pull the half-ripe cherries off. (It is 
needless to say it was not my cherry tree they were robbing. It would 
probably have been quite as interesting to me if it had been, but possibly hardly 
so amusing). I knew these birds were fairly omnivorous, but till now had not 
included stolen half-ripe cherries in their dietary. Of course the local starlings 
and thrushes will get the blame for that ! 
I have seen the kestrel twice this year in Flighgate, once early one morning in 
Southwood Lane just near the High Street. It was flying swiftly down the road 
about six or seven yards from the ground, and hovered lor two or three seconds 
over the middle of the road within five yards of me, and then, with a graceful 
curve, slowly sailed over the roofs of the adjoining houses. 
