202 
NATURE NOTES. 
Moles and Farmers. — A discussion on the subject of the mutual relations 
of moles and farmers would be of great interest and might be of much service. 
I have just returned from a farm in Yorkshire, where the professional 'mole- 
catcher came round this week for his yearly dues, which were claimed with as 
little hesitation as rent or rates. These dues are calculated on the acreage of 
each farm, and the office of mole-catcher appears to be hereditary, as this man, 
and his father before him, have spent their lives in catching moles. Now one 
knows the immense good done by a mole ; one appreciates his steady voracity 
and his valuable incapacity for fasting, and one may calculate the number of 
harmful larvae devoured by him per diem. One may feel leniently towards his 
rough attempts at surface-draining and top-dressing, and one may say that the 
slight untidiness of his earthworks is soon done away with by levelling and 
scattering them with a fork. But this does not exhaust the question. The mole- 
catcher will listen to these pleas unmoved. He will tell you that various farmers 
in the neighbourhood, after giving up mole-catching for a few years, were obliged 
in self-defence to recommence the practice ; that not only the harm done to 
growing crops by the disturbance of sprouting seeds made the moles intolerable, 
but that on grass-land the injury done to the cutting edges of mowing machines 
by the fine pebbles of the mole-heaps made the preservation of the moles too 
heavy a price to pay for the benefits gained by their insect-eating habits. How 
is the mole-catcher to be answered ? E. H. 
Migratory Birds. — Can you tell me of anyone who watches the movement 
of the migratory birds ? I am very anxious to obtain information as soon as 
possible as to which of them have been seen already this year in England. 
Harrow , Middlesex. F. A. Fulcher. 
[Perhaps some of our readers can answer Mr. Fulcher. — Ed. N. W.] 
R. M. W. — Probably Hydrachna geographic a. 
Natural History Pictures.— Would not the Selhorne Society help on 
its work if they would recommend some large pictures of English birds, insects, 
&c. , suitable for the walls of village schools and clubs, especially pictures with a 
short but accurate description of the subject ? 
A. Hussey. 
[A large number of such pictures exist, and can be obtained from any school pub- 
lisher ; we shall be glad to notice any which may be sent to us. Some of the exist- 
ing ones, however, are by no means satisfactory. One of the most important is the 
sheet containing coloured figures by Mr. W. G. Smith, illustrating the potato 
disease, with accompanying letterpress by Mr. Carruthers. This was prepared for 
the Irish Land Commissioners, and can be obtained from the Royal Agricultural 
Society, 12, Hanover Square, for a shilling. The Society for Promoting Christian 
Knowledge is issuing a series of botanical diagrams at the same price, which will 
be found useful for schools. Twelve have already been published. — Ed. At. W.] 
Matfelon. — Can any reader give the derivation of this word as applied to 
the Knapweed, or “Hardhead”? Webster makes it Welsh, and meaning good 
yellow, which may suit when the term designates a basilisk, but is quite inappro- 
priate to a troublesome weed. 
H. J. Slack. 
[Dr. Prior (Popular Names of British Plants , p. 149) tells us that this is a 
corruption of the Latin Maratrip>hyllon — fennel-leaf — a name which seems in the 
first place to have been given to the water-violet ( Hottonia ) and was subse- 
quently transferred to other plants, including the Knapweed. — Ed. N. N.] 
J. M. W. (Co. Longford) sends a bird for identification which arrived in 
such an advanced state of decomposition that it was immediately thrown away. 
We must ask our correspondents to spare us the disagreeable task of saying that 
we are unable to help them — and of smelling such birds ! 
