i6 
NATURE NOTES. 
jmd then darting after a butterfly or other winged prey, which he sometimes 
■carried to the nest and sometimes devoured himself. It was amusing to watch 
the movements of his head, and his bright eyes ever on the watch for game. There 
seemed also to be a good understanding between him and the cat ; for it was 
nothing unusual on a sunny day to see him at the top of the stick wide awake, 
while the cat slept at the bottom.” 
I But if, as we incline to believe, birds are Mr. Compton’s favourites, other 
•created things cannot complain of neglect. The flowers and butterflies, the 
reptiles and wild animals, are all sympathetically treated ; and the sketches of 
local history and local celebrities are admirably done. A word, too, must be said 
tor the beautiful illustrations, an example of which we are enabled to give. 
THE GALLINUI.e’S HAUNT. 
These are the work of the author’s son, iMr. E. T. Compton, who is evidently a 
practised hand, and to whom the book owes some of its charms. 
On one small point we venture to differ from Mr. Compton. The spelling 
“ Yellow although sanctioned by the Natural History Museum, is not 
the correct one. This was pointed our by a correspondent in Nature Notes 
for 1890, p. 28, and we are not aware that any evidence for the omission of the 
aspirate has since been adduced. 
Those who do not possess Mr. Compton’s volume had better lose no time in 
doing so. It is emphatically a book to buy as well as to read, and to none should 
it be more acceptable than to those “in populous city pent,” who may, by means 
of its pages, transport themselves in fancy to this valley 
Embosomed in the silent hills. 
Where quiet sleeps, and care is calm. 
And all the air is breathing balm. 
