34 
NATURE NOTES. 
•of some insect-eating bird, split in two, and each half stuck aloft on thin skewers, 
the separated tail in the middle, the wings on either side, while a tuft of the buff 
plumes of the Squacco heron complete the monstrosity. If, as the old novelist, 
Richardson, said, ‘ we do but hang out a sign in our dress what we have within 
in the shop of our minds,’ the wearer of such a decoration as this must have 
strange notions of beauty and congruity.” 
\\ e wish all success to the Society for the Protection of Birds, and we claim 
from it a like sympathy for the Selborne Society. 
SELBORNIANA. 
Flowers of Avon at Aldworth. — Tennyson’s love of flowers, and of 
old-fashioned ones more especially, reminds me of an incident which, like the 
volume of Shakespeare grasped by him on his death-bed, associates him tenderly 
with his great predecessor. Staying at Stratford-on-Avon some few years ago, 
I naturally visited Anne Hathaway’s cottage and garden. Its occupant at that 
time was a woman, somewhat advanced in years, who claimed to have in her 
veins Hathaway blood. As I went there more than once, a certain intimacy 
sprang up between us, and when I finally said good-bye to her she cut some 
sprigs of lavender that was not yet in flower, for it was Midsummer, as a parting 
gift, saying with a jingle that reminded one of the country couplets Shakespeare 
did not disdain to introduce into his dramas — 
“ Plant it in May, 
’Twill grow both night and day.” 
It was not May, but June, and I was not homeward bound for another week. 
But as I journeyed on through Warwickshire I kept the cuttings moist by placing 
them in my sponge-bag, and struck them without difficulty on reaching home, 
and what lavender I now have is descended from these few small cuttings. 
I told Tennyson the story, asking if he would like to have some of the same 
stock whose former flowers had sweetened the sheets of Shakespeare and Anne 
Hathaway. The idea pleased him, and Shakespeare’s and Anne Hathaway’s 
lavender is growing at Aldworth to-day. — Alfred Austin, in National Review for 
X)eceinber. 
A Battue of Sea Birds. — The enclosed cutting is from a recent Standard. 
Cannot the Selborne Society do something at once to stop this disgraceful whole- 
sale destruction of sea birds ? 
Annie Jones. 
“ During the past fortnight of severe frost a vast number of sea fowl have 
been seen in Morecambe Bay. The fishermen have fixed two large guns on 
Chapel Island, and a great number of birds have been shot, and sent for sale to 
the inland towns of Lancashire. At a single shot from one of the guns 120 birds 
were brought down.” 
A Motto. — Here is a perfect motto for juvenile branches of the Selborne 
Society. I take it from a book entitled Jesus the Carpenter of Nazareth. 
“ But what is thy duty? Plurt no living thing, spoil no beautiful thing, say 
no unkind thing ; forgive, be kind, be loving, be truthful, be joyful, and do not 
.think thyself very good, but be good.” 
W. Whit WELL. 
Kew Ait. — We are glad to see that the condition of Kew Ait is again 
attracting attention. In our volume for 1890, p. 130, will be found a forcible 
article on its impending destruction ; and during the last two years its condition has 
^rown worse. The following paragraph appeared in the Star of January 14th : — 
“Apparently through neglect and want of protection the island on the 
Thames at Kew, known as Brentford Eyot, is being gradually washed away 
by the action of the tide. The matter has been brought to the attention of the 
authorities by various local bodies and societies interested in the preservation of 
