2I6 
NATURE NOTES. 
but a defect they are hatched with), and if it cannot be cured the little thing 
should be destroyed. Evidently the one in question was by some mistake 
allowed to live. I cannot see the objection to birds as pets. I consider they 
have a very humanizing effect upon the character, and where the love of them 
exists, it should be encouraged and fostered. It calls forth our powers of obser- 
vation, and all the better side of our nature. Not long since I was talking to a 
canary fancier, a man in a humble station of life, who had bred some beautiful 
specimens, and was justly proud of them. He told me a year or two previously 
he had lost all his birds by an epidemic common amongst canaries ; but he added, 
“ My friends clubbed together and started me again.” They were all working 
men, in a busy crowded city ; and I could not help being struck with the un- 
selfish kindly feeling their mutual hobby had called forth. Their chief pleasure 
in their leisure hours appeared to be the tending and caring for these birds. How 
much better this than frequenting the public house 1 With some few exceptions, 
I consider birds make charming pets, and I shall ever believe they were given to 
us by God for our pleasure and our study. 
JuLi.\ Brinkley. 
The Hilly Fields, Brockley. — Mr. Walter Derham writes to the 
Standard that “the protracted negotiations for the purchase of the forty-five acres 
which form this open space — ‘ the finest site for a park round London ’ — have 
been brought to a successful termination, and that the London County Council 
has completed the contracts for the purchase of forty-one acres. So soon as the 
two thousand eight hundred pounds still needed to make up the total purchase 
money of forty-three thousand pounds has been provided, the Council will proceed 
with the purchase of the remaining four acres, the terms fur the acquisition of 
which have long since been settled.” 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Extraordinary Behaviour of Cats (p. 199).— I can parallel the case 
cited by one that has lately come under my own observation, concerning the 
transmission of impressions of cats to their offspring. A cat recently kittened 
upon our premises, and brought up two kittens. During this time there arose a 
remarkable and apparently causeless enmity between herself and an old tom cat, 
already domiciled in the family. Any casual meeting between them was signal- 
ised by growlings and scoldings of the most violent description, and of these the 
kittens were nearly always interested spectators. The mother’s aversion appears 
fully inherited by them, and they never by chance meet the other cat without 
setting up their little backs and spitting at him, though so far as I know he has 
never injured them personally, and indeed appears usually to shun the sight of 
them. This seems to me the more remarkable, as in all other respects the 
kittens are absolutely fearless, regarding all human beings as friends, and per- 
fectly unconscious of danger to themselves from any sort of cause. For this 
reason I am disposed to think that animals — at least, cats — are perfectly capable 
of communicating early lessons of this kind to their offspring, and that such 
impressions cannot be accounted for by any mere theory of heredity, since one of 
the kittens at least has a very decided character of her own, quite distinct in 
many respects from that of her mother, or even from her brother of the same 
litter. 
M. A. Biggs. 
English Wild Flowers in Japan.— The perusal of the interesting 
account of the introduction of English wild flowers into New Zealand (p. 183), 
reminds me of a similar case to which my attention was called while travelling in 
Japan. When railways were first introduced into that country, it was found 
advantageous to sow grass-seed imported from England upon the embankments, 
with the view of binding together the loose soil which would otherwise be washed 
away during the heavy rains which prevail in Japan. Owing to the general 
