POEMS AND ORCHARD SONGS. 
231 
rise far far above everything else, their trunks covered with hare’s 
foot ferns, and trails of scarlet bignonia, or as it is there called, 
“trumpet vine.” The most conspicuous trees, however, are 
the magnolias, their glossy green leaves and beautiful blossoms 
marking them at a great distance. They flower with such pro- 
fusion that the perfume becomes too powerful to be pleasant, 
even in the open air. Their branches are loaded with epiphytes, 
orchids, air-plants, the never-ending Spanish moss, and rope- 
like lianas swaying backwards and forwards in the air. There 
is a curious nest that seems very common in all the hammocks, 
yet no one knows what bird builds it, and nothing seems to have 
ever been found in any of them. We found a good disused one 
to-day, suspended in a trail of Tillandsia, which I kept to take 
back to England. It is the size of a big orange, woven entirely 
of palmettoe fibres, nearly round, and with two entrance holes, 
side by side, towards the front, which holes are inclined to pro- 
trude like the neck of a bottle. 
The red-throated humming birds are now fairly common, but 
their nests are almost impossible to find. G.’s house is covered 
with bignonia, wax plant, scarlet honeysuckle and passion 
flower, and there the little birds are seen to perfection, their 
hum betraying their whereabouts at once. Last week G. caught 
one in the butterfly net for us to see. I held it in my hand — 
such a tiny thing — its colours exquisite. We only kept it a 
moment, and then let it fly again ; and this afternoon I hear it 
humming round the gardenia bushes and oleanders in front of 
the house. 
W. M. E. Fowler. 
POEMS AND ORCHARD SONGS.- 
Those who think that the outside of a book should show some accordance with 
its contents will find their views carried out in these volumes. Whether this is 
intentional we do not know : but the thoughtful, serious, and sometimes ascetic 
poems of Mr. Benson are aptly coated in light grey paper boards, and lettered in 
sober black ; Mr. Norman Gale’s lighter verses appear in a vesture of apple 
green, with an indication of his favourite cherries about the title ; and Mr. F. B. 
Doveton’s commonplace binding only too accurately foreshadows what is to be 
found within its covers. 
Neither Mr. Benson nor Mr. Norman Gale are strangers to the readers of 
Nature Notes. We were fortunate enough to obtain, by the kindness of the 
author, a copy of the privately printed volume containing, among other good 
* Poems, by Arthur Christopher Benson. (London : Elkin Mathews and 
John Lane. Fcap 8vo, pp. 192, 5s. net.) 
Orchard Songs, by Norman Gale. (Same publishers, fcap 8vo, pp. 112, 5s. 
net.) 
Songs Grave and Gay, by F. B. Doveton. (London : Horace Cox, 8vo, pp. 
267.) 
