NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
137 
Bulletin de V Association pour la Protection des Plantes^ No. 18. Geneva, 1900. 
We are very glad to receive this proof of the continued prosperity of an 
Association with which we have the most cordial sympathy. This number con- 
tains an article on yews and cedars, illustrated by an excellent photograph of one of 
the latter, and an even more interesting paper, “ Les Jardins dans les Murailles,” 
by M. Correvon, the President, with six charming studies of plants on the walls 
of the Association’s gardens. We rejoice to learn that the example of the Swiss 
Society has led to the establishment in Italy, under the initiative of Signor 
Baccelli, Minister of Education, of a kindred body named Pro Montibus, Societa 
per la protezione delle piante e per il rimboschimento. This Association has 
inaugurated an arbor day in all Italian schools, and has already two gardens, 
Daphnasa on Monte Baro, and Chanousia on the Little St. Bernard. As we 
ourselves are criticised for not alluding in our remarks in our February issue to 
the Association’s “ superbes tableaux- affiches ” in all Alpine hotels, we can only 
express our fear that it was the unfortunate relegation of these notices to the 
attics, as here admitted, that caused them to escape the notice of our correspon- 
dent, the Rev. II. E. A. Bull. The subscription to the Swiss Association is only 
2 francs a year, commutable by one payment of 40 francs. The Treasurer is 
M. E. Berlie, 61, Grand-Pre, Geneva. 
Received . — Board of Agriculture, Leajlet, No. 63. Destruction of Charlock ; 
The Essex Naturalist, vcA. xi.. Nos. 4-12, April — December, 1899 ; The Vic- 
torian Naturalist, for March and Mav, 1900; The Naturalist, The Irish 
Naturalist, Science Gossip, Knowledge, Humanity, The Animals’ Friend, Our 
Animal Friends, The Animal World and The Agricultural Economist for May 
and June, 1900. 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Long-tailed Field Mice. — It is curious that Miss Pengelly’s and her 
friend’s cats should be so fond of long-tailed field mice, while ours will not touch 
them. I do not think that length of hair affects a cat’s tastes. My cat is long- 
haired, while those in the village are mostly the rever.se. 
Market Weston, Norfolk. Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
Birds Using Old Nests. — A pair of flycatchers here are rebuilding their 
old nest for the fourth season. They arrived on May 6, but did not begin to look 
at the old nest till about the 28th, though another pair had a nest with eggs by 
that time. For some days the hen only did the repairs, but now they are both at 
work. They bring roots of grass from the edge of the lawn, and strips of bark 
from dead lime twigs, &c. The hen gets into the nest, puts down her bunch of 
material, and then scratches with her feet like a terrier. The cock is not so tame, 
so I cannot observe him. 
Blackbirds’ nests are in great demand. I cleared out an old nest which was 
piled up with leaves and fir needles, and a few days after a blackbird took it and 
laid eggs. .Another blackbird’s nest, which for a month had three deserted eggs, 
has now been taken, and there are four warm eggs with the bird sitting. What 
became of the old eggs? Another blackbird’s nest was occupied only a week 
after the first family were fledged. 
Botley. Hants. M. S. Jenkyns. 
fune 5, igoo. 
Maternal Instinct in a Flycatcher.— I was walking in a wood a short 
time ago, the day after a very severe thunderstorm, and noticed a thorn that had 
evidently been struck by lightning, one branch being torn right off, and the bark 
ripped. As I approached the tree, a spotted flycatcher flew off her nest, which 
was built in a hole just below the place where the torn-off bough had joined the 
stem, and close to the rift in the bark. The shock the night before must have 
been violent, and enough, one might think, to have caused the bird to forsake her 
nest. 
Sotterley, Wangford, Suffolk. M. E. B. 
June 15, 1900. 
