144 
NATURE NOTES 
propose restricting the term “ game birds ” to the Anatidcc, 
Rallida, Limicola and Gallino', other species commonly hunted in 
the United States requiring protection. The report deals with 
many topics of the greatest interest, such as the tardily adopted 
measures for the prevention of the extermination of “ plume 
birds” in Florida and Texas, permits for scientific collecting, 
laws as to cage birds, and the laws in Connecticut, Minnesota 
and Wisconsin as to Bird and Arbor Days. Of these latter 
the following Act of 1899 in Connecticut is the most drastic : — 
“ The governor shall annually in the spring designate, by official 
proclamation, an arbor and bird day, to be observed in the 
schools.” 
BIRDS OF AN ENGLISH GROUSE MOOR. 
fF the grouse moors of England are fewer and less ex- 
tensive than those of Scotland, they yet have their 
own charm ; and to remember one such moor in 
Western England is to remember innumerable 
delights — the beauty of what Wordsworth has so happily 
called a wide “ sky-prospect ” — the beauty of distant hills 
and near stretches of heather, and, not the least joy, the many 
birds strange to lowland eyes, which, with the grouse, make 
their home among these wild uplands. 
The lane that leads to this moor lacks in August much which 
made it beautiful in May — lacks the brilliant blue of the speed- 
well, the pink of the wild geranium, the vivid yellow of broom 
blossoms, the masses of sweet white birdcherry in the hedges, 
and all the inexpressible joyfulness of spring gauds. But even 
August has its flowers, and perhaps no flower could make such 
a gorgeous effect as do the red berries of the August rowan tree, 
clustering thickly among the yet brilliant green of the fern-like 
leaves, when seen against the cloudless blue of an August sky. 
Before reaching the gate which opens on the unenclosed 
moor, the lane dips down to the bed of a little river, fed by 
mountain streams, and owing much of its wild beauty to the 
nearness of the mountain. The stream is low now, for the 
summer has been a dry one, and the great boulders in the 
shallow water, where the minnows play, look white, almost 
dazzling, in the fierce sunlight. If we are quiet we may chance 
to see a water ousel sitting on a slab of stone, as it does in 
Bewick’s inimitable vignette, and curtseying ceaselessly with a 
drooping movement of its wings. Birds who haunt running 
water are the most restless of a restless race. We must not 
press the theory too far when we remember the immovable 
heron, but ousels, wagtails, sandpipers — in all of these there is 
an inability to be still, which they must learn from the water on 
whose banks they live. We do not see kingfishers here ; the 
