8 
NATURE NOTES. 
ment. The geographical position of the Fields, it may be added,, 
furnishes a good reason for enlisting the help of the Kent County 
Council as well. 
If ever there was a part of the suburbs where a large public 
park is needed, this is one. It is no exaggeration to say that the- 
inhabitants of Peckham, Nunhead, Brockley, and Lewisham are 
far worse olf in this respect than those who live round Regent’s 
or Hyde Park. Time passes quickly, and the builders will not 
wait. But if the whole body of the Selborne Society in London 
rally to the support of those who are so earnestly desiring and 
endeavouring to place the Fields out of the grasp of those who 
would speedily destroy their beauty, with confident hope we may 
look forward to the time when their freshness and verdure shall 
give pleasure to all who visit them — a pleasure intensified by the 
satisfaction of knowing that, by the laws of the land, the Hilly 
Fields of Brockle}- will remain green for ever. 
Archibald Clarke. 
THE SPARROW— FOR AND AGAINST. 
[As we full}" expected, l\Ir. Aubrey Edwards’s indictment has 
brought “ Philip Sparrow’s ” friends to the rescue. Here are 
three warm defenders — types of others ; and here also is a word 
or two on the other side. Looking to the future, we must re- 
mind our friends on both sides that our space is limited, and 
would beg of them not to forget that “ brevity is the soul of 
wit.” — Ed., N. A'^.] 
I verily believe I have never seen so man}- incorrect state- 
ments — worse than incorrect — crowded into the same space 
as has been effected b}’ your correspondent, Mr. A. Edwards. 
I dare not trust myself to deal with them as they deserve, but 
must ask you to let me give the necessary contradiction to some 
of them from the evidence taken before the “ Birds’ Protection 
Committee ” of the House of Commons. I shall content myself — 
though I shall be verj- far from being contented — with the same 
space Mr. Edwards has taken up, and if he adds anj’ more errors 
to his present ones, I shall wish to claim the right of repl}’ on 
behalf of my humble client, as he cannot speak for himself. 
/ call him a handsome bird ; the cock, when in full plumage,, 
in the country, a very handsome bird. A jaundiced e) e may 
look on him in a perverted and distorted light if it pleases. 
Only, first, one word of my own as to the ridiculous notion 
of his driving other birds away. I have never in all my life 
known him do so. 
I have had for many years a good variety of birds here, though 
not near so many as there used to be, since the tremendous frost, 
ten degrees below zero, some years back, which killed the old hy 
