36 
NATURE NOTES. 
similar verdict, and those who have not yet read it have a pleasure to come. In 
the form of a right good children’s story, the author has given us a series of legends 
as graphic as any of those immortalised by Grimm, and indeed resembling them 
in their strength of incident ; while the mode of narration in places reminds us 
pleasantly of Kingsley’s delightful Water Babies. The legends have a special local 
interest, but are none the less attractive to the general reader. How Jack came 
by his names, and his various magical possessions ; how he mastered the Woeful 
Worm and the Eldritch Erne, overcame the Church-Grim Goat, and restored its 
head to the Headless Hart, our young readers must learn from Dr. Atkinson’s own 
pages ; and in so learning they will gather no small knowledge of legend and 
folk-lore. 
The Religious Tract Society sends us two tales of somewhat original kind, by 
Darley Dale, the first of which (price is. 6d.)is called The Great Auk' s Eggs ; the 
second (price 2s. 6d.), The Glory of the Sea — the beautiful cone-shell known as 
Conus Gloria-maris. It is not always easy to convey scientific information in the 
form of a story, and at the same time to keep up the interest of the ordinary 
reader, but this seems to have been done in both of these tales, which, moreover, 
are adorned with excellent illustrations. These volumes will prove welcome 
additions to the school library. 
SELBORNIANA. 
Tlie Sparrow. — We are almost overwhelmed with communications about the 
■sparrow, pro and con. Whether he is or is not driving out of the land birds more 
charming than himself is a matter upon which we do not editorially venture an 
opinion. What concerns us more nearly is the danger that he will drive communi- 
cations other than those relating to himself out of our pages, and this we are bound 
to prevent. The sparrow has occupied so much space in our two last numbers 
that we feel bound to exclude him from this ; next month, however, we propose 
to publish a selection from the numerous communications we have received about 
him. 
Elephants and Ivory. —Mr. J. B. Nicholson sends us the following 
extract from Schweinfurth’s Heart of Africa, vol. i., p. 207 ; — “The destruction is 
carried on by wholesale. Thousands of huntsmen and drivers are gathered 
together from far and wide by means of signals sounded on the huge wooden 
drums. Everyone w ho is capable of bearing arms at all is converted into a hunts- 
man ; just as everyone becomes a soldier when national need demands. No 
resource is left for e.scape for the poor brute.s. Driven by the flames into masses, 
they huddle together, young and old ; they cover their bodies with grass, on w hich 
they pump water from their trunks as long as they can, but all in vain. They are 
ultimately either suffocated by clouds of smoke, or overpowered by the heat, and 
at last, and ere long, they succumb to the cruel fate that has been designed for 
them by ungrateful man. The coup-de-gr&ce may now and then be given them by 
the blow of .some ready lance, but, too often, as may be seen by the tusks that are 
bought, the miserable beasts must have perished in the agonies of a death by tire. 
A war of annihilation is this, in which neither young nor old, neither female nor 
male is spared, and in its indiscriminate slaughter compels us to ask and answer 
the question ‘ Cui bono ' ’ No reply seems possible but what is given by our 
billiard I'alls, our pianoforte keys, our combs and fans, and other unimportant 
articles of this kind. No wonder, therefore, if this noble creature, whose services 
might be so invaluable to man, should even, perhaps during our own generation, 
become as extinct as the ure-ox, the .sea-cow, or the dodo.” 
Water for Birds.— More than once, a plea for placing pans of water about 
our gardens has been urged in Nature Noi es. It may be interesting to .some 
to know' how very much this boon is appreciated by our birds here. We have 
large earthenware .saucers which we keep filled with water in view of our windows, 
and they are in constant use Loth for drinking and washing by all sorts and condi- 
tions of birds — robins and thrushes seeming the most cleanly of all. While I am 
writing this, one of the latter has been having a good tubbing, and we have often 
