52 
NATURE NOTES. 
THE TENDER HEART.* 
She crazed upon the burnished brace 
Of plump, ruffed grouse he showed with pride ; 
Angelic grief was in her face, — 
“ How could you do it, dear ? ” she sighed ; 
“ The poor, pathetic, moveless wings — 
The songs all hushed — O cruel shame ! ” 
Said he, “ The partridge never sings : ” 
Said she, “ The sin is all the same. 
“ You men are savage through and through ! 
A boy is always bringing in 
Some strings of birds’ eggs, white or blue. 
Or butterfly upon a pin ; 
The angle-worm in anguish dies. 
Impaled, the pretty trout to tease ” — 
“ My own, I fish for trout with flies.” 
“ Don’t wander from the question, please.” 
She quoted Burns’s ‘ Wounded Hare,’ 
And certain burning lines of Blake's, 
And Ruskin on the fowls of air. 
And Coleridge on the water-snakes ; 
At Emerson’s ‘Forbearance’ he 
Began to feel his will benumbed. 
At Browning’s ‘ Donald ’ utterly 
His soul surrendered and succumbed. 
“ O gentlest of all gentle girls,” 
He thought, “ beneath the blessed sun ! ” 
He saw her lashes hung with pearls, 
And swore to give away his gun. 
She smiled to find her point was gained, 
And went, with happy parting words, 
(He subsequently ascertained) 
To trim her hat with humming-birds. 
[* We found these lines among the MSS. received from Mrs. Myles ; if they 
flave been printed elsewhere, we apologise for their reproduction without acknow- 
ledgment. — E d. W.A’.] 
A BOOK FOR NATURE LOVERS. 
Animal Sketches, by C. Lloyd Morgan, F. G.S. Illustrated by W. Monk- 
house Rowe. London: E. Arnold. 8vo, pp. 312. Price 7s. 6d. 
Here is one of those books of which modern readers have so many that they 
perhaps hardly appreciate them at their proper value. In bygone days, the pub- 
lication of The Natural History of Selborne marked an epoch, and the book itself 
became, and remains, a classic. Atkinson’s Moorland Parish, e.vcellent as it is, 
and greatly in advance of White’s work (as is only natural), is never likely 
to attain the position which has been conceded to the earlier work — a position, 
indeed, which has gained for it a place among Sir John Lubbock’s “Hundred 
Best Books.” Such books as Mr. Morgan’s are now happily so abundant that they 
