72 
NATURE NOTES. 
one, for it appears to recognise the very faintest and most distant 
voice of its own kind and its own people, and it is keenl}" sensible 
of the least hoarseness or harshness of voice. You may allure 
with a soft, clear voice a young robin that would fly away from 
} Ou if you spoke hoarsely or in a lower key. One speaks to them 
naturallj-, as one does to babies — indeed, birds are very like 
children in many respects. 
Sidmouth. J. M. H. 
THE ACCESS TO MOUNTAINS (SCOTLAND) BILL. 
readers will have observed with pleasure the pass- 
I li ^ resolution by the House of Commons in favour 
of Access to Mountains. i\Ir. Bryce is to be congratu- 
lated on the success that has, after much seeking, 
crowned his efforts to obtain this great public boon. A Bill has 
now been introduced by Dr. Farquharson (on behalf of INIr. 
Bryce), to secure for the public the right of access to mountains 
and moor lands in Scotland, and we give its provisions below, 
that it ma}’ be clearly seen how moderate and yet satisfactory 
these are, and how well the rights of owners are safeguarded in 
the matter of possible but extremely improbable offences by the 
tourist and scientific public. 
Whereas large tracts of uncultivated mountain and moor land in Scotland, for- 
merly pastured on by sheep and cattle, have of late years been stocked with deer, 
and attempts have been made to deprive Her Majesty's subjects of the rights which 
they have heretofore enjoyed of walking upon these and other tracts of unculti- 
vated mountain and moorland for purposes of recreation and of scientific or artistic 
study, 
And whereas doubts have arisen as to the respective rights of the owners of 
uncultivated mountain and moor lands in Scotland and of Her Majesty's subjects 
generally as regards the use of such lands and the access thereto, and it is expe- 
dient to remove such doubts, and to secure to Her Majesty’s subjects the right of 
free access to such lands for the purposes of recreation and scientific and artistic 
study, subject to proper provisions for preventing any abuse of such right. 
Be it therefore enacted, &c., 
1. This Act may be cited as the Access to Mountains (Scotland) Act, 1892, 
and shall come into operation on 1st January, 1893. 
2. .Subject to the provisions hereinafter contained, no owner or occupier of 
uninhabited mountain or moor lands in .Scotland shall be entitled to exclude any 
person from walking or being on such lands for the purposes of recreation or 
scientific or artistic study, or to molest him in so walking or being. 
3. In any action of interdict or other proceeding at the instance of any owner 
or occupier of uncultivated mountain or moor lands founded cn alleged trespass, it 
shall be a sufficient defence that the lands referred to were uncultivated mountain 
or moor lands, that the respondent entered thereon only for the purposes of recrea- 
tion or of scientific or artistic study, and that no special damage resulted from the 
alleged trespass. 
4. Nothing in this Act shall prevent any person from being excluded from any 
land from which he could, if this Act had not been passed, have been lawfully 
excluded, or shall enable any defence to be raised which cannot now be raised in 
any of the following cases : — 
(a) Where any person goes upon land in pursuit of game or other wild birds, 
or for the purpose of taking eggs, or accompanied by a dog, or carrying fire- 
arms. 
