•96 
NATURE NOTES. 
vellous volume which, at any rate in the “thirteenth edition, revised and corrected,” 
■explains “ benedicite ” as “two words” henedici te (bless you), and derives “colts- 
foot ” from “ cold’s food,” i.e. “food for colds and coughs.” He does not, however, 
appear to have heard of Mr. Swainson’s Folklore of Brills Birdsh, the only good 
book we have on the subject. He is not more fortunate in the selection of his 
ornithological authorities ; and Mr. John Burroughs’s volume of sketches entitled 
Birds and Poets appears as “Mr. John Borough’s essay, ‘ Birds and the Poets.’ ” 
Lest it should be thought that we have given too unfavourable specimens of 
Mr. Wintringhain’s style, we will give another example, opening the book 
literally at random. This is how he introduces the cuckoo: — “As so little is 
known about the mysterious cuckoo, which is indeed within the volume of 
Nature ‘ the mj'stery of mysteries,’ unparalleled even by any of the mysteries of 
the monster son of Penelope, the most terrifying Pan, the one great outrage 
Nature permits against herself, I ask the reader’s licence here to condense as 
much as possible the life-history of this bird.” And this is how he takes leaves 
of “ this interesting violator of that one great dictate which binds the world in 
harmony. Here I leave to the reader’s notice a creature which possesseth neither 
patience, kindness, generosity, humilit)’, courtesy, unselfishness, good temper, 
nor guilelessness ; a bird which does not possess a single element which is 
■essential to love ; a little monster who commits murder the very day he is given 
liberty if not sight ; and yet a bird which has not only encouraged Wordsworth 
to re-write Chaucer s lengthy poem, in which that poet makes the cuckoo and the 
nightingale maintain a fantastic discussion, but writes of it at Laverna, when his 
bearing is dulled with age ” (here follow three pages of quotation). 
Mr. Wintringham has not even the e.vcuse of being ignorant of the way in 
which a book of this kind should be done, for he refers with appreciation to Mr. 
Harting’s book on the birds of Shakespeare ; Mr. Ellacombe has done the same 
Avork equally well in another branch in his Plant-lore and Garden-craft of Shake- 
speare. It is with regret that we speak thus unfavourably of a volume which we 
■opened with the most pleasurable anticipations ; but our criticisms feebly portray 
the sense of disappointment with which we laid it down. Almost worst of all, 
there is not only no index, but not even a table of contents. 
SHORT NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
In Alexis and his Floivers — Flower Lore for Boys and Girls (Unwin, 5s.) 
^liss Beatrix P. Cresswell gives us a good deal of information about the names 
and folk-lore of plants, strung together by a slender but graceful thread of 
narrative. We are afraid that some of the legends are not genuine, and the 
spurious antique of T. M. Forster, beginning : — 
“The snowdrop in purest white arraie, 
h irst rears her head on Candlemas Day,” 
finds a place here, as in every other work of the kind, and is dignified as “ the 
old monk’s rhyme.” But this is hardly to be wondered at, and the lines them- 
selves are so pretty that we can hardly grudge them their reputation. Miss 
Cresswell’s ecclesiology is somewhat fancilul. We should like to know where 
nnd when snowdrops were substituted for “ the image of Our Lady ” on Candle- 
mas Day, or where churches were decorated with Lent lilies and yew on Ash 
"Wednesday. “Saint Patrick’s Cabb.age ” is a book-name, not a real Irish title 
for London Pride. This is a pretty little volume, and cannot fail to please. 
Messrs. Longmans have added to their “Silver Library” a new edition of 
Richard Jefferies’ Red Deer (3s. 6d.), which was first issued in 1SS4. In its 
present form it is enriched with seventeen illustrations, w’hich add to the attrac- 
tiveness of the book. The works of Jefferies need no recommendation to the 
readers of Natl’KK Notes. '1 he present difiers from his other books in being 
mainly devoted to one subject, but it of course abounds in the charming word- 
pictures which are never absent from his writings. 
