2 
NATURE NOTES 
Society for the Protection of Birds, of the Audubon Societies 
in the United States, and of other kindred bodies, but it is 
gratifying to know that we can almost always rely on the 
active sympathy of the larger and more influential section of 
the public press. 
Ferns, primroses and rarer plants call for protection at 
home, and special legislation is under consideration for this 
end ; whilst in other lands the beautiful flowers of Alpine 
heights are in danger of extermination. We shall watch with 
interest in the future, as in the past, all efforts for their preserv- 
ation, whether by legislation, by the establishment of gardens 
for their cultivation on a large scale, or by the education of 
public opinion. 
The preservation of the beauty-spots of the world, and 
especially of the landscape beauties of England, is bound to 
be fraught with great difficulties as population and its means 
of transit advance. Costly rights of private ownership will 
generally be involved, and we cannot do better in such matters 
than unite our efforts to those of the National Trust. Much has 
been done to preserve the view from Richmond Hill ; but there 
are many picturesque eyots in the Thames exposed to every 
danger of deformation : the Cheddar gorge and that of the Bristol 
Avon should be rescued from the quarryman, and many other 
beautiful views have been taken from the public by enclosure, 
not to mention their frequent desecration by the litter and 
vandalism of the thoughtless “ tripper,” or the barbarous 
philistinism of the telephone company or the advertiser. 
Of our prehistoric antiquities, earthworks are constantly in 
danger of obliteration by the plough, and megalithic remains 
may be blasted as obstructions, or looked upon merely as stone- 
quarries. The careful enumeration of all such antiquities, as 
well as of historic buildings of any archaeological interest, 
whether in county histories or in distinct publications, may help 
towards their preservation, and here we may expect the co- 
operation not only of the National Trust, but also of the 
archaeological societies which exist in almost every country. 
Our interest may be sentimental, rather than scientific, and for 
that reason is not restricted to objects of any necessarily great 
antiquity. A City church exemplifying the architecture of Sir 
Christopher ^^'ren, or the birthplace of Charles Dickens or 
Richard Jefferies, no less than that of Shakespeare, may call for 
our protection. Unfortunately, too, in this matter the well- 
meant but ill-directed efforts of the “restorer” are sometimes 
almost more fatal than those of the deliberate destroyer, and 
demand, therefore, constant watchfulness on the part of our 
local representatives. 
In these and in all our work, especially in the observation 
and record of periodic or exceptional natural phenomena, of the 
occurrence of rare migratory or other animals, and of the habits 
of animals and plants, whether rare or otherwise, we need the 
