84 
NATURE NOTES 
Illinois Audubon Society, — This seems a most energetic 
society. We have received from it a card stating its aims and 
principles as follows : (i) To encourage the study of birds, 
particularly in the schools, and to disseminate literature relating 
to them. (2) To work for the betterment and enforcement of 
State and Federal laws relating to birds. (3) To discourage the 
wearing of any feathers except those of the ostrich and domestic 
fowls. (4) To discourage, in every possible way, the wanton 
destruction of wild birds and their eggs. With this was sent 
a copy of the Game and Fish Laws of Illinois; a circular from 
the Superintendent of Public Instruction, containing full sug- 
gestions, with numerous poetical recitations, for the celebration 
of Arbor and Bird Day, which has been established as a State 
holiday in Illinois since 1887 ; a skeleton Sunday-school lesson 
on birds, which we shall reproduce shortly ; a leaflet on Nature 
Study and Bird Protection ; a lecture on Birds in Horticulture ; 
a leaflet on “ How the Aigrette is procured ” ; and one entitled 
“ Save the Birds ! ” 
Wild Birds Protection Orders. — We have received from 
the Home Office an Order, dated April 2, for Cambridgeshire, 
protecting the Great Bustard and the Goldfinch throughout the 
year, and prohibiting for three years the taking of any eggs in 
Wicken Sedge Fen. We have also received an Order, dated 
April 18, for the West Riding of Yorkshire, extending close time 
from the last day of February to August 12, excluding the House 
Sparrow from protection, and protecting a large number of 
species and the eggs of a large number of species throughout 
the year. 
THE POLLINATION OF THE PRIMROSE. 
By the Editor. 
PEECH,” it has been said, though not by Talleyrand, 
“was given to man to disguise his thoughts”; and 
probably all who have ever endeavoured to express 
any new idea in written or spoken words have felt 
that, with the best intentions in the world, the speech of which 
they have the command is inadequate for their purpose. Darwin 
confessedly suffered much from such a difficulty, and again and 
again he apologises for having been led to use figurative expres- 
sions. The endeavour to generalise or emphasise by the use of 
epigrammatic forms is an obvious pitfall, as, for example, in the 
phrase, “ Nature abhors self-fertilisation." It was, I think, a pity 
to choose the terms “ legitimate ” and “ illegitimate,” for pollina- 
tion of dissimilar and similar forms of primrose. Some such terms 
as “ heterogonous ” and “ homogonous,” might have answered 
better, as not implying any notion of inferiority or superiority. 
