NATURE NOTES 
114 
and the- Sensitive Plant. We have long thought that the Patriarch Joh has been 
seriously rivalled in the matter of patience by Messrs. Ballinger, Drysdale, 
Kearton and Enoch, but those gentlemen of this galaxy of endurance who are 
still alive must now look to their laurels. 
Yorkshire Notes and Queries. No. i, vol. i. April, 1904. Elliot Stock. 
Price 3d. 
This is certainly an excellent start. Forty quarto pages illustrated with 
several portraits and other blocks mostly of antiquarian interest, and with a 
stout wrapper, is assuredly cheap for threepence. The new venture is edited by 
Dr. Charles F. P'orshaw. This first number contains the design of the county 
memorial to be erected in York in memory of the Yorkshiremen who died in the 
South African War, 1,369 in number, with a list of their names. Our copy did 
not include the portrait of Sir Albert Rollit, stated on the cover to be the 
frontispiece. We confess we are puzzled by the editor’s claim that Yorkshire 
has given a Pope to Rome. We were under the impression that Nicholas 
Breakspear, the only English - born pontifif, was a native of Langley in 
Hertfordshire. 
The Agricultural Economist for May contains a small portrait and notice of 
our President. 
The Naturalist for May, an exceptionally strong number, contains a valuable 
paper suggesting a “ Committee of Suggestions for Research,” and a comprehen- 
sive paper on the “ Hawthorn,” by Dr. P. Q. Keegan. 
The Plant World for April contains a paper by Miss Jean Broadhurst, of the 
New Jersey Normal Schools, on “Nature Study as a Training for Life,” 
describing how a class of boys were trained to draw up an analytical key to 
familiar trees. 
Received : The American Botanist for February and March ; Nature Study 
(Manchester, New Hampshire) for March; Bird-Lore for March and April; 
The Victorian Naturalist for April ; The Irish Naturalist, Nature Study 
(Huddersfield), The Animal World, The Animals' Friend, The Humanitarian, 
and The Commonwealth for May. 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 
111. Young Rats. — The question as to which eye (if either) opens first in 
young mammals, has again arisen, and a note to this effect is to be found in the 
May issue of Knowledge, where the badger is said to open the right eye first. 
Out of a litter of eight white rats, which were born of one of my pet rats, no less 
than seven opened the right eye before the left. I think this case may be taken 
as representative of the rodents. W. R. D. 
112. Migration and Speed of Birds. — When doctors disagree what are 
ordinary mortals to do? The opinions held by Mr. Price, on the authority of 
Dixon’s “ Migration of Birds,” are in many respects in direct conflict with 
II. Gatke, the writer of “ Heligoland,” whom as an observer and authority I 
should not care to tackle. Dixon supposes young birds may be piloted by their 
parents in their migrations. Giitke says they are not. 
It is easy to explain away an animal’s actions we do not understand by ascrib- 
ing them to blind instinct ; but this explanation, which covers all difficulties, leaves 
us none the wiser, and gives us a low idea of the animal itself, making us look on 
it as an automaton and mere machine. Why not take a more lofty view and give 
it credit for possessing powers of intellect? 
Part of a bird’s education consists in its being taught how to find its way to 
other lands, and this learning, which has become a habit of the race, is thoroughly, 
and it would seem easily, acquired in the first few weeks of its existence. Shortly 
after this it migrates without further parental guidance. Of all creatures birds 
are the “ most garrulous.” Why should we conclude that the voices they use so 
much are almost meaningless, and devoid of learning or instruction ? 
