NATURE NOTES 
1 66 
from the Daily News of August 16, with reference to the depre- 
dations on the rarer Cornish ferns. We only hope the County 
Council will not meet with opposition to their bye-law on the 
part of the Home Office : — 
“ Cornwall, as most tourists in the West know, boasts of numerous beautiful 
ferns, which are almost, if not entirely, peculiar to the county, but for some 
years past these lovely growths have suffered at the hands of persons who have 
uprooted them. The ferns have been sent, I believe, in large quantities to 
London and other large centres, where they are advertised and sold. In order to 
put a stop to this wholesale deprivation of the Cornish hedges of their beauty, the 
County Council have just passed a bye-law prohibiting any person to uproot or 
destroy any ferns growing in public places, under a penalty of The bye-law, 
however, will not apply to persons collecting specimens in small quantities for 
private or scientific use.” 
Birds’-nesting. — A new member of the Society writes for 
our opinion, or that of the Society in general, on birds’-nesting, 
saying that the only boys in his district (Windermere) who are 
interested in Natural History are those who are keen egg- 
collectors, seeking specially for rarities and not always keeping 
to the rule of taking one egg only. Our correspondent suggests 
a discussion in our pages, to which we have no objection ; but 
we may, perhaps, advantageously make a few preliminary 
remarks. The Selborne Society has no rule against the collec- 
tion of eggs for purposes of study ; but would certainly deprecate 
the needless multiplication of private collections even for this 
purpose. The Society cannot, of course, countenance any 
infringement of the law of the land, which now happily secures 
almost all necessary protection to species in any danger of 
extermination. The spirit of the teaching of the Society is that 
much valuable knowledge of birds’ nests, eggs and life-history, 
can be obtained without collecting. There are, we believe, 
authorities who think that some birds are more likely to desert 
their nests when one egg is taken than if the entire “ clutch ” 
is removed ; and there are certainly some important biometrical 
questions which can only be settled by a detailed study of 
complete clutches. 
“ Nature Notes ” in School. — A village schoolmaster 
wrote in May last : “ We had quite a happy morning in school 
this morning. I read to all the children ‘ May,’ ‘ Instinct v. 
Reason ’ and “ Natural History Notes,’ the result being that 
when we came to the Conversational Lesson we had quite a 
good number of interesting stories of the children’s own observa- 
tions.” We are very pleased to hear so satisfactory an instance 
of the elasticity of the present time-table and hope our pages 
may be similarly utilised on many occasions and in many places. 
The National Trust. — With the publication of its Eleventh 
Annual Report it becomes apparent that the Council of the 
National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty 
recognise the true proportions of the work before them and that 
they are securing the trust of the nation. Owning twenty-four 
