SELBORNIANA. 
37 
“ How sweet to me when round the cottage eaves 
Are heard thy twitterings in the mornings clear, 
When all around are stirrings in the leaves 
And distant notes of many birds I hear. 
But thou art nearest, and thy song is sweet : 
Image of faith and constancy complete ; 
Thou, with thy mate, returnest year by year. 
With grateful message both to see and hear.” 
Dr. Japp has many more like this in his Dramatic Sketches, &^c. (Chatto), 
and we are sorry not to find space for the verses on “Sparrows Wintering.” 
But the printer is inexorable ! 
Mr. Richards’s Lyrics and Elegiacs (Bell & Sons) are so like his Lyrical 
Studies (see Nature Notes, 1893, p. 89) that they almost seem continuations of 
the earlier work. The robin, blackbird, ringdove, and sandpiper, and the 
thistle, the earliest snowdrop, and the latest primrose, are among his subjects ; 
and we find ourselves much in sympathy with “A Naturalist’s Grievance,” 
against the builder and the defacer of our woodland scenes. 
Mr. Elliot Stock sends us The Book of the Heavenly Birthdays, by our valued 
correspondent “E. V. B.” — a volume so beautifully printed, so quaintly illustrated, 
and so daintily clothed as to demand a “gilt top,” the absence of which is its 
only imperfection. The contents are an admirably chosen selection of beautiful 
and tender verses about death— death as a friend, or as the “sister” whom the 
Saint of Assisi was wont to greet ; and the “ heavenly birthdays ” are to remind 
us of those who, as Rossetti has it, “ are just born, being dead.” It is a sweet 
and solemn, but not in the least a sad, book ; and we shall be surprised if it do 
not prove a comfort to many, as it assuredly will be a delight to others. 
SELBORNIANA. 
Birds at a Window. — In accordance with Mr. G. T. Rope’s suggestion 
(p. l), I send a list of birds which come to be fed at our window. It is not a 
long or a varied list, but when I explain that the window in question is one at the 
back of a row of houses on the outskirts of the town, enclosed by walls on two 
sides, with a steep strip of garden on the third side, and possibilities of cats 
innumerable, it will be seen that the conditions are not the most favourable for 
attracting many birds, especially timid ones. Beyond the gardens it is fairly 
open, villas and their gardens being the chief features. By placing a shelf of 
wood across the window box, and fixing a twdggy branch in a flower pot, very 
fair accommodation is obtained. On the twigs are hung half-picked bones and 
lumps of fat ; to these, two great tits, three tom tits, and three cole tits pay con- 
stant attention. Very seldom more than two come at once ; the others keep 
watch upon a cotoneaster on one of the walks, which serves as a convenient 
shelter in times of alarm, as well as a coign of vantage. The crumbs on the board 
quickly disappear under the combined efforts of two young cock chaffinches, a 
robin, a thrush, a hen blackbird, a host of sparrows, and occasionally a starling or 
two. It is curious that the blackbirds and thrushes, which often are in the 
garden, are so shy of coming to the window. A greenfinch and a W'ren have 
come to the cotoneaster, but never further. Two years ago a nuthatch came to 
this same window several times, but I have never seen him since. Do tits con- 
sume all they carry away, or do they hide some of it? 
Bath. Catherine Peuder. 
A Plea for Sea-Gulls (p. 16). — Every one who is an observer of bird life 
in Northumberland must have been grieved to see the reckless destruction and 
slaughter of gulls and terns carried on at St. Mary’s Island, on the north-east 
coast. This is reached at low tide by a stretch of sand lying betw'een the banks 
on the shore and the island, which is, perhaps, about 150 yards long from the 
