SELBORNIANA, 
95 
of one who tries to describe what he has not seen. The abundance of such books 
is the best evidence of the existence of a spirit among us for which we cannot 
be too thankful, and which Selbornians should be careful to cultivate. 
Last month we noticed the first volume of The Country Month by Month 
(Bliss, Sands and Foster : is. paper, 2s. cloth), and we are glad to find in the April 
instalment ample justification for the good opinion already expressed. Professor 
Boulger, who is doubtless responsible for the botany, and i\Irs. Owen, who presum- 
ably looks after the birds, have produced between them an excellent work, and 
one which will have more than a passing popularity. It is a relief to find writers 
dealing with the natural history of the months who refrain from the hackneyed (and 
often second-hand) quotations from Gerard and worn-out scraps of verse which 
have long seemed inseparable from books of this kind. Here we have popular 
botany brought up to date by an incorporation of the more recent observations of 
naturalists, while the wild speculations of Mr. Grant Allen and his imitators are 
conspicuously absent. A wholesome vein of .Selbornian teaching runs through 
the present volume Here and there are traces of somewhat hasty editing ; 
such a sentence as “Just after an April shower nothing looks more as if just 
washed and laid to bleach ” should not have been allowed to pass ; and it is odd 
to read of “ what is termed phrenology, the dates of the appearance of flowers, 
leaves, insects, bird migrants, &c.” Reading the book in a train going through 
Surrey meadows, a look out of the windows confirmed our former impression that 
.Shakespeare’s “ cuckoo-birds of yellow hue” were marsh-marigolds, not butter- 
cups, as our authors suggest ; and we cannot agree with those who object to 
Shakespeare’s well-known lines that “ the daisy is not a meadow flower.” The 
curious viviparous leaves of lady’s smock might have been mentioned. 
SELBORNIANA. 
Epping Forest. — Our readers may wonder that we have no reference to the 
alleged disfigurement of Epping Forest, which has occupied much space in the 
papers during the last two months or more. We are ourselves surprised that no 
•Selbornian has thought it worth while to acquaint us with the facts of the case. 
We have invited Mr. A. P. Laurie and Mr. Percy Lindley, each of whom has 
written to the press on the subject, to send us an account of what has taken 
place, but neither of these gentlemen has thought it worth while to reply to our 
letters : so that we are unable to do more than refer to the correspondence now in 
progress in other vehicles of public opinion. 
The Alligators of Louisiana and Florida. — The following is trans- 
lated from Prometheus, a German scientific journal : — “ In consequence of the 
great demand for alligator skins for boots and shoes, travelling bags, purses, &c., 
alligators have become so rare, that it has been feared in about ten years they 
will be extinct. .Since ten or twelve years, hundreds of sportsmen have done 
their worst to exterminate these creatures. When some time ago the Government 
commissioned Messrs. Smiley and Gopebriwitch to investigate the fisheries of 
the lakes and rivers of Louisiana, only a few alligators were found. Formerly 
these animals reached a length of thirteen metres, but in the last decade no 
specimens were found longer than four or five metres. Since that time the 
numbers of fish have increased considerably in those waters, but as the scarcity 
of the much prized material for leather makes itself felt in trade, alligator 
breeding-places have been established in several places. People in Florida 
have observed that since the disappearance of the alligators, the water-voles have 
increased at an alarming rate. The good qualities of the alligator are now being 
remembered, how rarely it attacked human beings, and at most caught a young 
pig now and then. In order to check the water-vole plague, the Government of 
Florida has granted a close-time for alligators. May not similar reasons have 
induced the ancient Egyptians to include the crocodile among their sacred 
animals, and to protect it by religious law ?” 
M. C. A. 
