214 
NATURE NOTES. 
objects, or to coil himself around them until he has broken the envelope of the 
eggs he contains ” (p. 47). J. G. 
Edible and Poisonous Mushrooms, by M. C. Cooke, M.A., LL.D. (Society 
for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London, 1894, pp. viii., 126, 18 coloured 
plates, 8vo. Price 3s. 6d.). A really simple and useful little book on this subject 
is much needed, in spite of the abundant popular literature that has been produced 
with the purpose of supplying it. The best book (Mr. Worthington Smith’s 
Mushrooms and Toadstools, with two large sheets of figures) is, we understand, out 
of print, and Dr. M. C. Cooke’s recent work on British Edible Fitn^i has many 
unsatisfactory features. This one has the advantages of dealing at a low price 
with both edible and poisonous forms, and of greater simplicity of treatment. It 
will suit the beginner who desires to be able to recognise a few forms, and will 
probably serve to launch him on the troubles of the study of fungi. The so-called 
English names, embracing such eccentricities as “ Styptic Side-foot ” are regret- 
table concessions to the unreasoning view that such formula; are more easily 
remembered than the Latin equivalents. Those who wish to be carried further 
and acquire a more scientific guide cannot do better than expend fourpence on a 
copy of the Guide to the Sowerby’s Models of Fungi in the British Museum 
(Natural History), Cromwell Road, as to which we published a note last year 
(Nature Notes, 1893, p. 188). G. M. 
SELBORNIANA. 
A Protest. — It is because I value the aims of the Selborne Society, and 
always read the magazine with pleasure, that I feel obliged to enter a protest 
against the little poem “ Autumn Berries,” in the October number. The Selborne 
Society side of life needs to be far more widely spread ; it is not widely enough 
felt to be able to afford to weaken its case. If we stamp as wrong and cruel the 
plucking of hawthorn and wild rose, we simply make ourselves ridiculous for 
nothing. A poem will have to be written, begging that a flower or two may be 
spared for poor mankind, if such ideas spread much further. I daresay it was 
not meant quite so seriously as it reads ; but we do need to keep from ttllra-%txA\- 
ment when we (rightly) take a sentimental side — else, as I say, we weaken our 
case. Here in the country there are far more hips and haws than the dear birds 
can eat. Hips and haws do not keep for ever ; and when birds starve it is because 
the berries have dropped, or gone bad, rather than because they are eaten. 
Sometimes they will leave holly berries on the tree all through bitter cold. They 
do not seem to touch blackberries ; but then they have such heaps of provisions 
just now. We have often wondered in winter that they did not finish the haws, 
but left them red on the boughs till they fell — and yet we make our home sweet 
with branches of may-blossom in its time. Nature provides for us both, do not you 
think ? We do love the birds, but I sometimes wish they could learn to be more 
thrifty! They may have their good of the garden and welcome ; but ’twere 
more grateful an they would finish one great pear before knocking off another and 
another. They will mash the Rosa rugosa berries till the whole bush looks untidy, 
and yet only take a little out of each hip. 
When a bush is cleared at one stroke, as the ripe gooseberries always are, and 
the Pyracantha when it is reddest, I suppose it is a flock of one kind of bird, 
starlings or other, that does the work ; but these are the exception. Whatever 
they do, birds are our nicest neighbours, and it is partly to clear their character 
from this suggestion of a grudging spirit, which they certainly do not feel, that I 
write. If your Committee could see its way to go back to the charming old lily 
title-page I should be so glad. It is the only change that has not been an 
improvement. J. E. Newman. 
[Although we think Mrs. Newman takes Miss Wood’s verses too seriously, 
there is a good deal to be said for the view she puts forward — a view which we 
have more than once expressed — that the adoption of the principles dear to Sel- 
bornians is in danger of being hindered by over-zealous advocacy. We have 
