NATURE NOTES. 
14 
which are enumerated in the same manner. The result is a book neither 
popular nor scientific, but which may be assumed to have been found useful, 
inasmuch as this is a second (and cheaper) edition. The introduction deals with 
fern cultivation from a practical point of view. There are more misprints 
than can be pardoned in a second issue, and it is to be regretted that the sheets 
were not submitted to a botanist before being sent to press. The “ authorities 
for the generic names” should have been given more accurately and adequately, 
or omitted altogether. 
The Counfry Month by Month for December (Bliss, Sands and Foster) deals 
largely, as is to be expected, with Christmas evergreens, but Prof. Boulger has 
spared us a repetition of the more or less inaccurate traditions associated with the 
subject. The curious carol copied from the Harleian MSS. is an old favourite, 
but one which bears repeating, and before w'e have time to tire of the evergreens 
we find ourselves among the mosses, of which we have enough to interest and 
nothing to be unlearnt afterwards —one of the best features of this pleasant series 
of books. Mrs. Visger is, as usual, at home among the birds. 
SELBORNIANA. 
Feeding the Birds. — During several winters we have fed the birds on 
nuts, seeds, suet, &c., suspended from canes fixed across a sitting-room window 
and within eleven inches of the glass. Our visitors, principally tits-major, blue, 
marsh, and cole — w’ere very numerous ; at one time we had two pairs of major, 
three of blue, two of marsh, and one of cole, seven greenfinches, one cock chaf- 
finch, and an occ.asional nuthatch, wren, robin, and blackbird. At the present 
time only one pair of blue tits, one of cole, and the chaffinch come. Wishing 
that some of our friends would nest close by, I, last year, fastened a small deal 
box, in which I had drilled two holes for entrances, on to the wire arch that goes 
round this same window', and well within view of people in the room. This 
plain structure was too unlike the real thing, so early this spring I tied firmly 
round it some rough pieces of fir bark, and we have been rewarded by the blue 
tits building there, and just now', every day and all day long, a supply of food — 
flies, caterpillars, &c. — is being brought by both parents to the brood. Whilst 
building I could not discover that Mr. Tom-tit did any of the w'ork ; he would sit 
on the canes and eat and scold, w'hilst his mate would come with her beak full 
of building material — hairs, moss, &c. Will any of your readers tell me if this is 
their usual way of working? Another question I should feel grateful to have 
answ'ered is, is it by sight or smell that birds find their food ? The cole tits, w'ho 
would eat all the different sorts of food during the winter, only come now if fat is 
provided. For days together I have sometimes omitted this, but always, within 
a very short time of its being put on the canes, they have found it out and are 
busy making a hearty meal. 
Alresford, Hants. M. J. Eames. 
Highgate Wood. — The follow'ing amusing letter appeared in the Standard 
of March 14 last, and has been waiting insertion in Nature Notes ever 
since : — “ In August, 1S86, Highgate Wood became the property of the Mayor and 
Commonalty and Citizens of the City of London. It was then in a very sad state. 
So thickly w'as it overgrown with brushwood, that if you stood in the centre you 
could not see the linen of the inhabitants of Archway Road hanging to dry in their 
back gardens. Nor could you see the advertisement of Juggins’s stout and porter 
which surmounts the front of the public-house at the south corner of the wood. 
Therefore, the Mayor, and Commonalty, and Citizens cut down the intervening 
brushwood, and now when we stand in the centre we can divide our attention 
between Juggins’s porter and our neighbour’s washing. Scarlet flannel petticoats 
are much worn in Archway Road ; and if anyone desires to feast his eyes on these 
very bright and picturesque objects, so seldom seen in the streets, let him repair 
to the centre of Highgate Wood. 
“ Still we were not happy. The wood is bounded on the north by the railway 
