74 
NATURE NOTES, 
pleasure these flowers give to the recipients, the care with which they are pre- 
served till every leaf is withered, and the disappointment felt when it becomes 
evident after a time that “ the lady has forgotten to send again.” We cannot but 
feel that comparatively little is done in this direction, only an infinitesimal pro- 
portion of flowers ever reaching those who cannot see them growing, while 
thousands of dwelling rooms are never brightened by those summer treasures 
which are blooming and dying in profusion in thousands of gardens within a 
night’s post of London. The trouble involved in the little wearisome minutiae 
of picking, packing, and sending seems the greatest hindrance to the wide de- 
velopment of the work, and we venture to suggest a way in which this difficulty 
may, to a large extent, be overcome, while at the same time a larger and more 
regular supply of flowers may be ensured. Our suggestion is, that any lady 
willing to help in this way should in her own neighbourhood enlist the aid of as 
many of her friends as possible, asking each to promise to send her on a certain 
day (weekly or fortnightly) whatever flowers they can spare. These could then 
be packed together in a box or hamper and dispatched to a given address, where 
they would be unpacked for distribution and the hamper returned. Many would, 
we believe, be glad to send a neighbour bunches of flowers for this purpose, 
though they might hesitate to take the trouble to pack in small boxes, procure an 
address, and post. The regularity with which it would be done would materially 
lessen the work, and a small contribution from each member would soon cover 
the cost of carriage. Small boxes of flowers are very welcome, and we are 
deeply grateful to those kind friends who so often send them ; but where we have 
a tenement with over a hundred families, or a large Workhouse Infirmary to 
supply, nothing short of a hamper of flowers makes much impression. All further 
information will most gladly be given on application to the Hon. Secretary, 
Flower Distribution Branch, Kyrle Society, 49, Manchester Street, London, W. 
Feeding the Birds. — I have a balcony over a portico, with a balustrade 
round it, and some wire arches. On the arches hang coco-nuts and pieces of fat, 
and crumbs and chopped fat, and a plate of sopped bread are thrown out every 
morning. The breakfast party is a most amusing sight ! robins, chaffinches and 
sparrows, all set to work, to be chased off presently by a solitary wagtail who 
runs at and pecks all but the robins. The larger and smaller blue tits, with 
occasionally a cole tit, make short work of the fat, and the whole company are 
mournfully regarded by a party of four starlings, who sit on the wire arches and 
are generally the last to come down to tackle the larger pieces of bread, &c. I 
must not forget two missel thrushes, great enemies to each other, who fight over 
every morsel, and especially the bones, of which two or three are put out. The 
tits hang on the pieces of fat and coco-nuts in the prettiest manner possible, and 
it was a laughable sight to see a starling attempting to do the same thing with 
very poor success indeed. I have fed birds on this balcony for some years, and 
I am sure that watching them leads children to take an interest in natural history, 
and indeed grown persons too, and leads also to kindly thought and care for the 
dumb creatures around us. To children it may be interesting to know that two 
little blue tits built in a box on this same balcony, and had no objection to my 
taking the lid off and looking at the little mother on her nest until she had 
hatched out her family of eight. Their own entrance was through a small hole 
in the box. 
West Sussex. F. C. C. Kexnaud. 
Run Mad ! — We clip the following from the British Weekly of March 14 : 
“ Millinery seems to have run mad in London during the present month. I 
noticed the other day, in a West End window, a hat made to imitate a seagull’s 
nest. All the details were perfect, and at the top sat the bird, looking as real as 
if it had just sought shelter after a fortnight on the frozen Thames. Another new 
hat was of burnt straw decked with a large poppy-seed, some green parrots’ 
wings, some red roses, and some pale blue velvet rosettes.’ 
A Monster. — Canon Rawnsley publishes the following letter in the Standard 
of March ll “ Lovers of bird-life will be beyond measure mortified to hear that 
one small landowner in North Oxfordshire has within the past ten months 
destroyed eighty kingfishers, ‘ in order,’ as he alleges, ‘ to protect his trout 
