92 
NATURE NOTES. 
Sometimes she made a mistake, but in most cases she was 
able to correct it herself. At one time she thought the martins 
did not feed their young impartially and in due order : but she 
was able later on to correct and explain this impression. There 
is one observation which must, I think, be a mistake (p. 136), and 
is uncorrected. She was watching a yellow wagtail w^agging 
away in the brook and, raising her eyes, saw a flycatcher waging 
its tail in a tree overhead — imitating the wagtail, as she thought. 
It was May 5th, early, I think, for a spotted flycatcher in Devon ; 
was it not the female yellow wagtail that she saw, and mistook 
for the other bird ? A male wagtail looked down upon, and a 
female looked up to, may appear ver\'^ different. 
Miss Haj'ward made man}’ interesting notes on the behaviour 
of birds in courting, nest building, instructing their young, and 
preparing to migrate. A passage on p. 50 should be of special 
interest to Mr. A. R. Wallace : and the last sentence on that 
page is worth quoting as an example of this simple lady’s 
common sense. “ Birds inherit a great deal, but not every- 
thing : and, perhaps, as w’ith ourselves, what they inherit has 
to be cultivated.” 
I warmly commend the book to readers of Nature Notes. 
The illustrations by Mr. G. E. Lodge, of which, by the courtesy 
of the publishers, we are enabled to give an example, are 
charming : the price of the volume is somewhat high, but we 
may hope for a cheaper edition. 
W. Warde Fowler. 
