104 
NATURE NOTES. 
Nor be the Parsonage by the muse forgot ; 
The partial bard admires his native spot ; 
Smit with its beauties, loved, as yet a child, 
(Unconscious why) its scapes grotesque and wild. 
This homely pathos requires no comment save delight. 
From the concluding verses of the poem we may gather that 
White fully recognised his romantic temperament, and that his 
great spirit, like most great spirits, was not unconscious of its 
own greatness. 
Me far above the rest Selbornian scenes. 
The pendent forests, and the mountain greens 
Strike with delight. 
In these days of bird and beast massacre, when the term 
“ naturalist ” is misused in every way and on every opportunity, 
it is pleasant to think that the chief of nature-lovers coined for 
us a name that has become the exclusive right of his true dis- 
ciples. It is the constant duty of Selbornians to take care lest 
their proud title be usurped b}’ the horde of murderers and 
devastators who at present disgrace the word “ naturalist.” 
“ Selborne Hanger,” a %Hnter piece, addressed “ to the ^liss 
Batties,” affords a clue to the sociable geniality of the bard, 
besides containing some agreeable description. “ The Rainbow” 
gives further evidence of his natural piety, and “ A Harvest 
Scene ” is a cheerful sketch, perhaps the most artistic of his 
poetical compositions. 
With this we terminate our brief and inadequate notice. 
The poems do not evince any extraordinary genius, but they are 
by no means trivial ; they are precious because they are lyrical, 
that is, full of the author’s spirit ; they are never barren, and at 
times bear golden fruit. To shed the spurious glamour of 
flattery upon the minor works of a great man is a practice — it 
can hardly be called a fault — as common as it is pardonable. 
But every word of a great man carries a pregnant meaning to 
the thinking mind ; and not Selbornians only, but the general 
public also, may read many a happy lesson in the poems of 
Gilbert White. 
Gilbert Hudson. 
Gold Fish (p. 77).— As one of )-our correspondents has remarked, the fact 
that gold fish are capable of feeling in some way may be proved by “simply 
touching one.” It may often be observed, too, that the stamping of the foot upon 
the floor, or the slamming of a door the other end of the house, will cause the fish 
to dart from one side of the bowl to the other. But the point that one would wish 
to be more satisfied upon, is whether they are capable of feeling /af«, or of 
suffering to any extent. One correspondent says that being cold-blooded does 
not affect the question of pain. This would appear to be so in some cases, 
though not in others. For instance, the writhing and twisting of a worm upon 
the slightest pressure of the foot will often suggest that it suffers agony. On 
the other hand, a frog, though heavily trodden upon, anil though a limb may 
even be severed from its body, will, perhaps, appear quite unconcerned about 
the matter. I say appear, though that in itself is, of course, no proof that it 
does not suffer. C. E. C. 
