74 
NATURE NOTES. 
roasted neck may rival the more sought-after and sumptuous haunch, but we 
should like to put in a word for a saddle, cut , if you can get it, from between the 
haunch and the fore-quarter. 
The illustrations in this volume, by J. Charlton and A. Thorburn, are as 
pleasing as usual. “ Driven off the Hill” is a beautiful picture of a winter scene 
in the Highlands. 
O. V. Aplin. 
TO LONDON’S HEART. 
An Appeal for the Churchyard Bottom Wood, Highgate. 
You who have gazed from that old forest hill 
And seen the smoke of London blur the day, 
Then turned your face a little while away 
And felt your heart throb, and your dim eyes fill 
To find a primrose-tuft, or hear the thrill 
Of some bird-throat that sings a marriage lay, — 
Think of what treasure might be turned to clay 
If here the hand of mammon worked its will ! 
O mighty mother of the teeming throng 
Who pent in purblind alleys toil and die. 
Nor ever look on Nature’s tender face, — 
Keep for thy sons at least one little space 
Where through the hazels men may see blue sky. 
And hear at morn and eve the blackbird’s song. 
H. D. Rawnsley. 
SHORT NOTICES OF BOOKS. 
Those who have not yet made the acquaintance of the writings of John 
Burroughs — “ the American Jefferies” as he has been called — will find a pleasant 
means of so doing in the pretty volume of selections which Messrs. Smith, 
Elder & Co., have published under the title of A Year in the Fields.* The essays 
selected are not, perhaps, those which we should ourselves have chosen for 
English readers, as we find among them none of the delightfully fresh descriptions 
in which Mr. Burroughs recorded his acquaintanceship with the birds and flowers 
of this country; from this and from the unpleasant spelling which continually meets 
the eye, we are inclined to think the volume was prepared for home (,«.<!., 
American) consumption, and is printed here from American plates. Be that as it 
may, it is very well printed ; and the illustrations from photographs enable us to 
become personally acquainted with the haunts of the author, while the frontispiece 
portrays him “ in his habit in which he lives.” Burroughs lovers will remain con- 
tent with Mr. David Douglas’s little square volumes, which fit so comfortably into 
the pocket ; but we imagine that this selection will find a place on many a 
Selbornian shelf. 
* A Year in the Fields : Selections from the writings of John Burroughs ; with 
illustrations from photographs by Clifton Johnson. London : Smith, Elder & Co. 
8 vo, pp. ix. 220. Price 6 s. 
