210 
NATURE NOTES. 
in the days when, though the country was perhaps more beauti- 
ful, less thought was taken for the humble sons of toil, for their 
health, morals and comfort. As these “whited sepulchres,” as 
they often are, get past patching, a greater love than even that 
of the picturesque, the love for their fellow-men, causes OAvners 
to build cottages less pleasing to the eye, but light, and roomy, 
and dry. Thatch is banished, for it is a harbour for vermin, 
and mouldering odours ; the beloved of the fire fiend, and the 
abhorrence of the insurance office. 
Yet in many of our villages is the picturesque still to be 
found if we like ruins. Cottages in every state of decay, roofs 
off, windows out, doorless and floorless, nettles everywhere. 
“What a disgrace, what a shame!” exclaims the stranger; 
“what is the owner about that he lets his property get into this 
state ? ” 
The owner is probably adding to his miserably diminished 
rent roll by active work in the profession or art for which a 
liberal education has fitted him. Yet even had he the means to 
re-construct these ruins, it is a fact that there is no one to 
occupy them. The population has decreased and is decreasing. 
The farmer cannot get hands enough for his needs. The towns 
and cities have swallowed up hundreds of the population. 
For the vandal and philistine in these changes, the man who 
can but won't, there can be no manner of sympathy ; but for the 
country gentleman who is himself a lover of nature and a 
student of White, Jefferies and Thoreau, there must be much. 
No one can deplore, more than he, amid the corrugated iron, the 
wire, and the tree stumps, the things in his case called into being 
by the “ res angusta domi.” 
Charles F. W. T. Williams. 
FACTS AND FABLES OF THE GOATSUCKER. 
N account of its nocturnal habits and extraordinary 
appearance, the goatsucker has become an object of 
suspicion, if not terror, to many who surround it with 
mystery and fable. In reality it is the most harmless 
of birds, and instead of causing trouble is of much use in 
helping to rid the country of many insect pests. It is our one 
representative of a large family widely distributed over the 
world, and is a most interesting bird, differing in form, cry, 
and habits from all others. From May to September or 
October, they may be found scattered all over the British 
Islands, the principal colours of the plumage being shades of 
brown and grey ; the silent flight and general appearance when 
on the wing causing them to resemble an owl more than any 
other bird. 
In the day time they crouch on the ground amongst the 
