NATURE NOTES. 
cousin said : ‘ ‘ He has got something to shew us : I must go and see what it is.” She 
got up and followed Chink to the border, where two little baby chaffinches were 
sitting sheltered by a plant. Immediately Chaffy flew back and fetched the cake, 
and proceeded to feed the little ones, evidently satisfied now that his children were 
noticed and admired. When I was there at Easter he was as constant as ever, 
and his “Chink, Chink!” would fetch my cousin out of bed at five o’clock 
to give him his early meal of biscuit from her window', w'here a box was 
kept on purpose for Chaffy’s use. When I last heard he w as still a constant 
visitor in the Vicarage garden, where his presence would be greatly missed. 
B. E. E. 
SELBORNIANA. 
A Browning Query. — Can any reader tell me wffiat plant Mr. Browning 
had in view in the following lines ? — 
“ One plant, 
Woods have in May, that starts up green 
Save a sole streak which, so to speak, 
Is spring’s blood, spilt the leaves between.” — May ami Death. 
The arum or one of the spotted orchids suggest themselves, but neither of these 
has “ a sole streak. ” G. S. R. 
The Spelling of Yellow Hammer. — A youthful naturalist friend, re- 
cently visiting the Natural History Museum, w r as especially delighted with the 
collection of British birds and their nests — a collection which well deserves the 
attention of all Selbornians. But he was much exercised by what he considered 
a mistake in the spelling of Yellow “ ammer,” which, he said, ought to be Yellow 
Hammer. I, of course, assured him that the Museum authorities would not 
make a mistake even in such a small matter ; and having thus silenced if not 
convinced him, I proceeded to establish my position. To my surprise, however, 
I found that Dr. Murray’s researches had not enabled him to obtain any authority 
whatever for Yarrell’s introduction of this spelling in 1846 ; and moreover, on 
further investigation, I found that Professor Newton, in the fourth edition of 
Yarrell’s work, had pronounced against the proposed correction. The Museum 
authorities, it may be hoped, will therefore see their way to restoring the usual 
spelling, when the labels for the cases of birds next come under revision. I append 
Professor Newton’s interesting note. 
“ In former editions of this work the author strove to restore what he believed 
to have been the first English name of this bird — Yellow Ammer. As might be 
expected in such a case, custom, whether right or wrong, would not give way to 
the proposed amendment, and Yellow Hammer, with its abbreviation Yellow Ham, 
have been commonly printed from the days of Turner (1544) and Merrett (1667) 
to the present time. There can indeed be no question of ‘ Hammer ’ (in this 
sense) being strictly cognate with the German Ammer , but it would seem that 
prefixing the letter h to the w’ord is not wholly an English peculiarity, since there 
is some ground for believing that Hammer , which now survives in Hdmmerling, 
was equally with Ammer, a Teutonic form. Another early spelling of this word 
in both languages was * Amber,’ used in 1668 by Charleton (Onomasticon 
Zooicon, p. 80), and by Ray in 1674 (Call. Engl., &c., p. 88). Perhaps the 
parent form was the old German Embritz, whence comes the Latinized modifica- 
tion Emberiza, spelt by some ancient authors Embriza. Mr. Skeat, in a communi- 
cation kindly made on this point to the editor, remarks that the letter h is seldom 
wrongly prefixed, and cites among the few examples of the practice, ‘hermit,’ 
‘ horde ’ and ‘ humbles ’ — the roots of which are probably eremita, ordeu and 
umbilicus respectively. Mr. J. W. Cartmell has added to these words ‘ hogs- 
head,’ which ought to have been ‘ oxhead,’ from the Dutch ochshood, and ‘how- 
let ’ instead of ‘ owlet ’ — the last being almost an exact parallel to ‘ hammer ’ 
in the present bird’s name. Dr. Robert Latham’s assertion (Diet. Engl. Lang. 
