NATURE NOTES. 
114 
find him searching for an open window by which he may reach the dining-room, 
where he lives by preference, perching on a picture-frame, but always coming on 
to my husband’s arm when called, even though with thirty people at dinner, and 
through the glare of lamps and candles. He invariably twitters a sort of soft song 
when we speak to him. He is a grand bird in perfect plumage. 
“ Age of birds.- — A small half-bred game bantam we have here is hatching her 
usual sitting of eggs in a hat in the entrance hall, where for the last nine years she 
has always done so. We bought her in 1881 to sit on pheasants’ eggs, being 
then no more than a pullet. 
‘ ‘ Kook. — I have an old bird whom I found on the roadside, three years ago, 
with a gunshot wound in his side, and one wing quite blown off. He seemed 
very old and wild, but I brought him home, and though left completely at liberty 
in a tiee in the garden, he has never failed to eat out of my hand there at once, 
and ever since, and shows the most extraordinary devotion and great intelligence. 
“ Rat. — I have a white rat, who lives, as all our pets do, entirely loose in the 
house or garden, perfectly free to leave us if they choose. The rat w'as given to 
me, as old and worthless, two years ago, then quite wild. He gradually became 
extremely tame, and during a severe illness I had last year he took it into his 
head to sit on iny pillow to guard rne. Ever since then he has continued to sleep 
there ; he runs upstairs with me, and follows me to bed, sleeping always on the 
bolster or pillow by my head. He is very plucky, and defended himself during 
one whole night when he was shut up accidentally in the same room with a large 
and savage cat. He was found sitting up with teeth and claws ready, and was per- 
fectly overjoyed when his human friends took him up. Though six - months have 
elapsed, nothing will induce him to enter that room again. Our dogs are per- 
fect friends with him. He uses his left paw always when drinking, ‘ ladling’ the 
water up to his mouth, even from the bottom of a tumbler, and is quite 1 left- 
handed.’ ” 
Continental Selborniana. — We have received several enquiries as to 
the Swiss Selborne Society, mentioned by the Rev. H. D. Rawnsley in the last 
number of Nature Notes. The following communication (received a good 
while ago) from Lieut. -Colonel Linley Blathwayt, of Batheaston, fully answers 
the queries of our correspondents : — “ Probably many members of the Selborne 
Society may not be aware that one somewhat similar, the* 1 Association pour la 
protection des Plantes,’ exists in Switzerland. It was founded at Geneva in 
1883 (England, France, Italy and Belgium being well represented among its 
members), and it is now striving hard to check the wholesale destruction of 
Alpine plants. Our own countrymen are, I fear, not quite free from blame, for 
one of its members writes that the worst offenders are those who are ‘ seduits par 
tes guinees de John Bull, pour les expedier en masse a l’adresse de Pun ou de 
l’autre horticulteur Anglais.’ The Swiss themselves are thoroughly alive to the 
danger, for the Conseil d’Etat of Fribourg has placed one Alpine plant — the 
Edelweiss — under the protection of the police ; and at I’ontresina, in the Enga- 
dine, there was a notice that anyone destroying any of these plants would be 
fined. The President of the Association is, however, of opinion that there are 
other plants, such as ladies’ slipper ( Cypripedium Calceolus), which need pro- 
tection far more than the Edelweiss.” 
Musical Mice. — Mr. R. Goodwin Mumbray, of Richmond, writes as 
follows: — “That mice and several other animals are ‘ moved by the concord of 
sweet sounds ’ is a well-known fact. I have known several instances in which mice 
have been lured from their crannies by a lovely female voice, or by the sound of a 
piano when played softly in a minor (which is said to be the natural) key, or the 
‘ tiny din ’ of a flute ; but I only remember one instance of a veritable singing 
mouse. My maternal grandfather, a very aged man, who attained his 96th year, 
was sitting by the fireside one evening, when a small mouse of a light fawn colour, 
made its appearance, and began playing with the tie of the old gentleman’s shoe, 
frisking about apparently in high glee, and interspersing its gambols by a song 
resembling that of the linnet. It usually appeared about 7 p.m., and would remain 
for the space of an hour, when it quietly stole away. These visits were continued 
for the space of six or eight weeks, when they suddenly ceased ; the presence of 
visitors did not seem to disturb the little creature, although he never took to any- 
