NATURE NOTES 
222 
far-strelching parish of Frensham was wholly enclosed ; but the parish of 
VVitley, which comprises the Gibbet Hill and the Punch-bowl, was happily left 
unchanged.” 
A writer in The Spectator, who can be readily identified, 
speaking of his own scliool-days, about 1870 we guess, writes : — 
“There was at that lime a regular colony of old-fashioned naturalists and 
sportsmen in the then (|uitl little town of Godaiming, whose houses were full 
of stuffed birds, their s'orehoii'es and offices also being crowded with specimens. 
One of these was the late Mi. Edward Newman, who in his early publication, 
the ‘ Letters of Rusticii-,’ gives the following genial description of a day after 
black grouse on the llimlhead commons now purchased and preserved: ‘From 
time immemorial Black Giouse have inhabited Ilindhead. This noble bird 
prefers swampy wet places ; I have known a pointer, when up to his knees in 
water, stand at a Black Cock ; but occasionally, especially towards August, the 
black grouse get up upon the brows of the hills, and then is the time when 
they are principally sought alter by sportsmen. It has always been a riddle 
to me that Gilbert White should speak of the bird as extinct .... the 
sportsmen here kill them every jear.’ Two of the people whose services were 
generally enlisted to aid in a day in search of the game were ‘ broom squires’ of 
the name of Kook, father and son, who knew to a nicety where the birds lay. 
The beating of the hillside ly the sportsmen and the broom squires is then 
described, and the death of the black cock, who fell at a vast distance with 
one pellet through its heart from the gun of the clever old naturalist, who 
w'as also owner of a big water mill. Waring Kidd. ‘Dick, the broom squire, 
threw up his hat and shouted “ Well done, Godalniing ! ” I shall never forget 
the scene, nor Dick’s keen reli'h for such an exploit, which quite overcame 
his regret for the few .shillings which the bird would have brought him had 
he shot it himself later.’ The rare Dartfird warbler formerly nested abundantly 
on these commons, but was largely killed off by some very severe winters. 
Snipe are plentiful in places still, and so is the fern owl in summer. Formerly, 
in the bottom of the I’unch-bowl, where one of the beautiful streams that form 
the head-waters of the Wey takes its rise, the Osmunda recalls grew in quantities 
and to a great size. It was also found near the Forked Ponds on Thursley 
Common, and on llighdown Heath ; but some years ago a great part of the 
Osnmnda in the Punch bowl liad disappeared, dug up ])robably by gipsies and 
others for sale. On Witley Ilealh are pools and swamps abounding in rare 
and beautiful plant-, espeiially the bog known as Witley Lagg, and the moors 
to the north of the common. Thus the jnirchasers of the property have pre- 
•served not only an o|ieii sjiace of great size and singular beauty, but one which 
is a perfect museum of interesting plants, and a natural home of rare birds, 
though the black cock has disapptared finally.” 
Murdp:kous Millinery. — “When the figures of the millinery 
slaughter-houses are counted up they are rather appalling. Ten 
million birds a year, it was estimated, were required to supply 
the women of the United States with suitable hat trimming ; 
forty thousand terns in a single season on Cape Cod, a million 
bobolinks near Philadelpliia in a single month, twenty thousand 
birds sent to New York dealers in four months from one village 
on Long Island. England imports between twenty-five million 
and thirty miilion birds a year. One London dealer received 
from the East Indies alone four hundred thousand humming 
birds, six thousand birds of paradise and four hundred thousand 
miscellaneous biids. Altogether it is estimated that between 
two hundred million and three hundred million birds perish each 
year to trim tlie hats of the women of the world .” — The Auimals' 
I-'rieiift. 
