256 
NATURE NOTES. 
some of her latest progeny were found to be snugly ensconced 
there. Then ensued a scene of sad disorder ; ’Arriet pecked her 
forward offspring so severely that little feathers and bits of fluff 
flew all around, as the little frightened screaming youngsters 
were hustled out. ’Arriet remained in triumphant possession, 
and surveyed the garden from her vantage ground. At last 
she, too, settled to roost, and the sparrows were silenced for 
another day. Then, clear and sweet, rose the robin’s evening 
hymn from a bush close to us, and then another, and yet 
another sounded from other bushes. We notice that in fine, 
settled weather, the robins sing from the tops of trees (we noticed 
this especially in the splendid weather of last spring), but in 
wet or stormy weather from amongst the bushes. Presently the 
chig-chig-chigging of the blackbirds began, followed by the zit- 
zit - zitting from the redbreasts — necessary preparations for 
repose, apparently, with both birds — and then, but for the 
occasional caw of a home-coming rook, and an indignant sudden 
chatter from an angry magpie, all was silent. As we turned to 
come into the house the wild hoot of an owl sounded from one 
of the opposite trees, and it was answered by another, and the 
night was upon us. 
Helen J. Ormerod, 
NOBLE SPORT.- 
Six hundred homes are darkened — not again 
Sliall feet come pattering through the earthen hall. 
Never at dewy morn or even-fall 
Will merry hearts go forth to vale and plain ; 
Love has been banished — moonlight now in vain 
Invites to tender wooing ; sunbeams call 
No more the children forth to festival, 
Where once was life and joy, is death and pain. 
The woods are mournful, meadows lose their charm. 
The warren reeks of murder — copse and glen 
Echo the sorrows of a barbarous day — 
Six hundred creatures who had thought no harm. 
Six hundred ! butchered for one fierce hour’s play ! 
Shame on your sport ! ungentle gentlemen ! 
H. D. Rawnsley. 
* In the Manchester Guardian of October 23 appeared a paragraph headed, 
"A Rabbit Shooting Record,” which stated that a nobleman and his guest had 
had some extraordinary shooting in the rabbit warrens of the estate. Accom- 
jianied by three loaders each, they had succeeded in killing 3,000 head. The di.s- 
tinguished guest, we are told, “accomplished the feat of killing more than 600 
.rabbits in rather less than an hour.” 
