62 
NATURE NOTES 
The best way of checking this scour of the sand was to plant 
suitable trees and grasses where the gradients were steep, and it 
was in order to encourage the growth of gorse that they were 
advised in 1895 to cut out the dead wood in the gorse plants, 
which were blackened and sickly owing to the severe frost. It 
was a mistake to suppose that trees were not suited to Hamp- 
stead Heath, as they had always flourished there and they 
afforded food and shelter to songbirds, which were now found to 
be returning to the Heath, owing to the operation of the Wild 
Birds Protection Act. 
The Scarcity of Birds in Hertfordshire. — Mrs. Bright- 
wen in her article entitled “ My Sanctuary,” quotes a statement 
made by Mr. Joseph Nunn in the Transactions of the Hertfordshire 
Natural History Society, that birds are becoming rarer in that 
county, and that the cause is the stupidity of gamekeepers and 
gunners, as well as the spreading of suburban London. A 
correspondent signing himself “ A Lover of Nature ” has 
been reading a letter by Mr. Nunn in the February number of 
Knowledge, on egg collecting in its relation to science. “A Lover 
of Nature” writes: “Mr. Nunn admits having taken, between 
March 19 and May 13, 1889, 13 clutches of blackbirds’ eggs, 52 
eggs in all; in addition to which he speaks of 20 clutches of 
sparrowhawks’ eggs before him, and 600 clutches of the common 
house sparrow in his cabinet. The latter birds are, of course, 
common enough, but the system of taking clutches is greatly 
to be deprecated, and would, I feel certain, be condemned by 
members of the Selborne Society. I am glad to s&y that the 
editor of the Naturalists' Journal absolutely refuses to insert 
advertisements of clutches of eggs for sale.” If the members 
of the Hertfordshire Society generally require such large quan- 
tities of material for their studies, “A Lover of Nature” thinks 
that Mrs. Brightwen might add another cause for the lamented 
decrease of birds in her part of the country. Mr. Nunn’s 
enquiries were directed to the questions why light-coloured 
eggs occur persistently in the clutches of some species, and 
occasionally only in others ; and why the colouring is at the 
small end of eggs of some species. His observations of the 
blackbirds’ eggs seem to prove that exhaustion of pigment is 
not the cause of light-coloured eggs. 
The Portmadoc and Beddgelert Railway. — The following 
letter from Miss Atkinson, of Barmouth, appeared in the Man- 
chester Guardian for February 5 : — 
“ Sir, — May I beg for space in your paper in order to explain 
in detail the course of the proposed railway between Portmadoc 
and Beddgelert ? I quote from a letter received this morning 
from the secretary to the Commons Preservation Society : — ‘ As 
it approaches the pass the railway will be nearly a third of a 
mile from Pont Aberglaslyn, and almost opposite this point it 
