136 
NATURE NOTES 
author suggests that these cats should be removed by the police 
and mercifully destroyed, calculating that to the 40,000 un- 
claimed dogs destroyed in 1896, 60,000 or 70,000 cats would be 
added in the first year. Another practical suggestion which he 
makes is that the County Council should plant some rushes by 
the Hampstead ponds so as to encourage water-fowl to nest. 
A considerable part of the work is occupied by a detailed 
account of all our London open spaces and an appraisement of 
their avian peculiarities. We can only quote what is said of 
Churchyard Bottom Wood: 
“ The wildest and most picturesque spot in North London, with an uneven 
surface, hill and valley, a small stream running through it, old unmutilated trees 
of many kinds scattered about in groups and groves, and everywhere masses of 
bramble and furze. It s quite unspoiled, in character a mixture of park and wild 
rough common, and wholly delightful. Indeed, it is believed to be a veritable 
fragment— the only one left — of the primaeval forest of Middlesex. It is earnestly 
to be hoped that the landscape gardener will not be called in to prepare this place 
for the reception of the public.” 
As we have said, we do not criticise this delightful volume 
from the scientific standpoint, but we wish Mr. Hudson would 
add a list of the species of the district. While we write, Mr. 
Philip Gosse records an addition — the brambling — from Maida 
Vale. 
On?- Animal Friends for May and June are as good numbers as ever. The 
former, in addition to an article, “ A Law for the Protection of Birds,” which 
we shall reprint, has one entitled, “Can Parrots Reason?” which we should 
like also to reproduce ; and the latter, one on vivisection, exhibiting a modera- 
tion in tone which some of our contemporaries would do well to imitate. 
From the Massachusetts Audubon Society we have received an excellent 
budget of leaflets and tracts, A Word for the Owl, To Save our Birds, and 
Helps to Bird Study. This last contains a short memoir of Audubon, several 
extracts in prose and verse from Ruskin, Thoreau, Stevenson, Sir Edwin Arnold, 
John Burroughs and others, an illustrated article on “ IIow to Draw Birds,” and 
another on “ The Parts of a Bird.” 
The Victorian Naturalist : the Journal and Magazine of the Field Naturalists' 
Club of Victoria, is a thoroughly scientific journal, containing the record of much 
solid local work and descriptions of species new to science. 
The Naturalist for June, besides its usual purely local and scientific records, 
contains an interesting list of Lincolnshire plants, dating from 1724 and 1726, and 
a remarkable article on “The Chemistry of Lakeland Trees,” by Dr. P. Q. 
Keegan. 
We cannot altogether sympathise with Mrs. Tatlow’s endeavours to cultivate 
rare British orchids in her garden, as described in The Irish Naturalist for June; 
but we congratulate the “ Easter party” on their “ Impressions of Achill,” and 
the Journal on its excellent classified “ Notes.” 
Knowledge for June, among other articles, contains one on “The Mourne 
Mountains,” by Professor G. A. J. Cole, one on “ Africa and its Animals,” by 
Mr. Lydekker, and a continuation by Mr. J. R. Jackson, of Kew, of his 
“ Economic Botany.” 
