NATURAL HISTORY NOTES 
33 
somewhat favoured conditions of the East Cliff at Bournemouth. The uniform 
spelling of the specific names with initial capitals is unpleasantly suggestive of the 
second-rate nurseryman’s catalogue. 
Nature-Study (late Naturalists' Journal), vol. xii., No. 127. 
Our old-established contemporary, under a new name, is making a new 
departure in issuing, a page or two at a time, a series of “ B.F.C. [British Field 
Club] Nature-Study Handbooks,” which may prove useful to teachers. Of the 
three so far commenced that on entomology evinces the clearest appreciation of the 
real meaning of Nature-study. The polar and equatorial diameters of our globe, 
or its distance from the sun, or the heights of the Himalayas, or a list, with 
heights, of the principal mountains of the world, or a drawing of the delta of 
Nile or Mississippi, are not points to be achieved by any truly observational 
training of British school-children. 
Received : The Wealth and Progress of New South Wales, 1 900-1, by 
T. A. Coghlan, Stalislician of New South Wales, from the Agent-General ; 'The 
Butterflies and Moths of Europe, by W. F. Kirby, parts 17, 18 and 19; The 
American Botanist , vol. iii. , No. 5; The Fern Bulletin , vol. x., No. 4; The 
Victorian Naturalist for November and December, 1902; The Irish Naturalist , 
The Ani)nal World, The Animals' Friend, Our Animal Friends, and The 
Agricultural Economist for January. 
NATURAL HISTORY NOTES AND QUERIES. 
A Plea for the Mole. — The remarks under the above head do not in all 
respects tally with our experience here. Instead of “ one of the farmers’ best and 
most influential friends — the mole” — being in danger of “ extermination,” he is 
more numerous than ever in this district. Farmers do not take the trouble they 
did a few years ago to keep moles down ! and it is a difficult matter to find 
capable men to catch them. The gamekeeper too, is paramount hereabouts, and 
wages war against foxes, stoats, and weasels, the mole’s enemies. When these 
animals are allowed full sway the mole has a bad time ; or at all events not such 
a good one as he has in this part of East Anglia. 
Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
Wild White Mice. — A number of white mice have been killed in a rick in 
the village and eight or ten captured. There were many piebald. In one of the 
old farmhouses most of the mice are white. Occasional albinism is to be found 
in many animals, but such numerous cases of it in one of our wild British 
rodents have never before come to my notice. Have any of your readers a like 
experience ? 
Market Weston, Thetford. Edmund Thos. Daubeny. 
January 7, 1903. 
Encounter between a Duck and a Swan.— One day while watching 
the birds in the ornamental lake at Grange-over-Sands, I saw a most remarkable 
encounter between a large swan and a little brown duck. The duck had 
apparently insulted the swan by trying to cross its path, for it was suddenly seized 
by the swan and held under the water until I was sure it would be drowned. But 
at last the swan let it go and sailed majestically away. The duck, after taking 
breath, looked round to see where its enemy was, and seeing it not far off it rose 
into the air and deliberately came down, flapping its wings on the astonished 
swan’s back. The swan fled in terror, and the duck, apparently satisfied, quietly 
swam away. 
R. C. Lowther. 
Blackgame. — An old Scotchman, whose cottage was on the north shore of 
Loch Rannoch, in Perthshire, once told me of a welcome dinner which he and his 
family had one Christmas Day. The weather before Christmas w'as very wild, and 
one night, while they were all sitting round the fire, which lit up the room with its 
cheerful glow, the window pane was suddenly driven inwards, while a large black 
bird fell into the room. This turned out to be a fine blackcock, which in crossing 
