86 
NATURE NOTES 
year he must change the date for the sake of variety. On this 
occasion the Sunday-scholars walk round the garden before 
church and inspect the nesting-boxes, and the brave mother 
blue-tit sits stolidly on her eggs while forty children in suc- 
cession lift the lid to gaze upon her. 
There are generally some vegetable curiosities on view in the 
garden or the greenhouse, such as the mistletoe, the sensitive 
plant or the egg plant. The prophet flower has been lately 
added, but the Dutchman’s pipe is still a desideratum. 
In one corner of the garden stands an old aviary called the 
Birds’ Hospital, which has been tenanted by an owl that came 
down a chimney, a peewit with a broken wing, and two young 
sparrow-hawks that appeared to have been deserted by their 
parents. The last arrival is a crippled kittiwake. 
The pond is occupied by a family of wild ducks, of whom 
some are pinioned and others are frequently to be seen flying 
over the village. With some qualms the rector allows the boys 
to fish for his roach in the summer, and has little doubt that if 
their numbers were not reduced they would become overcrowded 
and diseased. • 
The presence of trees and water in the sanctuary is attractive 
to many birds and beasts, among which we have noticed all 
the common kinds of game, the two common owls, the heron, 
sandpiper, kingfisher, moorhen, snipe, nightjar, woodlark and 
cirl-bunting. The wryneck, after some hesitation, accepted a 
nesting-box for the first time last year. 
As regards gardening in the more limited sense, one of the 
Selbornian’s chief hobbies is tree-planting, but so long as the 
Judas tree only stands about two feet high, the children will not 
believe that the false apostle ever hung from it. He is also fond 
of trying bulbs in the grass of the orchard, where various daffodils, 
wild tulips, anemones, and fritillaries make a pleasant picture. 
He is surprised, by the way, that the meadow saffron ( colchicum ) 
is recommended for this purpose, considering its poisonous 
qualities. 
He has not been very successful with aquatics, and he fancies 
that the fish, ducks and water-rats unite to render his efforts 
useless. 
Beyond the limits of his garden also, he attempts to do some- 
thing to hinder the “ uglification ” of his parish, by planting a 
few trees here and there by the roadside, after consulting the 
district councillors and the owners or occupiers of the adjoin- 
ing land, and his churchwardens, while thinking him eccentric, 
make no objection to his cutting an owl-hole through the 
shutters of the church-tower. 
The Annual Flower Show, of course, includes an exhibition 
of wild flowers. Last year a girl showed a hundred and forty 
species correctly named, and a boy one hundred. 
The parish, which lies between the New Forest and the sea, 
claims six hundred flowering plants, including a hundred grasses, 
