THE LIBRARY

OF

THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA

LOS ANGELES

MEMORIES OF THE MONTHS

FIFTH SERIES

Memories of the Months

FIFTH SERIES

BY THE RIGHT HON.

•

SIR HERBERT MAXWELL

BART., F.R.S., D.C.L., LL.D.

Horas non numero nisi f dices

LONDON
EDWARD ARNOLD

1909

[A II rights reserved]

PEEFACE

I FEEL inclined to ask the printer to use red ink for
the introduction to this volume, as serving to indicate
how I blush at my temerity in laying before a too
indulgent public a fifth bundle of these desultory
notes. Nobody can be more conscious than myself of
their ephemeral quality; but the public has itself to
blame, if blame there be, because of the encouragement
it has shown me to give a more or less permanent form
to fleeting impressions, and to prose about matters one
cannot but notice in moving through our beautiful
land.

After all, it is well within the command of readers to
bring the series to a conclusion by ceasing to pay it
any attention.

Of the following papers, Nos. XXI. and LXVIII. have
already appeared in Blackwood's Magazine, whereof I
thank the editor for his permission to reprint them.
Most of the rest have seen daylight in the pages of the
PaU Mall Gazette.

HERBERT MAXWELL.

MONREITH, 1909.

CONTENTS

JANUARY

PAOB

I. ' ROYAL AND ANCIENT '....... 1

II. A NEW WHALE 8

III. PUFFINS AND RATS 11

IV. STARLINGS AND LAPWINGS 14

V. FLOWERS AND SEASONS 18

FEBRUARY

VI. THE BEST WORK ON ZOOLOGY ..... 23

VII. RAINBOW TROUT .25

VIII. THE WASTE OF LIFE 27

IX. ABYSMAL OCEAN 32

X. BIRDS BENEFICIAL AND BIRDS BANEFUL . . 33

MARCH

XI. EAGLES 41

XII. CORMORANTS ......... 42

XIII. THE YEW . 44

XIV. THE AGE OF BIRDS 50

XV. THE RINGDOVE DISEASE . . 52

viii CONTENTS

APRIL

PAGE

XVI. PROTECTIVE COLOUR 54

XVII. THE BORROWING DATS 60

XVIII. THE WATERSIDE FOR ME ! ..... 62

XIX. SPRING SALMON 66

XX. SALMON HATCHERIES — ARE THEY USEFUL? . . 68

XXI. MONTENEGRO 71

MAY

XXII. BIRCH AND BEECH ....... 98

XXIII. LONDON BIRDS ........ 103

XXIV. SPRING FLOWERS 109

XXV. FALCON AND HERON . . . . . .114

XXVI. BAD TIMES FOR PEEWITS. . . . . .115

XXVII. BIRDS FROM THE LIFE 116

XXVIII. THE KING OF THE HERRINGS 120

JUNE

XXIX. HOW YOUNG WATERHENS LEARN TO SWIM . . 125

XXX. SQUILLS ......... 126

XXXI. TWO GOOD NATURALISTS GONE . . . .129

XXXII. PARENTAL DEVOTION OF BIRDS .... 131

XXXIII. THE EVIL SUMMER OF 1907 135

XXXIV. RURAL PLACE-NAMES 138

JULY

XXXV. THE PRIMROSE FAMILY 144

XXXVI. DEATH-DEALING FLOWERS 150

XXXVII. THE LUMPSUCKER ... 155

CONTENTS ix

PAGE

XXXVIII. ANOTHER QUEER FISH . . . . . . 160

XXXIX. PLANTS TO BE AVOIDED . . . . . 162

AUGUST

XL. FARM AND GARDEN PESTS 166

XLI. THE SHELDRAKE 170

XLII. SOME BIRD PARASITES 174

XLIII. AN ISLAND PARADISE ...... 176

XLIV. HIGHLAND WILD FLOWERS . . . . .181

XLV. THE NAMELESS TARN 185

SEPTEMBER

XLVI. THE LITTLE BROWN BIRD 190

XLVII. BORROWED PLUMES 195

XLVIII. THE AMERICAN BISON . . . . . .199

XLIX. THE MEDOC ........ 203

L. A SUNLESS SUMMER ...... 211

OCTOBER

LI. THE CAUSE OF THE BIRDS 213

HI. CORD-GRASS, ........ 218

LIU. RABBITS ......... 221

LIV. TOADS ......... 226

LV. THE GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER .... 232

NOVEMBER

LVI. A MILD AUTUMN . 237

LVII. AUTUMNAL FLOWERS 239

LVIII. AUTUMNAL FOLIAGE 248

CONTENTS

PA OB

LIX. THE CRUELTY OF DOCKING HORSES .... 253

LX. A FOREIGNER OF DISTINCTION 255

LXI. SPARE THE CURLEW . . 257

DECEMBER

LXII. THE PERPETUATION OF SPECIES .... 260

LXIII. THE DEAL-FISH 263

LXIV. BELATED SWALLOWS 265

LXV. BIRD NOTES FROM EAST ANGLIA .... 267

LXVI. THE GREAT GREY SHRIKE 271

LXVII. THE LARCH 273

LXVIII. AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY LAIRD .... 278

LXIX. A WINTER STORM 302

LIST OF ILLUSTBATIONS

Frontispiece
Facing p. 90
104

A SCOTTISH GARDEN : GORDON CASTLE, .

(Photo by the Author.)

ON THE DALMATIAN COAST, .

(Photo by the Author.)

THE TERRACE TEA, .......

(Photo by the Author.)
THE AMERICAN WOOD-LILT (Trillium Grandiflorum)

AT MONREITH,

(Photo by the Hon. Gerald Legge.)

THE RESTING-PLACE OF ST. CUTHBERT, .

(Photo by the Author.)

THE NAMELESS TARN, . . ...

(Photo by Sir John Stirling Maxwell.)

112

142

186

3|anuatp

TWENTY years ago, or thereby, a small society, con-
sisting chiefly of members of Parliament and « Royai and
a few journalists from the gallery, set about A110161111'
organising a golf club and obtaining suitable ground
for links in a suburban district. At that time, if I
remember aright, there were but two courses in the
neighbourhood of London, to wit, Blackheath and
Wimbledon Common. We had the option of securing
on favourable terms the freehold of a pretty country
house with ample scope for our purpose in the park
surrounding it, whereof the proprietor, having decided
to surrender all outside the demesne to be built upon,
thereby destroying his own seclusion, desired to enhance
its value by keeping the park as an open space for the
greater amenity of the neighbourhood.

It was a radiant opportunity for the nascent club.
The mansion-house would have made an ideal club-
house, and the undulating park which it crowned, with
scattered gorse bushes, required little labour to develop
into an admirable links.

Yet we hesitated. To justify the venture we required
assurance of at least one hundred members; there

A

2 'ROYAL AND ANCIENT'

seemed no prospect of enlisting more than sixty, and
no certainty of keeping those who enlisted. Signs were
not wanting that the Southron was waking up to the
fascination of ' far-and-sure ' ; but the cycling craze,
which during two summers sent hundreds of fashion-
able folk wobbling round Battersea Park, was already
on the wane ; what if the passion for golf should prove
equally fleeting ? A hundred permanent members !
The majority of the committee decided that was too
much to expect ; golden opportunity went by, and a
lease was secured of a few fields outside the demesne.

Twenty years ago ! What have we not witnessed in
the interval ? Whereas then it was a rare occurrence
to find a leisured Londoner who could discern any
difference between a mashie and a putter, now it is the
exception to find one who is not ready to discuss all
the points in swing, the niceties of approach, and the
vices of pulling and slicing.

A Londoner, said I ? Where and what is the civilised
community to whom all the quaint vocabulary of golf
has not become as household words ? This must mean
a great deal to Mr. H. S. C. Everard, forasmuch as, had
his History of the Royal and Ancient J appeared in the
early 'eighties, his readers south of the Tweed must
have been few indeed ; whereas, being published in the
year when the championship of the United Kingdom
has been awarded to a Frenchman (1907), his volume
commands attention from all parts of the civilised
world.

1 A History of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, St. Andrews, from
1754 to 1900. By H. S. C. Everard. Edinburgh : Blackwood. 1907.

JANUARY 3

Commands it not only in virtue of the importance of
the subject (for as the M.C.C. is to cricket, so is the
Royal and Ancient to golf), but also in virtue of its
literary treatment and the admirable illustrations with
which it abounds. Mr. Everard has done full justice
to his theme in a narrative both lucid and lively, and
his publishers have incorporated it in a beautiful
volume.

In a preliminary chapter by Mr. James Cunningham,
it is admitted that, although St. Andrews is the acknow-
ledged metropolis of golf, the game is an exotic in
Scotland, having travelled thither from Holland, where
it died out at least two hundred years ago. But it had
become so firmly established four hundred and fifty
years ago as to interfere with the statutory weapon-
shaws and ' schutting at the buttes/ wherefore the
Scottish Parliament decreed that ' the fute-bal and
golfe be vtterly cryed downe and nocht vsit ' on pain
of outlawry. This notwithstanding, the game flourished,
spreading from east to west of Scotland, so that in
Queen Mary's reign St. Andrews had a vigorous off-
spring on Prestwick links. There is evidence, too, that
there were hard drivers among the westland players;
for in that delectable chronicle of misdoing, TJte Historic
of the Kennedyis, we read of the Laird of Bargany, who
died about 1578, that ' his neise was laich (nose was
flattened) be ane straik of ane goiff ball on the hills of
Air in recklesnes.' Be it remembered that balls in
those days were neither plain 'gutties,' rubber-cored,
nor even feather-stuffed, but turned in solid crab-
wood.

4 'ROYAL AND ANCIENT'

Mr. Everard traces some of the peculiar terms used
in golf, whereof the etymology has puzzled many
thinkers, to a Dutch origin. Thus he suggests that
' stymie ' represents ' stuit mij ' (pronounced ' styt my '),
which is good Dutch for ' it stops me.' ' Tuitje,' pro-
nounced ' toytee,' a small heap, appears as the modern
'tee,' and 'to putt' probably comes from the Dutch
' put,' a hole. To putt out and to hole out, therefore,
are exact synonyms.

All this, however, and much more of the same sort,
is but the garnishing to Mr. Everard's pi&ce de rtsist-
ance — the chronicle of the ' Koyal and Ancient.' The
society took its rise from a meeting of two-and-twenty
noblemen and gentlemen, who being admirers of the
' ancient and healthful exercise of the Golf/ did, on 14th
May 1754, draft formal articles and laws regulating
play. It is to this momentous document, occupying
several pages of the minute-book, still preserved in
the Club, that the modern game owes the precision of
its rules; for, although there have been many modi-
fications in minor points, the main principles remain
unchanged to this day, and every golf club, from San
Francisco eastward to Singapore, from St. Petersburg
southward to Australasia, conforms to every fresh edict
issuing from

' The little city, grey and sere,
Though shrunken from her ancient pride,
And lonely by her lonely sea.'

The orthodox number of eighteen holes, it seems, was
fixed by pure chance. There were originally twenty-
two holes on St. Andrews links, and so it continued till

JANUARY 5

1764, when the first four holes were converted into two.
Thenceforward every full course has been laid out to
correspond with Alma Mater.

It is interesting to examine the early scores recorded
in the minute-book. William St. Clair, of Roslin, whose
well-known portrait in scarlet golfing coat by Sir George
Chalmers, has been beautifully reproduced in colour as
Mr. Everard's frontispiece, won the Silver Club in 1764,
with 121 strokes for the 22 holes, which is equivalent to
99 for 18 holes. He was then sixty-four, and the perfor-
mance must be considered good — far better, probably,
than any amateur of the present day would back himself
to accomplish with the feather balls and long-headed
clubs of those times. Two years later he was to the
front again at St. Andrews with a score of 103 for the
18 holes.

'In 1768 the remarkable veteran wins again with a score
of 106 ... thus his three victories averaged 102 and a
fraction, and they were gained at the ages of sixty-four,
sixty-six, and sixty-eight. . . . When "Old Tom" won a
professional competition at the age of sixty -one, he was
looked upon as a sort of rejuvenated ^Eson, and the occur-
rence was deemed sufficiently remarkable, as indeed it was.'

In estimating the merit of St. Glair's performance,
the condition and size of putting-greens in the eigh-
teenth century must be taken into account. They can-
not have been the ample, flawless carpets which we
now insist on having, for in 1777 the council decreed
' that in time coming none of the society shall tee their
(sic) balls within less than a play-club length of the

6 'ROYAL AND ANCIENT'

hole from which they are to strike off, nor at a greater
distance than four lengths of said club from the hole.'
Imagine what would be the effect upon the greens
were this rule to be enforced now ; and there are men
still living, and perhaps playing, who remember a time
when it was operative. It certainly was so in 1855,
when Mr. George Glennie did the eighteen holes in
eighty-eight, a score which remained unbeaten till
1884. ' It is satisfactory to think that his memory
remains green ; that the Royal and Ancient have a
tangible token — a Glennie medal — which annually
recalls the name of this great player.'

Among the adversaria of the society, which had a
strong symposiac side at a period before cigarettes had
put conviviality to flight, there are recorded some
amusing bets. About the year 1830, the medal-holder
backed himself for ten pounds to play from the first
hole of St. Andrews links to the toll-bar at Cupar in
two hundred tee'd strokes, a distance of nine miles. At
first sight this seems a herculean performance, but
apparently nobody accepted the wager, the calculation
having been made that one hundred and fifty-eight
drives of no more than one hundred yards each would
cover the whole distance of 15,840 yards and leave a
good margin for divergence and topped balls.

They lived high, these heroes of a bygone age, and,
as became Scotsmen, prided themselves on the quality
of their mutton ; but of the claret which, according to
immemorial national custom, should have been the
appropriate libation, there occurs no mention. 'Let
him drink port,' the British statesman cried, a com-

JANUARY 7

mand which frequent entries like the following show
to have been readily obeyed :

' Mr. Bruce of Grangemuir bets that he will produce a leg
of mutton against the September meeting of the Club
superior to one to be produced by Mr. Haig of Seggie, for a
magnum of port to the Club. Taken by Mr. Haig.

' Mr. Bruce also bets that he will produce at the December
meeting next a leg of white-faced mutton superior to one to
be produced by Mr. Glass, Kinaldy, for a magnum of port.
Taken by Mr. Glass.

' The Captain bets that he will produce a ham superior to
one to be produced by Mr. Bruce against the next meeting
for a magnum of port. Taken by Mr. Bruce.'

Not only, then, to the broad sunlight and the keen
breath of the German Ocean must be attributed the
fine Venetian complexions of the notabilities whose
portraits, finely reproduced by the three-colour process,
adorn and enliven Mr. Everard's pages.

'^Itas parentum, pejor avis, tulit
Nos nequiores.'

Few of our feebler generation would present a very
brave appearance on the links on the morrow of an
encounter with those big-bellied magnums ; fewer still
are those whose heads could endure the burden of
the portentous chimney-pot hats, which appear to have
been deemed as indispensable a part of the general
sportsman's costume seventy years ago, as they remain
to this day, strange to say, in that of the fashionable
fox-hunter. It deepens veneration for the physical
prowess of our grandsires to know that they disdained
to sacrifice dignity to comfort by donning democratic

8 A NEW WHALE

flannel shirts and socialist soft caps; adding to the
innumerable difficulties of the game by playing in high
stocks, ' Gladstone ' collars and unbending ' toppers.'
Noblesse oblige : and in days when men played cricket,
went fly-fishing, and even deer-stalking, in what the
Scots caddie calls a ' lum ha-at,' it would never have
done for members of the Royal and Ancient to have
shrunk from the universal test of 'noblemen and
gentlemen.'

I thank you, Mr. Everard, for a most agreeable hour
spent in conning your chronicle, and for the excellent
judgment with which you have caused to be reproduced
the likenesses of notable golfers of an elder age. Our
sense of portraiture has been sadly blunted by the
relentless camera which reveals nothing but the skin-
deep. It requires such brush and pencil work as is
here reproduced to bring back to us the personalities
of the past, recreating the impression they made on
the senses of a competent painter.

II

Rumours of an Antarctic whale, unknown to science,

A New nave reached this country from time to time,

whale exciting interest, tinged with scepticism,

among European naturalists. These rumours have been

amply confirmed by Mr. E. A. Wilson, naturalist to the

recent Discovery expedition. On January 28, 1902,

three of these whales, easily recognised by the high

and narrow back fin, were seen off Ross's great ice

barrier, and four others on February 8 following.

JANUARY 9

They were not large, as whales go, measuring only
between twenty and thirty feet in length, with short
blunt muzzles, black above and white below, the
characteristic fin standing three or four feet above
the back. Mr. Wilson assigns this new whale to the
Mystacoceti — the baleen or whalebone group of cetaceans
— and considers that it will prove to constitute a new
genus.

It is to our grief that Sir William Flower is no
longer among us to share the interest in this discovery.
Deep and catholic as was his affection for all living
creatures, he made the whales his peculiar care, and
sorrowfully foresaw their approaching extinction.

' For countless centuries (he said in a lecture to the Royal
Institution in 1883), impulses from within and the force of
circumstances from without have been gradually shaping the
whales into their present wonderful form and gigantic size ;
but the very perfection of their structure and their magnitude
combined, the rich supply of oil protecting their internal
parts from cold, the beautiful apparatus of whalebone by
which their nutrition is provided for, have been fatal gifts,
which, under the sudden revolution produced on the surface
of the globe by the development of the wants and arts of
civilised man, cannot but lead in a few years to their partial,
if not complete, extinction.'

While Sir William Flower held that the evidence
was ' absolutely conclusive ' that whales represent the
adaptation of a terrestrial mammal to an aquatic
existence, he was equally firmly convinced that they
are not descended, like seals and walruses, from the
Carnivores, but that they exhibit affinities with the
Ungulates. True that none of the cetaceans are

10 A NEW WHALE

vegetarian, but Sir William Flower believed that
primitive Ungulates were omnivorous, as their least
modified descendants, the pigs, remain to this day.
Treacherous and misleading as is most popular zoology,
he considered that it was a true flash of intelligence
which caused sailors and fisher-folk to give to the
commoner and smaller cetaceans such names as Sea-
hog, Sea-pig, and Herring-hog. The French also, not
content with lending us porc-poisson to shorten into
'porpoise' have in turn borrowed meerschwein from
the Germans, and altered it to marsouin to denote
pig-fish or porpoise.

' We may conclude (said Sir William Flower), by picturing
to ourselves some primitive, generalised, marsh-haunting
animals with scanty covering of hair like the modern hippo-
potamus, but with broad swimming tails and short limbs,
omnivorous in their mode of feeding, probably combining
water-plants with mussels, worms, and fresh- water crustaceans,
gradually becoming more and more adapted to fill the void
place ready for them on the aquatic side of the borderland
on which they dwelt, and so by degrees being modified
into dolphin-like creatures inhabiting lakes and rivers, and
ultimately finding their way into the ocean. . . . Favoured
by various conditions of temperature and climate, wealth of
food-supply, almost complete immunity from deadly enemies,
and illimitable expanses in which to roam, they have under-
gone the various modifications at which the cetacean type
has now arrived, and gradually attained that colossal magni-
tude which was not always an attribute of the animals of this
group.'

Still, evolution has its limitations, and although a
March brown or a Mayfly changes in the twinkling of

JANUARY 11

an eye from a water-breathing animal to an air-breather,
tens of thousands of years have not sufficed so to
alter the respiratory system of aquatic mammals as
to exempt them from the necessity of coming to the
surface to breathe, thereby exposing themselves fatally
to assault by restless, ruthless man.

Ill

It is good to note that the example set by the
British Parliament in passing legislation for mans and
the protection of rare or desirable birds is Kats
being followed by colonial legislatures. The attention
of the Tasmanian Government has been called recently
to the enormous destruction of mutton-birds, a species
of shearwater (Puffinus tenuirostris), which has been
going on at an accelerated rate for some years past on
the Furneaux Islands, a group lying between Tasmania
and Victoria. Already a kindred species, Puffinus
brevicauda, which used to breed in vast numbers on
islands in Bass's Strait, has been all but exterminated,
owing to the ruthless way in which the colony was
devastated. Professor Newton recorded 60,000 breeding
birds having been taken there in a single season. It
is only in the breeding season that these birds are
marketable for their fat, 'the young,' as Gould de-
scribed them seventy years ago, 'being literally one
mass of fat, which has a tallowy appearance.' The
figures quoted by Newton sink into insignificance
compared with those supplied to his Government by
the Commissioner of Police in Launceston (Tasmania),

12 PUFFINS AND RATS

representing the numbers of mutton-birds landed in
that port during the last five seasons, namely : —

1904, . . 379,804

1905, . . 459,094

1907, . . 572,671

1908, ,» . 636,592

1906, . . 493,777

It will be noted how rapidly progressive these figures
are, and how impossible it is that any species, however
prolific, can survive long such wholesale destruction at
the most critical period of their existence. Luckily,
the Tasmanian Government is fully apprised of the
commercial importance of mutton-birds. Reserves
have already been established; licences have been
imposed for killing the birds, and further measures of
restriction are in contemplation. It is said, also, that
probably an attempt will be made to restore the old
and exhausted colonies in Bass's Strait.

Seeing how practicable it is for man to wipe out
whole races of innocuous and desirable creatures, it is
surely greatly to be wished that efforts should be concen-
trated upon the extermination of hurtful and unclean
animals. Sir James Crichton Browne and others have
proclaimed (1909), and are endeavouring to organise, a
most laudable crusade against rats. More power to
them ! Our insular position gives us an advantage
against these most undesirable aliens; and although
homeward-bound ships will continue to replenish the
race, it should be quite possible to rid ourselves, at all
events, of the unclean hordes which we have allowed to
pollute our dwellings and impoverish our stores.

We have grown so accustomed to the presence of
these detestable rodents that most people, if they ever

JANUARY 13

give the matter a thought, regard them as true natives.
It may surprise them to be reminded that a couple of
centuries ago there was not a brown rat in the British
Isles, and that brown rats and rabbits, the two most
destructive mammals in our land, are both imported
species. Where the brown rat originally came from
has been the subject of much discussion. Just as the
Spanish peninsula appears to have been the original
habitat of the rabbit, so the brown rat seems to have
spread outwards from Western Mongolia. Good
Jacobites used to attribute their introduction to the
Hanoverian dynasty, and indeed they were not far
wrong in the matter of synchrony, for the earliest
appearance of brown rats in England is noted early in
the eighteenth century. They seem, however, not to
have reached Scotland until some years after the
Stuart star had set for ever at Culloden in 1746. The
foreign origin of this species is commemorated in the
popular English name, ' Norway rat,' while in Ireland
it is known as luuch franncach, the French mouse ; but
the utmost that Hanover, Norway, and France can
have done is to have passed on to us the pest which
had already overrun them from the Orient. Indeed,
the Prussian naturalist Pallas (1741-1811) was of
opinion that these creatures did not enter Europe
before 1727, when there was a notable western exodus
of them from Asia, and when they first succeeded in
crossing the Volga. Considering, however, the ease
with which these brutes are transported in ship cargoes,
it is impossible to fix the exact date of their first
arrival in a maritime country like this ; and all that

14 STARLINGS AND LAPWINGS

may be safely affirmed is that they were unknown in
the British Isles previous to the eighteenth century.
Anyhow, the brown rat has prevailed within the
space of two centuries almost to exterminate the less
powerful, less objectionable black rat, which swarmed
in all parts of this country before its arrival. Mr.
Millais pronounces the black rat to be practically
extinct in all our inland districts, though it is still to
be found sparingly in seaports, which he attributes to
fresh importation in ships from foreign ports.

While I am on the subject of rodents, let me impart
to my fellow-gardeners a useful wrinkle which I picked
up lately from a friendly newspaper. My flower
garden has been infested for two seasons (ever since the
disappearance of a pair of stoats) by long- tailed field
mice. The destruction wrought by these little devils
among bulbs and alpine plants has been heartrending ;
but in the last three months their numbers have been
greatly reduced by the simple expedient of placing in
their haunts wide-mouthed jars, half-filled with water,
and buried so that the rims are flush with the ground-
surface. The mice fall in and can't get out. Some
hundreds have been killed in this way.

IV

Perhaps no wild bird has increased so much in
starlings numbers within living recollection as the
and Lap- starling. When I was a schoolboy, its pale
wings blue eggs were considered in the south of
Scotland, if not a rarity, at all events among the less

JANUARY 15

common prizes. It is far otherwise now. There are
few cultivated districts in the United Kingdom where
starlings do not nest in numbers, collecting in immense
flocks in autumn to feed in company with plovers and
other insectivorous birds.

It must be owned that the popularity of the starling
has not kept pace with the numerical increase of the
species. Individually, there is no more engaging bird.
To the nimble wit and cautious intelligence of the rest
of the Corvidce, or crow family, is united in this prettily-
spangled creature a knack of mimicry; so that in
listening to the conversation of a pair of starlings
seated on a chimney -top in midwinter one may
recognise a medley of sounds uttered by other birds
during the bygone summer — the wail of a curlew, the
flurried pipe of the redshank, the clucking of the coot,
snatches of melody learnt from song-birds, and so on.
But, collectively, starlings are not favourites with many
people. Their roosting - places become abominably
dirty and malodorous, so that it often is necessary in
self-defence to oust them from shrubberies in which
they have established a dormitory. From many a
dovecot have the legitimate occupants been expelled
by the intrusion of these irrepressible creatures :
market gardeners complain of depredations on ripe
fruit, and even farmers eye with suspicion the opera-
tion of large flocks of these birds upon their fields.

Nevertheless one should balance good against evil
before passing judgment upon any creature. In the
case of the starlings, all naturalists are agreed that the
good outweighs the evil, owing to the enormous

16 STARLINGS AND LAPWINGS

quantity of insects destroyed by these diligent hunters.
In the Zoologist for October Mr. Arthur Patterson has
the following note from the Fen country confirming
this fact : —

'On September 18th hundreds of starlings were busily
feeding and squabbling on a low part of Breydon Marsh,
smothered with the purple Michaelmas daisy. A gunner,
who let fly two barrels into them, secured two dozen, mostly
young birds with dingy brown heads. Being interested to
know for what purpose they had concentrated, I purchased
a number and dissected them, finding their gizzards crammed
with a mass of matted stuff resembling cocoa-nut fibre,
which on separating resolved itself into scores of legs of
the daddy-long-legs (Tipula). The softer bodies and the
wings were reduced to an indefinable pulp.'

Now these birds could not have been occupied more
beneficially in the interest of neighbouring farmers.
Every female among the swarms of Tipulce would, if
spared, have become the parent of a brood of leather-
grubs, than which there is not a more destructive pest
on arable or pasture land. It lives for three years
underground, devouring the roots of grass and other
valuable plants. We persecute the moles, which are
the natural police against Tipulce in the larval stage ;
should we not then be grateful to the starlings which
destroy the perfect insect before it can found a new
generation of leather-grubs ?

Luckily in this country we do not regard the starling
as edible ; at least, I should be very sorry to attempt
to make my luncheon on starling pie. But there is
another bird, equally industrious in ridding the farm

JANUARY 17

of insect pests and with no fruit or grain-eating pro-
pensities whatever, which we allow to be slain each
year in increasing numbers. Already in poulterers'
shops, not of the first class, may be seen strings of
lapwings exposed for sale, and this will continue till far
on in next spring. May I make my annual protest
against this mischievous traffic? Great Britain has
held aloof from the convention of Continental States
formed for the protection of birds useful to agriculture.
King Edward's Government assumed this attitude on the
ground that Parliament had already effected by legisla-
tion most of the objects which the Convention has in
view. But the continued slaughter of lapwings is
altogether at variance with — nay, is in direct opposi-
tion to — the main provisions of the Convention. It is
true that powers have been conferred upon county
councils enabling them to prohibit the killing, capture,
or exposure for sale of lapwings or any other kind of
bird at any or every season ; but so long as these
powers are not exercised, this senseless slaughter will
go on, because, unhappily, there is a ready market for
the carcasses of these useful birds. People whose
palates are so gross as to be gratified by the flesh of
carnivorous birds eat lapwings greedily enough. Why
not compel them to be content with their eggs ? — seeing
that every lapwing destroyed means the preservation of
hundreds of noxious insects, such as leather-grubs,
wireworms, click-beetles, caterpillars, and the like.

18 FLOWERS AND SEASONS

V

To the Venerable Bede must be assigned credit as
Flowers being the first to call attention in literature
and to the error in the Julian calendar, arising
seasons £rom negject to ta^e mto acc0unt the anticipa-
tion of the equinoxes. Writing in the eighth century,
he pointed out that the divergence of the true equinox,
as fixed on March 21 by the Council of Nice in A.D.
325, had already in the year 730 caused the calendar to
fall three days behind the season. ' Vox clamantis hi
deserto ' : nobody paid any attention to the warning
of the erudite, but obscure, priest of Jarrow. Five
hundred years later two other Englishmen reopened
the question, namely, John of Halifax (Johannes de
Sacro-bosco) and the Franciscan Roger Bacon, showing
that the error had increased to seven or eight days;
but these also failed to gain the Pope's ear. Two more
centuries slipped away before Pope Sextus iv. com-
mitted the question of reform to the astronomer
Regiomontanus, which had the effect of concentrating
mathematical inquiry upon the problem ; and at last,
in March 1582, Pope Gregory xm. issued a brief to the
States of Europe, substituting what is known as the
Gregorian, or New Style, calendar for the Julian, or
Old Style.

Use and wont died hard in England. The Scottish
Government adopted the New Style in the year 1600 ;
but in England prejudice against any change prevailed
till 1751, by which time the difference in the styles
amounted to eleven days. In the present century this

JANUARY 19

difference has increased to thirteen days. If it seems
strange to us that a great commercial nation like
Russia, in common with all States recognising officially
the Greek hierarchy, should be content with the incon-
venience of lagging nearly a fortnight behind the rest
of the civilised world, we have only to reflect upon our
own obstinacy in refusing to accept the decimal system
in our coinage and mensuration.

The reader may ask what on earth all this has to do
with the heading of this paper. Well, this much —
that all our ancient weather-saws apply, not to the
seasons as they are now marked off in our calendar,
but to the seasons of centuries ago, when they were
several days in retard. One often hears it remarked
that we seldom have an old-fashioned Christmas of the
traditional snowy type; but Christmas, according to
Old Style, now falls on what is January 7th in our
reckoning — that is, in the very coldest part of the
year ; wherefore we must not test the truth of the
proverb, ' A green Yule makes a full kirkyard ' by the
effect of open weather at Christmas time, but watch
the result of a dripping January, which is apt to be
avenged by fierce cold in February and March, and
that is what sets the sexton to work overtime. Our
sires would never have sanctioned so inept a saying as
that wet and warmth in December heightened the
bills of mortality.

So, again, all prognostications of the consequences of
rain or shine on St. Swithin's Day are vitiated by un-
certainty about the age of the saying; for the differ-
ence between the Julian and Gregorian calendars has

20 FLOWERS AND SEASONS

been, and is, progressive. In the eighth century it
amounted only to three days ; in the thirteenth to
eight; in the seventeenth to ten; in the eighteenth
to eleven; in the nineteenth to twelve; and in the
present century, as aforesaid, to thirteen days. One old
saw, however, seems to fit altered dates as accurately as
of yore, namely, that which warns us that if March
comes in like a lamb, it will go out like a lion. Also,
March winds and April showers still bring forth May
flowers; but how often and how grievously modern
May Day belies the tradition which bids maids go
forth at sunrise to prove the cosmetic virtue of the
first May dew! Again, May blossom and May flies
belong much more to June than to May. I have
lately been editing the annals of a famous south-
country fishing club, covering a period of more than
eighty years. These are greatly enhanced in interest
by the diligence wherewith the members of the club
have noted annually the reappearance of migratory
birds and the first rise of aquatic insects. It is true
that a few May flies were generally seen during the last
days of May, but the rise never attained its height
before the first or second week in June, which, accord-
ing to the Julian calendar, would still be reckoned in
May. The moral of all this is that in comparing the
present character of the seasons with that of bygone
centuries, due allowance should be made for the altered
style.

Meanwhile, early flowers are beginning their carnival
without regard to human calendars. Snowdrops,
usually the earliest harbingers, were late this year. I

JANUARY 21

once gathered the first on December 19, but this
season they put in no appearance till January 10, allow-
ing themselves to be anticipated by the charming little
winter aconite and the Carpathian snowflake. The last-
named flower only requires to be better known in order to
be oftener planted. Its full-dress name is Leucoium
vernum carpathicum ; although probably only a geo-
graphical variety of the common spring snowflake, it
is a very distinct and desirable thing, flowering a
month earlier than the other, and carrying two
blossoms on the stem instead of one. Bearing a
general resemblance to the snowdrop, and rivalling it
in milk-white purity, it is more ornate in form, and its
beauty is enhanced by its fragrance and the richness
of its golden anthers.

Of the vast family of rockfoils, the earliest is
Saxifraga Burseriana, with pure white flowers on
ruddy stems, springing from close, prickly cushions of
the green known to painters as terra verte. Closely
following comes a garden hybrid, Saxifraga apiculata,
with bright grass-green pads thickly set with sprays of
sulphur-yellow blooms. It is the offspring of the
deeper yellow S. sancta, so called in allusion to its
native Mount Athos of monastic fame. But among
the earliest rockfoils none strikes a higher note
than the strange little S. Griesbachi, one of the
encrusted section. This requires some special
attention. Very impatient of stagnant moisture, it
should be packed closely between stones on a steep
bank or retaining wall, with some old mortar rubbish
and grit mixed with the soil, in a position to catch

22 FLOWERS AND SEASONS

every ray of sunshine. So placed, it will soon form a
compact colony of silvery rosettes, some of which,
about Christmas time, will begin to rise in a crimson
cone from the centre. The cone grows slowly, quite
regardless of frost, till it assumes the form of a column
thickly set with bracts, the colour getting more intense
as the flower buds develop. For full two months it
gleams, a vivid ray of carmine, amid the grey stones,
and finally flowers when about four inches high.
Having now white, sulphur, golden yellow, and carmine
supplied by rockfoils alone, for blue and purple we
must turn to other families, which supply these tints
in great abundance. For intense dark violet nothing
can match the netted iris (/. reticulata), whereof the
rich colour is greatly enhanced by a spark of brilliant
orange upon each fall. Iris histrio gives light blue;
so does the Apennine anemone, of which the variety
called blanda is the earliest ; and, of course, everybody
can furnish their borders with crocus, hepatica, and
spring cyclamens. Everybody does not do so, however,
thereby forfeiting much of the legitimate delight of a
garden, which is never so exciting as in the months
' before the swallows dare.'

jfeforuarp

VI

THE publication of the ninth and penultimate volume
of the Cambridge Natural History (London : The toest
Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1899) marks the work on
approaching end of a work containing the Zoolosy
condensation of such an amount of research and the
harvest of so many intellects as to deserve a word of
grateful recognition. The series is the field naturalist's
indispensable vade mecum, or, to speak more accurately,
work of reference ; for it would be inconvenient to
move about with ten volumes, each of 650 pages. The
different groups of animated nature have been com-
mitted to the care of specialists in each ; and the result
is a compendium wherein every branch of zoology is
brought well up to date. Man, being an arrogant and
self-confident mammal, may demur to the place
assigned to him in the scale of life by modern science.
If he turns to the volume on ' Mammalia,' he will find
himself at the top of the class still, which is satis-
factory so far ; but there is a sinister creature which
receives a proxime accessit, treading uncomfortably
close upon genuine human heels.

24 THE BEST WOKK ON ZOOLOGY

Luckily, this animal, presumably truculent, is only
known now in a fossil and highly fragmentary con-
dition and, as his presence has not yet been detected
in British territory, it may be assumed that he
will not claim representation at the coming Colonial
Conference.

When Haeckel defined the gap between man and
other mammals, he gave the name of Pithecanthropus,
or Ape-man, to a hypothetical creature which must
have filled it once ; since which M. Dubois has dis-
covered remains of the missing link in the Pliocene or
early Pleistocene deposits of Java. Part of a skull,
two teeth, and one thigh-bone, badly diseased, scarcely
suffice to decide whether their late owner should be
admitted to the Hominidce or Man family or relegated
to the Simiidce, or Ape family. Meanwhile, men of
science have given themselves and us the benefit of
the doubt. According to modern classification, the
Hominidce consist of a single genus, and that genus of a
single species, Homo sapiens, Man the Wise. Without
disputing the universal fitness of the epithet ' wise,' one
may reflect complacently that poor relatives are very
troublesome, and that it is well for our nearest, the
gorilla, to be kept in his place. Some consolation, also,
may be derived from a sentence in Mr. Beddard's
learned contribution to the Cambridge Natural His-
tory. Speaking of the great throat pouches which
enable the gorilla to produce appalling howls, he gives
a figure of the human larynx, showing traces which
' remain to testify to a former howling apparatus
in the ancestors of man.' Blessed be that saving

FEBEUARY

word ' former,' else what might not the present House
of Commons become on occasions !

VII

Passing a London fishmonger's shop one day in
February 1908, my attention was drawn to a Rainbow
beautiful rainbow trout, between two and three Trout
pounds in weight, in the pink of condition. Upon
inquiring whence it had come, I was assured by an
intelligent young man in charge that it had been taken
in the nets from the tidal waters of the Aberdeenshire
Dee. This goes to confirm the evasive character
earned by these lovely fish. When rainbow trout were
first introduced into this country a few years ago, we
anglers thought that we had done with the old British
brown trout for first-class sport. The newcomers grew
so fast, and so far outshone the native race in lustre
and excelled them in grace as to make them look quite
shabby by comparison. But, as time went on, the fair
promise was belied. True that rainbows reach a weight
of two or three pounds in as many seasons, taking the
fly boldly, and fighting most gamely when hooked ; but
after attaining that size they vanish. Their destina-
tion is now becoming known; they go to the sea.
American icthyologists have long suspected that rain-
bows are not an adult species, but young specimens of
the steel-head salmon, a regular sea-going creature.
Quite consistent with this idea is the capture of these
fish in salt water, which has happened in more than

26 KAINBOW TROUT

one place. For instance, during five consecutive years
a large number of rainbows were turned into the
Bandon river, co. Cork. None is known to remain
there now, but many have been taken in the salmon
nets in the estuary, weighing from two to six pounds.
Mr. Brandreth has made sustained attempts to stock
the Welsh river Lledr with rainbows, and has ex-
perienced a like result. So anglers may rest assured
that, for permanent satisfactory results in stocking,
there is nothing to equal the British river trout,
although rainbows afford pretty sport as adolescents.

*****
Since writing the above note, I have made acquaint-
ance with a river where rainbow trout have become thor-
oughly established, being already as numerous as the
native Salmofario,smd showing every prospect of becom-
ing the dominant race. Rainbows were turned into the
Tamar some years ago by the Duke of Bedford, and now
swarm in that lovely stream, albeit the course to the
sea is quite open to them did they care to take it.
They do not seem to grow to any great size ; none of
those which I took in two or three evenings' fishing
weighed more than three or four ounces. But to show
me what magnificent creatures rainbow trout may
become, the duke had one of the stews in the park at
Endsleigh netted. The rainbows there had been
liberally hand fed, and had grown into magnificent
creatures — five, six, and seven pounds in weight — of
perfect symmetry and gorgeous colour.

FEBRUARY 27

VIII

Among all the green things of the earth, Cynoches
chlorochilon ought to be in least danger of The waste
extermination. I believe it belongs to the ofLife
Orchid family, whether possessed of ornamental or
other merits I know not ; but I learn from the Kew
Bulletin (No. 4, 1909) that Dr. Scott has been at the
pains to count the seeds contained in a single capsule
of this plant, and has brought out the astonishing total
of close upon four millions. One may quote such
figures glibly enough ; but how many intellects have
been trained to grasp the significance of a million ?
Dr. Edward Tylor makes us smile at some instances
of primitive arithmetic, which he quotes in his fascin-
ating work on Primitive Culture ; as, for instance, when
the natives of Kamchatka were set to count, they
managed to get as far as twenty, by reckoning up their
fingers and toes, and then would ask, 'What are we to
do next?' School boards have rubbed into most of
our people a tolerably clear sense of a few thousands,
but most of us talk of a million without even an
approximate comprehension of the proportion borne
by one thousand thousands to more digestible numbers.
Practically the number of seeds produced by a single
plant of this Cynoches is indistinguishable from infinity
by one who is not a trained mathematician.

Some of our native plants perform wonderful feats in
fecundity. Darwin reckoned the contents of a single
capsule of the common spotted orchis (0. maculata)
at about 6200 seeds; but he was told by F. Mueller

28 THE WASTE OF LIFE

about a Brazilian Maxillaria that held 1,758,440 seeds
in a capsule. When one reflects that each one of these
minute bodies contains a vital spark, to be speedily
extinguished in all but an infinitesimal percentage of
them, one cannot but wonder at the prodigality of
nature in dealing with such a precious principle.
Why should the parent plant be summoned to the
prodigious effort of producing millions of living organ-
isms, whereof 999 out of every 1000 are destined
to die on the threshold, or, after crossing it, to be
smothered in infancy ?

It is the old story: the General Manager takes no
account of life, whereby we set so much store, and are
taught to regard the purposeless waste thereof as sin-
ful. Only for the perpetuation of the race is elaborate
machinery provided. Plants are enabled to hold their
own in the struggle for existence by producing, either
immense numbers of defenceless seeds, or comparatively
few seeds in protective envelopes. Some families, like
the pines, have it both ways, bearing numerous seeds,
and not only provide them with a fence of extra-
ordinary complexity and strength — the cone — but
furnish each seed with a membraneous wing to secure
its transport by the breeze to a suitable resting-place.
As a result, coniferous trees formed by far the most
extensive and continuous forests of the northern tem-
perate zone, until they were obliterated over vast tracts
by reckless lumbering.

A curious instance occurs in the Californian ' obispo '
or bishop pine (Pinus inuricata), whereof the cones are
intensely hard, and are armed with stout, sharp, curved

FEBRUARY 29

spines, defying attack from the most intrepid squirrel.
The defences, indeed, are almost too effective. So
securely are the seeds locked up in the prickly cones,
that it is believed a forest fire is the only natural
agency that prevails to liberate them. At all events,
the cones never fall from the tree, but remain on the
branches during its entire life, without opening for
many years, the living seeds biding their time within.
Moreover, special provision has been made for their
incarceration alive. If it were possible for the cones
of a Scots or a Weymouth pine to remain on the
branches, they would become imbedded in the wood
of the branches; but the obispo manages to keep its
cones outside all the time. You may see any day
a specimen of this ugly, inhospitable tree at Kew, with
all the cones produced in the last five-and-twenty or
thirty years set in whorls upon its branches.

The bishop pine defends its seeds by main force, as it
were ; weaker plants resort to various kinds of strata-
gem. Thus the Brazilian Cardamine chenopodifolia,
a near relative of the common lady's-smock or cuckoo-
flower of English meadows, produces two sets of pods,
one in the ordinary way, at the end of the flower stalks,
and another set underground. The seeds in the upper
pods are as numerous as those usually borne by the
common cardamine, and take their chance of finding
a place where they can germinate ; but those in the
subterranean pods are sown by the parent plant in the
place where they are meant to grow, reminding one
of those Christians, denounced by stern divines, who
try to make the best of both worlds.

30 THE WASTE OF LIFE

There is a fair analogy traceable between the spawn
of fishes and the seeds of plants, not only in the fact
that both are detached from the parent in an inert
condition and left to take their chances of development,
but in the provision of special means of defence for
such spawn or seed as is produced in sparing quantity,
and in the defenceless condition of spawn or seed pro-
duced in enormous quantity.

As many as 7,635,000 ova have been counted in the
roe of a single sturgeon, 3,500,000 in that of a halibut,
and 9,344,000 in that of a cod. It is not contemplated
that more than an exceedingly small percentage of
these eggs should ever arrive at adolescence ; they are
therefore left absolutely defenceless at the mercy of
the ocean currents. On the other hand, the skate lays
only a few eggs, which are shed in pairs, each egg being
enclosed in a rectangular purse three or four inches
long, formed of a substance like leather, or, when dry,
of horn, affording perfect protection to the embryo
within. I do not know that even the cuttle-fish is able
to penetrate this singular defence.

As in the ova of fishes, so in the seeds of plants,
the size of the ova or seed is no guide to that
of the fish or plant to be hatched from it. The
ova of the stickle-back is many times larger than
that of a codfish, and it would take a hundred
seeds of one of the mammoth trees of Mariposa
(Sequoia gigantea) to form the bulk of a single peach
stone.

Fishes, with very few exceptions, divest themselves
of all responsibility for their offspring as soon as the

FEBRUARY 31

spawn is shed ; and plants, being stationary, are pro-
vided with endless devices for projecting their seed
or getting them carried as far away from themselves
as possible. Very different is the behaviour of most
birds, which show an intense solicitude for their fledg-
lings, but regard their eggs with comparative indiffer-
ence. Nothing is easier than to cause a partridge to
desert a dozen or fourteen eggs, which, one would
suppose, must have cost her some trouble to produce
and have been the source of legitimate pride to her.
It does not require very much provocation to make
her leave them for good, as if she thought ' Lots more
where those came from/ and goes off to lay a second
clutch. But, once the chicks are hatched, who so
anxious and pertinacious a guardian as she ?

A friend has described to me a pretty little drama
he witnessed last year. Coming suddenly round the
sunny corner of a field, he disturbed a pair of par-
tridges with their brood. The cock bird flew at
him and struck his boot repeatedly, while the hen
gathered her chicks out of the herbage, being able,
apparently, to count them, for it was some time before
all of them obeyed her summons, and she did not begin
to move off until the last chick appeared. Then she
led them away, her mate remaining on guard, from
time to time renewing his attack on the intrusive boot
until his family had withdrawn to a safe distance. My
friend weighs about 12 stone, equal to 168 Ib. ; the
partridge, I suppose, weighs about 1 Ib. Imagine the
stoutness of the creature's spirit — the warmth of his
devotion to wife and family, which nerved him for

32 ABYSMAL OCEAN

unarmed attack upon a monster one hundred and sixty-
eight times his size !

IX

Imagination is powerfully stirred when we reflect
Abysmal upon the vast abyss of the Atlantic teem-
ocean jng with innumerable forms of life in its

darkest recesses, and the adaptation to their environ-
ment of creatures having their abode under such an
enormous hydraulic pressure is among the most re-
markable phenomena in nature. Howbeit, deep water
does not always imply the presence of living creatures.
The Dead Sea may be written off as lifeless, so intensely
saline has evaporation rendered its waters, dissipating
them at a greater rate than the Jordan can pour them
in, so that the surface of this Lake of Sodom is actually
1308 feet below sea-level. But the Black Sea, com-
municating with the Mediterranean, and so with the
teeming Atlantic, might be expected to provide food
and lodging for numberless forms of deep-water life.
That is not the case, however. The greatest depth of
the Black Sea is 1227 fathoms, about equal to the
height of the Julier and Albula passes in the Rhsetian
Alps; but the whole volume, beneath the hundred
fathom level, is so densely impregnated with sul-
phuretted hydrogen and carbonate of ammonia as to
be practically lifeless, everything except a few bacteria
(which are low vegetable organisms) being poisoned by
the fumes. This state of matters has been explained,
whether hypothetical^ or otherwise readers must

FEBRUARY 33

decide, as the result of the absence from the Euxine
basin of certain animals which act as scavengers in
other seas. Creatures dying in the upper and life-
bearing stratum of water, and carcasses falling into the
sea or floating down the rivers, sink into the depths
and speedily generate these poisonous gases. The
Black Sea, therefore, presents the spectacle, probably
unique in our globe, of an immense mass of salt water,
sustaining abundant life in a comparatively thin upper
layer, suspended above a profound and silent chamber
of death.

A good deal of fresh light has been thrown of
late years upon the habits and propensities .^ Ben
of certain species of birds, and there can be ficiai and
no doubt that knowledge about them is Birds z&ILe-
both more general and more accurate than
it was a quarter of a century ago. It is the exception
nowadays to hear of the insectivorous nightjar being
persecuted in England in the preposterous belief,
almost universally prevalent since the days of Aristotle
and Pliny, that it sucks the milk of cows and goats ;
or of the equally harmless yellow bunting being caught
and tormented to death because of the disgraceful
tradition, long current in southern Scotland, that this
delightful and wholly innocuous bird is of the devil's
special brood, intent upon disseminating disease among
human beings and cattle. It is good to get rid of such
myths as these, which are equally discreditable to our
c

34 BIRDS BENEFICIAL AND BIRDS BANEFUL

common intelligence and humaneness; but it is mis-
chievous to run to the other extreme in attempting
to whitewash characters of dubious integrity. Some
writers even spoil a good case by special pleading on
behalf of notorious marauders.

That is the blemish in M. Otto Herman's book on
Birds Useful and Birds Harmful,1 which Miss J. A.
Owen has translated and done something to adapt to
British conditions of crop and climate. For instance,
opinion among practical and unbiassed observers of the
habits of the common rook is divided as to whether it
does more harm or good to the farmer by its mixed
diet. My own view is that the balance of good and ill
varies in different districts. Much depends upon en-
vironment. I have seen immense flocks of rooks
streaming into treeless Caithness from oversea during
the winter months, alighting in the stack-yards, tearing
great holes in the attenuated corn-stacks, in which the
snow lodges, and, thawing, destroys a immense quantity
of grain besides what these black brigands consume.
Some such spectacle as this may have prompted
Linnaeus, not prone to give misleading titles, to name
the rook Corvus frugilegus, the corn-gatherer. The
late Professor Newton, always inclined to give any bird
the benefit of a doubt, could not make up his mind upon
the evidence, and pronounced it to be ' eminently dis-
creditable to the numerous agricultural societies of the
United Kingdom' that the question had not been
settled long ago by systematic observation. No such

1 Birds Useful and Birds Harmful. By Otto Herman and J. A.
Owen. Manchester : University Press. 1909.

FEBRUARY 35

doubts are allowed to affect the verdict of M. Herman
and Miss Owen, who affirm boldly that ' the harm done
is outweighed a thousandfold by the good which rooks
do in the destruction of insects.' Hm ! a thousandfold
is a good lot, isn't it ?

Still more is one made to pause before accepting
the guidance of these writers by their advocacy of the
hooded crow, to which they give a place among birds
'chiefly useful/ Now, of all the fowls of the air,
probably none is less entitled to consideration than the
hooded and the carrion crows. M. Herman admits that
the first steals chickens, kills leverets, robs nests, destroys
young maize, devours fruit and quantities of young
game. But then, says the special pleader, as to
chickens — ' the good mother-hen flies at the marauder
and raises a cry that brings out the good people of the
house . . . and the crow has to beat a retreat ... or
run the risk of having a wing broken by a stone, a
rolling-pin, or other missile.' And so on through all
the list of admitted misdemeanours, against which is
to be set the fact that the culprit will eat worms, grubs,
insects, and mice. This is the sort of mischievous
nonsense that defeats its own purpose, for people who
read such flimsy excuses for notorious evil-doers will
incline to be sceptical about the virtues rightly attri-
buted to such vigilant police as the plover, the cuckoo,
and other soft-billed birds.

All the more strange is it that these writers, who
plead for the protection of rapacious vermin, should
denounce one of the most valuable and beautiful of our
waterfowl.

36 BIRDS BENEFICIAL AND BIRDS BANEFUL

'When the shoveller comes to a spawning-bed, in its
voracity it destroys the young fish in thousands before they
are fully hatched. Thus it is a great pest to fishermen, and
it is therefore fortunate that this bird belongs to the rarer
species.'

This is evidently written from a German point of
view, for in Germany and Hungary carp and other
coarse fish are bred and fed for the table. No
objection can be made to shoveller ducks in Great
Britain, for they do not frequent sharp-running streams
where trout and salmon spawn.

I have pleaded the cause of the owls so repeatedly
in these notes that readers may murmur at fresh refer-
ence to a much disputed theme. Nevertheless, fresh
evidence should not be lightly rejected, and I propose
to adduce some on each side of the question, for so
shall we most surely arrive at the truth. Evidence for
the prosecution is taken first, and this we have, of a
circumstantial, but sinister, nature from Alnwick Castle,
where owls have been strictly protected for many years.
The chase attached to that ancient feudal stronghold is
famous as a nesting ground for woodcocks. During
the bygone spring (1909) the keepers found and marked
seventeen nests. It was their duty to visit them
periodically in order to attach metal labels to the legs
of the young birds so soon as they could run. They
found that from eleven out of the seventeen nests the
sitting bird had been taken away by violence, as was
shown by the scattered feathers among the heath and
briars. Certain indications about one of the nests
seemed to implicate a brown owl as the culprit ; and,

FEBRUARY 37

sure enough, in a trap which was set beside the half-
eaten carcass of a hen pheasant, a brown owl was found
in the morning. One is most unwilling to convict of
this crime a bird which does such a power of good in
killing rats and mice; and the evidence is far from
complete. It does not follow, because the owl was
attracted to the body of a hen pheasant, that the
pheasant was originally killed by the owl ; still less that
this owl and his comrades had murdered eleven sitting
woodcocks. But it must be confessed that the primd
facie case is a strong one, and we must not shrink from
the conclusion, whatever it may be, that will no doubt
be reached through observation in the next nesting

Now for the defence, for which I put in the box a
competent and trustworthy witness in the person of
Mr. J. Whitaker, who tells the following remarkable
story in his Notes on the Birds of Northamptonshire
(Walter Black and Co., Ltd.).

' Many years ago we kept a lot of pigeons, but one spring
could never raise a pie. On asking the keeper the reason,
he replied, " It 's all along of those old owls ; they fetch them
every night." I said, " I don't believe it." " "Well, sir, if you
will come at dusk I will show you." We placed ourselves,
and soon an owl came and went into the dovecot. " He 's
gone for one," said the keeper. In a few moments out he
came with something in his claws, and was immediately shot.
On picking it up we found, not a pigeon, but a big rat.'

The owl in question was a tawny owl (Strix flammed),
and he died not in vain if his fate serves to warn
country dwellers not to trust too much to appearances.

38 BIRDS BENEFICIAL AND BIRDS BANEFUL

'Do not pull up your stockings in a melon field,'
runs a Chinese proverb, ' or you will be accounted a
thief.' Here all appearances were against the owl : the
young pigeons were disappearing every night : the owl
entered their dwelling every evening at dusk: she
was shot, apparently flagrante delicto, and nothing
short of her death could have proved that she was
after the rats which had been devouring the young
pigeons.

An assize has been sitting lately upon the character
of the blackheaded gull (Larus ridibundus). The
General Purposes Committee of the Cumberland
County Council caused the following questions to be
addressed to farmers and fishermen within the limits of
their jurisdiction and to naturalists throughout the
United Kingdom : —

' 1. Do you consider the Blackheaded Gull harmful to the
fishing or farming industries 1 State reasons.

2. Have you ever examined the gullet and stomach of this
gull 1 If so, what were its contents 1

3. What, in your opinion, is the staple food of this

guiir

These questions were sent out in 100 circular letters,
and the answers received showed a preponderance of
opinion in favour of the gull, especially in regard to the
farming interest. Nevertheless, the direct testimony
of persons in a position to speak with knowledge as to
the depredation committed by these birds upon the
young of salmon and trout cannot be set aside. Of the
thirty-four naturalists who replied to the circular, four

FEBRUARY 39

pronounced the blackheaded gull to be harmful to the
fishing industry, five were doubtful on the point, twenty
considered it harmless, and five made no reply to this
question. On the other hand, there is the evidence of
fishery managers and inspectors to the effect that at
certain seasons these gulls collect in large numbers, and
pick the salmon smolts out of the shallows on their way
to the sea. My own experience amply confirms this,
and if ninety per cent, of British naturalists were to
declare that they had never seen these gulls taking
fish, that negative evidence would be perfectly reconcil-
able with the fact that other persons, with no claim to
the title of naturalist, had seen them, season after season,
pursuing salmon smolts.

As for the staple food of this gull, the plain and only
answer is that there is none. Like all gulls, it is prac-
tically omnivorous, depending upon opportunity for the
nature of its diet. During the winter months it would
be possible to make Albert biscuits or pate de foie gras
the staple food of the flock frequenting the bridge in
St. James's Park ; but by the end of April not one of
these birds remains there ; all have taken flight to the
breeding colonies on distant moors, where the ' staple '
is more precarious and less uniform.

Nobody wants to diminish seriously the numbers of
these pretty birds, which certainly lend farmers a
helping hand ; but fishery owners and the managers of
fish-hatcheries ought not to be forbidden to protect
their own property at critical periods. The report of
the committee of the Cumberland County Council
founded upon the result of their inquiry, carried on

40 BIRDS BENEFICIAL AND BIRDS BANEFUL

for thirteen months, seems entirely reasonable and
practical : —

' In the certainty of a vast increase in the number of these
birds in our local area having taken place, we do not think
any harm would be done to the species by relaxation for a
term of years of the protection now given it.'

XI

MOST birds of prey have been brought very low in num-
bers in the British Isles. There has been a

Eagles

reaction in favour of eagles in late years, be-
cause of that nobility of mien and range of flight which,
from immemorial time, have marked them out as the
emblem of imperial power. In many of the Highland
deer forests they are now strictly preserved, and that,
strange to say, in the interest of sport, and in order to
keep down the grouse. Good deer ground is seldom
good grouse ground ; many an arduous stalk has been
marred by the flurried flight and alarm note of an old
grouse cock; so the fewer grouse there are in the
forest the better are the deerstalker's chances.

But on a grouse moor proper the presence of a pair
of eagles is an expensive luxury, as was forcibly
brought to my notice one Sunday in March. It was a
fine, still morning; the brown hillsides of Strathullie
were still heavily banded and streaked with snowdrifts,
and the river ran full among the birch woods below.
The only bird life visible or audible was here and there
a grouse cock rising a few feet on the wing and descend-
ing into the heather with comfortable chortle ; for the
breath of spring was in the air, the bird's fancy lightly

42 CORMORANTS

turned to thoughts of love, and it behoved him to call
the attention of his observant partner to the one spark
of gaudy colour which he displays in the season of
courtship — the scarlet comb round the eye.

Suddenly, as I sat there, the moor became alive with
flying grouse, scores and scores of them, some hurry-
ing up the strath, low along the heather, others flying
at a great height across the valley to the hills beyond
the river. ' An eagle ! ' methought, and, looking up, I
saw one dark against the blue sky and floating clouds,
circling on broad, rounded wings, over the far-off
crest of the hill. A mere speck, yet every grouse on
that breadth of moor had detected it at once, sought
safety in instant flight, knowing that the eagle does not
take his prey on the wing, like the chivalrous pere-
grine; but, like Leech's French sportsman, 'he wait
till he stop.'

XII

In the same strath where I witnessed this scene took

place a laughable adventure with another
Cormorants

bird of prey. Unlike the eagles and others

of the nobler species living by rapine, cormorants show
no diminution in numbers, and are probably as
numerous now as at any previous period in the world's
history. I have seen a flight of cormorants, consisting
of four or five thousand individuals, flying from the
great lake of Karle, between Mounts Pelion and Ossa,
to the Danube ; and as these voracious birds are almost
cosmopolitan in habit and indifferent to temperature
(so that there be plenty of fish), it is almost futile to

MARCH 43

attempt a reduction in the numbers that frequent the
shores of the British Isles. Nevertheless, when cor-
morants, isolated or in pairs, find their way, as they
often do, to small lakes or streams where there are
good trout, no pains should be spared to destroy
them ; else, when the birds leave, the lake or stream
will remain, but the trout will have disappeared. I
have known a cormorant disgorge a rainbow trout of
2^ Ib. when falling to the shot. Likewise, in salmon
rivers these ravenous pirates are specially destructive
in April and May, when the salmon smolts are migrat-
ing to the sea. Perhaps that is a reason for cormorants
postponing their nesting till June, when all kinds of
birds of exemplary character have hatched out.

It is pretty and useful sport to conceal oneself beside
a river frequented by cormorants, and to pick them off
as they wing their swift, steady flight, always following
the bends of the channel ; for a cormorant ever likes
to have water under his keel, although in these flights
he seldom descends to a less altitude than forty feet.
Every bird so slain may be reckoned the salvation of
untold numbers of young salmon, for a cormorant's
daily ration of these delicacies must be reckoned in
scores. And the bitter reflection is that the creature's
gross appetite would be satisfied just as fully with an
equal weight of worthless chub or other coarse fish.

Well, one spring morning two anglers proceeding
with their attendant gillies to their beat on the Helms-
dale, surprised a cormorant fishing in a short, round,
rocky pool, with a fall at the head thereof. The bird
dived at once, and it was determined to hunt him to

44 THE YEW

death. The river was in low trim ; the two gillies were
set to guard the ford at the foot of the pool, their
masters opening fire with stones at short range upon
the cormorant every time it came up to breathe. For
twenty minutes by the clock the unequal strife was
waged — four unfeathered bipeds against one feathered.
The issue seemed not uncertain ; cormorants cannot
rise on the wing from the water as lightly as a snipe
from a tussock; the necessary effort takes time, and
time was just what the bird's persecutors would not
allow it. The inevitable end seemed imminent; the
cormorant showed evident signs of exhaustion; his
dives became shorter ; there was despair in his eye ; his
long chronicle of crime was about to be expiated.

So, at least, thought the avenging quartet on dry
land; when suddenly their earnest purpose was
whelmed in roars of laughter. The black rascal, which
they thought they had hunted to the very verge of
death, reappeared on the surface — with a large eel in
its beak ! and this, with a toss of its nose in the air, it
swallowed in their presence, the relish evidently being
heightened by exercise.

XIII

People who visit the Highlands only when the hill-
sides are flushed with heather bloom can
have little idea of their exceeding melan-
choly in winter, when the heather is one uniform deep
brown. Melancholy, declared Pope,

MARCH 45

' Deepens the murmur of the falling floods,
And adds a browner horror to the woods.'

Highland woods, indeed, consisting chiefly of pine,
keep their kindly green throughout the dark months,
but there are thousands of square miles without any
trees at all, save here and there shreds and patches of
wind-tormented birches, or, in steep sheltered glens,
little groups of that most Highland of all trees, the
aspen — the quakin' asp, as Lowland Scotsmen call it.
Even these are disappearing ; the storms of successive
winters thin away the veterans ; and, what deepens the
melancholy, no saplings or seedlings are allowed to
perpetuate the grove, so closely do sheep and deer
nibble away the young growth.

But though trees have vanished from wide tracts,
and can never return by natural regeneration, unless
browsing animals are fenced off, their names are
indelibly inscribed on the map. Opposite the window
where I sit writing, Ben Urie rears a snow-covered
front. The broad flanks of this hill may be searched
in vain for a yew tree, yet its name — Beinn iubhraigh
— probably commemorates a grove of yews which has
long since disappeared. Even had it remained, it
would have served little to lighten the melancholy of
this mid-March winter, for it is the melancholy aspect
of the yew which has chiefly impressed itself upon the
poets, and has caused this sombre tree to become as
closely associated with churchyards as cypresses —
Horace's invisce cupressus — are with Eastern ceme-
teries.

Even Tennyson, than whom no poet ever interpreted

46 THE YEW

so unerringly the character of living nature, failed at
first to discern much in this tree besides its gloom.

' Old yew, which graspest at the stones,
That name the underlying dead,
Thy fibres net the dreamless head,
Thy roots are wrapt about the bones.

Oh, not for thee the glow, the bloom,

Who changest not in any gale !

Nor branding summer suns avail
To touch thy thousand years of gloom .'

Before addressing the same aged tree a few years
later, the bard had recognised that the stir of spring
affected it as profoundly as any herb of field or garden.

' Old warder of these buried bones,

And answering now my random stroke
With fruitful cloud and living smoke,
Dark yew, that graspest at these stones,
And dippest toward the dreamless head,
To thee, too, comes the golden hour
When flower is feeling after flower.'

He repeated the picture, later still, in the Holy
Grail, as if the movement among the sombre, silent
yews impressed him more powerfully with the im-
periousness of spring than all the violets and primroses
of lesser bards.

' Beneath a world-old yew-tree, darkening half
The cloister on a gustful April morn,
That puflfd the swaying branches into smoke.'

After all, I am wrong in accusing the other poets of
being blind to all qualities in yew save its melancholy.
Sir Thomas Browne was so carried away by his

MARCH 47

enthusiasm for its importance in the equipment of the
Plantagenet armies as to exclaim : —

' The warlike yeugh, by which more than the lance,
The strong-armed English spirits conquered France.'

Perhaps it was only the exigency of rhyme which
prevented him writing ' beat the French,' which would
have been accurate enough, witness Crecy and Agin-
court ; but as for ' conquering France,' their archery
did not prevent the English being turned out of their
inheritance in that fair land. Our Henry n. inherited
Anjou and Touraine from his father, Normandy and
Maine from his mother; and held Guienne, Perigord,
Auvergne, Poitou, and other provinces in right of his
wife Eleanor, the divorced Queen of Louis vn. Only
Brittany was conquered by the sword (and bow) in
1165. Perhaps it was the stinting of the supply of
yews for bows that loosened the English king's grasp
on his French possessions. Certain it is that the stock
had run very low long before the year 1483, when,
despite the fact that gunpowder had been used in
warfare more than a century and a half, Richard m.'s
Parliament laid upon landowners the obligation to
plant yews for the supply of the king's troops.

Plenty of yews grew in Scotland of old, as is testified,
not only by place-names, like Ben Urie, and the in-
digenous yews still surviving in the islands of Loch
Lomond and a few other places, but by the remains
of this tree in peat mosses. Yet Scotsmen never
learnt to apply it well to its proper use. Ettrick
bowmen, indeed, did some effective service in the war

48 THE YEW

of independence ; but it is not recorded that they ever
decided the fortune of a stricken field, as English
archers often did. It is said that the Scots persisted
in drawing the arrow notch to what ladies' tailors call
' the lower chest/ instead of to the shoulder or cheek.
For military purposes, the most precious tree to the
Scots was the ash, for it furnished staves for those
terrible pikes which wrought such havoc among the
English chivalry and heavily-equipped men-at-arms at
Stirling Bridge and Bannockburn.

So much, perhaps far too much, for the yew histori-
cally ; to the botanist it is peculiarly interesting as a
growth of very archaic type. It used to be classed
among the Coniferce, to which its foliage indicates its
close affinity; but when the pines and firs took to
protecting their seeds with imbricated cones, the more
conservative yew was content to go on with its charac-
teristic drupes, which have been recovered from the
earliest deposits of the carboniferous age ; and the yews
are now reckoned as forming a separate order of their
own — Taxacece. Many and many an aeon must have
passed before fruits exactly similar were shed in the
Pliocene beds of Norfolk, where they are found among
bones of the extinct elephant, four kinds of bear, and
rhinoceros. Unlike some of its contemporaries which
have survived — the gingko or maidenhair tree, for in-
stance, and the umbrella pine (Sciadopytis) — the race of
yews shows no failure of vigour. Give it a chance by
excluding browsers and nibblers, and it will scatter its
seeds through the agency of birds and raise a numerous
progeny. Moreover, although the popular local tradi-

MAECH 49

tions of the extreme age of individual trees of this
species are to be accepted with considerable distrust,
if not absolute incredulity, the yew does possess the
property of prolonging its years in a manner denied
to any other British forest tree. The central stem may
decay — it very often does so ; but the shell remains full
of vitality, forms fresh growths which swell into new
stems; and these, after independent existence for a
century or so, sometimes coalesce into one huge trunk,
out of all apparent proportion to the height of the
tree.

The most remarkable yew groves with which I am
acquainted are the Great and Little Yews on Lord
Radnor's property near Salisbury. Many acres here
are covered by a close canopy of funereal foliage, most
interesting and impressive, but not beautiful, and as
little resembling a gladsome greenwood as any com-
pany of trees might be. More charming, because more
scattered, are the great yews on Merrow Down and
at Newland's Corner, between Guildford and Dorking,
marking, it is said, the Pilgrim's Way to Canterbury.
But they, or their progenitors, can scarcely have been
planted for the convenience of the Wife of Bath, the
Reeve, the Man of Law, and the rest of Chaucer's
company, forasmuch as Domesday Book holds record
of a great yew forest which grew upon this chalk
upland in 1080-86.

Melancholy as the yew must ever be, it must be

owned that it does not always get a fair chance. A

solitary yew is a forlorn object, pathetic in its enforced

celibacy. For the yew is a dioecious tree, and unless

D

50 THE AGE'OF 'BIRDS

you give the female plant a pollen-bearing neighbour,
she will not rejoice you with the pretty, rosy, sweet-
tasted fruits.

XIV

The natural term of life in wild animals must always
The Age remain a difficult matter for speculation
of Birds owing to the obstacles in the way of obtain-
ing statistics. Especially must this be the case with
birds, owing to their mobile habits ; but there is
reason to believe that the average term of feathered
life far exceeds that of most mammals. Birds have
no teeth to lose or loosen ; and defective teeth, imply-
ing imperfect nutrition, are one of the chief agents in
shortening the lives of animals which cannot cook
their food. I have already recorded in a former
volume the death of a white-tailed eagle at Cairns-
more, which, taken from the eyrie in 1858, expired in
captivity, apparently of old age, in 1900, being just
forty-two years old.1 It is uncertain, of course, how
captivity may affect the longevity of a bird of rapine.
The captive is protected, on the one hand, against the
ordinary adversities of a brigand career, famine, and
violent death ; but, on the other hand, want of exer-
cise, combined with regular meals, the very antithesis
of natural conditions, may well be supposed to affect
the health of such a bird. The Cairnsmore eagle
became totally blind before it died.

The question of the longevity of birds has been
revived by the recent death of a cockatoo at Leith

1 Memories of the Months. Fourth Series, p. 244.

MARCH 51

Hall, in Aberdeenshire, the seat of Mr. C. Leith Hay.
The history of this bird is most remarkable. At the
outbreak of the Indian Mutiny in 1857, the late
Colonel Leith Hay, commanding the 93rd Highlanders,
attacked and carried by assault an entrenched position
defended by a rebel force. A soldier in the regiment
found within the enemy's lines a large sulphur-crested
cockatoo, which Colonel Leith Hay bought from him,
put in a cage, and gave in charge to a special bearer.
The ' kilties ' came in for plenty of hard fighting before
the Mutiny was quelled, and the cockatoo was present
in every action in which the regiment was engaged.
He survived the campaign without a scratch, though
his first bearer did not fare so well, for a roundshot
took off the unlucky fellow's head. The bird's language
on that occasion was said, by those who understood
Hindustani, to be a masterpiece of execration.

At the end of the war the cockatoo was brought
home to Leith Hall, where he passed a tranquil and
fairly blameless life until his death in March 1908.
Thus we have it for certain that this bird lived for
fifty-one years, to which must be added the unknown
period intervening between his birth in an Austra-
lian gum-tree, and his capture by Queen Victoria's
troops.

Twenty-six years ago, three Canadian geese were
sent to me in a present. All three turned out to be
females, and I blame myself for never having pro-
vided them with mates. They lay eggs in spring,
upon which they sit with pathetic assiduity, of course
without any effect upon the lacustrine population.

52 THE RING-DOVE DISEASE

Their age already has probably exceeded the normal
span of any British mammal, cetaceans excepted.
Year after year, when the pairing season comes round,
one of these old maids falls hopelessly in love with
a swan. Wherever the swan swims, the goose follows,
circling round the object of her adoration, uttering
monotonous notes of entreaty, and laying her foolish
neck upon the water before him. This goes on for
about a month, whereby one would think the swan
would become intensely bored ; but he never displays
the slightest irritation; takes no notice of the antics
of the love-sick one, turning himself callously upside
down in pursuit of subaqueous delicacies. All this were
scarcely worth recording but for a singular parallel to
it which I witnessed in April 1908. I was staying in
the hotel which overlooks the quaint little harbour
of Tarbert, Loch Fyne. My attention was roused by
the iterated dissyllabic cry of a Canadian goose. On
looking forth, I beheld an exact repetition of the per-
formance I knew so well, and had seen a few days
before on my own loch, one hundred and fifty miles to
the south. There was a goose courting a phlegmatic
swan, and going through the identical gyrations on salt
water with which my own involuntary celibate had
made me so familiar.

XV

Many alarming hypotheses have been put forward

The Ring- concerning the disease which caused so

dove Disease much mortality among wood-pigeons in

1907. It was alleged that authentic diagnosis had

MARCH 53

identified the agent with the microbe of human diph-
theria. A question was addressed lately in the House
of Commons to the President of the Local Govern-
ment Board by Major Anstruther-Gray, and the answer
should convey reassurance to apprehensive souls. It
was to the effect that, although investigation had been
focused by the Local Government Board upon the
nature of the malady, no evidence had been obtained
showing that the micro-organism which affected the
pigeons was identical with that causing human diph-
theria. The results of research into its nature is,
indeed, only negative; but what has prevented that
research reaching positive conclusion is the entire ces-
sation of the disease among pigeons.

As matter of fact there is nothing new in this epi-
zootic. I can recollect more than one outbreak many
years ago. We used to attribute it to a surfeit of
beech-mast; but, in the north at least, we had few
beech-mast in 1907. During that year, however, the
disease did not appear in Scotland, so far as I am aware.

XVI

THE evolution of modern firearms has stripped war of
Protective much °f its display and our soldiers of
colour much of their finery. Colours cannot now
be carried into action and 'the thin red line' is no
longer admissible in present day tactics. Scarlet, the
traditional national attire of our warriors, is reserved
for a ' walking- out ' dress, beloved of nursery-maids,
and troops going on active service leave in store the
tall bearskins and other headgear whereby, under the
old system, it was sought to shake the nerves of the
enemy. Resort is had to every device to make the
fighting man as invisible as possible. Plain khaki is
a poor contrivance for that end ; raiment of a uniform
tint being always more conspicuous than a mottled or
striped fabric. Some useful hints on this matter might
be taken from certain wild animals. At rifle range,
I am assured, a zebra is a far less conspicuous mark
than a brown or bay horse.

The present month presents some interesting
phenomena in the protective coloration of birds.
The plumage of all male birds is now at its brightest
and best, while that of the females, whose business is

APRIL 55

incubation, remains as inconspicuous as ever. In no
class of birds is this precautionary principle carried
further than among the pheasants. The contrast be-
tween the sexes is remarkable enough in the common
pheasant, which, in Great Britain, is now a sad mongrel
of breeds ; for the original Phasianus colchicus — the
old black pheasant, as gamekeepers call it — with no
white collar to break the splendour of his beetle-
green neck, has been irretrievably crossed to its detri-
ment with the Chinese ring-neck (P. torquatus) the
green Japanese pheasant (P. versicolor), and, more
lately, with the Mongolian pheasant, a bird of superior
weight but inferior beauty to the other three. But
for extravagant contrast between the attire of husband
and wife there is nothing to compare with the golden
pheasant (Thaumalea picta). To those who value
pheasants only as flying targets, this extraordinary
bird may present no attraction, seeing that by no
ingenuity can it be induced to behave as a rocketer.
But to anybody who enjoys beauty for its own sake,
the presence of golden pheasants is a constant source
of pleasure. The late Professor Newton pronounced
them to be ' only fitted for an aviary,' a singular mis-
direction on the part of so high an authority, for they
thrive perfectly in all parts of our country, breeding
freely in the woods, and living in perfect harmony with
the common pheasants. Game-preservers are pre-
judiced against them because of their reputation for
pugnacity ; but the charge is unfounded ; they are
peaceable creatures, though the same cannot be said of
the more powerful silver pheasant.

56 PROTECTIVE COLOUR

For sheer extravagance of brilliant colour commend
me to the cock golden pheasant displaying his glories
on a sunny April morn, to the feigned indifference of
his dingy-coated spouse. It is as if the designer of
nature had been put on his mettle to show what he
could do to dazzle the beholder by setting a shining
gold cap over an orange and black ruff, and throwing
an ivy-green jacket upon a scarlet vest and shorts,
finishing up with a heavy chocolate tail marbled with
black. When the Eastern monarch tried to amaze the
sage by showing him all the glories of his palace, he
was disappointed that his visitor showed no surprise.
' Sire,' said the philosopher, ' I have seen the plumage
of the pheasant ! ' After that, there was no room left
for wonder; but whether it was a common colchic
bird or a golden pheasant deponent sayeth not.

[This paragraph shall stand, albeit since it was
written, I have been compelled to transfer the meed of
beauty from the golden to the Amherst pheasant,
which inhabits the sloping woods at Meikleour, Lord
Lansdowne's charming demesne on the Tay. The
Amherst cock relies not on violent contrast of strong
colours, but on exquisite delicacy of tone ; the ground
colour of his raiment being snowy white, marbled and
pencilled with jet, relieved from monotony by a single
flash of scarlet in his cap. It is a more refined scheme
of decoration than the other, and pity 'tis that one
cannot have both species in the same woods, for they
are so nearly akin as to mate promiscuously, producing
hybrids in which the merits of both are confused and
marred.]

APRIL 57

The golden pheasant is not quite so nice in his habits
as a dandy so gorgeously attired should be. He dearly
loves a bit of carrion. In their native country, China,
it is said that these birds burrow in graveyards and
devour the dead villagers.

The contrast between the sexes is especially striking
among polygamous birds such as pheasants. The reason
for this is not obvious, for it would seem more important
for the perpetuation of the race that the mate of many
wives should escape the risks incurred by the wearing
of fine feathers than that the life of a bird which would
leave but one widow should be preserved by means of
inconspicuous raiment. Yet among birds so nearly akin
as the members of the grouse group, the plumage of
the monogamous red grouse differs not much in male
and female, but the polygamous capercailzie cock and
blackcock bear no resemblance in plumage to their
dusky hens.

Among British waterfowl, all of which are mono-
gamous, there is much variation of rule. Swans, geese,
coots, and waterhens exhibit little outward distinction
of sex, except in size; but among ducks the drake is
always conspicuous by greater brilliancy of plumage,
with a single exception, namely, the sheldrake. In this
species both sexes display the same showy livery of dark
green, white, and chestnut, with scarlet bills and pink
feet (beaked and membered gules, the heralds would
term it). But then the female sheldrake incubates
underground, and therefore has no use for protective
coloration. Which circumstance suggests a problem
(propounded already, methinks, in these random notes).

58 PROTECTIVE COLOUR

Does she nest in a burrow because her feathers are so
bright, or is she allowed to wear fine feathers because
she nests underground ? Howbeit, oyster-catchers have
much the same piebald scheme of plumage as shel-
drakes (we called them sea-pies in Scotland on that
account), the female scarcely to be distinguished from
the male ; yet she lays and hatches on the open shingle
without incurring any greater penalty than awaits
duller-coloured mothers.

As there are exceptions to every rule, so are there to
that which prescribes greater brilliancy of plumage to
cock birds than to hens. The strangest of all occurs in
that genus of Lory called Edectus, inhabiting New
Guinea and the adjacent islands. These birds are clad
uniformly either in scarlet or green ; and the distinction
is so well marked and constant that ornithologists pro-
posed not many years ago to separate them into two
genera — the Red Lories and the Green. Count T.
Salvadori met with general incredulity when, in 1874,
he announced that, so far from being generically dis-
tinct, these two groups were respectively male and
female. Stranger still, he found that the flaming red
birds were all hens and the green birds cocks, and this
he succeeded in proving to the satisfaction of the most
sceptical. Since then it has been ascertained that the
male bird, in his protective green coat, performs all the
duties of incubation; whereas the female, having
deposited under him the proper number of eggs, flies
away in her gay dress to disport herself at garden
parties, bridge, or whatever other amusements we may
suppose prevail in Papuan circles.

APRIL 59

Of course protective coloration is not a monopoly of
feathered animals. The purpose is evident in the
adaptation of many mammals, reptiles, fishes, and
insects to their surroundings, but perhaps the most
curious instance among vertebrate animals is the case
of the three- toed sloth (Brady pus) as described by Dr.
W. G. Ridewood (Quarterly Journal of Microscopical
Science, vol. xliv.). The sloth in question is not a
microscopical object ; far from it ; but the hair of the
creature shows a very complex structure under the
microscope. Each hair consists of a core, a cortex or
skin, and an outer coat. This outer coat splits, and in
the fissures grows a green alga peculiar to this situa-
tion, and therefore known to science as Pleurococcus
bradypi. This little alga (something between a fungus,
a moss, and a lichen) grows so fast in the moist heat of
the Brazilian forest as to impart a green coloration to
the whole of this large animal, which derives distinct
advantage from such an assimilation in hue to its sylvan
environment.

The two-toed sloth (Cholcepus) enjoys a similar
privilege, but this is provided by a vegetable growth
different from that on the three-toed sloth. The hair
of Chol&pus consists only of core and cortex, without
the extra layer grown by Bradypus. This cortex, or
rind, is grooved or fluted longitudinally, and in these
grooves springs a growth of another species of alga —
Pleurococcus cholospi. Drawings of the hairs of these
sloths, enlarged, are shown in the sloth case in the
Natural History Museum, South Kensington.

60 THE BORROWING DAYS

XVII

So mutable is our meteorology that, notwithstanding
what has been remarked above about the
Borrowing change in the calendar (pp. 18-20), some of the
Days old weather saws hold good notwithstanding
the alteration of dates, and the modern March seldom
merges into April without presenting the phenomenon
known to our ancestors as ' the Borrowing Days.' For
example, this year (1907) the first week of April, which,
according to the old calendar would have been reckoned
into March, was delightfully warm, with nourishing
rain ; but in the south of Scotland, at least, we rose on
Sunday, the 7th, to find a white world, with a blizzard
driving before a shrill north wind. March was repaying
the debt which it had borrowed from April, according
to a tradition the origin whereof lies in unwritten
antiquity, but one that long ago found expression in
the literature of many lands. Thus in The Complaynt
of Scotland, composed in the sixteenth century, the
Borrowing Days are referred to as something so
familiarly known as to need no explanation, although
it is doubtful whether many board school teachers of
the present day, let alone their pupils, would under-
stand the allusion in the following passage : —

' There eftir i entrit in ane grene forest to contempil the
tender yong frutes of grene treis, becaus the borial blastis of
the thre borowing dais of Marche had chassit the fragrant
flureise of evyrie frut trie far athourt the feildis.'

Sir Thomas Browne, setting himself the ungrateful

APRIL 61

task of dispelling popular delusions, included belief in
the Borrowing Days among his Vulgar Errors ; but any
salmon fisher who tried to ply his craft in the tempest
which tore the early verdure at the beginning of the
present April must have realised plausible grounds for
the legend. I, at all events, battling with the furious
cutting wind in vain endeavour to straighten out a
sagging line, kept repeating to myself the verses handed
down, with many variants, from one generation of
shepherds to another :

' March said to Averil,
" I see three hoggs on yonder hill ;
If ye will lend me dayis three,
I 'se find a way to gar them dee."
The first o' them was wind an' weet ;
The second it was snaw an' sleet ;
The third o' them was sic a freeze
It froze the birds' nebs to the trees.
When thae three days was past and gane,
The silly hoggs cam hirplin' hame.'

Note, that ' hoggs ' here are not swine, but yearling

In Southern Europe a different version of the same
story prevails, wherein the borrower is not March, but
a certain shepherd, who, seeing his flock in sore
jeopardy from the rude winds of March, promised to
sacrifice a lamb to that month if the storm were stilled.
There fell a calm, and the flock prospered; but the
shepherd never fulfilled his vow; so, in the following
year, March avenged the default by exchanging three
days with April, and has continued to do so ever since.
Science shrugs a scornful shoulder at most old ' freits,'

62 THE WATERSIDE FOR ME !

as the Scots call them; but modern meteorologists
recognise, if they cannot account for, the fact that in
the second week of April, corresponding to the begin-
ning of the month, Old Style, there usually occurs a
spell of rough, cold weather such as is typical of
March.

XVIII

One of the surest sources of zest in enjoyment con-
Tfce water- sists in contrast, as I realised to the full one
side for me! April morning lately, staggering waist-deep
over the slippery boulders which pave access to the
famous salmon cast called Linloskin. I had left
seething London overnight, summoned by a telegram
bringing welcome tidings that the river was in full
spate. For the long drought had broken at last ; the
wind, that had been nailed in the shrill north for a
fortnight, had shifted to the south-east and veered
through the rainy quarters, sending down the hill
burns each with its foaming tribute to the main river ;
so that there was free course for spring salmon to run
through the many perils that beset them in the firth.
Could there be more perfect contrast than that between
the scene around me and that which I had left behind ?
No more grinding roar of motor-'buses, no more cease-
less din and jostle of the streets; only the sound of
rushing water, the sighing of the westland breeze, the
anxious peewit's cry, and the curlew's wilder whistle.
Trust me, I was not ungrateful for the change; yet
there is always that amari aliquid to tinge one's

APRIL 63

pleasure — the thought of those toilers who may never
share it, save, at most, as lookers-on. 'What no one
with us shares seems half our own ' ; at the same time,
if one were to decline all amusement from which the
multitude is debarred, that multitude would be no whit
the better off. Which reflection leads one dangerously
near a treatise on the futility of free fishing and free
strawberry beds ; which would be a serious matter for
your readers.

Linloskin — the frog pool — for that is the meaning
of the Gaelic name, with what fitness can it ever have
been applied to this powerful torrent, rushing through
a wild confusion of trap rock and boulders into the
comparative repose of a wide, wind-swept basin, before
it is precipitated with renewed tumult into the wooded
gorge below ? Anything at first sight less suggestive
of frogs one could scarcely imagine. It is full three
hundred years — nearer four hundred — since Gaelic was
spoken in this district, though Gaelic names stick fast
to places therein, owing to the notorious difficulty of
inventing new ones. Nor could the Gael, albeit of
subtler imagination than the Saxon, devise unmeaning
titles for localities. Place-names in all languages grow
spontaneously out of some incident or natural feature
marking the spot, and this Linloskin — this pool of frogs
— is no exception ; for, on its western side, there is a
backwater, fair with white lilies in high summer, but
dark and muddy-bottomed now, alive with spawning
frogs. It may be of no practical importance to know
that when Aymer de Valence, exactly six hundred
years ago, to wit, in April 1307, sent Sir Robert de

64 THE WATERSIDE FOR ME !

Clifford up this valley with 1500 cavalry to hunt
Robert the Bruce out of the fastnesses of Glen Trool,
the frogs were croaking in this pretty lagoon exactly
as they are at this day; but angling was ear-marked
long ago as the contemplative man's recreation, and
trifling marginalia, such as this, contribute not a little
to his simple enjoyment.

Especially when he catches no fish, as was my lot
on this occasion ; though I must confess to having met
a good one. Anglers are accused of the sun-dial's
propensity to chronicle none but the shining hours ;
let me vindicate the candour of the craft by spinning
a yarn of ill-success — nay, of disaster. Linloskin was
all too big, and so was the lower river generally ; where-
fore it was resolved to adjourn to a beat six or seven
miles further up, above the junction of an important
tributary. To salmon, as to all other objects of venatic
pursuit, the motor movement has proved a distinct
detriment ; enabling the sportsman to transfer himself
from place to place with a sudden velocity undreamt of
in an older time. So having failed in the main river,
we buzzed away to the head-waters, which we found
in perfect trim. Exchanging the heavy rod for a
handy fifteen-footer, I drew a couple of pools blank
from the right bank. The third pool should be fished
from a shingle beach on the left bank; but having
discarded waders, to reach it involved walking half a
mile round by a bridge. Laziness and impatience
combined to prompt a trial from the right bank,
precipitous and thickly covered with hazel and rowan.
A point of rock offered foothold, and the whisper of

APRIL 65

prudence, ' How will you land a fish if you hook him ? '
fell on a deaf ear.

The fish was there right enough. The blue and
silver 'bulldog' had made but three or four voyages
across the brown water when a pretty ten-pounder
rolled on the surface ; bending greenheart and singing
line told of a salmon securely hooked. Up and down
the pool he raced in the usual way; but it took but
a few minutes to realise the impossibility of bringing
him to the gaff in such a place, so swift and strong
ran the current at my very feet. Bushes above, below,
behind; the deep river in front; I could not move
from my narrow foothold. Ten minutes went by ; the
salmon was pretty well tired out, but every time he
came near the rocks the strong current swept him out
of reach. Something had to be done. I sent the gillie
to reconnoitre ; he reported as possible, but difficult, a
passage through the steep thicket to more open water
below. Clinging firmly with the right hand to the
bushes, and holding the rod in the left I began a
painful progress ; the fish followed docilely ; only one
point remained to circumvent, but that was a critical
one, for at that point the pool ended in a tumultuous
rapid, through which the salmon must be steered to
the open water below. Ah ! had I but two hands to
put to the rod ! But my right hand was needed to
prevent me falling into five feet of swift water ; and my
left hand was not strong enough to resist a final rush by
the fish as he swung into the rapid. The rod point was
dragged into the water ; a straight pull on the reel line
thrilled me to the marrow; a moment of flickering

E

66 SPRING SALMON

hope, and then — ping! the single gut snapped and all
was over.

It is bad enough to lose a spring salmon after good
play through the hook-hold giving way; it is worse
when the loss occurs from broken tackle, even if the
angler be not to blame, though there is seldom any
valid excuse for him in British rivers. In Norwegian
waters such accidents must be discounted as occasion-
ally inevitable. But disaster incurred through sheer
pigheadedness — choosing the wrong way when there
is an easy and obvious right one — leaves a man feeling
as if two or three of his vertebrae had been removed,
and none but an angler can understand the mingled
sense of shame and despair which is the lasting penalty
for a wilful blunder.

XIX

Little by little naturalists are adding to the store of
spring ascertained fact in regard to the life history
salmon an^ seasonal movements of the salmon, which
have hitherto been the subject of much wild specula-
tion and a priori theory. The latest advance, a very
definite and important one, has been made during the
present year (1907) by means of the system of marking
smolts, i.e., young salmon, aged from fifteen to twenty-
seven months, descending to the sea for the first time.
The delicate structure of these little fish has hitherto
proved an obstacle to any effective and permanent
method of marking them ; but this has been overcome
by Mr. Calderwood, salmon-fishery inspector for Scot-
land, by the use of silver labels attached by fine wire to

APRIL 67

the front of the dorsal fin. Each label bears a number
corresponding to one in a log where all particulars of
date and dimensions are kept for comparison should
the fish ever be recaptured.

It has been a favourite doctrine with old fishermen
that smolts descending to the sea in April or May,
averaging about one ounce each, return in late summer
or autumn as grilse weighing from two to ten pounds.
This rate of growth seemed incredible on the face of it ;
but there existed no means of disproving it until the
summer of 1906. In the spring of 1905, 6500 smolts
were marked with labels in the Tay. Not one was
recaptured during that season, but between June
1st and August 20th, 1906, forty of these fish were
retaken, varying in weight from 2 Ib. 15 oz. on June
1st to 7 Ib. 2 oz. on July 28th, showing an average
weight of 5£ Ib., the average rate of increase being
6 oz. per month. This seems to prove that the smolt
requires a year or fifteen months of sea fare to develop
into a grilse.

Still more remarkable are the results of the pre-
sent year, when three of the 1905 smolts have been
recaptured as spring salmon in the Tay ; namely, one of
9 Ib. on February 18th, one of 8 Ib. on February 19th,
and one of 9 Ib. on February 21st ; thus showing that the
run of small spring salmon, which is so characteristic
of all early rivers, consists of fish which have not re-
entered fresh water as grilse, but have spent that stage
of their existence in the sea.

68 SALMON HATCHERIES- ARE THEY USEFUL?

Early salmon-fishing has been disappointing this
season (1908) in most rivers, especially in the
hatcheries far north, where spring salmon generally most
1 tliey abound. From the Spey, Dee, Beauly, Brora,

and Helrnsdale the story is the same — an
unusual scarcity of the small class of fish, running
from 6 to 12 lb., which, as shown above, have been
proved to be salmon re-entering the rivers for the
first time, having passed the grilse stage in the sea.
Coupled with the general scarcity of grilse in most
rivers during last summer and autumn, this dearth
of small springers seems to point to the autumn and
winter of 1904-5 as a bad spawning season, but it
must be confessed that this is not corroborated by
recollection of any special characteristic of that mild
and open season.

A season like the present is just the occasion for the
advocates of the artificial propagation of salmon to
produce evidence of the good result derived from fish
hatcheries. It is claimed for these, and with justice,
that from 90 to 95 per cent, of the ova deposited in
boxes under cover are safely hatched into young fry ;
whereas it is impossible to doubt that a very large
percentage of ova spawned in the river beds is destroyed
by flood, frost, predatory animals, and other causes.
Nevertheless, many experienced fishermen and natural-
ists remain sceptical as to the effect upon the general
stock of releasing fry, even to the number of hundreds
of thousands, to run the gauntlet of the many risks

APRIL 69

that threaten such tender lives. Certainly anybody
who has witnessed the descent of salmon smolts in
April or May, which have been naturally reared in the
upper waters, may reasonably doubt whether artificial
propagation, even on a large scale, can appreciably
affect the numbers reaching the sea. These naturally
bred smolts are in myriads ; they are fish that have so
far survived the dangers of youth, being from fifteen to
twenty-seven months old, and can only represent a
comparatively small proportion of the original produce
of the spawning beds. I have myself taken ten fine
salmon smolts from the stomach of a single trout which
weighed, cargo included, only 2 Ib. What must be the
mortality among fry turned out of a hatchery to spend
from ten to twenty months in the river, and then to
pass through ten, twenty, thirty miles, beset by trout,
pike, eels, gulls, herons, etc., before they reach the sea,
where other forms of violent death lie in wait for
them?

If it could be shown that spring salmon were more
numerous during this season of scarcity in those rivers
which are supplied by well-conducted hatcheries, arti-
ficial propagation might be accounted a safeguard
against unfavourable seasons, and many persons would
be converted to a sense of its value. So far, however,
no such result is manifest. On the Helmsdale, for
instance, a very prolific and moderate-sized stream in
Sutherland, a well-managed hatchery has been in
operation for a number of years past, turning out from
500,000 to 700,000 fry every season. On the Brora,
equally prolific and early, debouching only ten or

70 SALMON HATCHERIES— ARE THEY USEFUL?

twelve miles south-west of Helrnsdale, there is no
hatchery; yet both rivers have suffered equally this
year from an unusual scarcity of spring fish. So has
the Spey, where the Duke of Richmond's hatchery has
been in operation for very many years. All this is
disappointing to those who have spared no trouble or
expense in artificial propagation, and tends to confirm
the opinion of those who believe that the labour and
money expended on salmon hatcheries would ensure
better results if applied to the protection of parent fish
on the spawning grounds. The case of trout and other
non-migratory fish is different; they remain, so to
speak, under one's eye from first to last ; but with a far
ranging fish like the salmon, whereof the life history is
being so slowly elucidated, it must be sadly admitted
that there is a total absence of proof that any advantage
accrues from artificial propagation to counterbalance
the mischief of disturbing spawning fish in the critical
act of reproduction.

The statement that a salmon weighing 103 Ib. was
taken last winter in a net on the Firth of Forth will be
received by many with incredulity; but the circum-
stance is supported by evidence which it is difficult to
disregard. Unluckily, as the fish was taken during the
close season, it has not been secured for preservation.
The only instance of a salmon of similar lordly pro-
portions was reported some years ago from the Vefsen
Fjord, Norway. In that case the fish, it is said, carried
barnacles on its scales, showing that it was long since
it had visited the fresh water.

APRIL 71

XXI

Of all the manifold forms and phases of human

enterprise, none more surely earns compas-

. ,. . , Montenegro

sionate contempt from disinterested spectators

than the proceedings of the field botanist and the un-
successful angler. Especially so when the pursuit is
conducted among people of an unknown tongue. The
botanist cannot explain to the practical native the
reason of his preference for some diminutive saxifrage
or unsubstantial bulb over the more conspicuous orna-
ments of the local flora. The eagerness with which he
peers among wayside weeds can only be construed as
evidence of an extraordinary, though probably harm-
less, form of mental aberration. Judgment of a
sterner cast can only be averted from the punctilious
fly-fisher by signal success ; and that, as most anglers
will agree, is not always at his command. The local
adept who, knowing how to extract lusty trout from
secret places with a bunch of worms, has no inkling of
the vast gulf set by the sportsman's code between fly-
fishing and bottom-fishing, watches the stranger's pro-
ceedings with indifference tinged with curiosity, and
pronounces upon failure the verdict meet for a fidgety
bungler.

When, therefore, we set before us the mountain
principality of Montenegro as the field for piscatorial
and botanical exploration, we courted criticism from
both flanks — and we received it — encountering our
first failure before reaching the appointed goal. Our
Italian pilot and interpreter, who bears the historic

72 MONTENEGRO

name of Giovanni Battista — John the Baptist — whetted
our appetite by his account of the sport to be had in a
certain stream in Albania. ' There are trouts so beeg,'
said he, holding his hands full eighteen inches apart ;
'you shall see them sweem — many, many.' So we
dropped anchor after dark on a lovely April evening in
the fine roadstead of Avlona, and arranged for an early
start on the morrow.

Fishing with the dry-fly is one of the most modern
of crafts, having its origin in the necessity for circum-
venting the abnormal vigilance instilled by generations
of anglers into the trout of the pellucid chalk-streams
of Hampshire. But it is an art which may be practised
to good purpose also in waters where the old ' chuck-
and-chance-it ' system still holds sway. It has pene-
trated the Scottish Highlands and the Irish Midlands,
enabling the adept to set bright sun and low water at
defiance, and greatly enhancing by its delicacy and
superior excitement the spasm of success. We thought
it possible that, by introducing this novel method to
Albanian streams, we might win some applause from
unsophisticated natives.

As every Hampshire angler knows, the hours for
business with dry-fly are those between ten and two ;
for it is only at that period of the day that a rise of
fly may be expected, saving always the brief festival
of the may-fly. At ordinary times, from two o'clock
onward until the appearance of the sedge-fly may
create an evening rise (most uncertain, feverish, and
transient of feasts), not a fin stirs on the surface, which,
in the absence of flies, is void of attraction for trout.

APRIL 73

In laying our plans, we reckoned upon the Albanian
time-table being similar to that of Test and Itchen,
and prepared for an early start on the morrow. Ah,
but we left out of account that influence which has so
often and so powerfully swayed the course of European
politics during the last two hundred years — the vis
inertice of Ottoman officialdom. Our passports were
presented to the pasha at 7 A.M. ; it was high noon
before they were returned to us ; and with them came
a Turkish escort, without which we were not to be
allowed to land. It was about one o'clock, therefore,
before we disembarked on a curving strand of dazzling
white limestone shingle at the head of the bay, where a
beautiful stream, about the volume of the Itchen at
Abbot's Worthy, and as clear, swept out of a dense
copse of alder and willow, myrtle and mastick, to pour
its waters into the tideless sea. It was a perfect land-
scape in the sweet o' the Adriatic year. Red and
purple anemones, blue gromwell and periwinkle and
golden buttercups, spangled the intense verdure of the
glades ; yellow iris and tall creamy spires of asphodel
lined the river-banks ; high on the mountain side to
the left hung the Mohammedan village of Vannina,
with gleaming minarets and sombre cypress; in the
background towered the snowy cone of Mount Elias to
the height of near five thousand feet. Nightingales
gurgled amatively in the brakes; bullfrogs croaked
truculently among the reeds ; grey mullet skimmed in
shoals through the backwaters ; brimstones and orange-
tips, Camberwell beauties and swallow-tail butterflies
floated among the flowers ; locusts lurched heavily out

74 MONTENEGRO

of our path and basking tortoises lay passively in it,
drawing in their heads and toes, resigned to the worst.
All was light and warmth, colour and checkered shade,
active life and indolent content.

Such was the Eden upon which we burst, intent
upon dealing death after the manner of our kind.
There were plenty of trout fleeting over the sparkling
shallows, and some goodly two-pounders lurking in the
eddies ; but the stream was all too swift and rough for
the dry-fly, and the prevailing glare ruled the wet-fly
out of court. Indeed it seemed marvellous that fish,
having no eyelids, could endure the rays of that
glorious sun, reflected from the white bed of the limpid
brook.

Presently up came a splendid young gentleman, who
turned out to be, not an Albanian chief as his dress
and mien betokened, but a garde-chasse, who informed
John the Baptist that there was better fishing higher
up the valley. Thither we hied, therefore, and found
the very ideal of water for dry-fly work — a steady,
brimming current, winding through flat meadows and
cultivated ground. Trout we could see also, and lusty
ones ; not rising indeed, for there was no fly up, but
hanging about in likely places, whence a drop minnow
or a lively worm must certainly have extracted them.
But, as I have said, we had forsworn such sordid lures,
and pinned our credit to the floating simulacrum.

Pinned — and forfeited it ; forasmuch as stealth and
solitude, two main postulates in dry-fly work, were
denied us. The seely angler loveth to move slowly
through the meadow, peering along the reaches and

APRIL 75

under the banks until a dimple on the surface betrays
a feeding trout. Not a hasty movement — not a corner
of white handkerchief — not a sun-glint on his rod —
must betray his presence to the object of his desire.

We separated, my fellow traveller and I; the
Albanian gentleman constituting himself my guide,
and a Turkish soldier closely dogging my steps, having
orders, it seemed, not to let me out of sight for a
moment.

Now it has been my fortune in fishing to enjoy com-
munion with gillies of many nationalities — the taciturn
Lowland Scot, the polite Highlander, the adulative and
witty Irishman, and the sinewy and gentle Norseman ;
but never in my wandering had I been offered the ser-
vices of one so gorgeously arrayed as this Albanian
gillie. His noble carriage, handsome features, and
generally well-groomed appearance, set off a costume
which it would be hard to beat in grace. On his thick
crop of jetty curls was poised a dainty little white
cap, stiff with delicate needlework ; wide, fan-shaped
sleeves of spotless linen floated from under an armless
jacket, the front of which was of rich blue cloth
embroidered with gold braid, the back being of quilted
silk vieux rose. Loose black breeches clothed him to the
knees ; white woollen gaiters covered his legs, down to a
pair of tasselled, upturned toes. Round his slim waist
was a bandolier with forty rounds of ball-cartridge;
from his shoulder hung a magazine rifle in a brass-
studded sling of scarlet leather.

His method of showing anxiety for my sport (or, as
the result proved, for baksish) was to precede me to all

76 MONTENEGRO

the likely places and point out the trout, without the
slightest attempt at concealment. The effect upon the
fish of his dazzling array, especially of the fluttering shirt-
sleeves, may easily be imagined. Nor was this all. My
Turkish escort was as keen as he. Idlers, of which there is
never any lack about Albanian farms, collected as we went
along, until I had an advanced guard of a score of fellows
averaging six feet high — a brightly-coloured throng, all
chattering and disputing who should be first to find a
trout for the Inglese. After persevering for a mile or
so, I gave up all idea of fishing, and turned to botanis-
ing, in which my beautiful attendant could pretend no
concern. But, before leaving me, he stepped off the
pedestal whereon my fancy had set him. Standing
before me, he put out his hand, palm uppermost, open-
ing and shutting his fingers and thumb ; while those
splendid almond eyes, in which I had read such heroic
thoughts, cried Pelf, pelf, pelf! as plain as spoken word.
Groping in the pockets of my inglorious flannels, I
could find nothing smaller than a five-franc piece — a
heavy price to pay for the destruction of all chance
of sport ; but what could be done ? The eyes of a
score of armed men were upon me; they had spent
an hour or two frightening my trout. I tossed the
coin to my magnificent attendant, and we parted
company.

Despite this failure, we lacked not fresh fish for
breakfast on the morrow. A shot of the seine by star-
light at the river mouth produced half a hundred small
bass, grey and red mullet, material for an excellent
friture. By the time we discussed it we were far

APRIL 77

on our way to the enchanted Bocche de Cattaro,
whence the ascent is made to the Land of the Black
Mountain.

The ascent is worth making for its own sake ; for
although the horizontal distance between the Porta
Gordicchio of Austrian Cattaro and the Montenegrin
frontier is only a few hundred yards, vertically it
exceeds 3000 feet. To accomplish the transit you
must traverse thirteen kilometres, about eight miles of
beautiful road looped across the sheer flank of Lovcen
in seventy-three zigzags, without a stiff gradient in its
whole extent.1 To realise the intrepidity and skill of
the engineer who designed and wrought this master-
piece, well named La Scala, one has to imagine the
appearance presented by this mighty cliff before a
pick was struck in it. To prepare an easy way for
wheeled traffic over a precipice of 3000 feet was surely
a task only to be undertaken in order to gain access to
a rich domain. Yet what is the prospect before the
traveller on arriving at the windy summit ? Turning
his back upon the enchanting panorama of the triple
labyrinth of the Bocche winding among well-clad
mountains, he beholds towards the east a turmoil of
naked rocks, bleached almost white in some places, in
others weathered to dark grey and russet. Far as the
eye can reach there seems hardly growth to nourish a
goat, save where, high above the road, the oak wood
bristles brown among the steep snows of Lovcen. A
drearier landscape there could scarcely be ; yet upon

1 Since this was written a motor car service has been established
between Cattaro and Cettinje.

78 MONTENEGRO

passing the painted pillar that marks the frontier, you
feel, or ought to feel, ready to put the shoes from off
your feet, as if the very ground were holy. You are
entering territory sanctified by patriotic heroism almost
without parallel in the history of the nations. If it be
the birthright of every Scot to claim share in the glory
of three centuries of unequal, but successful, struggle
for independence, who shall set bounds to the legiti-
mate pride of the Montenegrin in his retrospect over
nearly twice that period, during which this race of moun-
taineers have stemmed the tide of Ottoman conquest,
which not only absorbed all other Balkan states, but
threatened to overwhelm the entire civilisation of the
West ? We Scots had a land frontier of barely three-
score miles to defend ; but the patriots of Tzerna Gora
were girt north, south, east, and west by insatiable
foes. Times without number the Scots were succoured
in extremity by their French allies; but the Monte-
negrins had no access to the sea until their inde-
pendence received tardy recognition in the Treaty
of Berlin in 1878, when the port of Antivari was
granted to them, followed in 1880 by the cession of
Dulcigno.

These undaunted highlanders beheld all their neigh-
bours, one after another, lower the Cross before the
Crescent. Servia became a Turkish province in 1459 ;
Bosnia followed in 1463 ; Albania was annexed in 1467,
and Herzegovina in 1476. Montenegro, or the Zenta
as it was then called, was bereft of its capital on the
Lake of Skodra or Scutari in the fifteenth century ; but
Ivan Czernovich, gathering his people round him in

APRIL 79

the heart of the mountains, founded Cettinje, which
remains the seat of government to this day.

In 1516 it seemed as if the end had come, when the
Vovoide or Prince, last of the Czernoviches, despairing
of the patriot cause, fled to Venice, and left his realm
to be overrun by the Turks. For nearly one hundred
years thereafter the Pasha of Skodra exacted tribute
from the Tzerna Gora, not only in money, whereof
there was little, but in young men, of whom there was
no stint in quantity or quality, and who were forced
to serve in the Sultan's army. In 1604 the tide was on
the turn : league by league the Mussulman was ceding
territory; tribute was withheld by the Montenegrins,
and a vast army sent to exact it was cut to pieces in
the mountains. The sternest part of the struggle now
set in. A second invasion in 1623 shared the fate
of the first, but not before Cettinje was laid in

At this time the supreme power became vested in
the Vladika or Metropolitan of the Greek Church in
Montenegro, who, in addition to discharging the func-
tions of spiritual head, undertook those of secular
autocrat and military commander-in-chief. A notable
step was taken in 1703. During the Turkish occupa-
tion many families in Montenegro had accepted the
Mohammedan faith. The Vladika decreed that the
land should be purged of it. The choice between
baptism, exile, and death was offered to every Mussul-
man, and the alternatives were accepted, it seems, in
about equal proportions. A punitive invasion by the
Turks failed in 1706 ; three years later the Montene-

80 MONTENEGRO

grins, encouraged by Peter the Great, made a counter-
inroad upon Turkish territory. Sixty thousand Turks
again swarmed across the frontier, but the moun-
taineers, numbering only eight thousand fighting men,
sent them home with the loss of eighty-six standards.
And so history kept on repeating itself all throughout
the eighteenth century. Time after time the Turks
returned in force that should have been overwhelming
(their army numbered 120,000 in 1714); they occupied
the capital and destroyed the villages, but invariably
they paid dearly for a triumph which produced so
little spoil, and, in retiring, they generally left half
their number behind.

Peter n., of the family of Petrovich, who succeeded
to the sovereignty in 1830, was the last Vladika or
Archbishop — the last, that is, to rule the country in
virtue of his ecclesiastical office. An enlightened
reformer, he perceived that internal harmony was the
only chance for his country, and exerted himself with
singular success to put an end to the blood-feuds, and
the almost inveterate system of private vendetta, which
had been its curse for centuries.

No easy matter this, but the Vladika Peter was no
ordinary man. Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson, who visited
him in 1847, described him as the very ideal of a
warlike chief, six feet eight inches in height, an adept
in war, and the spiritual father of his people. ' Though
it may appear,' says he, 'a singular accomplishment
for a bishop to hit with a rifle a lemon thrown into
the air by one of his attendants, this feat of the
Vladika adds to the confidence he enjoys among his

APRIL 81

troops.'1 One reform Peter desired, but had not the
confidence to attempt — that of prohibiting the imme-
morial practice of exposing on the tower of Cettinje
the heads of Turks taken by his borderers in their
perennial warfare. He told Wilkinson that he would
fain have done so, but that it would be understood by
the Turks as a symptom of drooping patriotism. It
was left for Peter's nephew, Danilo IL, to effect this.
Succeeding in 1851, this Prince proved to be a reformer
even more ardent than his uncle. Refusing to take
holy orders, he became the first secular ruler of
Montenegro since the failure of the line of Czernovich
in 1516 ; thenceforward temporal and ecclesiastical rule
remained distinct systems. But the author of this
salutary revolution paid the penalty of his life for
violating the moral law which his subjects held most
sacred. The one wrong which the Montenegrin will
never forgive is tampering with the purity of wife
or daughter. Prince Danilo, it is said, seduced the
wife of Kadich Radovich. In August 1860 he was
staying with his Princess at Perzagno, and when
embarking in a boat to return thither from his usual
evening stroll on the esplanade at Cattaro, Kadich
came up from behind and shot him in the back. The
Princess received him as he fell, and he died in her
arms. Such was the story told to Lady Strangford in
1864; but it is only fair to Danilo's memory to add
that another complexion is put upon the crime, and
the cause thereof, by the statement that Kadich acted
from political motives, being member of a family which

1 Wilkinson's Montenegro, etc., vol. i. p. 472.
F

82 MONTENEGRO

disputed the right of the Petroviches to the throne.
Certainly the Radoviches fled from Montenegro after
the murder, and took up their abode at Zara, in
Dalmatia, whither certain of their countrymen had
migrated rather than abandon a hereditary blood-feud.

Before his death Prince Danilo had repelled three
separate invasions by the Turk; and his nephew, the
present Prince Nicola, has proved a worthy inheritor
of the diadem. Twice he has led his people to victory,
driving the Turkish troops across the frontier in 1862
and 1877 ; but of more substantial value are his
achievements in diplomacy, whereby he won recogni-
tion of his country's independence, establishment of
the sovereign rank of its ruler, and concession of access
to the sea, together with the relatively fertile district
around Podgoritza and the Lake of Skodra — all of
which had been refused by the Powers through long
centuries of conflict.

Without some slight acquaintance with the history
of this remarkable little nation, the traveller would miss
the whole significance of the land and its people as
completely as he could be insensible to the spirit of
the Scottish Border had he never heard of Otterburne
and Flodden Field. Everybody has heard of Monte-
negro, indeed ; but many people picture it a realm as
misty and unreal as Mr. Anthony Hope's 'Zenda';
nay, I have met an educated person who positively
believed that it was a South American republic ! It
is not a land of ease, though the exceeding amiability
and scrupulous honesty of its people make a sojourn
there a delightful experience. It is poor and bare for

APRIL 83

the most part ; in the soft valley of Rjeka the frequency
of malaria makes summer loitering unwise. Well may
Mr. T. J. Jackson exclaim in his admirable work on
the Eastern Adriatic : ' A more bleak, inhospitable
fatherland has never inspired its sons to shed their
blood in its defence.' 1

And what sons they are ! It would not surprise me
to learn that the average height of adult males was
six feet. A nation of soldiers — a realisation of Lord
Roberts's dream for England ; every man of them
making the most of frame and features by his noble
bearing; yet without a trace of swagger, kindly to
strangers, courteous among themselves. Here and
there may be seen grizzled veterans, short of a leg or an
arm lost in the wars of 1862 or 1877, objects of great
veneration to the rising generation. One marvels how
so hungry an upland can nourish such a race of giants.
Their agriculture, except in the infrequent plains, is
confined to little patches of red soil — decomposed lime-
stone— lodged in pots and on ledges among the all-
prevailing grey and white rock. It looks like toy
farming, but it is terribly in earnest, and there is no
limit to the industry they bestow upon terraced plots,
varying in size from the dimensions of a billiard- table
to those of a putting-green. Yet the maize, rye, and
potatoes reared under these Alpine conditions must be
of rare quality, for there is no trace of short commons
in the handsome men, the comely maidens, and the

1 Dcdmatia, the Quarnero and Istria, by T. J. Jackson (Oxford
Clarendon Press, 1887), vol. iii. p, 87. Nobody should visit these
countries without careful perusal of this excellent book.

84 MONTENEGRO

lovely children who abound out of all proportion to
the visible means of subsistence.

Ah, but the cattle are not to be envied. In strange
contrast to their lordly owners are the plough-oxen,
about the size of Kerry cattle, hardly to be recognised
as of one species with the lusty, dun animals of
Lombardy. The ponies, too, are miserable roach-
backed creatures ; the donkeys are the smallest I ever
saw ; only the mules, of which there are not many,
seem to make a decent living.

The soldier-like bearing of the peasantry is greatly
accentuated by their scrupulously shaven cheeks and
chin, according to the custom which, as classical
writers have testified, prevailed among the Celtic tribes
at the time of the Roman conquest of Britain. Then
the national dress, universally worn by men of all
ranks, save the bearded clergy, is practically a military
uniform. Under a white, full-skirted woollen coat,
adorned with silver buttons and gold embroidery
according to the means of the wearer, is worn a double-
breasted scarlet waistcoat, broadly embroidered with
gold. Blue cloth pantaloons, wide and pleated in
Oriental fashion, and supported by a silken loin-scarf,
come below the knee, meeting white stockings or else
white woollen gaiters, fastened at the back of the leg
with myriads of silver buttons. Then come a pair of
soft-soled white shoes, of which the advantage will
become apparent to the tourist who attempts to traverse
in hobnails this region of friable limestone. He may
get along well enough on the highways, which carry a
very fair surface, but for mountain paths, mule-tracks,

APRIL 85

or river-banks, English boots are intolerable, unless
made with thick felt soles. JEsthetically, the foot-
covering is the point in his attire wherein the Mon-
tenegrin is apt to be disappointing. On Sundays and
feast-days, when he wants to appear particularly smart,
he has contracted the deplorable vice of drawing on a
pair of what we used to call 'Jemima' boots — black
boots, that is, with elastic sides. Desinit in piscem —
the lamentable effects of these loans from Western
civilisation upon a costume otherwise so archaic and
exquisitely romantic may easily be imagined. The
headgear, happily, remains incorrupt. In winter it is a
fur cap, with a loose drooping crown of white cloth,
exchanged in summer for the biretta or round forage
cap, black-bordered, with the Prince's initials worked
in gold upon the crimson top. Even the parish priests,
who go clad in flowing black gowns, habitually wear
this biretta, the recognised badge of nationality and
loyalty to Prince Nicola: but then the parish priest is
often the crack shot of his village and captain of the
local company of sharp-shooters.

In cold weather, or when travelling, a notable feature
is added to the costume, namely, a dark-brown plaid,
streaked with flashes of brilliant colour and edged with
a long swinging fringe. Even when the snow is gone
and the countrymen leave their thick white tunics at
home, appearing only in red waistcoats and blue
pantaloons, they carry this flung over the left shoulder,
like a Highlander's plaid or a Border shepherd's
maud.

The dress is the same for all except priests in design

86 MONTENEGRO

and colour, though varied in fineness of material
according to the circumstances of individuals. In
another important respect all are alike. Every man
wears round his waist a scarlet leather belt in the
front of which is a pouch for pistols and yataghan.
The old-fashioned, long-barrelled, silver-mounted pistols
are seldom seen now ; heavy revolvers — made in
Vienna, I believe — are the favourite arm, and the
Montenegrin is never without them. The Prince,
taking a drive with ladies through his dominion, the
coachman and jclger on the box of the royal carriage,
the Court dandy hanging about the palace, the
merchant in his office, the tradesman behind his stone
counter, the mason and the carpenter going to their
work, the peasant guiding his team of diminutive oxen,
the goatherd tending his flock on the hungry hillside
— all move with the bag of ' barkers ' girt round their
stomachs. The rifle is not carried so incessantly as
it used to be before the six-shooter came into vogue ;
but still you may see peasants of the poorer class, not
yet able to afford a revolver, with two of the old-
fashioned pistols stuck in the pouch beside the great
knife, and a rifle slung on the shoulder, coming into
market to offer their modest wares — a donkey-load of
firewood or a leash of starveling lambs.

Dangerous playthings, one should think, yet in no
part of Europe is there less risk of violence -or robbery
than in Montenegro. To bear arms is a habit in-
grained by centuries in a nation which owes its very
existence to unceasing vigilance and readiness with
arms. The claws of the Turk have been clipped fairly

APKIL 87

short during the last five- and- twenty years; but his
frontier still girdles the Tzerna Gora very closely.
Sultry Skodra still bristles with arms ; the only fertile
part of the Prince's realm is the plain round Pod-
goritza, acquired under the treaty of 1878, and that
lies as open as ever to sudden raids from the Albanian
mountains. Podgoritza itself is a divided town, the
clear-flowing Ribnica separating the old Moslem quarter
with its snowy minarets and mouldering walls, from
the scattered rows of uninteresting houses which form
the new and Christian centre of business. Here
Montenegrins in red and blue, and Boccesi in green
frocks, meet freely and mix amicably enough with
Albanians in white woollen jacket and trousers heavily
slashed and embroidered with black, and white-gowned
Turks with green, pink, or yellow turbans. The medley
of costumes makes a picture of which one never tires,
amid surroundings as architecturally unromantic as
any South African mining village.

Shepherds and goatherds in this district are dis-
tinguished from Prince Nicola's subjects in the rest
of the province by enormously thick sheepskin coats.
The heat was semi-tropical during our stay in Pod-
goritza, and becomes much fiercer during the summer
months ; yet these fellows never seem to lay aside this
ponderous covering, much the same as a fur motor-
coat, loitering about the rocky wilderness, and tramp-
ing along the burning highways from sunrise to sunset,
in charge of their patient flocks.

In this land of fine men, one naturally feels some
interest in the mothers who bear them. Most travellers

88 MONTENEGRO

who have written on the subject express disappoint-
ment in the stature and features of the women of
Montenegro; but I was as much impressed by the
beauty of many of the maidens as by the worn
and haggard appearance of most of the elder ones.
The plain fact is that the lot of women in this
Christian country is far harder than that of Mussul-
man wives who are kept in seclusion. The Greek
Church, despite it veneration for the Virgin Mary, has
done little or nothing to modify the Oriental doctrine
of the abject inferiority of woman to man. Conse-
quently all the burdensome tasks are thrown upon
women, except agriculture and wood-cutting, which
they share with the men. But even that share is not
an equal one. If a man goes to the copse to cut
firewood, it is his wife who binds the load and carries
it home, over the steep paths, on her shoulders. A
family attending market always marches in the same
order. The father and stalwart sons stroll along in
front, smoking the eternal cigarettes, with no burden
except their carefully-cleaned arms ; behind follow wife
and daughters, bowed with bundles, and perhaps lead-
ing an over-loaded little donkey. It is not from
unkindness: I never heard a Montenegrin utter a
harsh word or bestow a sour look upon his women-
kind. It is simply the constituted order of things
that man is the lord ; and he would no sooner think
of relieving his wife of a load in the journey, than an
English squire would propose to groom his own horse
after a day's hunting. Neither the Montenegrin wife
nor the English groom would appreciate interference

APRIL 89

with their recognised duties. You may see evidence
in the street of any village of the status accorded to
women. When two male acquaintances meet, they
salute each other most elaborately, bowing low
and shaking hands; but if a man meets a woman
friend, he extends his hand for her to kiss.
Naturally, I think, the female part of the popula-
tion inherit as remarkable a share of good looks
as the men; but they marry very young, and
hard work soon wastes their figures and hardens
their features.

Before marriage there seems to be plenty of pretty
love-making, all the prettier to onlookers because of
the graceful costumes of the young people. There
dwells in memory a charming group in a lonely little
osteria between Nigosh and Cettinje, where we stopped
for a cup of excellent coffee. The low-roofed stone
house consisted of but a single apartment containing
hardly any furniture except a kind of counter at one
end. The smoke from a wood fire in the centre of
the floor, before escaping through slits in the tiled
roof, had coloured all the ulterior with black and rich
brown. A couple of girls were in charge of the
establishment, one of whom was a charming dark-eyed
beauty with a bright and delicate complexion. Three
or four fine-looking young fellows, bristling with pistols
and knives, continued in lively conversation with them
while our repast was in preparation. The beauty, at
all events, was having a very good time ; a couple of
seasons in Paris could not have enhanced the witchery
of her manner, or taught her to distribute her smiles

90 MONTENEGRO

and pouts more impartially among her white-coated
suitors. I could not withhold a sigh as I thought how
brief was her hour of triumph, and how soon her
bloom was doomed to vanish after she entered the
holy state of matrimony.

The distance from Dalmatia, that land of ornate
churches and towering campanili, to any part of
Montenegro is so short that one is puzzled, at first,
by the total absence of architectural remains within
the Prince's dominions. The reason for this is twofold.
In the first place, the Latin Church, which holds sway
in Dalmatia, has always exceeded the Greek Church
in the scale and splendour of its places of worship,
providing vast naves and spacious side-aisles for pro-
cessional purposes. Greek churches seem curiously
disproportioned to the number of worshippers, present-
ing no long-drawn perspective or soaring vaults. In
detail, they are often interesting, but the general effect
is disappointing to the amateur. In the second place,
such churches and convents as may have adorned the
scattered villages of Montenegro have suffered the
same fate as overtook the abbeys of our own Border-
land— Dryburgh, Kelso, Jedburgh, and the rest. The
tide of war has rolled too often over these rugged
hillsides to permit the survival of any inflammable
structure or any portable treasure. The very capital,
Cettinje itself, can boast no monument of antiquity,
except the stump of the round tower whereon it was
the custom to expose the heads of Turks taken in that
ceaseless war in which neither side ever showed quarter

APRIL 91

to the other. Sir J. Gardner Wilkinson gives a wood-
cut of this tower as he saw it in 1847, with twenty
heads stuck on poles above the battlements, the ground
all around being strewn with fragments of others which
had fallen to pieces.1

Thus all the dwellings in Montenegro are devoid of
architectural or antiquarian interest. Cettinje is but a
rambling, desultory collection of humble buildings ; the
Prince's palace no more than a detached villa, abutt-
ing on the street, with a tiny park behind it, naively
planted with young spruce and Aleppo pines. Even
the country villages lack the romantic beauty of site
which gives such a charm to Italian scenery. The
Montenegrin ever scorned the security of fortified hill-
tops and steep approach. He builds his modest home
on the most convenient spot, without regard to the
positions occupied by his neighbours. Provision of
fortified places never was, nor is it now, part of the
scheme of national defence. Were the Turk once more
to cross the frontier, he would find the little highland
nation as faithful as ever to its habit of armed vigilance
and its traditional strategy. The old long-barrelled,
crutch-stocked firelocks and silver-mounted pistols may
have found their way into curiosity shops ; but, instead
of these, the Prince has equipped his people with
modern magazine rifles and heavy revolvers. He has
but to issue summons by bale-fire and bugle, flashing
and shrilling from summit to summit, and twenty
thousand splendid infantry would be at the fixed
muster-places within a couple of hours. Every house

1 Wilkinson's Dalmatia and Montenegro, vol. i. p. 512.

92 MONTENEGRO

would be emptied : women and children would be
hurried off into the fastnesses of the hills, and the
white-coated army would be disposed by the Prince
in the manner which has saved his country over and
over again. A column would be thrown forward to
meet the invader, but not to repel him. The secret
of past successes has been to fall back before the Turks,
luring them on through a region where bare, grey
precipices repeat each other in endless monotony.
There is scarcely a feature to distinguish one from the
other — not even that whereon five thousand riflemen
lie couched like ptarmigan in the snow, so closely do
the weather-stained white coats match the dry lime-
stone which forms the whole land surface. Let the
enemy be drawn through this pass, and the ambush
springs to life in his rear, pouring a merciless fire
into the dark column — an easy target, helpless against
invisible marksmen.

Even in peaceable times like these one cannot but be
impressed by the absolute devotion of this people to
their warrior Prince. Heaven help them ! should the
rule ever pass into feeble, careless, or evil hands.
Hitherto — ever since the accession of the dynasty of
Petrovich eighty years ago — they have thriven under a
series of able, enlightened autocrats, and enjoyed all
the ideal benefits of a benevolent despotism, which has
taken the unusual line of making easy for its subjects
the path to knowledge.1 Education is free, apparently
universal for boys, but not compulsory ; and among

1 Since these lines were written Prince Nicola has bestowed a con-
stitution upon his people. Prosit !

APRIL 93

the prettiest sights in the country are the groups of
merry school-children, well clad, well fed, and particu-
larly well mannered.

Now a final word as to the fishing. That there are
trout of enormous dimensions, and that these may be
caught by rod and line, we had ocular demonstration.
We had the undoubted record of the capture of one
weighing 37 Ib. by a gallant British admiral, and
while we were at Podgoritza, one was taken scaling
20 kilos (40 Ib.). We ate fish up to 12 Ib. in weight,
pink in flesh, and excellently flavoured, but we caught
none. Our visit was timed at least a month too early,
for in mid-April the snow is still melting apace, and
the chief river, the Moratza, is hopelessly milky with
glacier mud.

This Moratza, which flows past Podgoritza, is a swift
and noble stream about the size of the Tay at Aber-
feldy, but very different in the character of its banks.
For several miles round Podgoritza extends a level
plain, the bed of an ancient lake, of which the gravel-
beds have become indurated into breccia rock. Through
this rock the river has cut its way, forming a canon
with sides from a hundred to two hundred feet high.
It is the principal feeder of the great Lake of Skodra,
through which is drawn the frontier line between
Montenegro and Albania. This lake swarms with a
kind of bleak locally called scoranze, differing from our
northern bleak in that it is most excellent food and
maintains an important fishing industry. Upon these
bleak feed trout of the same species as those in British
and Irish rivers, and thrive so amazingly upon this diet

94 MONTENEGRO

as to attain proportions unheard of in our waters. In
habits also they differ somewhat from their British
cousins, having acquired those of salmon. Treating
the Lake of Skodra as their sea and feeding-ground,
when they are full fed they run up the Moratza, just as
spring salmon ascend the Helmsdale or the Black-
water. They are beautiful to look upon, with silvery
coats, excellent to eat, and must be noble creatures to
catch ; but it is heartrending to record the method by
which those we saw were taken. The water, we were
told, was still too cold to tempt many trout out of the
lake. Nevertheless, some of the natives were at work
— their angling equipment consisting of an enormously
long bamboo, a length of very stout cord, a bunch of
lobworms, and no reel. When they hook a fish they
simply walk away with him, giving no law and allowing
no play.

About four miles above Podgoritza the Zeta flows in
upon the right bank of the Moratza, passing under a
beautiful Turkish bridge of a single soaring span,
guarded by a fort, which has been dismantled since the
annexation of this province to Montenegro. This river
was running clear, the water being of a lovely jade-like
green; but even here we plied our craft without
reward. Few trout had reached it so early, although
a miller near the bridge had killed a seven-
pounder on the previous evening. But indeed the
heat and glare were so intense as not only to make
fishing a penance, but to render it in the highest
degree improbable that any fish would move to fly or
minnow.

APRIL 95

A third stream there is, the Ribnica, dividing the
Moslem from the Christian quarter of Podgoritza, the
very ideal of a trout-stream, about the size of the Test
at Romsey. But to casting angle in this lovely water
two circumstances proved highly unfavourable: first,
that operations near the town attracted a parti-
coloured and constantly increasing crowd of spec-
tators, whose presence ensured the terror and
flight of any trout within range; and second, that
very few trout were within range, by reason of
the diligence with which, as we discovered, nets
were plied after dusk, in every feasible reach of the
river.

As in Albania, therefore, so in Montenegro I have
nothing, as an angler, to record but discomfiture;
nevertheless, as a reconnaissance our expedition may
not be entirely barren of information for others. There
can be no doubt that there are the materials for sport
of extraordinarily fine quality in the neighbourhood of
Podgoritza, but it can only be ensured by preparation
which we had not the foresight to make. As I have
said, we were a month too early; a month later the
heat in the daytime is prohibitive of exertion on the
part of men and fishes alike. The hotel in Podgoritza
is quite habitable, but the proper course to pursue is
to take a camp equipment, to pitch the tents some
distance from the town, and to fish early and late
according to Norwegian practice, taking rest during
the sun- stricken hours. There are some fine pools
and streams below the town, but this district is too
low and too near the Lake of Skodra to be healthy,

96 MONTENEGRO

Far better and safer camping-ground may be found
higher up the river, between the Zeta and the
Moratza ; and he must be hard to please who is
not satisfied with the scenery, with the noble
range of the Albanian mountains to the east, and
the myriad crests of Montenegro to the north and
west.

The flora of Montenegro seems to have been very
imperfectly examined hitherto, and would probably
repay a patient explorer. Want of tents prevented our
visiting the forest region to the north arid north-east
of the province. Elsewhere the all-devouring goats
gobble up everything except the purple sage, the
poisonous spurges, and intensely prickly Paliurus,
which do their best to deck the stony wastes. In
nooks and on ledges, where goats and other browsing
creatures cannot come, there are fragments of an in-
teresting and varied flora ; but rocks which defy access
by goats offer serious obstacles to botanists. Dog-
tooth violets, cyclamens, and blue Apennine anemones
deck the copses ; Chionodosca, and two or three kinds
of grape-hyacinths, some crocuses which were past
bloom and colchicum which had not come to it,
campanulas of several sorts, and an Eryngo of beauti-
ful foliage were among the plants which I persuaded
the post officials (with much hesitation) to transmit as
parcels. Of loftier growths, the most conspicuous
were the prickly Dalmatian genista, the yellow Coro-
nilla, so common in English green-houses, and the
asphodels, yellow and white. But the chief ornament
of the woods in April is the flowering ash (Fraxinus

APRIL 97

ornus), too seldom grown in Britain, where it is per-
fectly hardy. The beautiful creamy plumes of this
tree are detested by flies; wherefore thoughtful
drivers gather them and stick them in the head-gear
of their horses. Among the mature specimens of
flowering ash which I have seen here and there in
English and Scottish grounds, I do not recollect one
that was not grafted on the common ash. Grafts and
cuttings are detestable when seed can be obtained, so I
sent for some from that excellent provider, Johannes
Rafn of Copenhagen, who never sends the wrong thing,
and now I have hundreds of thriving young plants.

XXII

CONCERNING the relative beauty of different kinds of
Birch and tree, it avails nothing to argue. As many
Beech men, so many minds. The Psalmist (or, if we
are to lend an ear to the higher critics, that syndicate
of authors who provided psalms for King David to
sing), gave the first place to ' the cedars of Lebanon
which the Lord hath planted.' Virgil preferred the
ash in the forest — the pine in the pleasure ground :
Fraxinus in silvis pulcherrima, pinus in hortis. Mr.
MacWhirter, R.A., is never weary of depicting the
slender grace of the birch, and recently I was ready to
vow he had chosen the fairest tree of British growth.
It was in a Highland birch wood; the clouds were
parting after twelve hours' rain, and all the plumes of
tender young green responded with myriad sparkles to
the sunbeams. The stems gleamed dull like oxydised
silver; all the verdant carpet was laced with delicate
oak-fern and spangled with anemones, primroses, and
blue hyacinths, save where breadths of last year's
bracken streaked the soaking slopes with golden
brown.

It were hard to find a lovelier scene ; yet memory

MAY 99

took ine back to the beechwoods of Roskilde, not far
from Copenhagen, recalling me to my fealty to the
beech. In a plebiscite of modern tree-growers (a fine
subject for next silly season), while the oak doubtless
would head the poll for majesty, the prize for sheer
beauty would surely go to the beech, for there is no
fairer sight in nature than a beechwood in May.

Of beeches there are two types, each unrivalled in
its way. There are the beeches that soar aloft on tall,
clean boles, with not a branch for forty or fifty feet,
whereof you shall find no nobler examples than in Lord
Brownlow's park at Ashridge. These have gone
through the kindly discipline of close forest, or they
never had attained their lordly stature before being
ranged in groves and groups. The monarch of that
demesne, the king beech, is now no more, having suc-
cumbed to storm about the year 1891. Mr. Elwes
records that it had a clean shaft of about ninety feet,
and after fifteen feet of the butt, which was partly
rotten, had been removed, the rest panned out to the
tune of 480 cubic feet of sound timber, without reckon-
ing the branches. The royal corpse was bought by a
local timber merchant for £36. l The queen beech
remains to this day, 135 feet in height, without a
branch for eighty feet, girthing 12 feet 3 inches at the
height of a man's breast.

The other type of beech is the spreading kind, such
as has never encountered competition with near neigh-
bours. I stood last week within the compass of one of
this sort, the hugest beech in the United Kingdom —

1 The Trees of Oreat Britain and Ireland, vol. i. p. 20.

100 BIRCH AND BEECH

probably in the world — that at Newbattle, in Midlothian.
Within the compass, I say ; from without one beholds
only a vast dome of foliage, to the centre of which one
must penetrate in order to be thrilled with admiration
for the contrast between the mighty central column,
carven, as it were, out of grey marble, and the shim-
mering veil of young leaves. No draughtsman so deft
— no camera hand so faithful — as to convey a right
impression of such a combination of bulk and delicacy.
This giant measures 105 feet in height, and at five feet
high its girth is 21 feet 6 inches. The great branches
have bowed themselves to the ground and rooted
into fresh trees thirty and forty feet high, thus
making a perfect grove, with a total circumference of
400 feet.

With those who regard woodland in no other light
save as a harbour for game, the beech has fallen into
disfavour, because a beechwood always has a bare
floor, save on some specially congenial soils, like parts
of Buckinghamshire, where the holly grows luxuriantly
among the beech stems. But the skilful forester holds
beech in high esteem, as the only true shade-bearer
among our native deciduous trees, the only one which
may be planted under other high wood to form a suc-
cessional crop. And while it is thus growing it per-
forms a double function of great utility ; it screens the
soil from drying winds and too rapid evaporation, and
at the same time greatly enriches it by an annual
heavy fall of leaves. No tree forms humus — the true
forest soil — so rapidly as the beech ; and it does so
under conditions of shade which none other will

MAY 101

endure. ' The Doctor of the Wood,' there is no other
companion so beneficial to the oak, which, on dry soil,
is sure to go stag-headed before its natural term if
grown as pure forest. Nowhere can the effect of beech
upon oak be better studied than in some of the parks
formed within the bounds of the old Forest of Sher-
wood. The soil there is dry and hot ; oaks grown un-
mixed with other trees invariably show signs of failing
vigour after one hundred years ; but in company with
beech they remain pictures of robust health and growth
till twice or thrice that age.

Virgil, by the by, is silent about the merits of the
beech, for there is good reason to believe that the fagus
under which Tityrus reclined was not a beech, but a
sweet chestnut. So when Caesar described the English
woods as composed of the same trees as those of Gaul,
except the fir and the fagus, he probably meant the
sweet chestnut ; for there is geological evidence to show
that beech is indigenous to southern Britain. Pliny,
however, clearly meant beech when he wrote of fagus ;
nor can we afford to blame the classical writers for
their looseness of expression, seeing that we practise the
same ourselves. We often talk of Scots fir, though the
tree is no fir, but a pine ; and of mountain-ash, though
the rowan is of far different affinity from the ash.

Beechwood, hitherto little esteemed save by the
chairmakers of Bucks, is rising in value. Brushmakers
have had to give up German beech for their work
because it is not nearly so tough as English beech.
When I was a lad, before golf came into general vogue,
it was held by experts that crab and pear were the only

102 BIRCH AND BEECH

proper material for fashioning club-heads withal. Then
beech came into favour for that purpose ; but nowadays
the American persimmon is all the go.

Our beechwoods have been attacked of late by a
very destructive parasite, the felted coccus (Cryptococ-
cus fagi}, a wretched little bug, without legs, but with a
sharp beak, with which it pierces the bark and sucks
the sap. It is but one twenty-fifth of an inch long,
but what it lacks in stature it makes up in multitude,
propagating itself indefinitely until the strongest and
largest tree perishes under the invasion. Moreover,
this pestilent mite comes into the world equipped with
a defence against the most potent insecticide, protecting
itself with an overcoat of white felt composed of waxy
fibres, which no spray can penetrate. Individual trees, it
is said, may be rid of it by scrubbing the bark with a hard
brush and a strong solution of soft soap ; but, needless
to say, such a remedy is impracticable in the forest.

If, as I maintain, the beech is the queen of British
trees, what shall be said of those who prefer it copper-
coloured to green as God made it ? De gustibus —
and all said. The abnormal will always command
votaries ; but it is sad to see pleasure-grounds marred
by the increasing fashion of sticking in copper beeches
at all odd corners. People who want foliage of that
colour should satisfy their craving at the haberdasher's ;
or, if they must have something abnormal, let it be the
purple beech, which strikes a much richer and less
metallic note than the copper beech. The most shapely
specimen of the true purple beech known to me stands
in Osterley Park, near the south-west corner of the

MAY 103

house — a most majestic object in its sombre robe dyed,
as it were, in burgundy. The variety is said to have been
derived in the eighteenth century from a parent tree,
still living in a Thuringian forest near Sonderhausen.
But Dr. Augustine Henry tells us, in the great work,
quoted above, which he is preparing in collaboration
with Mr. H. J. Elwes, that so long ago as 1680 mention
is made of three beeches with red leaves growing on the
Stammberg in Zurichgau. These trees were popularly
believed to have grown up on a spot where five
brothers fought each other, and three of them were slain.
Those who wish to plant the purple beech should see
that they are not supplied with copper beeches.

XXIII

In round numbers, there are four hundred dis-
tinct species of British birds, whereof Dr. Ed- London
ward Hamilton, eight-and-twenty years ago, Birds
enumerated nearly one hundred as Londoners, resident
or casual, in a list which he published in the Zoologist.
But his census was a liberal one, taking account of such
chance passengers as the falcons and hawks, which
sometimes alight on the golden cross of St. Paul's. I
do not remember whether he included the kite, once so
abundant on the tidal shores of the Thames as to ex-
cite the wonder of observant foreigners in the fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries, but now so nearly extinct in
Britain that probably not one in 500,000 of the present
generation has ever seen a kite's superb display of wing-
manship. I have already recorded, not without exulta-
tion, that on a certain May morning in 1905 a kite was

104 LONDON BIRDS

sitting on one of the pinnacles of Westminster Palace ; l
nor was it until the note was in print that I ascertained
that this bird was almost indubitably one of three
or four which had been released from the Zoological
Gardens in Regent Park, and which return regularly to
the Zoo for their meals !

Sir Thomas Digby Pigott, a later, but not less vigilant,
observer of urban birds than Dr. Hamilton, stated in
1892 that the house-martin built in several parts of
London, notably in St. James's Street. I felt some
surprise on reading this, for although fairly watchful
in such matters, I have never seen martins, swallows,
or swifts in the metropolis except on passage. I doubt
whether there is enough winged insect life outdoors in
London to sustain a hungry brood of young martins,
though many a distracted housewife knows how flies
abound indoors. However, in the 'eighties, when I
used to ride in Rotten Row, I marked each summer a
pair of spotted flycatchers nesting in one of the elms at
the lower end of the ride. Do they come there still ?
Blackbirds and thrushes certainly are more plentiful
than of yore in the parks ; robins, chaffinches, and tits
avoid the dry parts of the town, but remain pretty
regularly in the garden round the Ranger's Lodge in
Hyde Park.

Food, after all, is the most constant factor in a bird's
choice of lodging ; witness the crowds of blackheaded
gulls which throng London Bridge and the water in St.
James's Park during the winter months. Fifteen years
ago not one was to be seen there. It was the memor-

1 Memories of the MontJis, Fourth Series, p. 120.

MAY 105

able frost of January and February 1895 which sent
birds into all kinds of unaccustomed places in desperate
quest of food. A few gulls found their way into the
parks from the Thames estuary ; mindful of the hospi-
tality they received, they have returned there each
year bringing with them their children's children, until
they have become one of the sights of London.

But powerfully as free meals influence the move-
ments of these birds, it is overruled by a stronger
impulse in spring. Reluctant as they may be to leave
the fleshpots of London, these gulls one and all obey
the mandate which drives them into the wilderness to
rear their young. No stragglers are allowed ; no crafty
pair may hang back to bring up a brood where dainties
are so easily come by. All must repair to the distant
moorland loch where, from immemorial time, the
blackheaded gulls have assembled in huge colonies for
the primary duty of reproduction. All through spring
and summer, instead of hovering idly about the crowded
bridges, snapping up supplies from a benevolent public,
they must range far and wide for food, hunting grubs
on the ploughlands, caterpillars in the heather, and, sad
to say, young salmon and trout in the shallows.

It is in summer only that the title ' blackheaded ' is
even roughly appropriate. The heads of these birds
during their London season are pure white, puzzling
many people as to the fitness of the appellation. It is
only during the season of courtship and matrimony,
when the gulls are hundreds of miles away from
London, that the feathers of the head become, not
black, but dark chocolate.

106 LONDON BIRDS

It was in 1883, when living in a house overlooking
the Birdcage Walk, that I first woke with the cooing of
a cushat in my ears. No note, at that time, was less
familiar amid the roar of London traffic; of all rural
sounds, none is more suggestive of the greenwood ; nor
could I believe my ears till, on looking out o' window,
I beheld a real woodpigeon cooing away on a poplar
branch to his mate below

Now the Birdcage Walk was not arbitrarily named ;
it derives its title from King James's aviary, the park
and lake having been the home of tamed fowls ever
since. (Was not Saint-Evremond appointed governor
of Duck Island, the islet in the ornamental water, by
Charles IL, at a salary of £500 a year ? surely the most
artless sinecure ever devised.) Well it is to a couple
of pairs of Belgian woodpigeons, brought to St. James's
Park in 1880 or 1881, that we owe the foundation
of the present numerous colony in the metropolis.
Naturally among the wariest of wild birds, they have
lost all fear of man. I counted six-and-forty one March
morning among a lot of house-pigeons, busily picking
out the clover crowns from some newly-sown grass in
Hyde Park. What though their pink toes are dis-
gracefully defiled, their pearly plumage smirched with
smut, their voice has not altered, and one of the most
welcome sights in a London square is the cushat's
slovenly black nest with its pair of milk-white eggs.

Talking of St. James's Park brings to mind a pathetic
story told by Sir T. D. Pigott about a bird in London,
though in no sense a London bird, a barnacle goose.
Now it is a curious trait in barnacle geese that, although

MAY 107

it is one of the unsolved problems of ornithology where
they naturally breed, they will rear their young con-
tentedly in captivity ; whereas their near relatives, the
brent geese, refuse to lay a single egg if deprived of
freedom. Well, some years ago, a barnacle goose made
a nest in St. James's Park, lining it with the best down
from her bosom, but devil an egg did she succeed in
producing. She sat close, however, on the empty nest
for weeks, finally quitting it reluctantly about the time
that eggs, had there been any, should have hatched.
Next spring, this would-be Mother Goose built another
nest as fine as the first ; but into this one a sympathetic
keeper slipped some duck's eggs, which were hatched
in due time, and no more exemplary mother could be
seen than Madame Barnacle, as she sailed forth with
her little fleet of aliens.

The crow family has undergone much vicissitude in
London during the past century. It is not many years
since Kensington Gardens was hoarsely vocal with
rooks, but the last pair bred there in 1892. I believe
there is still a small rookery in Gray's Inn, though it is
puzzling to understand how the birds can find their
way daily to feeding grounds, yearly getting more
remote, through the network of wires that covers
London so closely. Indeed it is one of the most
singular features in urban bird life, how few casualties
arise from this cause (no pun, please), especially since
the thick iron wires have been so largely replaced by
fine wires of copper or steel.

While rooks have been disappearing from London,
carrion crows (which are often mistaken for rooks) are

108 LONDON BIRDS

probably on the increase. Hundreds of them nest in
such places as Chiswick House, Ken Wood, and
Wimbledon Park, and the keepers in Regent's Park
have to slay many of them in defence of the eggs of the
waterfowl.

I fancy that the latest addition to London birds is
the magpie; there is generally one to be seen in the
Green Park, perhaps one of a pair brought a few years
ago to St. James's Park. It is much to be hoped that
he (or she) may find a mate and found a colony,1 for
despite the ill-fame this pied crow has earned from
gamekeepers, he may pick up a living blamelessly
enough in town, and his irresponsible chatter adds a
welcome note of wild life to the turmoil of traffic.

A fourth member of the crow tribe — the irrepres-
sible starling — brings me to the end of my list.
Nothing is more remarkable in the general bird popula-
tion of these islands than the prodigious increase in
the number of starlings. When I was a boy the
starling's pale blue egg was counted a prize, in the
north at least ; now, right away to John o' Groats, they
pervade every county in thousands. How they all find
subsistence is a wonder, yet they always seem in high
condition. They are welcome in London, were it only
for their fine powers of mimicry, which enable them to
treat us to nice little snatches from the melody of pro-
fessional songsters like the thrush and the lark, with
quotations from the conversation of coots and curlews.

1 Magpies have nested in the Green Park for at least two con-
secutive seasons (1908 and 1909), but I have not ascertained whether
they have succeeded in rearing a brood.

MAY 109

XXIV

Not until this jocund month of May1 has run half
its course will gardeners be able to balance spring
their accounts with last winter 1908-9. The Flowers
proportion of labels that will remain only to mark
the deathbeds of departed treasures is likely to be
unusually large, so fierce and searching was the cold of
Christmastide and March. The frost, though not pro-
longed, did excessive damage in districts where its
effects was not mitigated by a protective snowfall.
We have ourselves to blame for the loss, by reason of
our perversity in endeavouring to cultivate in the open
plants which will only just endure the capricious
climate of the British Isles. Many of our highly-prized
exotics are not one whit more desirable than some of
our indigenous flora. For instance, there is no yellow-
flowered shrub in the world — none, at least, known to
me — equal in splendour and affluence of blossom to our
native gorse and broom ; but familiarity has bred its
customary offspring, and the places of honour in our
borders are reserved for aliens not always desirable in
themselves and often of a crabbed humour. Have not
I been taking untold trouble to obtain a spring display
of gold from the Chinese Forsythia, with the result of
a meagre sprinkling of palish yellow bells ; while for
leagues around, on moor edges, seashore, river banks,
and rocky pasture, farmers and peasants have been
seizing every dry, windy spell to fire hundreds of

1 Written in western Scotland, where May 1909 was really ' jocund,'
as it certainly was not in southern England. The mean temperature
of the month was many degrees higher in Iceland than it was in Surrey.

110 SPRING FLOWERS

acres of gorse just bursting into bloom ? Not that
Forsythia is to be despised where it will flourish, which
is not everywhere ; but it is scentless, and gorse is of
exquisite fragrance ; also it has to be pruned carefully
after flowering to ensure a display in the following
season. The best variety is F. intermedia, a hybrid
between F. suspenses and F. viridissima.

If May brings with it mourning for the good things
that will return no more, it makes ample compensation
by the fulfilment of hope long deferred, and the en-
chanting surprises which it has in store for the sagacious
amateur. Especially for those who have succumbed
to the fascination of alpine plants, a class of amateurs
which has been so abundantly recruited within the
last quarter of a century. Pioneers in the movement
were Mr. William Robinson, who first, in the early
'seventies, explained the virtue of rockwork in the
cultivation of alpines as being, not inherent in the
rocks and stones, but in the effective drainage and root-
shelter ensured thereby,1 and Mr. Backhouse, of York,
who stocked alpines largely and devoted a large section
of his nurseries to demonstrating their proper treatment.

Much water has run under the bridges since those
early days ; nearly every nurseryman of enterprise can
supply alpines unknown forty years ago, and many
writers have followed Mr. Robinson in extolling their
charms. Latest, and dangerously persuasive, comes
Mr. Reginald Farrer with two volumes,2 so luminous in

1 Alpine Flowers for English Gardens. London : John Murray.
1870.

2 My Rock Garden, and Alpine and Bog Plants. London : Edward
Arnold. 1908.

MAY 111

instruction, so ardent in exultation, so sanguine in
defeat, that every reader with a quarter of an acre at
his disposal must straightway be drawn into the vortex
and begin marking nursery catalogues.

If one who passed that way many years ago, and still
pursues it with undiminished zest, may utter a word,
not deterrent, of a surety, but cautionary, that word
would be Festina lente! Begin on a modest scale,
rejecting at the outset ambitious schemes of mimic
Alps, miniature gorges, and make-believe moraines;
which things may follow when the wants of what is to
clothe them are well understood, although in truth
these sham landscapes seldom bring content. Better a
few yards of retaining wall, built without mortar of
course, against a bank or sloping terrace — this as a
start, capable of indefinite production and modification.
Thereby may be provided the cardinal requirements of
mountaineers — namely, deep soil to root in, rapid
drainage, and rock shelter to retard evaporation.

The novice in rock gardening should learn to dis-
tinguish at the outset between what are everybody's
plants — that is, plants from which everybody may
ensure a satisfactory display, and plants which demand
nice consideration in the matter of soil, aspect, and
general treatment. He should begin with the easier
class, many of which are quite as beautiful as the more
fastidious kinds. No difficulty will be found with the
rock cress (Aubretia), and the eye never wearies of the
various shades of mauve and purple, of which that
most generous herb supplies lavish sheets and cushions.
But the florists have been at work with this family, and

112 SPRING FLOWERS

have consummated some execrable results in magenta,
which should be rigidly suppressed. There, surely, is no
occasion to multiply flowers of this disagreeable hue,
which already prevails unduly among natural species.

The yellow madwort (Alyssum saxatile) is most com-
monly assigned as a companion to purple aubrietas,
and a fine cheerful thing it is ; but if you would avoid
monotony — a sin which doth chiefly beset gardeners
— try for a change the trailing Waldsteinia trifoliata,
a near relative of the strawberry. It takes a year
longer than the inadwort to establish itself, but its
golden cataract is worth waiting for. Preferable also
to madwort, and less commonly seen, is the beautiful
alpine wallflower (Cheiranthus or Erysimum alpinum)
from the ' dais ' of Scandinavia. Cerastium tomentosum
supplies mounds of pearly hoar, but for pure white
there is nothing more dazzling than Arenaria mon-
tana, Saxifraga Wallacei, and the variety of Phlox
subulata called ' Nelsorii.' Arabis albida should be
avoided ; the only member of that rather coarse family
to be desired is A. aubrietioides, which drapes a steep
bank into a charming shower of blush pink ; its only
fault is in the brevity of its display.

Skyblue of the purest can be had from the easy
alpine forget-me-not (Myosotis alpestris), which has
sported into an exquisite form known as ' Queen
Victoria ' ; but to succeed with the variety rupicola, a
miniature of alpestris in everything except the size of
its flowers, requires prolonged experience of the vagaries
of plants from high altitudes. It is easy to prescribe
drought in winter and moisture in summer : the puzzle

MAY 113

is how to secure such conditions under an Atlantic sky.
Gromwell (Liihospermum prostratum) and gentianella
may be; relied on for pure deep blue, at least in gardens
to their liking ; but although they grow like weeds in
some soils, they perish unaccountably in others. All
that can be said is that gromwell hates lime and genti-
anella loves it, though quite capable of doing well
without it.

For crimson, one must have recourse to such varieties
of the dwarf Phlox as 'Vivid' and to the brighter
varieties of Saxifraga muscoides — ' Guildford seedling '
for instance ; but scarlet, save in tulips, is only to be
had at this early season by the fortunate possessors of
soil that suits the brilliant Anemone fulgens. What
that soil may be defies analysis or definition ; in
one parish this gay wildflower spreads as freely as
in an Italian olive-yard, in another it absolutely
declines to make its abode. Personally, I have only
found one situation it deigns to accept, namely,
the top of a retaining wall, where it gleams like
fire among that splendid grape-hyacinth, 'Heavenly
Blue.'

All these are flowers of May ; not a hundredth part
of them, of course, but enough for a 'prentice hand to
start with. Untold sums have been wasted and much
discouragement entailed by beginning with plants
requiring special treatment. Success with these ensures
some of the keenest pleasures in horticulture ; but the
road thereto lies through modest endeavour, ingenuity
in baffling the devilish appetite of slugs, vigilance and
discretion in controlling the invasion of strong growers
H

114 FALCON AND HERON

upon weaker ones, and incessant diligence in preventing
weeds from getting foothold.

XXV

It was frequently asserted by falconers of old that
Falcon and the heron, when attacked by the peregrine,
Heron threw herself on her back in the air and
defended herself with her rapier beak, sometimes
transfixing her assailant. Modern observers have
received this statement with discredit, and personally
I have never had an opportunity either of confirming
or refuting it ; but a friend, thoroughly trustworthy in
matters ornithological, has lately seen enough to
vindicate the veracity of old writers on falconry. At
Holkham, in Norfolk, he was lucky enough in the
spring of 1908 to witness the flight of a wild pere-
grine at a heron. The object of the falcon was to get
above its quarry ; that of the heron to maintain the
advantage ; so they both rose to a great height. Time
after time the falcon got the upper hand, and promptly
stooped; each time the heron threw its neck right
along its back, presenting its beak vertically at the
peregrine, who sheered off, but renewed the assault
several times. Finally the heron made good its retreat
to some sheltering trees. The only respect in which
this bird's behaviour differed from the traditional
manner was that it did not throw itself on its back
to use its beak — simply turned its neck.

Talking of wingmanship brings to mind a blunder
committed in one of the earlier volumes of this

MAY 115

desultory series. In discoursing of the gannet or solan
goose, I spoke of its headlong plunge after a fish as
being performed with closed wings. The same friend
who watched the peregrine and the heron has called
my attention to the error ; the gannet's wings are stiffly
extended during the descent. The action is similar to
that of a paper kite shooting to the ground, and the
reason for keeping the wings spread is obvious and
twofold. First, the velocity of the descent is rendered
far greater than if it depended merely on the gravita-
tion of a feather body. The air acts on the flexible
ends of the pen-feathers as a propelling force, just as
it does upon those of a soaring gull, which will sail
for miles against the wind without a single stroke of
the wings, which are kept perfectly rigid. Second, in
pursuing an object so elusive as a fish, accuracy in
steering is of prime importance, and this could not be
achieved if the bird descended like a bullet with closed
wings.

XXVI

This has been a lamentable nesting season for peewits
[1908]. The harvest of their first laying was Bad times
as diligently and universally garnered as for Peewits
usual, nor does it appear that there was any shortage
of plovers' eggs in the market. In ordinary seasons
no harm is done to the general stock by gathering
the early eggs, and the rule enforced by most county
councils, prohibiting the taking of eggs after April 15th,
leaves plenty of time for the birds to lay a second
time. No doubt they did so last month, but the wet

116 BIRDS FROM THE LIFE

weather of March and the first half of April so greatly
hindered farm operations that, in the north at least,
no seed was sown until the latter half of April. Con-
sequently many thousands of eggs must have been
crushed by the harrows and rollers; and as if this
were not sufficient adversity, intense frost and four
days' snowstorm at Eastertide must have destroyed
thousands more. There must therefore be expected
a considerable diminution in the lapwing population
for some time to come. All the greater reason for
urging upon county councils the expediency of pro-
hibiting the slaughter of lapwings at all times of
the year. The most effective way of stopping the
mischief would be to prevent this most useful bird
being offered for sale within the United Kingdom;
but this could only be done by Act of Parliament.
In furthering such a measure the Board of Agri-
culture would be acting directly in the interest of
farmers.

XXVII

At the monthly meeting of the British Ornitholo-
Birdsfrom gists' Club in April 1908, members and their

the Life guests enjoyed one of the most novel and
instructive entertainments that can be imagined.
The public have learnt, by means of illustrated books
and journals, to appreciate the skill and patience with
which Mr. Cherry Kearton has applied photography to
the portraiture of wild birds and their nests. He has
now succeeded by means of the cinematograph not

MAY 117

only in depicting the birds, but in recording their
movements in the various scenes of their domestic
drama. The difficulties to be overcome were most
perplexing, especially when birds had to be depicted
in the intimate action of feeding their young, for the
slightest noise would alarm the actors and interrupt
the action. Such living pictures have to be taken at
short range; it was necessary, therefore, not only to
conceal the operator in close proximity to the nest,
but also to bury the instrument, which makes a con-
siderable noise, in a box with thick packing.

The results obtained are truly surprising. A nest,
say, of song thrushes, sedge warblers, or spotted fly-
catchers, is shown full of sleeping nestlings. Arrives
a parent bird, with its mouth full of dainties ; up go
all the little heads, with beaks wide agape. The
parent distributes the food with perfect impartiality ; if
there is not enough to go round, the other parent
arrives presently on the other side of the nest and
remedies any inequality in rations. Perhaps the
most remarkable group exhibited was the nest of a
sparrow hawk, with the parent bird tearing up the
carcass of her prey, and giving the shreds of meat to
her young, but even that scene, although more stirring,
was not more interesting than the pretty action of the
mother sedge warbler, who, after she and her mate had
fed the nestlings, ruffled her feathers and brooded
upon the little things in the most endearing manner
before flying off to gather fresh supplies. Another
remarkable and instructive feature in each scene was
the scrupulous sanitary precautions taken by the

118 BIRDS FROM THE LIFE

parent birds to keep the nursery clean, bringing home
to one the pertinence of the old Scots proverb — ' It 's
an ill bird that files (defiles) it 's ain nest.'

The scenes of sea-bird life — gannets, puffins, guille-
mots, terns, etc., were exceedingly beautiful, exhibiting
these birds in their native haunts, flying, swimming,
diving, incubating, and so on. Moreover, some idea
was given to the spectators of the difficulty and risk
incurred in obtaining these photographs ; for one
series showed the operator going over the edge of a
vertical sea cliff, roped, of course, and with his camera
on his back. It made one hold one's breath to see
him swinging in mid-air, warding himself off the rocks
with his foot, then being hauled up, until, with an actual
sense of relief, we saw him safely landed again on the
summit beside his companions. So thrilling — so life-
like— were the scenes in this series, that one had no
thought, before the close, to bestow upon the mar-
vellous skill of the photographer.

Scarcely less instructive and interesting were some
lantern slides exhibited by other naturalists. Mr.
Lodge gave a vivid account of his long and comfort-
less vigil in a hollow tree beside the carcass of a cow,
in order to get a snapshot at vultures in Albania.
Those who know the great marsh in Montenegro,
wherein he spent days before he secured a portrait of
the great white heron (Herodias alba) on its nest, will
be able to appreciate the ardour which inspires those
who voluntarily undergo so much physical torment.

Beautiful were Mr. Crowley's photographs of the
black-throated and red-throated divers at their nests ;

MAY 119

and Miss E. L. Turner's slides, explained by Mr.
Pycraft, revealed some very remarkable traits in bird
life. The pied wagtail, which built its nest in a flower-
pot in a greenhouse, might have been reckoned secure
against disturbance from without, for access to her
retreat could only be had through a drain pipe ; yet a
cuckoo marked her ingress, made its way into the
greenhouse, and there was the young cuckoo estab-
lished among the wagtail's brood.

Still more extraordinary was the behaviour of a
blue titmouse, as described by Mr. W. Farren. The
female was sitting hard upon her eggs; her mate
brought her so many caterpillars that she could eat
no more, and refused to take any ; whereupon
he directed his attention to a brood of young hedge-
sparrows in a nest a few yards distant from his own
establishment, and Mr. Farren succeeded in photo-
graphing him in the act of feeding the nestlings of a
species so little akin to his own as Accentor modularis.
The good Samaritan himself did not take a more
liberal view on the question — Who is my neighbour ?

All right-minded persons love birds, though too
many manifest their affection by robbing their nests
and making collections of their corpses. Far more
creditable and exciting is the pursuit opened out by
modern photography by providing means of recording
the actions and interpreting the characters of all kinds
of wild fowls.

120 THE KING OF THE HERRINGS

XXVIII

On 23rd May 1908 there turned up on the rocks
The King of near Dunbar a fine specimen of the oarfish,
the Herrings Or King of the Herrings (Regalecus glesne),
one of the handsomest, rarest, and most mysterious
of British fishes. We claim the creature as British
because it is sometimes, at long intervals, cast up on
our coasts, but in truth its range appears to be world-
wide, for it is known to inhabit the Atlantic, the Indian
Ocean, the South Pacific, and the Mediterranean.
Specimens from these widely separated seas have been
classed by some icthyologists as distinct species, but
the recent tendency is to regard them as belonging
only to one. The question is a peculiarly elusive one,
owing to the impossibility hitherto experienced in
obtaining a perfect specimen. The King of the Her-
rings holds his court in the abysmal depths of ocean,
and probably never approaches the land except when
suffering from disease or injury. His portrait does not
appear among Von Wright's splendid coloured plates
in Professor Smith's Scandinavian Fislues, for the
artist had nothing but museum specimens to work
from, and the brilliant metallic skin of this fish, com-
pared by those who have seen it fresh to ' bright tinfoil
or white Dutch metal,' turns black soon after death.
In the work referred to (vol i. p. 323) there is a large
drawing in black and white, partly schematic — that is,
designed from perfect parts of different specimens —
which brings vividly to mind the drawings which
various witnesses have made from time to time of

MAY 121

the great sea-serpent. The body is lithe and serpen-
tine, or ribbon-like ; the back is covered along its
whole length by a crimson dorsal fin resembling the
' mane ' so often mentioned in accounts of the sea-
serpent, and the lofty frontal crest is a feature often
described to more or less sympathetic listeners by
those who claim to have seen that semi-mythical
creature.

The mere mention of the great sea-serpent may
raise a smile of incredulity, and I am not going to
take up the cudgels on either side of the venerable
controversy which rages periodically round what is
either a myth or a monster ; but it is impossible not
to note salient points of similarity between the animal
we know, and the description of a phenomenon not
yet either demonstrated or demolished by modern
science.

First, as to size : the sea-serpent is usually described
as immense, whereas the oar-fish recovered on May
23rd, 1908, was only 13 J feet long. Of the five-
and-twenty specimens reported from British waters
during the last hundred years, the largest was that
taken in a salmon net near Buckie in August 1884.
It measured only 17 feet 1 inch long, but there
is no means of knowing to what size animals of this
species may attain. Among creatures possessing such
a plastic organism as fishes there are many species
which conform to no standard of size. The trout,
which, in a Scottish burn, may never exceed fingerling
stature, if transported to New Zealand waters may grow
to a weight of thirty or forty pounds. Adult salmon

122 THE KING OF THE HERRINGS

vary greatly in size ; in some rivers a fifteen-pounder
is reckoned a rare prize; in others the angler plies
his craft in hopes of a forty, fifty, or sixty-pounder.
An oar-fish 17 feet long may bear no nearer
proportion to its mighty kindred in the ocean abysses
than a five-pound grilse does to a salmon of 103
pounds, which is reported to have been taken in
the Firth of Tay during last close season. It may be
that only youthful and inexperienced oarfishes venture
into comparatively shallow seas, and that larger in-
dividuals, wallowing on the surface far from land, may
have given rise to the numerous and persistent stories
of the great sea-serpent. ' The tales,' says Professor
Smith, ' of the great sea-serpent may probably be
explained by a variety of different causes — tumbling
dolphins, enormous cuttlefish, the basking shark
floating and resting at the surface, or even floating
wreckage.' But in the cases where the sea-serpent
appears with crest erect the explanation seems to lie
in the appearance and death-struggles of the King of
the Herrings at the surface of the ocean. Of course
the oar-fish is not a serpent, but a true fish nearly
related to the deal-fish (Trachypterus), which in no
degree affects the credibility of the evidence borne
by many experienced seamen to the existence of a
huge marine animal resembling a serpent.

Unluckily some of the external organs of this great
fish are so extremely delicate and fragile that they
invariably get damaged either in capture or when the
creature is stranded, and a perfect specimen has never
been recovered. Norwegian fishermen describe the

MAY 123

occipital crest as resembling peacocks' feathers. It
consists of two parts, the first composed of five long
rays, projecting rather forward like the comb of a
Greek helmet, the second composed of nine to twelve
rays, each tipped with a fluttering crimson tag, which
may be intended as a bait to tempt small fish within
reach of a pair of hungry jaws, like a similar apparatus
in the hideous angler or fishing-frog (Lophius). These
rays are merely prolongations of the anterior rays of
the dorsal fin, which contains besides many hundreds
of shorter rays, forming what has been described as
' the mane ' of the sea-serpent. Still more extraordinary
is the prolongation of the rays of the ventral fins.
Each of these fins, situated close under the throat,
consists of one ray, without any membrane, several
feet long, terminating in a crimson foliate tag. The
only conceivable use for these long rods is that of
angling. They have been likened to oars, whence
the name of oarfish, but cannot be of the slightest
service in propelling the ribbon-like body of the
fish.

Altogether, Regalecus, apart from the peculiar
arrangement of the foremost fin-rays, is a creature of
simple design in both form and colour. Except its
black forehead and crimson fins, the smooth, tapering
body is uniformly covered with shining silver. The
specimen taken at Dunbar on a Saturday was exhibited
in the Corn Exchange Hall, where crowds of people
paid a small sum to see it. Mr. William Evans, F.R.S.E.,
luckily heard of the capture in time to prevent the fish
being carted off on Monday morning for exhibition in

124 THE KING OF THE HERRINGS

other places, which enabled Mr. P. H. Grimshaw to
purchase it for the Royal Scottish Museum. He sent
it off the same evening to Rowland Ward's to be
preserved and mounted.

3|une

XXIX

HERE is a pretty note from a lady living in Surrey
upon the precocious powers of waterhen
chicks. I give it in her own words, for she waterhens
is entitled to the credit of having supplied learn to
the solution of a problem which has puzzled
many people — namely, how, when a waterhen or moor-
hen chooses, as she sometimes does, to build in a tree,
the young are conveyed to the water and taught to
swim. It seems that no instruction is required : —

'The moorhens which always come to nest in our pond
have chosen this year to build in a branch of the cypress
that overhangs the water, twelve feet from its surface. My
sisters and I often speculated how the young birds would get
to the pond, so when one was seen swimming about one
morning in July, we, with a niece and our gardener (five
people in all), went to watch the nest, where, one after
another, six little moorhens could be seen scrambling up on
to the edge and falling over into the water, to disappear for
a second and then paddle to the bank. I caught one, and
think, from its general appearance and the weakness of its
legs, it can only just have emerged from the egg. The
parent birds called to their young from the water all the
while, and collected them with care after their descent ; then

126 SQUILLS

taking them to an island and hardly allowing them to be
seen for the next week.'

XXX

Those who have visited Kew Gardens during the
late uncertain spring (1907) do not require
to be told what is a squill, for if they did
not know it before, their attention is sure to have been
drawn to the lovely little blossoms of brightest blue
which sparkled in the borders and in the grass when
'the borrowing days' were at their wildest, and the
label will have informed them that they were admiring
the Siberian squill. The name smacks of the pharma-
copoeia ; howbeit, the plant which produces the drug,
though classed as a squill, has now been rechristened
Urginea ; at least it was so a few years ago, but the
decrees of modern classifiers are not on the model of
the Medes and Persians, and to follow their changes
taxes the ordinary citizen's nimbleness not a little.

The squills remain a numerous family without
Urginea, whom they have lost, differing from hyacinths
only in this, that the six segments of the blue perianth
are divided from each other, instead of being united in
a bell, as in the hyacinth. For this reason the blue
wood hyacinth (you English people call it the blue-
bell, but north of the Tweed we only recognise hare-
bells as 'the Bluebells of Scotland') — the blue wood
hyacinth, I say, has been taken out of the genus
Hyacinthus, whereof its appearance and habit seem
to warrant it a member, and added to that of Scilla,

JUNE 127

from most species of which it is very distinct in aspect.
Such is the kind of snare which modern classification
spreads for the amateur. Besides the wood hyacinth,
the British flora boasts of two other squills — the
autumnal squill and the vernal. About the first, the
present writer had best be silent, never having seen
it, for it only appears in some of the southern English
counties, after ranging through the rocky places of
southern Europe, from the Caucasus to the Sierra
Nevada, and so up the west coast of France, having
just established a footing in perfidious Albion, when
its retreat was cut off by the formation of the Channel.

But the other, the spring squill (Scilla verna), is a
joy at this season to dwellers on our western seaboard.
It is of lowly stature, its leaves closely spread star-
wise on the ground, and its short, close spikes of pale
blue flowers just raised from one inch to three inches
above the wind-swept turf of the sea-cliffs. What it
lacks in height it makes up in multitude, growing in
far-spreading colonies like its woodland cousin, and
imparting a modest grace to the stunted herbage.

We ransack all the ends of the earth for exotics to
deck our parterres withal, pay long bills for bulbs from
foreign parts, and no doubt get very good value for our
money ; but it is amusing sometimes when a visitor
to one's garden pauses to admire a flower which he does
not recognise, though it happens to be a native, and not
a rare one. The spring squill is one that I have never
seen in any private garden save my own. It invariably
attracts attention when in flower, for a few bulbs dug
up years ago have spread into large clumps, and the

128 SQUILLS

flowers, encouraged by shelter, rear themselves to four
or five times the height of their brethren on the coast
only half a mile away, and flower a full month earlier.
Humble though the spring squill is in stature, its
subterranean parts are considerable. One has only to
set to work digging it up to find that it is a far
larger plant than appears. The bulbs lie at a depth
of fully six inches below the surface, and it is no easy
matter to get them out without breaking the under-
ground stems.

What secret medicinal properties may lurk in
British squills we are not told; but squill has been
prescribed as a drug from earliest time, and modern
chemists have discovered no fewer than three active
principles in the root of Urginea, namely scillipicrin,
scillitoxin, and scillin. Greek physicians of old 'ex-
hibited ' squill under exactly the same name — <rfcLX\a
— and for the same purpose, for relief in bronchitis, as
our own doctors do.

Very nearly allied to the squills, separated from
them, indeed, by botanists merely because its flower is
never blue, but always white, is the Star of Bethlehem,
which, though not a native of Britain, has made itself
thoroughly at home in many parts of the country.
Now the scientific name for this plant, Ornithogalum,
is connected with an amusing little mistranslation, or,
rather, with too literal a translation, of the Hebrew text.
It represents the Greek opvL06^aKov, meaning 'bird's
milk,' because the Star of Bethlehem, or a kindred
species, whitens the plains of Syria with its blossom.
The Jews had a less poetical but equally symbolic

JUNE 129

name for it; they called it 'dove's dung.' It must
have puzzled many persons to read in 2 Kings vi. 25,
that the citizens of Samaria were so hard pressed when
Benhadad besieged them that ' an ass's head was sold
for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a
cab of dove's dung for five pieces of silver.' The ass's
head might be worth the money in the circumstances ;
who knows ? it might make a passable soup ; but dove's
dung — to what culinary or nutritive purpose could it
be turned? I speak with all possible diffidence as
becometh one wholly unlearned in Hebrew ; and I note
that the revisers of the Old Testament have let the
passage stand with only the alteration of ' cab ' to ' kab,'
which scarcely touches the fringe of literal inspiration.
But surely the sense is that the bulbous root of
Ornithogalum was the substance vended, no great
delicacy at any time, one should say, but a trifle more
satisfying than guano !

XXXI

Were anything wanted to deepen the gloom of a
bleak, dripping Whitsuntide (1907), follow-
ing upon the heels of a late inclement Naturalists
spring, nature-lovers would have found it gone
in the passing of the two guiding lights in natural
science — Dr. Maxwell T. Masters and Professor Alfred
Newton, foremost workers in their respective fields. Dr.
Masters was the first to go, his death coinciding with
the close of the Temple flower show, the only one in
the series of twenty great annual festivals in which he
i

130 TWO GOOD NATURALISTS GONE

did not take an active part. With the contributions
of Dr. Masters to botanical science and literature,
specialists of all nations are familiar ; as editor of the
Gardeners Chronicle for more than forty-one years he
maintained weekly intercourse with a very large circle
of readers, many of whom learnt to avail themselves
of his profound knowledge of plant life, and his ready
good nature in imparting the same. During his editor-
ship fashions in horticulture waxed and waned. The
mid- Victorian era of bedding-out yielded to a reaction
in favour of perennials and old-world flowers. Dr.
Masters, eager and sympathetic towards every phase
of his favourite craft, managed to hold an even balance
among them all, never condemning any system merely
because it had fallen out of vogue, yet always ready to
welcome new methods. He made the Gardeners
Chronicle a valuable storehouse of horticultural and
botanical lore.

Only a few days after Dr. Masters' death came the
news of Professor Alfred Newton's to sadden us. He
had long held a place in the very foremost rank of
ornithologists ; the services he rendered to science are
far too important to require enumeration here. Had
he never published anything but his Dictionary of
Birds he would have been entitled to enduring grati-
tude on the part of that large and increasing number
of persons who take a keen interest in bird life, and
desire to supplement a superficial acquaintance with
different species, and more or less casual observation
of their habits, by access to sound information. For
such persons this dictionary is the very thing; it is

JUNE 131

amazing what an amount of learning and suggestion
is therein presented in compendious form — in what
plain, vigorous English the surest information is
conveyed.

No one knew better than Newton the indispensable
functions of museums; none better understood their
limitations, and how laboratory teaching must be barren
without open-air study. He loved the living creatures
which he studied, and waxed eloquent in denouncing
the destructive activity of the mere collector. But
though he had a warm heart for the birds, he had an
unspoken contempt for sentimentalism. When the
Bill of 1893 for amending the Wild Birds' Protection
Act was in preparation, we, who were in charge thereof,
naturally consulted Professor Newton. One of the
provisions of the Bill was intended to protect the eggs
of desirable species, as well as the birds that laid them.
Newton declared that to attempt this was preposterous.
' How can a magistrate or a policeman know one egg
from another ? ' said he. ' I have given a good deal of
attention to birds and their eggs, and I declare that I
never would swear to what species any egg belonged,
unless I had actually seen the bird lay it ! '

XXXII

As an instance of the usefulness of Newton's
Dictionary to amateurs, take this little in- par
cident, which occurred while its author was devotion
on his deathbed. Making my way, rod in ofBird8
hand, along the tussocky shore of a Galloway trout

132 PARENTAL DEVOTION OF BIRDS

loch, I flushed a male reed-bunting from a nest con-
taining five eggs. Feeling uncertain whether it was
a recognised habit among the buntings that the male
should take its turn at incubation, when I got home
I turned up ' Nidification ' in the Dictionary, and had
my doubts solved by the following passage : —

' Incubation is performed, as is well known, by the female
of nearly all birds, but with most of the Passeres and many
others the male seems to share her tedious duties, and
among the Ratitce (Cassowary, Ostrich, etc.) apparently
without exception the cock ordinarily takes that office on
himself.'

In the case of the reed-bunting there could be no
mistake about the sex, for the cock bird is easily
distinguishable from the hen by his jaunty black
velvet cap and snowy collar. As a male animal myself,
I felt a reflection of credit from the behaviour of this
bird, for not only was he sitting upon the eggs in a
most exemplary manner while madame was enjoying
an outing, but he committed the noble and time-
honoured fraud of shamming cripple in order to lure
me away from the nest, thereby adding one to the
very brief list of birds which I remember to have
seen going through this performance — namely, grouse,
partridge, pheasant, wild-duck, and night-jar. In the
first four of these birds it was always the hen ; the sex
of the night-jar was uncertain, though I assumed that
the protective impulse was maternal. But here was
a gaily-dressed cock bunting just as anxious as the
most devoted mother to run risk of capture or injury
in order to avert danger from his nest. I have come

JUNE 133

across only one other recorded instance of this be-
haviour by the male bird.

'In 1883,' says Mr. C. A. Allen (Nineteenth Century, April
1893), 'I met with a brood of young plumed partridges in
Oregon. The male, who had charge of them, performed the
usual tactics of feigning lameness, and tried his very best
to draw my attention from the young, and, seeing I paid no
attention to him, showed a great deal of distress. The young
scattered promptly in all directions, and the majority were
most effectually hidden in an instant.'

The device is hardly ever resorted to, except on
behalf of the brood; but I once saw a hen grouse
make prolonged pretence of being crippled in order to
protect her mate, a robust old cock. This was in
Sutherland, in the month of February, long before
there were any young birds hatched. The cock lay
so close that I very nearly trod upon him. When he
was flushed the hen bird took to wing at once, and
flew after him across the river.

Mr. Lloyd Morgan, in his interesting volume on
Habit and Instinct, devotes several pages to con-
sideration of this remarkable manifestation of parental
solicitude. Is it, he asks, a truly congenital and in-
stinctive habit, or is it an intelligent action on the
part of individual birds ? He cannot answer these
questions, wherein, says he, there are materials for a
pretty dispute between transmissionists and natural
selectionists. For my own part, I incline to the view
that the action is purely intelligent and conscious ; as
much so as the wariness which wild birds acquire in
the presence of the arch-enemy Man, enabling them

134 PARENTAL DEVOTION OF BIRDS

to judge with surprising accuracy the range of modern
fowling-pieces. This can only be explained as the
intelligent application of observation and experience,
both of which may be transmitted from parent to
chick. Dr. W. L. Kalph has described how the
American ground-dove, when driven from its nest,
'will drop to the ground as if shot, and then flutter
around as if wounded, to try and draw the person
disturbing it away from the nest.' The suggestion is
that this habit has been acquired by observation of the
effect of firearms, a purely intelligent process.

In the behaviour of certain birds may be recognised
discrimination, which is one of the higher functions of
intelligence. Yesterday, before breakfast, I passed
within four yards of a thrush busily engaged in drag-
ging its breakfast, in the shape of a luckless earthworm,
from the inoist turf of the lawn. The bird desisted as
I approached, cocking a curious eye at me. It turned
round as I passed, keeping its head towards me, and
I could plainly read its thoughts. ' Now, I don't sup-
pose this old buffer means to be nasty; he is only
worrying over his silly flowers. Still one can't trust
that kind always ; I 'd better keep an eye on him. My
mother told me that her grandfather had had his neck
wrung by a creature just like that.' Then, as I moved
off, the bird resumed its business of ragging the worm.

Very different would have been the behaviour of the
same bird in the outskirts of a village in France, where
grives are so much prized as a delicacy.

JUNE 135

XXXIII

On the miserably cold and wet Saturday and Sunday
which finished up one of the most cheerless _ u
Junes on record (1907), the woods of Osterley, summer
near Brentford, resounded with the song of ofl907
thrushes and of the less vociferous blackbird. A cuckoo,
also, had managed to keep his voice unimpaired, and was
using it freely. All this is very unseasonable ; in ordinary
seasons the summer silence sets in before the end of
June, for it does not seem to be any part of the father
bird's duty to instruct his offspring in music.1 The
nestlings must pick up the proper tune in the best way
they can; and it is a puzzle how on earth a young
cuckoo learns the orthodox note, seeing that he never
meets his own father — at least he could not recognise
him if he did. The song of most birds seems to be
indissolubly connected with courtship and the honey-
moon. It is supposed that the vocal cords of a male
thrush, for instance, which, as Mr. Whichell has
recorded, sings continuously for sixteen hours of the
twenty-four, acquire peculiar toughness and resonance
during the breeding season. That seems to be in
perfect keeping with the superior splendour of bridal
array, so well marked in many species, though not so in
the song-thrush ; but it is not easy to understand how
this hypothetical strengthening of the larynx for the
nuptial occasion is prolonged to meet the exigency

1 Both blackbirds and thrushes were vociferous in the same woods
of Osterley, 17th-19th July 1909, long after their Scottish fellows
had ceased to sing.

136 THE EVIL SUMMER OF 1907

of secondes noces. Those blackbirds and thrushes of
Osterley were singing presumably because their mates
were sitting on a second set of eggs. Are we to suppose
that they could sing if they chose at all seasons of the
year, but only do so in order to please their wives ?

The cuckoo's is a still more perplexing case. Every-
body knows that his voice generally cracks before the
end of June, his mouth then being chronically full of
caterpillars. But supposing it to be in his power to
prolong his simple melody in order to manifest sym-
pathy with his spouse, so long as she is in an interesting
condition, how does she happen to be in that condition
for the second time in the same season ? The thrush,
beholding her clay-lined nest flooded with rain-water,
her blue eggs addled, or her nestlings cold and dead,
sets gallantly to work to build another and to rear a
second brood. But Madame Cuckoo belongs to the
smart set — genus invisum. Having deposited her eggs
in various humble dwellings, she flies off to amuse
herself; I myself have met her at Sandown races, and
at garden and water parties. It would be interesting
to know whether she receives bulletins about the
welfare of her progeny; for if she does not, what
prompts her to farm out a second lot of babies ? And
that she is doing so seems to be indicated by the
prolonged loquacity of her mate.

Birds and butterflies, being the most conspicuous
forms of wild life in this country, attract more attention
than any other creatures from amateur naturalists.
Butterflies are lying low, very low, until the prevailing
meteorological tyranny be overpast ; but birds are just

JUNE 137

as much in evidence as ever. Yet how much there is
that we do not know about them, and how hard it is to
find out more ! Cardinal Newman, indeed, declared
that we knew less about animals than about angels;
but his Eminence probably would not have denied that
we enjoy more frequent opportunities of observation
upon the former.

I may add that, having travelled straight from Brent-
ford to Galloway, leaving birds in full song in the south,
in the north-west not a note is to be heard. Black-
birds, thrushes, cuckoos in plenty ; but not one of them
all disposed to sing a stave. Yet second broods are in
progress, for to-day — July 8th — I set my foot (luckily
lightly) on a partridge sitting on twelve eggs. She
flew off with a great splutter, but not far, and returned
towards the nest before I left the ground.

Most of the early broods of partridge have perished
in the heartless cold and wet, and there will be few
young birds fit for the bag in September ; but if hot
weather, whereof we have indications, sets in now, there
will probably be a good crop of second brood coveys.1

The effect of the rainfall, almost continuous since
May 1st, upon vegetation in field and garden has been
very remarkable. On light, warm soils, too apt to burn
up in ordinary seasons, blossoming has been prolonged
in a very delightful way. Seacoast flowers — thrift,
stone crops, blue scabious, crimson geranium, yellow
rock rose, make a more delightful display than ever,
owing to the rich verdure surrounding them, which

1 The second broods fared no better than the first, for the wet and
cold continued till the end of August.

138 KURAL PLACE-NAMES

usually gets parched before they come into bloom.
Among these lowly herbs the stately spires of foxglove
and sulphur yellow mullein rise like torches ; while the
shingle just above tide-mark is gay with horn poppies
and woodvetch.

In the garden rhododendrons of the finer sort have
had a fine innings. A large bush of R. cinnabarinum
has been in flower for fully two months, opening a long
succession of its scarlet and yellow trusses. The tube-
like blossoms are of the waxy consistency of a Lapa-
geria, and shower honey when lightly shaken ; but let
nobody rashly taste that nectar, for Sir Joseph Hooker,
when he first discovered this beautiful bush in the
Himalayas sixty years ago, warned us against its
poisonous properties, which, he said, were fatal to goats
and cattle browsing on the foliage. The young leaves
of this rhododendron, of a pearly glaucous hue dotted
with innumerable glands, are very pretty objects under
a magnifying glass.

xxxiv

There is something that appeals strongly to the
Rural imagination in the persistence of place-
Place- names, especially those which retain im-
sames pressions derived from primitive landscape
or from animals, trees, and herbs which once gave it a
specific character. For there is nothing more certain
than this, that every place-name ' growed,' like Topsy.
If it cannot be said that it surpasses human ingenuity
to invent a combination of meaningless syllables and

JUNE 139

fix it irrevocably upon a given spot of ground, at all
events it is not done, and never was done, by any race
of men. To indicate a fixed rural locality, men have
recourse automatically to some feature, quality, or
incident, distinguishing that locality from another —
the green meadow, the horse hill, the ash ridge, and so
on. In urban topography, of course, the case is
different ; streets and houses are named from historical,
literary, or personal association.

Rural place-names are exceedingly interesting owing
to their permanence. Once a locality has acquired a
distinctive name, it is not worth anybody's while to
coin a new one for it ; probably if he did it would not
stick. In none of our populous centres have natural
features been more completely obliterated than in
Glasgow. Leigh Hunt once said of London that it was
impossible to find any street from some part of which
you could not see a tree. In Glasgow the difficulty
consists of finding any street whence a tree is visible ;
yet still, in the very heart of that grimy hive, the line
of wharves and quays below the bridge bears the
name Broomielaw — the bank of broom — recalling the
distant day when St. Kentigern built his cell on the
glas achadh — now Glasgow — the green meadow beside
the pellucid Clyde.

Still more interesting are the names commemorating
wild animals long since extinct in these islands. Who
can tell how many centuries have passed since the
brook that flows between Wimbledon Common and
Richmond Park was haunted by beavers ? It is still
called the Beverley Brook, and doubtless the Anglo-

140 RURAL PLACE-NAMES

Saxon settlers had good cause to name the place ' befer
lea' — the beaver meadow. Beverley in Yorkshire,
Beverburn or Barbon in Worcestershire, Beversbrook
in Wilts, are a few out of many ancient haunts of an
animal which still survives in the Elbe, identical with
the North American beaver, and of which bones and
skulls have been exhumed in many English and
Scottish counties. In Welsh this animal was known as
llostlydan, or broad tail, and was specially abundant in
the Teifi when Giraldus Cambrensis visited Cardigan-
shire in 1188. Another name for it was afange, or
afanci — the river dog, but this term seems to have
been interchangeable with dyfrgi — the water-dog or
otter.

Long after the last beavers had been hunted down
for their valuable fur and the glandular secretion so
highly prized by primitive physicians, many parts of
the British Isles continued to be infested with wolves.
King Edgar (958-975) has credit for having been the
first monarch to take systematic measures for clearing
them out, which he did, over a great part of the country
at least, by commuting the money tribute due by the
Prince of North Wales into a tale of 300 wolves
yearly, to be delivered at his palace in Winchester.
To this day that ancient building bears the name of
Wolvesey — i.e., wolf island — standing as it does amid
the labyrinthine branches of Itchen. Plenty of other
English places remind one of the shepherd's scourge.
Wolmer Forest, for instance, stands for Wolfmere, or
Wolfmoor ; but some of the names, such as Wolfham-
cote in Warwickshire, probably denote the dwelling-

JUNE 141

place of a man called Wulf. In Scotland, where wolves
did not finally disappear till well on in the eighteenth
century, there remains abundant testimony of their
presence. The commonest Gaelic name was madadh,
pronounced ' maddy ' or ' maddoo ' ; and inland names
like Blairmoddie, Craigmaddie, Clayrnoddie, Drum-
moddie may be safely interpreted as the field, the crag,
the hole, and the ridge of the wolves. But whereas
the Gael has a puzzling way of aspirating the initial
labials in the genitive case, the word sometimes
becomes indistinguishable from ' bada,' a boat. Thus
one cannot affirm confidently whether Slouchavaddie,
on the coast of Galloway, means the gully of the boat
or the wolfs den. The Wolfs Slock is a ravine in the
hills not many miles inland, and all through the
Border country one comes across Wolf Cleuch, Wolf-
hope, Wolflee, etc., denoting the ancient lairs of these
creatures.

Much uncertainty prevails as to the latest date to
which wild boars survived in the British Isles. In
Anglo-Saxon and Norman times they were universally
distributed, being among the commonest beasts of the
chase. It is not surprising, therefore, to recognise
frequent allusion to them in our topography ; although
here again one must not be too positive about such a
name as Swindon and Swinton, which may either be
the swine's down, or S vein's stronghold. There can
be little doubt, however, about Swindale, Swinfield,
Swinford, Hogmer, Eversham, and Everley, the last
two representing the Anglo-Saxon eofar, a boar. All
over Ireland and Scotland, too, one meets with such

142 RURAL PLACE-NAMES

names at Glenturk, Bennanturk, Drumaturk, Sloch-
turk — the glen, the hill, the ridge, and the den of the
boar. Muc, a sow, in the plural stood for swine, as in
Clachanamuck ; but Mucklagh, both singly and in
compounds, probably signified a place where domestic
pigs were pastured on acorns or mast. Thus Druin-
namucklach means the ridge of the swine pasture.

It is still harder to distinguish names derived from
wild cattle among those arising from domestic herds.
There are, however, four rivers in Scotland named
Tarff, which almost certainly indicate the haunt of a
wild bull or bulls. People are prone to devise fanciful
or poetic explanations of the plainest names, and one
wiseacre after another has attributed to the primitive
Celt the design of naming these rivers tarbh, the bull,
because of their roaring. Well, I know three of the
four, and nothing could be less suggestive of a bull
roaring than their gentle murmur and plash.

I prefer to imagine them when they wound their
way through the oak and birch of the primaeval forest,
with here an open glade and there a waterside me idow,
chosen haunt of the lord of the herd, whom it were
best to approach with precaution. Careful mothers
would warn their children not to wander along the
banks of Amkuinn Tairbh — the bull stream— and the
name, anglicised Tarff, has survived the wild cattle, the
forest, and the hunting community.

The true wild cat and the polecat, or foumart, still
survive in a few recesses of our mountains, but in the
greater part of our country they live but in the
memory of the oldest inhabitants. In a certain region

JUNE 143

where none of the present generation has seen them,
their names still indicate their pristine haunts. A
picturesque waterfall is known at Lingat — the cat's
pool, and a lonely glen on the mountain side as Corrie-
fecklach — that is, coire fecolaich — the corrie of the
stinking one, foul mart, or polecat.

Many another glimpse of life and scenery in a by-
gone age is obtained through names coined by races
long since passed away. Much of our landscape,
especially in the north, is treeless now, but two
thousand years ago most of the country below the
thousand feet level was dense forest from sea to sea.
The names remain in many places whence the verdure
has disappeared. I have in mind a bleak wind-swept
moorland whereof the name Derry, our rendering of
the Gaelic doire, proves that it was once umbrageous
with oaks. Not far distant is a farm bearing the
quaint title of Inshanks, which it requires but a slight
acquaintance with Gaelic to recognise as uinseann, the
ash wood. So Loch Goosie, a tarn in the same district,
with nothing taller than a rush bush within sight of it,
bears in its name no reference to fowl, wild or tame,
but declares that it was once sequestered in a pine
forest — giuthesach.

It may be thought that one might be more profitably
occupied than in unravelling the significance of these
well-worn titles. Possibly, but experto credite, a little
understanding of them adds vastly to the pleasure of a
country ramble.

XXXV

THE title of this paper has no reference to that Scottish
The Prim- family which the present Earl of Rosebery
rose Family nas made historic, but to a far more ancient
race than his. It is not mentioned among the denizens
of the Garden of Eden, but it must have been repre-
sented there, else was that garden a far less delectable
pleasaunce than we have been given to believe.

Of all the flowers of the field there is no more
aristocratic race than the primroses. Nearly all other
plants with blossoms of conspicuous beauty are afflicted
with poor relations. The rose, for instance, has some
very disreputable cousins in the brambles ; the golden-
rayed lily, be it never so gorgeous, the lily-of-the-
valley, be it never so chaste, the tulip, be it never so
gaily pranked, may never disclaim close affinity with the
plebeian onion ; and as for the aubretia, flushing every
springtide into sheets of delicious purple, and the fragrant
stocks and wallflowers, they own a common descent with
scores of obscure or troublesome weeds. But the prim-
rose family, in all its numerous branches — primula
cyclamen, androsace, soldanella, dodecatheon, lyai-
machia, etc. — hardly contains a single species without

JULY 145

the endowment of beauty and grace. So thought
Spenser when he penned the lines : —

' A fairer nymph yet never saw mine eie,
She is the pride and primrose of the rest.'

The largest genus of the primrose order, that of
Primula, contains an immense number of species,
chiefly natives of the mountain ranges of the northern
hemisphere. Strange to say, of all this multitude only
two species are indigenous to the British Isles, namely,
the common primrose (Primula veris) and the lovely
birdseye (P. farinosa). The common primrose is ex-
cessively variable, and at one time botanists inclined to
dissent from Linnaeus, who beheld in the primrose,
the cowslip, and the oxlip no more than three racial
varieties of a single species; but in this matter Bentham
has vindicated the wonderful intuition of Linnaeus in
all questions of affinity, and pointed out that, although
the primrose seems to be fitted with a separate foot-
stalk for every blossom, these footstalks really spring
from a common subterranean stem, which, in the cow-
slip, oxlip, and polyanthus rises above ground to carry
a bunch of flowers. Primroses, cowslips, and oxlips,
therefore, in all their varieties, should be regarded as
constituting a single species, the oxlip representing a
form intermediate between the extremes of habit.

This species has sported into innumerable garden
forms, single and double, of many hues. The latest
addition to the colour scheme is a veritable blue prim-
rose, the achievement of the late Mr. G. F. Wilson, who
created that remarkable champ fleuri at Wisley, now
K

146 THE PKIMROSE FAMILY

the well-known demesne of the Royal Horticultural
Society. By patient cross-fertilising and selection he
managed to produce at first some blossoms of a cold
slaty colour, but year by year he got better results, and
now there are some fine varieties with deep, rich blue
corollas. Exegit monumentum, for every succeeding
spring these pretty flowers revive in those who enjoyed
his friendship the memory of that gentle enthusiast.
It remains for some disciple to raise from Mr. Wilson's
stock a variety with double blue flowers.

One variety of the common primrose defies the skill
of most of us to cultivate. It bears double flowers of
crimson maroon; not the common double crimson,
which is far from a satisfactory colour — too near
magenta — but a full, strong tint which is only matched
in spring by some of the dark wallflowers. It grows
luxuriantly in Irish gardens alongside of the double
blue hepatica, which is the despair of English and
Scottish gardeners.

The birdseye primrose — the only other British species
— is a most refined beauty, flowering at midsummer,
when it sends up from among its mealy leaves a stalk
six or eight inches high, carrying an umbel of small,
rosy-lilac flowers with yellow eyes. I shall not forget
the agreeable thrill imparted by the first sight of this
pretty plant, growing in a colony upon a wet roadside
bank in Cumberland. It does not occur in Ireland,
and in the north of Scotland, by dispensing with a
flower stem, has obtained specific rank as P. scotica in
the classification of some botanists.

Among exotic primroses, few are cultivated except

JULY 147

by enthusiasts about alpine flowers. It is more than
thirty years since the whorled Japanese primrose
(P. japonica), a giant in the family, was brought to
England and offered for sale at 30s. a-piece. Now it
sows itself more freely than any other kind in any wet
ditch or on moist, shady banks. In such places it
grows two feet high, with great leaves of a charming
fresh green, and the original crimson has sported
into many shades of rose, lilac, and white. Those who
have only seen it in a dry, sunny border should go to
Wisley and see what a grand thing it becomes in a
damp woodland. It has been eclipsed in stature by
the recently introduced P. pulverulenta, which is
merely a glorified edition of the Japanese primrose,
with mealy stems. Another Japanese primrose of easy
cultivation is P. Sieboldi, with creeping roots, and
flowers of many tints, from deep rose to white, and
from lavender to violet. Of nature equally facile, but
far more beautiful, is the Himalayan P. denticulata,
an early flower, whereof the abundant lilac or violet
trusses contrast well with yellow daffodils. P. sikki-
mensis, also from the Himalayas, would be more showy
if it would not hang its sulphur- coloured bells so per-
sistently. Did it display them as boldly as P. japonica,
which it rivals in stature, it would indeed be a desirable
plant for wet places, for the trusses sometimes consist
of fifty or sixty blooms. I prefer the Caucasian
P. luteola, which, though not so tall, is very robust, and
makes a better show.

All these primroses require a deep, moist foothold ;
protect them from parching, and they will thrive on

148 THE PRIMROSE FAMILY

the level ground. With most of the smaller alpine
kinds it is different. They too require moisture, but
they must also have effective and rapid drainage. The
species are far too numerous to mention here even a
selection from them ; but from the Swiss P. auricula,
with which florists have played such pranks that the
modest yellow-flowered parent could never recognise
his piebald posterity, to the Cashmirean P. rosea, which
opens its carmine blossoms before it unfolds its leaves,
they all have the same troublesome habit of growing
out of the ground, requiring either to be taken up
annually and replanted neck-deep or heavily top-
dressed with gritty soil to represent the seasonal
tribute of melting ice. Howbeit, they are all worth the
extra trouble.

A new colour in primroses has lately been discovered
in China by Mr. Wilson (not he who produced the blue
primrose, but the well-known collector who has added
so much to our knowledge of the exotic flora).
P. Cockburniana has a corolla of intense orange, tend-
ing to scarlet. Whether it will prove a good perennial
seems doubtful at present, for it seems to partake of a
biennial nature.

The true primroses, as has been said, by no means
monopolise the beauty of the family. The androsaces,
hardy little mountaineers, reward the attention which
they well deserve, being impatient only of drought in
summer and stagnant damp in winter. It is surprising
that hardy cyclamens are found in so few gardens, for,
once established, they seed themselves freely, even in
gravel paths. There is much confusion in their names,

JULY 149

the spring flowerers being usually called C. coum,
repandum, and ibericum, and the autumn flowerers
C. hedercefolium, europceum, and neapolitanum. A
charming species has lately been brought from Mount
Lebanon (C. libanoti&um), and flowers in April. All
cyclamens are worth growing for the beauty of their
foliage alone.

The American cowslip, or shooting star, bears reflexed
blossoms more like a cyclamen in form and colour than
an English cowslip, though, unlike the cyclamen, it
carries them in cowslip fashion at the top of a tall
stem. Linnaeus had some pretty fancies. Will any
one explain what he had in mind when he christened
this graceful plant Dodecatheon — the Flower of the
Twelve Gods ?

The loosestrifes, most of them, are more weedy in
habit than the rest of the primrose order. Perhaps
the best is Lysimackia ephemerum, not often seen, but
well fitted to adorn a shady nook with its delicate
white spires, three feet high. One must not part with
the primrose family without kindly mention of our
native chick weed wintergreen (Trientalis europcea),
which the Scottish Highlands share with northern
Europe, Asia, and America, and of the common
pimpernel (Anagallis tenella), which enjoys the dis-
tinction of being the only British wildflower, except
the corn poppy, that displays the national colour —
scarlet.

150 DEATH-DEALING FLOWERS

XXXVI

It is well known to modern botanists that certain
Death-deal- plants are carnivorous. The common sundew
ing Flowers (Drosera) of our moors and mosses spreads
its little round or spoon-shaped leaves, studded with
sensitive and glutinous tentacles, for no other purpose
than to attract and imprison small flies, from which it
extracts and assimilates the juices, deriving nourish-
ment therefrom.

' This wonderful little plant,' says Mr. Scott Elliot in his
Romance of Plant Life, 'shows quite distinctly that there
must be some way of sending messages in its leaves. Some-
how the message travels from the tentacle which the fly has
touched, down the stalk into the leaf, and up into the other
tentacles, and tells them that there is something worth
stooping for.'

Certain American botanists are accumulating evidence
in support of their belief that plants are not only
sensitive, which requires little demonstration, but that
they reflect and exercise will-power. At all events, the
Drosera, like epicures of higher organisation, are sadly
wanting in discretion. Mr. Scott Elliot tells us that
' when they are taken to a greenhouse and experiments
are made on them, they run into very great danger.
They are almost certain to die of over-feeding or
indigestion. It is impossible to keep people from giving
them too much to eat.'

The butter wort (Pinguicula) is a lovely little native
plant with violet flowers and waxy, succulent leaves,
as innocent in appearance as any herb of the field.

JULY 151

Howbeit, it is just as bloodthirsty as its neighbour, the
sundew, though it contents itself with smaller game.
In its haunts, which are moist banks in moorland
regions, midges are sure to abound, and female midges,
when there is no tourist or full-blooded sportsman at
hand, are fain to stuff their little bellies with vegetable
juices.1 The leaves of the butterwort seem to Madam
Midge to hold promise of great delicacy, for they are
covered with innumerable glands, 50,000 to the square
inch, it is said, secreting a viscous fluid. But no
sooner does the tiny creature alight on the glistening
surface than it is glued tight. The leaf curls slowly
round it, discharging upon the prey a solvent akin to
the gastric juice of mammals ; and next day, when the
leaf unrolls, nothing is left of Madam Midge but the
skin and wings.

The sundew and butterwort partake of solid food,
and take their meals in the open. Any passer-by may
see them at dinner, just as the people of Paris were
privileged to gaze upon Louis xv. and his family at
table. But there is another little inhabitant of our
bogs for which you must hunt closer, for he dines in
private, under water in fact, so he requires a diet of
soup or water souchet. This is the strange Utricularia,
or bladderwort, which lays out along its finely- dissected
foliage a number of little bladders, the entrance to
which is fitted with a trap-door, carefully left open till
some water animalcule takes refuge within from the
pursuit of a larger creature. Then the trap closes with

1 It is only the female midges that suck blood and vegetable juices.
The males take no sustenance during their flight.

152 DEATH-DEALING FLOWEKS

a snap, and from glandular hairs on the inside of the
bladder exudes a digestive fluid which extracts the
nutritive parts of the prisoner, and assists the captor in
the exertion involved in sending up a spikelet of gay
little yellow flowers.

British fly-devouring plants are inconspicuous assas-
sins compared with certain exotic species. Most of
them work with the leaves, like the North American
Venus's Flytrap (Dioncea muscipula). These leaves
are indeed of surprising mechanism. Every leaf ends
in a circular lobe divided into two halves by a strong
midrib. Each of these halves is bordered along its
outer margin with teeth like a rat-trap ; in the middle
of each stand three sensitive hairs. The entire lobe is
laid out flat on the ground. An insect walks upon it :
all is well, so long as the intruder keeps clear of the
said hairs ; but let it touch one of these, and, presto !
the trigger is released, the two half-lobes close like the
jaws of a trap, the marginal teeth interlocking, and that
insect sees the light of the sun no more. Perhaps the
most significant part of this operation is that both half
lobes respond to the trigger touch upon one of them,
showing complete co-ordination and instantaneous
sympathy.

If Dioncea works on the principle of a spring trap,
the pitcher plant (Nepenthes) acts like a baited pitfall.
The end of each long leaf is formed into a pocket or
vase, in which water collects. Honey is abundantly
distilled along the lip of the vase, and the throat of the
vase is lined with hairs pointing downwards. An insect
creeping in, sucking up the honey as it goes, gets

JULY 153

among the hairs, which prevent it withdrawing.
Struggling in vain against the points, its strength fails,
it falls into the liquor below, which is strongly impreg-
nated with digestive solvent, and in less than an hour's
time nothing remains but the indestructible parts.

To return to the bladderworts above mentioned,
although abundant moisture is essential to all the
family, some species manage to exist in damp soil or
moss. Others, again, like our native species, cannot
live unless immersed in water ; tropical and sub-tropical
bladderworts are sometimes hard put to it for a supply,
and take advantage of the stores laid up by certain
other plants for their own use. The Tillandsia, a
member of the Bromeliad or Pineapple family, comes
in very conveniently in times of drought, for in the
centre of its crown of leaves a cup is formed in which
water collects. Insects fall into this cup in numbers ;
probably the Tillandsia derives nourishment from their
decaying bodies, and the liquid stinks horribly ; but this
does not deter a species of bladderwort from taking up its
abode in the reservoir provided by this involuntary host,
where it thrives famously and gets lots of good fishing.

I have had reason lately to believe that a plant not
hitherto suspected of carnivorous habits devours insects
by the hundred. This is the beautiful Himalayan
Rhododendron barbatum, or bearded rose-laurel, so
called because of the bristles which stand thickly along
the footstalks of the leaves.1 In summer the buds,
which are formed for the following year's flowers and

1 I allude to the hirsute variety of this rhododendron. There are
in cultivation varieties more or less destitute of hairs.

154 DEATH-DEALING FLOWERS

growth, are thickly covered with a clammy transparent
varnish, which in winter hardens into a protective
glaze. These glistening buds attract flying insects of
many sorts and sizes, the smaller ones being caught in
the sticky substance at once, the stronger ones, which
might kick themselves free, being entangled by the
chevaux-de-frise of bristles, and both alike perish. In
March, when this shrub displays its splendid scarlet
blossoms, the stickiness has disappeared, and the visits of
insects are welcomed for the purpose of cross-fertilising
the flowers. Thus the bearded rhododendron appears to
treat insects much as bearded man does other animals,
devouring some and using others for domestic purposes.1
In all the instances above-mentioned, plants kill
insects for a specific purpose, beneficial to themselves ;
but there are cases where no such purpose is apparent
and the slaughter seems objectless. A correspondent
of the Garden newspaper lately called attention to the
destruction of hive bees by the African torch lilies,
commonly called redhot pokers. The honey of these
flowers has a stupefying effect upon the bees, hundreds
of which die, leaving their corpses in the flower-tubes.
Other bees, not caring to squeeze their substantial
persons into these narrow tubes, bite through the
flower near its base and get direct access to the honey
glands in that burglarious fashion. They too succumb

1 I should explain that I have not actually detected any mechanism
enabling this rhododendron to derive nourishment from flies, and
some good botanists discourage the hypothesis. They tell me to look
at the glistening sticky buds of the horse chestnut. I do so, but
find no flies, for the horse-chestnut only exposes its buds in winter,
whereas the bearded rhododendron does so in summer.

JULY 155

to intoxication, and fall to the ground ; but afterwards
recover and fly away. The bees imprisoned within the
tubes invariably perish from the stupefying fumes.

The last plant which I shall mention is the hairy
arum (Arum crinituni), which produces the most
repulsive flowers with which I am acquainted ; repulsive
alike in aspect and in odour, for the enormous hairy hood
or spathe, enclosing the livid spadix, gapes like a wound
eight or ten inches long, and emits the odour of carrion.
Blowflies are attracted by the smell, and deposit their
eggs, in the belief, I suppose, that the flower is putrescent
meat ; but no fly that enters that chamber of death is
allowed to depart ; the interior of the flower becomes
choked with corpses, in which maggots are hatched to
devour the bodies of their parents, and to assist, I fancy,
by their movements the fertilisation of the ovaries on the
spadix. It may be added that this plant will not with-
stand British winter cold except in the south and west,
but may be grown in the same way as dahlias and gladioli.

XXXVII

Nimium ne crede colori ! Neither countenance nor
complexion can be trusted as an index to The Lump-
character. One of the most ardent and con- sucker
sistent advocates of teetotalism I have ever known was
afflicted with a nose of bacchanalian dimensions and
colour, and the modern bull-dog belies his appearance
by proving one of the mildest of mammals. Still,
being guided unconsciously by feature and expression
in estimating the disposition of our fellow creatures, we

156 THE LUMPSUCKER

should be sure to underrate the peculiar virtues of the
lumpsucker, a creature which nature has endowed with
a countenance charged with sullen ferocity, and a
demeanour suggesting only indolent gluttony.

The lumpsucker (Cyclopterus lumpus) is a marine
fish not uncommon on the British coasts, well known
to Scottish fishermen as the ' cock paidle,' so thick and
stumpy in figure that a female eighteen inches long
weighs more than 10 Ib. The normal weight for a trout
of similar length is 2| Ib. Notwithstanding this unpre-
possessing exterior, fisher-folk have long credited this
creature with qualities much at variance with its
appearance. Fabricius described it long ago, in his
history of Greenland fishes, as a model of parental
devotion ; but scientific icthyologists have inclined to
incredulity in this matter. The latest witness was
Johan Persson, a Swedish fisherman near Gottenburg,
who averred that he had watched a pair of lump-
suckers three years in succession, spawning in the same
rock-cleft at a depth of three or four fathoms, and that
the male fish not only kept guard over the eggs till
they were hatched, driving off even such formidable
marauders as large crabs ; but that it ' blew on the
roe ' at intervals ; that is, spouted water from its mouth
upon the ova.

Now there is a prevalent suspicion that fishermen's
tales will seldom stand the test of scientific investiga-
tion. It is, therefore, peculiarly gratifying to me, as
one of the angling fraternity, to point to the twenty-
fourth annual report of the Fishery Board for Scot-
land, Part iii., where ample vindication of Persson's

JULY 157

veracity will be found. Dr. Wemyss Fulton, Superin-
tendent of Scientific Investigations, obtained four live
lumpsuckers from the salmon nets, two males and two
females, and placed them in a large tank in the labora-
tory. During the night of March 23-24, both the
female lumpsuckers spawned, depositing the two large
masses of eggs, luckily close to the front of the tank
against the glass, where subsequent proceedings could
be clearly watched. The mothers retired to the darkest
corner of the tank, where they lay nearly motionless
for some days, doubtless going on ' as well as could be
expected.' Interest was now concentrated on the con-
duct of the male fishes. Dr. Fulton supposes that in
the night a contest had taken place between them for
the sole guardianship of the two nurseries, which their
thoughtless spouses had placed so inconveniently near
each other. If so, one of the fathers had been hope-
lessly worsted in battle, ' and never regained courage to
attempt further contest for his rights, but displayed a
most craven spirit from first to last, lurking in the
darkest part of the tank, as far from his rival as he
could get.' The victor took both masses of eggs under
his charge, never leaving them for a moment during
two months' vigil, except when he made furious
charges at flounders or other occupants of the tank
which strayed near him.

' The flounders soon came to understand the position, and
avoided the corner where the eggs were lying. They chose
to occupy the other side of the tank, preferring the company
of an old lobster, though he was in the habit of catching one
of them by stealth occasionally and devouring it. His quiet,

158 THE LUMPSUCKER

sly, diplomatic ways, though really more dangerous, were
less alarming to them than the furious, but harmless, assaults
of the lumpsucker.'

It is by butting, not biting, that the lumpsucker
scatters intruders, for his mouth is not equipped as a
weapon of offence. But his shock tactics are very
effective. One day the attendant bared his arm in
order to put a flat stone behind the eggs so as to show
them up better. The guardian fish charged so furiously
as to drive his arm against the front of the tank. But
the diminutive brain of this fine fighter proved
capable of discrimination. The two females, after a
few days' repose, became hungry and active. They
paid no attention either to their husbands or their eggs.
4 Even when one came so close to the eggs as to brush
them with her fins, the male merely looked at her, or
moved a little aside to let her pass.'

For two long months this infatuated father could not
be induced to take any food. He became thin and
infested with parasites, losing all the bright colours of
courtship. His appearance was desperate and disreput-
able, though the unemployed male remained as
corpulent and bright as ever. If a mussel or other
savoury morsel happened to sink near the guardian or
his precious charge, he would seize it in his mouth,
carry it to a distance, spit it out, and return at once to
his post. The other lumpsuckers ate as many mussels
as they could get.

Thus far this little drama differed only in the scale
of the actors from the domestic performance of the
male stickleback, an average lumpsucker weighing

JULY 159

about as much as one thousand sticklebacks ; but the
strangest part of Persson's narrative still remained to
be proved — namely, that the lumpsucker ' blew on the
roe.' Proved it was most conclusively.

' From the first, the guarding male was observed to fan
gently the mass of eggs with his breast fins, clearly for the
aeration of the eggs, but for some time the action was
leisurely performed, and was by no means so striking as it
became later. . . . From the early part of April onwards he
kept fanning the spawn with more zest than at first ; and on
April 10th another action was for the first time observed.
Placing his mouth about an inch or so from the spawn, he
spouted water out upon it. ... The current created was so
strong as to sway the algae growing on the side of the tank,
as well as the tentacles of an anemone in the neighbourhood,
and even to cause the whole mass of eggs to rock visibly
backwards and forwards. This action was done at brief
intervals, and from this time onwards. Later, when the
eggs were hatching, it was redoubled, and great activity was
shown with the fins. The movement thus created in the
water very probably helped the escape of the larval fishes
from the eggs. At this time the pumping or blowing action
was at the rate of fifteen or sixteen in ten seconds, and in
the pauses the fins were kept vigorously at work.'

Whence it appears that hatching out lumpsucker
eggs is not the simple matter it might be deemed.
Professor M'Intosh, indeed, ascertained this several
years ago by repeated experiments, which always ended
in putrefaction of the whole mass ; and it is now clear
that, to keep the eggs alive, it is necessary to force
oxygenated water into the interstices between the eggs,
and that the male parent understands the increasing
urgency for this during the later stages of incubation.

160 ANOTHER QUEER FISH

XXXVIII

For sheer unmitigated hideousness there is no verte-
Another brate animal which surpasses the angler or
queer Fish fishing-frog (Lophius piscatorius) — the wide-
gab, as we call him in the north. According to human
aesthetics it has not a single redeeming feature. Its
enormous countenance, occupying one-third of the
creature's entire length, expresses nothing but stealthy
craft, ferocious cruelty, and eager gluttony, and one
shudders to recognise hi its entire structure the
analogues of our own organs. An unpleasant similarity
is imparted by the form of the ventral fins, which are
placed very far forward, and are palmate, slightly tinged
with flesh colour, resembling six-fingered hands. With
these organs the fish is able to walk on the sea-bottom,
and even to crawl on dry land.

Fisher-folk are well acquainted with this monster of
the deep, which is pretty common round all our coasts ;
but the landsman who beholds it for the first time
stands amazed at the ingenuity of Nature when she
aims at the repulsive. From an immense, flattened,
spiny head, nearly circular in outline, depends a bloated
stomach, whence the slender body tapers rapidly to the
tail. The mouth, when open, forms a circular chasm,
sometimes upwards of four feet in circumference,
both jaws being set with a row of strong, incurved
teeth, which the owner can fold inwards to admit
the passage of prey, and erect again to prevent its
egress. When the mouth is closed, the fishing-frog's

JULY 161

outline bears a general resemblance to that of a
tadpole.

Howbeit, despite its ungainly figure and forbidding
aspect, Lophius cannot be destitute of all virtue, for he
practises an art which, as Izaak Walton assured us, is
followed only by ' men of mind and sweet and peaceable
spirit.' His tackle, and the use to which he puts it,
are among the most surprising instances of Nature's
anticipation of human invention. Of the rays of the
dorsal fin, six in number, only the posterior three sup-
port any membrane, and that a very small one. The
anterior three are greatly prolonged and are placed
between the eyes, the foremost of them being tipped
with a silvery tag or double lappet. This ray is slender
and wandlike, working in a joint just above the centre
of the upper lip, and can be waved about in every
direction. When Lophius goes a-fishing, he buries
himself on a bed of seaweed, assimilating his body
colour with wonderful exactitude to the surroundings,
his concealment being rendered perfect by a fringe of
membranous fronds which grow along his lips and
round the entire length of his head and body. Then
he erects his fishing-rod, waving it to and fro in the
tide, till some wandering whiting or flounder makes a
dart at the glittering bait; whereupon the concealed
angler opens his vast mouth, the inrush of water
engulfs the prey, and the bait is set once more.
' Half the animal world,' wrote Yarrell truly enough,
'seem destined to destroy each other, some by open
violence, others by stratagem.' The angler-fish employs
both ; but not being endowed with swiftness, relies on
L

162 PLANTS TO BE AVOIDED

stratagem to effect the violence. Even if it goes to
sleep in its lair, its victims do not escape, for the fish-
ing-rod is very sensitive, being covered with skin and
nerves, communicating a ' bite ' instantaneously to the
centre of sensation.

Montagu says that, so healthy and vigorous is the
appetite of the angler-fish that, when taken in a net,
it sets to work upon its fellow prisoners, especially
flounders, which the fishermen afterwards recover alive
from its stomach. ' It is not,' he adds, ' so much
sought after for its own flesh, as for the fish generally
to be found in the stomach.' A common size of the
angler-fish is about three feet in length ; but a much
larger one was found this year [1908] stranded on
Heston Island, in the Solway. It measured fifty-three
inches from snout to tail-fin and weighed just under
sixty pounds.

XXXIX

Attention has been drawn lately in gardening jour-
piants to nals to tne danger arising from planting the
be avoided American poison ivy (Rhus toxicodendron)
as an ornamental shrub. It is, indeed, a most virulent
poison, its mere presence in a room causing serious
discomfort to some persons, and the handling or
cutting of it being followed by very painful conse-
quences to others. The danger is the more insidious
because of the plant's general resemblance to the
Virginian creeper group; indeed it is, or used to be,
often sent out by nurserymen under the innocuous

JULY 163

title of Ampelopsis japoriica, although Ampelopsis
being a true vine, belongs to a very different natural
order to Rhus. The confusion is increased by the
splendour of the poison ivy in autumn, when the
foliage fades through brilliant tints of yellow and
scarlet. Having enjoyed its beauty for many years in
my own garden, where it luxuriates, I begin to think
that it is time to turn it out. Considering the wealth of
hardy exotics one has to choose from, the presence of
poison ivy might well be dispensed with, except in
botanical gardens.

The mischievous agent in this plant is toxic — that
is, it consists of an active poisonous principle, affecting
the nerves and circulation; in fact, it has long been
recognised as a powerful drug in the homoeopathic
pharmacopoeia; but it has never been explained to
the writer by what means the living plant can take
effect by mere proximity upon persons susceptible to
its influence. The leaves have no perceptible aroma
until crushed, and the inconspicuous greenish flowers,
produced in June, do not appear to be part of the
mechanism of offence. In the too common nettle
the mechanical and toxic agents are very neatly co-
ordinate. Each stinging hair is seated upon a gland
containing a powerful acid. The slightest pressure
serves to break off the blunt head of the hair, when the
flinty edge of the fracture penetrates the skin ;
simultaneously the base of the hair squeezes the
reservoir, causing the poison to flow into the wound,
the exasperating result being what we all know. But
no such causation can be traced in the poison ivy,

164 PLANTS TO BE AVOIDED

which is as subtle in action as the fabulous upas
tree. Fabulous, inasmuch as its repute for far-
reaching deadliness is purely fictitious, though of
course the upas tree is a scientific reality (Antiaris
toxicaria), producing a gum with which the Malays
used to poison their darts.

In another tropical plant, Mucuma pruriens, the
offensive agent seems to be purely mechanical. Dr.
Collingridge, Medical Officer of Health for the city,
has called attention in his recent report to the nefarious
use made of it under the name of 'bottled torture.'
The pods, four or five inches long, are covered with
innumerable barbed hairs, which penetrate the skin
with great ease and cause intolerable itching, some-
times setting up dangerous inflammation. It seems
that the stuff was once in use in this country as a
vermifuge, and was lately imported as an interesting
novelty for the purpose of practical joking. Certain
tradesmen in London, all unaware of the diabolical
properties of 'bottled torture,' laid in a stock of it,
which, it is reassuring to hear, they promptly destroyed
when its true nature was explained to them.

It is difficult to understand the purpose of this
ferocious armature on the fruit of a plant. Most
fruits, so far as they are designed in relation to man
and other animals, are either rendered as attractive as
possible in appearance or esculent properties, or are
fitted with special apparatus for clinging to garments,
hair, or wool, in order that the seeds may be distri-
buted as widely as possible. But Mucuma must be a
regular 'nitouche,' desiring nothing but to be left

JtTLY 165

alone; for he who handles a pod will drop it pretty
quickly and vow never to touch another. Here, as I
know nothing about the plant save the reference to it
in Dr. Collingridge's report, I will leave speculation to
some one better informed.

August

XL

A CREATURE endowed with neither lungs nor heart,
Farm and stomach nor teeth, might be considered an
Garden Pests unequal competitor with man ; yet it is just
such a creature that has inflicted, is inflicting, and is
likely to go on inflicting serious pecuniary loss upon
market gardeners in all parts of the United Kingdom,
and has aroused much dissatisfaction amongst care-
ful housewives. The creature in question is one
of the numerous family of gall-mites (Eriophyidce),
and is the agent in the widespread and destructive
black currant blight, which was for long attributed
to the action of a parasitic fungus.

The currant-bud mite (Phytoptus ribis) is an ex-
tremely minute creature, so small as to be invisible to
the naked eye ; but what it lacks in stature it makes
up for in numbers, Mr. Newstead having counted in a
single bud no fewer than 2748 individuals, besides
those obliterated in opening the bud. His experi-
ment was made in January ; had it been in March he
expressed the belief that the number would have
been doubled. Minute as it is, this creature is some-
what elaborately constructed, having a head with a

166

AUGUST 167

sucking proboscis, four legs armed with double claws,
and an abdomen divided into from sixty to ninety
segments. It is easy to detect in winter the buds
affected by mites by their swollen appearance. Slit
one of these buds longitudinally, and the folded leaves
will be found open at the apex ; while in healthy buds,
where morbid action has not been set up by irritation,
the embryo leaves are always closed at the apex. The
presence of a colony within a bud results in its
becoming what gardeners term 'blind' — that is, it
produces no flowers, and consequently no fruit. No
remedy or palliative has been discovered for this pest.
Spraying is of no use, for the mites are protected by
the outer covering of the buds at the time they are
working the mischief, and it seems likely that before
long we shall have to dismiss black currant jelly from
our list of luxuries.

There are many other species of gall-mites. Birch,
beech, hazel, yew, all have bud-inhabiting mites
peculiar to themselves ; but none has caused so much
damage as the currant-mite. The yew, perhaps, has
suffered more from its bud-mite (Phytoptus taxi) than
any other forest tree, most of us being familiar with
the disfiguring blight on the foliage which is popularly
attributed to the action of frost. Of the causes pre-
disposing to the spread in recent years of the currant-
mite plague, it may be said that nothing has been
ascertained.

Neither has observation conducted from imme-
morial times — ever since man began to till the ground
— resulted in any connection being established be-

168 FARM AND GARDEN PESTS

tween the character of the seasons and the prevalence
of insect plagues. It is commonly supposed that a
hard winter tends to rid the ground of such creatures
as pass their larval stages therein or hibernate above
ground as chrysalids or pupse. The most notable
refutation of that belief in my recollection happened
in 1895, when there was an unusual abundance of
insect life, although the preceding winter was the
most severe in the experience of the present genera-
tion. It may be thought that the extraordinary snow-
fall of that winter may have shielded subterranean
organisms from the tooth of frost ; probably it did so ;
but this year (1908) the land was visited by severe frost
so late as April 24th, and two succeeding days. From
twelve to twenty degrees of cold were registered in
different districts, and in those parts where no snow
feU the ground was frozen hard to a depth of several
inches. Yet in the south-west of Scotland where
widespread damage was done to vegetation, this visi-
tation has not interfered with an abnormal abundance
of ' pout,' or leather-grub, so serious in its effect that
questions on the subject have been addressed to the
representative of the Board of Agriculture in the
House of Commons. Hundreds, probably thousands,
of acres of young corn have been devoured by these
creatures, and have had to be sown a second time,
causing great loss to farmers.1

It is hardly necessary to explain that the leather-
grub is the larva of different species of Tipula or

1 In the succeeding season, 1909, the land which was BO grievously
afflicted with leather-grub has been almost entirely clear of it.

AUGUST 169

daddy-longlegs. The parent flies lay their eggs in long
herbage, whence the larvse descend into the earth,
remaining there two or three years, feeding on the
roots of grass, turnips, beans, clover, etc., and are
especially destructive to ' lea ' oats, that is, oats follow-
ing upon pasture in rotation. The contrast between
the grub and the perfect fly is truly remarkable, the
grub being stout and legless, and moving through the
ground by means of bristles set in its exceedingly
tough, wrinkled skin, whereas the fly might serve as a
type of fragility, very slender, with inconveniently long
legs, which break off at a slight touch. The purpose of
such inordinate legs it is difficult to conceive, for if
some, or even all, are removed, the creature gets on
perfectly well without them — indeed, seems rather
grateful for being relieved of a useless incumbrance.
There is only one remedy known against the presence
of leather-grubs, and it may seem strange that farmers
are almost unanimous in preventing that remedy taking
effect.1 The mole-catcher is a recognised institution in
every agricultural community, yet the mole is the only
creature that can follow leather-grubs into their haunts.
Birds eat them readily enough; rooks, seagulls, and
starlings follow the plough closely and pick them up
among whatever other edible morsels are turned out by
the share; but the mole ploughs for himself, passing
through the mould as a fish does through water, and
waging relentless war upon leather-grubs and wire-
worms. Truly a beneficent mammal, whose merits

1 I have lately met two Scottish farmers of arable land who were
all in favour of preserving moles.

170 THE SHELDRAKE

would be readily recognised but for the mess he makes
on the surface. When a mole runs under a drill of
newly thinned turnips, turning all the young plants
out to perish, the farmer is not unnaturally exasperated,
and will not listen to the excuse that the mole does
not go there after young turnips, but after larvae which
would put the turnips to a more lingering death.

Again, the mole disfigures pasture-land by casting
up the subsoil. In doing so he is actually performing
good service, for the pulverised soil would make the
best top-dressing for the grass if the farmer would
spend in spreading the mole-casts the money he pays
to the mole-catcher. And note, that the injury done
to grass-land by leather-grubs is just as extensive and
serious as it is to corn crops, though not so immediately
perceptible. Whatever excuse, therefore, may be made
for killing down moles on arable land, there is none
whatever for doing so where grass is the main crop.

XLI
The following comes from a correspondent :

Can nothing be done to put a stop to the slaughter

The of your sheldrakes] There are at present (7th

Sheldrake August) in the estuary of the Urr (in Solway

Firth) two yachts from Barrow with people on board who are

spending their time shooting these unfortunate birds, many

of which are not even able to fly, and those that are on the

wing are only able to take short flights. Would it be

possible for the County Councils to deal with this matter 1 '

Of course it would. It is unfortunate, but not sur-
prising, that the successive Acts passed from 1880

AUGUST 171

onwards for the protection of wild birds other than
game have had a confusing effect upon the general
public, although the exact state of the law may be
ascertained by a reference to Whitaker's Almanac.
Nevertheless, a consolidating Act, setting matters in a
clearer light, is much to be desired. By the original
Act, eighty-six out of nearly four hundred species of
British birds were scheduled, and an annual close time
was provided for them, extending from March 2nd to July
31st inclusive ; but a subsequent Act empowered County
Councils to apply to the Secretary of State in England
and Wales, the Secretary for Scotland in Scotland, or
the Lord-Lieutenant in Ireland, to vary or abolish the
close time for any of the scheduled birds, or to provide
a close time for any bird or birds not included in the
schedule, and to prohibit the taking of eggs of any wild
bird in any county or part thereof. The sheldrake
was scheduled in the original Act, wherefore a penalty
is incurred by anybody taking or killing one during the
five months of close time; but it is quite within the
powers of the County Council of Kirkcudbright, where
the estuary of the Urr is situated, to apply to the
Secretary for Scotland for an order prohibiting the
destruction of these fine birds at any or all times of the
year.

Certainly if a blameless life be deemed to constitute
a valid claim for protection, no wild, bird merits
immunity more strongly than the sheldrake. It injures
no human interest, for its diet consists exclusively of
molluscs, small crustaceans, sea- worms, and seaweed;
and its brilliant plumage, large size, and bold flight

172 THE SHELDEAKE

provide one of the choicest ornaments of our sea land-
scapes. Moreover the sheldrake cannot be eaten by
civilised man. Even that inveterate wild-fowler, Colonel
Peter Hawker, after giving elaborate instructions for
the shooting of them adds: 'These birds show but
tame sport with the gun, and are good for nothing
when killed.' I have no intention of sampling their
flesh, but Yarrell pronounced it to be ' coarse and bad,
dark in colour, and unpleasant both in smell and
flavour.' For very shame's sake, then, if not for mercy's
sake, let an end be put to the destruction of what are
among our finest water-fowls.

The distribution of the various species of sheldrakes
is very interesting, especially in the light of a certain
circumstance mentioned by the late Professor Alfred
Newton. The South African species, Tadorna cana,
has earned its specific name by its grey head, the rest
of its plumage being cinnamon or bay coloured, and its
bill and legs very dark coloured, like the ruddy shel-
drake (T. casarca). It will be seen, therefore, how
different is the coloration of this African bird from our
British sheldrake, which has a dark green head, a broad
white collar, a chestnut waistcoat; the rest of the
plumage white and black, with a wing-spot of bright
green-bronze, and the legs and bill vermilion, male and
female being clad alike. Despite the dissimilarity in
the appearance of these two species, in 1859 a male
British sheldrake in the Zoological Society's Garden
took unto himself a South African spouse in the person
of a female Tadorna cana. Their offspring might have
been expected to display a combination of their parents'

AUGUST 173

colouring; but, no! strange to say their plumage
presented an appearance midway between that of an
Australian species, T. tadornoides, and a New Zealand
species, T. variegata, both of which have much darker
and quieter coloration than either of the parents of
these hybrids. Upon this Professor Newton observed : —

' The incident possesses an importance hardly to be over-
rated by the philosophical naturalist, though it seems not to
have met with the attention it deserves. . . . The only ex-
planation of this astounding fact seems to be that afforded
by the principle of "reversion," as set forth by Mr. Darwin,
and illustrated by him from examples of certain breeds of
doves, domestic fowls, and ducks, as well as by Mr. Cambridge
Phillips in the matter of domestic fowls. It is a perfectly
fair hypothesis that the existing animals of New Zealand and
Australia retain more of their ancestral character than do
those of countries in which we may suppose the struggle for
life to have been fiercer and the action of natural selection
stronger. . . . The example of reversion (in these sheldrakes)
proves that the same effect is produced in species as well as
in " races " indicating the essential identity of both, the only
real difference being that species are more differentiated than

The general effect of our cloudy skies and sunless
winters upon the plumage of birds mainly resident in
the British Isles seems to have been to check the
development of bright coloration ; but sheldrakes and
kingfishers offer exceptions to this rule, the British
sheldrakes displaying more vivid hues and contrast
than does any foreign species; while none of the 125
known species of kingfisher excels our own species in

1 Dictionary of Birds, p. 837.

174 SOME BIKD PARASITES

tropical brilliancy, and several of the kingfishers of
sunnier climes are clad in sad-coloured raiment.

XLII

In bovine, ovine, and other circles, Man the Omni-
some Bird vorous must be regarded with some of the
parasites shuddering horror which affects ourselves
when we come in contact with certain parasitical forms
of life. Our dairy industry, for instance, is rich in
Arcadian association, though the growing use of the
milking-machine threatens to destroy much of its
poetry and picturesqueness. But dairying was never
anything but sheerly parasitic — the abstraction of its
juices from the living animal. Were it possible to
obtain a census of opinion from ' the cattle upon a
thousand hills,' it would probably prove highly un-
complimentary to ourselves, and reflect much the same
sentiments with which we regard vampires and blood-
sucking insects.

Those whose houses are frequented by swallows and
martins, and who rejoice to be wakened on summer
mornings by their twittering under the eaves, may
have noticed the appearance on the window-panes of a
dipterous fly of peculiarly offensive appearance. It is
about the length of a common house fly, but much
broader, clinging by strong claws, set on thick, crooked
legs, and having a horny integument so hard that it
requires heavy pounding to kill the creature. It is
a member of the Hippoboscidce, belonging to the strange
group named Pupipara, or pupa-bearers, owing to their

AUGUST 175

peculiarity in reproduction. A single large egg is
formed in the ovary of the female, which, passing into
the oviduct, passes there through the larval stage, and
is finally dropped as a pupa or chrysalis. Unlike other
flies, therefore, these Hippoboscidce have no active
existence as maggots or caterpillars, reserving their
voracity for the perfect or imago stage, when they
make up diligently for lost time. Some of the family,
such as Hippobosca equina, the dreaded forest fly, and
Stenopteryx hirundinis, the parasite of the swallow,
are furnished with wings, and fly strongly ; others, like
Lipoptena cervi, which infests red deer, are hatched
with wings which they use until they have found a
host, when they bite them off or shed them, and devote
themselves exclusively to bloodsucking and reproduc-
tion. Others again, like Melophagus ovinus, the
common sheep-tick (which it may surprise some people
to be told is a real fly) are born wingless. Ticks are
troublesome and loathsome enough, but who shall
calculate the amount of irritation and suffering caused
to a swallow by the presence of two or three
Stenopterices among its feathers ? Why, in proportion
to the bird's size, each of these flies is as great as a
full-grown rabbit is to a man ! It is a kind of Nemesis,
to be sure, for swallows feed on flies; and here is a
fly, armour-coated, against which they are defenceless,
for it is too tough to be killed. These flies or kindred
species are known to infest various other birds, but
seem to be especially attracted to those of the swallow
family. The history of these parasites has been very
imperfectly elucidated hitherto, and offers a promising

176 AN ISLAND PARADISE

field of investigation to any one who will have the
diligence to work it.

Aquatic birds seem to be particularly subject to
persecution from parasites, especially the great crested
grebe, which, when neither feeding nor sleeping, spends
most of its time scratching, washing itself, and digging
among its feathers with its beak.

XLIII

Of the multitude of pleasure-seekers who at the
An island present season are distributed over Scotland,
Paradise a large proportion derive no small part of
their enjoyment from the scenery of that country ; but
probably a very small percentage care to consider how
that scenery was formed, and what agencies have been
at work to give the land its present appearance. To
those who have not experienced the enhanced enjoy-
ment to be derived from a general understanding of
the growth of landscape, let me commend Sir Archibald
Geikie's fascinating volume on The Scenery of Scotland,
whereof a third edition was published in 1901. It is
a book admirably fulfilling the purpose with which it
was written, namely, to make readers of ordinary
intelligence acquainted with the origin of hill and
dale, plain and shore, and to give them an insight of
the result of scientific research in which they may not
have the time or inclination to take part. Though Sir
Archibald confines himself in this book to the scenery
of his native land, the agencies which he explains are
at work in land sculpture all over the globe. One of

AUGUST 177

the most potent of these is the upheaval of the land,
causing a succession of sea-beaches to be formed one
above the other, and creating a more or less terraced
contour. In Scotland, raised beaches can be recognised
at heights of 25, 40, 50, 60, 75, and 100 feet above
the present level of high tide; but in some of the
Norwegian fjords they mark a land rise of 600 feet,
and Darwin found a raised beach near Valparaiso at
an altitude of 1300 feet. The movement is sometimes
sudden and convulsive, sometimes secular and gradual,
as in parts of Norway at the present day, where the
annual rise is marked on the rocks in inches by
observers; but a well-formed sea-beach, with tide
ridges in the shingle, wave-worn rocks and tunnelled
cliffs, indicates long intervals when the land must
have remained stationary. At Posilipo, near Naples,
may be seen some pillars perforated by a marine stone-
boring mollusc, showing that, after the edifice was
built, the land sank and submerged it, rising again
after the molluscs had found time to bore into the
stone.

Suppose the whole land surface of north-western
Europe was to undergo a rise of 600 feet similar to
that which has taken place in sub-Polar regions, what
a bewildering change would be wrought not only in
our scenery, but in the political and strategical circum-
stances of the United Kingdom. The occupation of
the Blue- water School would disappear with the
German Ocean, the Straits of Dover, and half the Bay
of Biscay. Ireland would be united physically as well
as politically to the predominant partner, and relief
M

178 AN ISLAND PARADISE

would be afforded to her congested districts by a vast
extension of territory on the west. Strange to say,
there would still be deep water in the Beaufort Dyke,
that profound cleft which lies between Port Patrick
and Donaghadee, and some of the Highland sea-lochs
would remain as isolated sheets of water.

Such were some of the reflections suggested lately
when I came on deck one fine summer morning after
our yacht had come to an anchor during the night in
the quaint little archipelago of Scilly. Scarcely a
ripple stirred the surface of the roadstead, and all
around rose hog-backed isles and rugged islets, capped
with fantastic crests of granite. One is impressed
immediately by their similarity to the hill-tops of
Cornwall; the Land's End and Lizard Point being
respectively but twenty-five and forty miles to the
eastward. Yes; these are but the summits of sub-
merged mountains, and a far slighter elevation or
depression than many which have affected the earth's
crust would unite them in a single range or sink them
out of sight.

If the Scilly group is correctly identified with the
Cassiterides, or Tin Islands of Greek writers (and they
are always specified as distinct from the mainland of
Britain), the name must have originated from their
use as a depot for tin raised in Cornwall, the metal
being transhipped in the roadstead for an ocean passage.
Of the monks of Tresco and their secluded abbey
nothing now remains but a couple of fourteenth-century
arches in Mr. Dorrien Smith's garden.

But what a garden that is! Were it not for the

AUGUST 179

winds, which search every cranny in the rocks and
have to be built out with cycloprean walls and
warded off with belts of tough, stunted trees, the
vegetation would beguile a man into the belief that
he was in Corfu or Madeira. Mesembryanthemums,
the despair of inland gardeners, cover the rocks and
rough walls with a mantle of crimson and gold ;
crassula, geranium, pelargonium, and other tender
things associated with bedding out, here make peren-
nial undergrowth for enormous aloes, bonapartia,
prickly pear, cordyline, and various sub -tropical
growths. Where shade and shelter can be had, tree
ferns of several species grow magnificently. It would
take many pages and involve the use of many poly-
syllables to describe a fourth of the exotics for which
Mr. Dorrien Smith provides a congenial home. Men-
tion, however, must be made of two of the loftier
flowering things which luxuriate here, for nowhere else
shall you see them in such magnificence. The first
is the true Metrosideros coccinea ; not the Callistemon
or crimson bottle-brush which nurserymen usually
supply under that name, but the real thing, distin-
guished from Callistemon by its epidendric tendencies
and its terminal scarlet tassels. Callistemon bears
carmine bottle-brushes, a splendid thing too, and quite
hardy in Scilly. Indeed it only asks for a mat in
winter to enable it to withstand any west country winter.
The flower of Metrosideros was past at the time of
my visit, but enough traces remained to show what
these trees must have been in their glory. The other
tree referred to, Cletkra arborea, was in full flower. It

180 AN ISLAND PARADISE

is sometimes seen in large conservatories, but under
such conditions it never displays the wealth of shining,
myrtle green foliage and spires of white, fragrant flowers
which it puts forth here.

One other flower, and one only, let me recall — a
charming form of the amaryllis which Linnseus, as
appropriately as poetically, christened bdla donna.
The common variety is better than most things, and
can be grown successfully in sunny corners as far north
as Inverness-shire ; but it flowers so late in the autumn
that, except in sun-baked districts, it is apt to be
marred by a foretaste of winter. But the Tresco
variety comes into flower full six weeks earlier than
the type; in mid- August there were sheaves of its
sweet, rose-coloured blossoms growing in admirable
contrast to the equally free-flowering agapanthus —
the blue love-lily of Hottentot brides.

Methought that on a gem of an island like Tresco,
a very fairyland of horticulture, one would as likely
have found a rhinoceros as a rabbit. What an
opportunity might be had to naturalise all kinds of
exotic growth — the Kerguelen Island cabbage on the
rocky knolls, the giant forget-me-not of the Chatham
Islands on the beach, innumerable South African bulbs
and heaths on the plains of granite sand. Alas ! Out-
side the very garden walls everything is gnawed down
by rabbits. Were I but lord of Tresco it would be an
evil but a short day for these detestable rodents.

AUGUST 181

XLIV

This wet, backward summer (1907) has prepared an
unaccustomed treat for travellers faring to Highland
the Highlands, who will be greeted by an wild
abundance of wild flowers quite unusual so Flowers
late in the season. The true heather has taken on no
tinge of rose as yet, but the bell heath (Erica cinerea)
is in full glow this Lammas Day (August 1). There is
a peculiarly fine display of this beautiful plant on the
cuttings of the Highland Railway between Tain and
Bonar Bridge. Less commonly seen in masses is the
more delicately tinted cross-leaved heath (E. tetralix),
whereof there is at present a fine sheet on the carriage
roadside between Kildonan and Suisgill in Helmsdale,
pointille, as heralds would say, with a thick sprinkling
of the spotted orchis in all shades from pure white to
crimson, and of the lovely golden spires of the bog
asphodel, frosted also in places with clouds of the little
heath crosswort (Galium saxatile).

Among scattered birch stems between this bright
enamelling and the river is a wide belt of yellow iris,
still gay with blossom, and a tangle of wild roses, red
and white. All these, except the white crosswort, in
ordinary seasons would have hauled down their colours
before this date, but now they are in their prime.

Exception may be taken to the term ' true heather '
applied above to the plant known as ' ling ' in England ;
but in truth we Scots are just as touchy about the use of
the word 'heather' to indicate the heaths, as we are about

182 HIGHLAND WILD FLOWERS

that of ' bluebell ' to denote the wood hyacinth instead
of the harebell. Botanically the distinctive feature of
heather is the calyx, the segments of which are as long
as the corolla and of the same colour ; whereas in the
heaths the calyx is very short and the colour effect is
derived entirely from the inflated corolla.

The exquisite effect of this little natural parterre in
Helms dale makes one speculate why, among all the
phases through which horticulture has passed and is
passing, it does not occur to anybody to arrange a
border planted only with British wild flowers. It
might vie in brightness and variety with any collection
of exotics, and by creating a distinct feature of interest,
would redeem any garden from the besetting snare of
sameness. It would not be difficult to prepare a list
of native herbs to hold their own in competition with
the flowers of other lands.1 Here, then, is a suggestion
— a geographical garden, arranged in compartments
corresponding to the principal countries of the
Temperate Zone. In two colours, indeed, the United
Kingdom would be at a disadvantage, namely, scarlet
and orange, for the corn poppy and the little scarlet
pimpernel are the only British wild flowers that display
the first of these colours ; and the sole representative
of the second is the orange variety of the Welsh poppy
(Meconopsis cambrica), unless the orange hawkweed
(Hieracium aurantiacum) may be granted letters of
naturalisation. In other hues, we need fear no rival.

1 I have prepared such a list of 275 British flowering shrubs and
herbs suitable for ornamental gardening. [Scottish Gardens, pp.
229-252].

AUGUST 183

Yellow abounds in native flowers too numerous to
mention — daffodils, marsh marigold, globe flowers,
primrose, cinquefoils, and the interminable series of
hawkweeds and buttercups; crocus, pansy, vetches,
wood and field geraniums supply rich purples. No
blue excels that of the vernal gentian for intensity or
that of forget-me-not for purity, and there is all the
host of harebells, wood hyacinth, and others to vary
the key and the season. At the present moment the
southern embankment of the Highland line between
Novar and Alness is enriched with viper's bugloss,
forming a far-seen sheet of vivid blue. Our white wild
flowers include such variety as snowdrops, lily-of-the-
valley, bladder-campion, water-lilies, the quaint little
dwarf cornel (Cornus suecica), whose berries, immense
in proportion to its stature, supply that colour which
is so scarce among our native flowers, for they glow
like scarlet sealing-wax. Of pink and crimson there
is no lack. Ragged robin, rose campion, sea- thrift,
centaury, and roses supply the first, and the second is
almost too prevalent, merging, as it often does, into
that dangerously strong tint upon which milliners
bestowed the name of magenta some fifty years ago.
Perhaps it is our cloudy climate that infuses a cold
tinge into the crimson of many orchises, of foxglove,
willow-herb, the spineless or melancholy thistle, the
mountain saxifrage, and that pretty plant whose
English name must be softly breathed lest it suggest
a vulgar execration — the bloody cranesbill (Geranium
sanguineum). Note that the two varieties of this
pretty geranium known respectively as lancastriense

184 HIGHLAND WILD FLOWERS

(blush) and album (white), are infinitely superior to
the common form.

In flowering shrubs we islanders are far from strong,
for when gorse, broom, hawthorn in many varieties,
the shrubby potentil (Potentilla fruticosa), the guelder
rose, the wayfaring tree, and the wild roses have been
ticked off, there remains little else save blackthorn
and brambles, for lavender and rosemary owe no
allegiance as British subjects.

Among the herbs mentioned above, none is uncom-
mon. No account has been made of such rare things
as the blue Menziesia, the little mountain azalea
(Loiseleuria procumbens), the brown and gold lady's
slipper (Cypripedium calceolus) and others which,
although indigenous to the United Kingdom, have
been so nearly exterminated by the sinister diligence
of collectors that the gardener must look to foreign
sources for a supply. The commonest wild flowers
respond to culture as freely as exotics. The birdsfoot
trefoil, for instance, will spread into a great cushion
of gold, and the lowly milkwort make as rich a tuft
as the blue lobelia, if means are provided to spare
them the struggle for existence with more robust plants
which they have to undergo in their natural haunts.
The common British daisy is an example of a weed
lending itself to cultivation and rewarding the culti-
vator by a great variety of pink, white, and crimson
forms.

In striking contrast to the bright blossom on hill
and river-side is the desolate appearance of the birch
woods in upper Helmsdale. Hundreds of acres have

AUGUST 185

been stripped of every leaf, presumably by the Tortrix
caterpillar, which so often disfigures the oak woods of
the south. The caterpillars have disappeared, so I
have not been able to identify them ; but they were
probably the larvae of that evil little Tortrix, one of
the same genus as the cloth moth, well known to
care-worn housewives. Black stand the birches, as
leafless as in midwinter, scathed as if by a fire. They
have not the recuperative power of the oak, which
repairs the damage by putting out a second crop of
leaves.

These birches are of the variety or sub-series known
as pubescens, which occupies wetter, colder land than
the other kind, verrucosa. This last prefers dry land,
and is nowhere to be seen in greater beauty than in
Strathspey. It is the weeping birch of our pleasure-
grounds, and appears to have quite escaped the
attention of Tortrix. Where ornament is the object,
the planter should be careful to secure the birch of
Strathspey, known botanically as Betula alba verru-
cosa.

XLV

They do greatly err who suppose that the fascination
of angling is derived only from the prospect -j^g
of a miraculous draught. It is quite true Nameless
that there is always floating in the fisher-
man's imagination the possibility of rivalling the pro-
digious success of Mr. A. M. Naylor who, on 28th
August (I forget the year, but it was somewhere in the
'eighties), killed with fly in the Grimersta, Island of

186 THE NAMELESS TARN

Harris, the amazing total of fifty-four salmon and
twelve sea-trout,1 or that of Lord Carmarthen, as he
then was,2 who, on the Avington water of the Itchen,
landed eleven brace of heavy trout with the dry-fly on
a single day; and Itchen trout are the 'skeeriest'
known to me.

I suppose that if certainty of success were the main
object for which one goes a-fishing, the place to go to
would be Loch Leven, from whose fair bosom no fewer
than 34,110 trout weighing 26,577 Ib. were expiscated
during the season of 1908. Assuming that the season
afforded 170 fishing days (which it did not), that gives
a daily average of 200 trout to the rods engaged. It
is not in the nature of things that all these rods were
wielded by adepts; a master of the craft, therefore, might
reckon himself sure of a respectable creel, and any
ordinary performer would do more than save his blank.
But for my own part I have never cast a line on Loch
Leven. Despite the notable quality of its trout, the
scene of perpetual club competitions for money prizes
is abhorrent to a modest exponent of the contemplative
man's recreation, and a recent enterprise, albeit wholly
barren of ponderable or tangible result, was redeemed
from fruitlessness by reason of those subsidiary delights
which can only be found in remote and unfrequented

1 The conditions, of course, were wholly exceptional. The bay
was crowded with salmon which could not get up the little river
owing to the excessive drought. The waters of Loch Langabhat, a
sheet ten miles long, were raised by a dam at the outlet, and then
released to form an artificial spate. The result was that in six con-
secutive days three rods landed 333 salmon weighing 2026 Ib., and
71 sea- trout weighing 52 Ib.

2 Now Duke of Leeds.

AUGUST 187

places. For it must be frankly admitted that angling
is so far a selfish pursuit that solitude, mitigated, it
may be, or even enhanced, by the presence of a choice
companion and a sagacious gillie, is indispensable to
the fisherman's felicity.

Well, on the day in question nothing was wanting
in this respect. The scene was one of the vastest
solitudes in Scotland, empty of human cumber save
where the West Highland Railway trails its slender,
sinuous track across the Moor of Rannoch. On the
borders of that moor, and here and there upon its
expanse, gleam many, many lochs and tarns ; some of
them possessing high repute for the size and quality of
their trouts ; others peopled by innumerable small ones
which never exceed the dimensions of a gudgeon ;
others again, difficult of access and of unplumbed
depth, about which hang shadowy legends of enormous
trout landed by sportsmen of a bygone age.

Most of these lochs, yea, even the smallest of them,
are distinguished by Gaelic polysyllables ; but the tarn
whereon I had set my desire was nameless, at least the
ordnance surveyors had not inscribed it with any title,
nor could I induce either host or gillie to invent one
for it. It attracted me more magnetically than other
and larger meres (its whole area does not exceed three
or four acres), because the evidence was tolerably con-
vincing that a four pound trout had actually been
taken from it within historic times.

Only a small part of its surface can be commanded
from the shore, so wide and dense is the belt of reeds
surrounding it ; so my host undertook, in the face of

188 THE NAMELESS TARN

almost insurmountable difficulties, to cause a boat to
be conveyed thither. It was latish before this was
accomplished ; and the soft air of a grey morning had
hardened and turned gusty, not the kind of after-day to
bring trout to the surface. However, there were we to
make the best of it ; there was the lochan, lying snugly
in lee of the sheltering dome of Beinn-na-lice (which,
if you would not be misunderstood, you must sound to
rhyme, not with ' slice ' but with ' streaky '), its waters
impenetrably dark in the calm — silver-frosted in the
breeze.

I had not patience to wait till the boat was launched;
leaving it to my fellow- explorer, I began whipping
along fifty yards or so of rocky shore, the only part of
the loch accessible from the land. I cannot have
made more than half a dozen casts when there came
an eddying bulge in the brown water that made my
heart stop beating. Nothing came of it, however; a
big fish had missed the fly, and would not be tempted
to have another shot. Nor could I stir another fin in
the rest of my beat. By the time I came to the end
of it my friend was afloat — and by the Hokey ! he 's in
a fish ; a good one too, judging by the arc of his nine-
footer. Deep, deep and ever deeper the unseen quarry
plunges, visiting every quarter of the little mere, warn-
ing all his clan to take shelter from danger. Fully twenty
minutes were added to the past before that doughty
fish could be brought to the surface and towed into the
net. And how much did he weigh, think you ? Six
pounds ? — four ? Not less, surely, to judge from the
toughness of the fight. Nay, but he barely pulled the

AUGUST 189

steelyard down to 2| Ib. ; the secret of his resistance
being revealed in the position of the hook, which was
fixed, not in his mouth, but in the dorsal fin. A
beautifully-shaped fish, but very dark, suitably to his
native environment, without a single spark of scarlet
on his skin.

By this time the evening had turned cold and raw.
We left the Nameless Tarn with but a single specimen
of its inhabitants which, as the reader may have
murmured to himself before this, is but meagre material
for so windy a yarn ; but the enjoyment of that after-
noon bore no proportion to the weight of the basket.

XLVI

OF all our British game birds, the partridge is the
The Little onty one uPon which the farmer looks with
Brown no ill-favour. The ptarmigan, indeed, is
innocuous to all kinds of crop, but since
that fine bird never descends below the 2000 feet
level, the average farmer has no opportunity of forming
an opinion about its propensities. Grouse and black-
game take heavy toll of late corn ; the proximity of
hand-reared pheasants has to be considered in fixing
the rent of arable land ; but no agriculturist has an
ill word for the partridge, which may, indeed, take a
trivial tribute of scattered grain from the stubbles, but
whose staple diet consists of small seeds, especially
buckwheat, wild mustard, and such like, grubs, slugs,
and the eggs of insects.

So may the partridge shooter go forth with a light
heart, knowing that his amusement is not obtained at
the expense of his hard-working neighbours. A farm
may swarm with partridges, yet the tenant will be
none the worse, but actually the better for their
presence, owing to their diligence in devouring insects
and the seeds of weeds.

190

SEPTEMBER 191

The present generation has witnessed a radical
change in the method of partridge shooting, which,
while it has divested the sport of its pristine leisurely
charm, certainly has this advantage, that birds of the
year are allowed to reach full maturity of growth and
plumage before they are brought to bag. On none of
the best partridge manors is ' The First ' such an im-
portant anniversary as it was of yore. The sickle,
recognised from the days of the Pyramids as the
orthodox implement of harvest, used to leave a fine
rough stubble, in which the birds harboured so closely
as to allow themselves to be found by dogs. Many
persons still living may remember when the scythe
was considered a great innovation, cutting much
closer than the sickle, and imparting a novel and
corresponding nervousness to the game. But the
scythe was only the brief precursor of the more drastic
reaping-machine, whereof the advent put an end to
the vocation of silky-haired setters and satin-coated
pointers. Henceforth stubbles hardly afforded cover
for a field-mouse, and shooters could only be brought
within range of their game by driving the birds into
green crops, where they were walked up in line.

The monotony of this proceeding soon brought it
into disfavour, and, about the year 1875, the method of
driving the birds over the guns, concealed behind a
high fence, was borrowed from the grouse moor. The
chief results of this have been to concentrate into a
few arduous days the sport that used to serve a succes-
sion of parties throughout the season, to increase
enormously the number of birds shot in a single day,

192 THE LITTLE BKOWN BIRD

and at the same time to multiply the stock on the
ground in favourable seasons beyond all precedent.
Where driving is regularly performed, to the exclusion
of every other form of pursuit, the general stock of
birds shows a marked increase. Compare the results
of the two systems as shown upon the famous partridge
ground of Holkham, in Norfolk. The total bags
obtained in the two best years when ' walking up ' was
the vogue were 3308 partridges in 1868 and 3385 in
1869. Driving as aforesaid was adopted in 1875, with
the consequence that 8100 partridges were shot in
1885, and 7512 in 1887.

It may be observed that ' walking up ' seems to
have been practised at Holkham long before it was
adopted elsewhere — for in the celebrated two days'
match between England and Scotland in 1823, when
Mr. W. Coke at Holkham defeated Lord Kennedy, the
Scottish champion, at Monreith, by killing 337
partridges in the two days, it is mentioned in the
Norfolk Gazette of the time that Mr. Coke had a
large number of beaters, and had the use of only
one dog to pick up the game. Lord Kennedy who
was beaten by about twenty brace, shot entirely over
setters.

There are plenty of districts, especially in those
parts of Scotland where the cultivated ground verges
upon moorland or is broken by knolls of gorse and
bracken, where partridges may still be shot over dogs
as well as ever ; but it must be sadly confessed that
modern sportsmen are too impatient to relish that
beautiful form of pursuit. Rapid loading deprives the

SEPTEMBER 193

pointer of the breathing-time he deserves after rang-
ing under a hot sun; unduly pressed, he commits
mistakes ; and the only dog that has a chance of dis-
tinguishing himself is the retriever. Into both grouse
and partridge-shooting has now been imported the
defect that has always marred the zest of deer-stalk-
ing ; the sportsman becomes merely a marksman ; all
brainwork is performed by the attendant stalker, and
in grouse and partridge-driving by the head keeper,
who marshals his little army so as to bring the birds
accurately over the line of guns.

Still, when all is said, driven partridges afford most
exciting sport, exacting a supreme exercise of marks-
manship, and in the highest degree beneficial to the
stock of birds. But be it remembered where driving
is practised no other form of shooting must be
allowed. If the ground be dogged or walked up early
in the season and driven later, the stock will inevit-
ably deteriorate under such hard usage. Moreover,
the ground must not be driven more than once or
twice in a season. Record-breaking being the ruin of
all true sport, one hesitates before quoting examples
of what can be done in driving ; the following instances
are given only to show how discreetly such a destructive
form of pursuit must be used. At Holkham in
four consecutive days — December 8-11, 1885— there
were shot 3392 partridges, and at the Grange, Hants,
in four consecutive days — October 18-21, 1887, — 4109
partridges.

The 'common' partridge is the term for the bird in
ornithological works, but a few dismal summers like

N

194 THE LITTLE BROWN BIRD

1907 would soon make the description inapplicable,
in the United Kingdom at least, so relentlessly did
cold and wet massacre both first and second broods in
that season.

Although the partridge is familiarly known to every
country dweller, yet comparatively few persons are
able to distinguish between the cock and hen birds,
so close is the general resemblance between the sexes
in size and plumage. To tell them apart on the wing
is impossible; but there are certain well-defined,
though minute differences which may easily be dis-
cerned when the bird is in hand. The usual test is to
examine the breast; if it displays the characteristic
horse-shoe arrangement of rich chestnut feathers the
bird is confidently pronounced to be a cock, although
it requires but a slight acquaintance with anatomy
to prove with a penknife that nearly all hen-birds of
the first year carry a horseshoe as clearly defined as
that of the cocks. You must exercise discretion in
propounding this doctrine (which has received the
sanction of almost every text-book on ornithology) in
the presence of a gamekeeper, for belief in the horse-
shoe as the exclusive badge of the male partridge is
wellnigh ineradicable among those who have most to
do with the bird.

It was Mr. Ogilvie Grant of the British Museum
who, for the first time, I think, formulated the true
external marks of distinction between the sexes, and
explained them in the Field newspaper (November 21,
1891, and April 9, 1892). It is rather difficult to con-
vey the information without a diagram : but I will try.

SEPTEMBER 195

The feathers of a bird's wing are ranged in three
groups — (1) the primaries or pen-feathers, (2) the
secondaries or cubitals, (3) the median and lesser
wing coverts and the acapulars. In the male par-
tridge the median feathers are dark, with a chestnut
stain on the inner web, a clear stripe of buff down the
shaft, and no light cross-bars. Those of the female, in
addition to the light shaft-stripe, have two or three
buff cross-bars. In the adult male, also, the feathers of
the neck are bluish-grey, with no light shaft-stripe ; in
the female they are olive-brown, with a light stripe
down the shaft. These differences are constant and
trustworthy.

To distinguish a bird of the year from an older bird
is easy enough till Christmas time, when the yellowish
feet and toes of the young partridge begin to assume
the slaty-blue tinge of the adult. Very few persons
know how to distinguish the age of a partridge after
the turn of the year. An infallible index is the shape
of the first pen-feather, which in an old bird is rounded
at the end, but in a young bird is pointed, and remains
so till the moult of the second autumn.

XLVII

* Stupid woman ! She doesn't know any better.'
It was refreshing to hear this remark spoken by
one well-dressed lady about another, not Borrowed
nearly so well-dressed, but wearing a Humes
showy aigrette of ' ospreys ' in her hat. Refreshing
— because it showed that the patient and persistent

196 BORROWED PLUMES

industry with which the Royal Society for the Pro-
tection of Birds has pressed the crusade against the
plume trade, with its attendant cruelties, has convinced
intelligent ladies of its real nature, and roused them
to resist the tyranny of milliners; and because it
stamped the wearing of ' ospreys ' as a sign of stupidity.
A fashionable lady may treat with indifference the
imputation of cruelty, knowing that she would shrink
with horror from committing any direct act of cruelty ;
but she does not like being thought stupid ; and it is
stupid not to perceive that to encourage wholesale
cruelty, such as is involved in the collection of
'ospreys' from nesting colonies of white herons, by
purchasing the plumes, is just as bad as to commit an
individual act of direct cruelty.1

This principle has been vindicated in a remarkable
way in the law courts of Louisiana, where a precedent
has been established whereby milliners are held liable
to fine or imprisonment for offering plumes of white
herons for sale. The proprietor of a millinery store
in New Orleans was sentenced to a fine of fifty dollars
or thirty days' imprisonment for this offence, the pre-
siding judge ruling that, as it was impossible to reach
the persons who devastated the distant breeding-
grounds of these birds, sellers and wearers of the
plumes must be made amenable. Appeal was made to

1 I have seen to-day (15th June 1909) a hat displayed in a shop
window in Bond Street, entirely covered with the plumes of the
white heron. It must have required six full-grown birds to supply
them. They have been dyed bright yellow, so I suppose some credulous
customer will buy the beastly thing believing the feathers to be
other than what they are.

SEPTEMBER 197

the Supreme Court, where the judgment was con-
firmed, on the grounds that, as the statute prohibits
the killing of certain wild birds, the act of buying
them must be included, forasmuch as 'the principal
cause for killing is the consideration received, those
who buy the plumes of these birds must be held to
know that by buying them they hold out an induce-
ment to hunt and shoot them.' The law under which
this judgment was pronounced is in force in all but
eight of the fifty- one states.

A few more convictions (and we are assured that
the American Audubon Society are determined not to
let matters rest) will render these plumes unsaleable
in the United States. We may then expect increased
consignments to European markets, which will entail
redoubled efforts on the part of the K.S.P.B. to dis-
suade ladies from buying these tainted goods. The
consignments are huge enough already. On April 16
of the present year (1908), in the London Commercial
Sale-rooms, 422 packages of 'ospreys' were offered
for sale, besides immense numbers of bird-of-paradise
skins and 62 packages of albatross quills. (Will our
ladies not be induced to give the Ancient Mariner a
second reading ?) At a sale in the same rooms on
June 11, 348 packages of 'ospreys' were disposed of,
besides five packages of osprey skins — that is, skins of
the white egret in breeding plumage; 4244 birds of
paradise, 1386 heads of crowned pigeons, and no fewer
than 20,000 kingfishers. It is well within the power
of fashionable ladies to stop this inhuman traffic,
which is rapidly exterminating some of the most

198 BORROWED PLUMES

lovely animals on earth. Are we to arrive at the
sorrowful conclusion that it is the will, not the power,
that is wanting ?

In respect of our own legislation for wild birds' pro-
tection, welcome evidence has been given this year that
the various Acts are being more vigorously administered
than they were at first, when county councils seemed to
hesitate about exercising the powers conferred upon
them. I have described elsewhere the disastrous effects
of netting as practised on various parts of the coast,
and especially upon the practical extermination of
ruffs and reeves in Norfolk and Lincolnshire. Mr.
W. A. Dutt now reports a nest in Norfolk, during the
present season, and reviews the history of this most
interesting species during the last fifty years. A
hundred years ago ruffs and reeves abounded in the
fens and broads, but they were so relentlessly perse-
cuted with clap nets, to be fattened for the market on
bread and milk, that in 1858 only fourteen nests could
be counted in the whole of Broadland. In 1868 there
were no more than five, and in 1878 but two nests ;
after which date the only instances of reeves being
allowed to breed in England were a single nest in 1889
near Hickling, and another in 1897 near Hoveton Broad.

In the present year (1908) nests have been found and
protected both in Norfolk and Yorkshire, and there is
good reason to hope that, by the combined vigilance of
the police and the agents of the Royal Society for the
Protection of Birds, these charming and beautiful
creatures will be established once more in our land.
How beautiful the male bird is in his courting dress,

SEPTEMBER 199

and how variable that dress is, may be realised by any
one inspecting the case of stuffed ruffs and reeves in
the Natural History Museum at South Kensington.

Mr. Edmund Selous has contributed to recent num-
bers of the Zoologist a diary of his laborious and
sustained observation of these birds during the court-
ing season on the coast of Holland. No bird lover
should miss the pleasure of reading the same. It
proves that, while every reeve manifests individual pre-
ference for one out of a competing crowd of parti-
coloured suitors, she is not averse from occasional, but
most pressing, advances from others. In short, the
reeve is far from being a model of conjugal fidelity, and
goes a good way in the direction of polyandry, which is
a system most rare among birds that ostensibly pair.
Still more rare and unlovely is the practice of such ruffs
as are unsuccessful in gaining the affection of a reeve ;
they work off their feelings by paying court to each other.
The whole story, as told in detail by Mr. Selous, is far
more interesting than any novel of ' sex,' and increases
one's chagrin that indiscriminate slaughter has put an
end for the present to the performance of this exciting
drama on the English stage.

XLVIII

Among the many devices provided by the agency
which we personify as Nature for the pro- Tlie
tection of living organisms, none is more American
effective than the plan of investing certain Bison
creatures with a menacing or repulsive exterior ; up to

200 THE AMERICAN BISON

which, physically, they may be quite incapable of
acting, but which causes them to be feared, or at least
avoided, by other, possibly unfriendly, animals. In the
vegetable kingdom, perhaps the most familiar example
of this deliberate mimicry is furnished by the dead
nettle (Lamium), which, springing in the hedgerow
side by side with the stinging nettle ( Urtica), a plant of
widely different affinity, resembles it so closely as to be
practically indistinguishable to the casual eye until the
flowers appear upon each. Among birds, the domestic
gander is scarcely capable of injuring a schoolgirl ; but
many a grown person has quickened his pace across
the common to avoid the threatened assault of the
bird, which comes at him with lowered head, open beak,
and angry hiss. Again, among reptiles, how few people
have the nerve to lay hand upon a slow worm, which
is not a snake, though closely resembling one, but a
legless, wholly innocuous lizard. And so, coming to
the higher organisms, of all the mammalian inhabitants
of our planet none exceeds the American bison (com-
monly spoken of as buffalo) in ferocity of mien. The
normal expression on the countenance of a bison bull
is one of slumberous wrath and watchful malevolence ;
the small, quick eyes, scintillating under vast, shaggy
brows, betoken sudden violence of assault, which lithe
activity of limb and loin will make irresistible.

This is all sheer bluff. The appearance of the crea-
ture completely belies its character and intentions. Its
speed is employed to keep out of the way of man,
whose presence, except when attacked or wounded, it
scrupulously avoids; and in captivity bisons are

SEPTEMBER 201

singularly gentle and inoffensive. Such, at least, is the
character they have earned at Woburn Abbey, where
the Duke of Bedford has a small herd.

Yet of all animals on earth, none has juster cause
for cherishing vengeance against tyrant man than the
American bison. Of all the countless multitude which
roamed the prairies within living memory not a single
bull or cow remains. Tens of thousands of these noble
beasts were hunted down and slaughtered, sometimes
only for their tongues, all the prime beef and splendid
hides being left to feed the coyotes and buzzards, or to
rot. Not until it was too late did men realise the value
of what they had allowed to be wasted. The price of
a buffalo-robe, once the perquisite of every cowboy —
the common wrap of every Red Indian — is now
reckoned in hundreds of dollars. As a wild race, the
American bison exists no more. About six hundred
head are preserved in private parks, and a bull com-
mands the price of 5000 dollars (£1000). Swift and
complete has been the destruction ; far swifter and even
more complete than that which has overtaken the
incalculable number and variety of beautiful creatures,
indigenous to the South African veldt, although that
continent also has lost several species for ever.

The possibility of restoring the bison to the American
prairies has been vigorously taken up by Major Gordon
W. Lillie, who is distinguished by the sobriquet of
' Pawnee Bill.' For several years he has devoted him-
self to encounter the difficulty which always has to be
faced in attempting to rescue from utter extinction a
race once exceedingly numerous and prolific, when it

202 THE AMERICAN BISON

has been reduced to very few in number. The debili-
tating effect of inbreeding may be seen in the white
cattle of Cadzow Forest, and, in a slighter degree, in
those of Chillingham Park. Pawnee Bill has come to
the dispiriting conclusion that it is vain to attempt
restoring the pure breed of bisons. His only hope lies
in mating them with the best individuals of the nearest
domesticated strain, and after experimenting on fifty-
three pure-bred bison cows in his own herd, he
pronounces the best strain to be the polled black
Galloway. This variety much resembles the polled
Angus, but is rougher in the coat and bigger in bone.
In crossing bisons with Galloways, the wild race proves
to be the dominant strain, the offspring having the
small, wiry flanks of the bison, with its heavy fore-hand
and neck, and producing a long, silky, glossy coat,
slightly darker than a genuine buffalo robe.

So far, so good ; for the cross has proved fertile ; but
there remains an essential which cannot be so easily
supplied. Pawnee Bill declares that buffaloes will not
thrive without the true ' buffalo grass ' which covers the
great prairies upon which they once roamed, especially
the Great Staked Plain. To the want of this grass he
attributes the dwindling of the herd preserved in
Yellowstone Park, reduced in 1906 to twenty-nine
animals. Now whereas no ordinary farmer can afford
to acquire and preserve a tract of this peculiar pasture,
Pawnee Bill invokes the intervention of the United
States Government to buy up a breadth of the Great
Staked Plain, where land is to be had at a nominal
figure, and thereon to perpetuate the native bison. He

SEPTEMBEK 203

has presented a Bill to Congress for this object, and all
lovers of wild life must unite in wishing him success in
his enterprise.

XLIX

No Englishman — none at least with a fair smattering
of the history of his own country — can visit the
famous district of the Medoc in the golden sun-
shine of September and fail to sympathise with the pas-
sionate tenacity with which English kings and statesmen
clung to their heritage in that opulent land at the cost of
the Hundred Years' War. To realise its richness, one
should be there during the vintage — the claret vintage,
I was about to say, but ' claret ' is a word unknown to
the French cultivator. The term vinum claretum, i.e.
clarified wine, came into early use in English as
' claret ' or ' dairy/ to distinguish the beautifully pel-
lucid wines of Bordeaux from those of Burgundy and
other vine-lands. Except during the vintage, the
features of the country are tame. League upon league
of gently rolling upland, bounded on the east by the
tawny estuary of the Gironde, weary the eye in winter
with their brown monotony — in summer with their
unbroken dark verdure. Vine-land, in truth, during
eleven months of the year is as little attractive as
any prospect under the sun. Scarce a tree to break
the winter blast or temper the summer heat. The
vines themselves are pruned down to exact uniformity
of stature ; no hedgerow timber is permitted, and the
skyline is broken only by rare and exiguous groves
round the chateaux and by the grey clustered roofs of

204 THE M^DOC

some hamlet crowding round the bell-tower of a
church. Chateaux there are, indeed, plenty of them,
but not on the lordly scale of Langeais or Chenon-
ceaux, nor bosomed in far-stretching woodland, as at
Chambord or Chevernay. The soil is far too valuable to
be wasted in mere amenity; every square yard of ground
that will grow a vine is made to do so ; the very roads
that thread the verdant expanse like white ribbons are
shorn of their margins, and many a chateau whereof
the name has become a household word in England
has no more park or pleasure-ground than a villa in
suburban Hampstead.

As residences, they impress one unfavourably com-
pared with English country homes. There are no
shady lanes or heathy commons, no shaggy hillsides or
wealth of wayside flowers. Once, and once only, have I
come upon a bit of hedge, about twenty yards in length,
overgrown with brambles, loaded with such a wealth
of fine blackberries as I ever saw within a like space.
The intense cultivation oppresses one with a longing
for wastefulness. But in truth these chateaux are
rather magazines than mansion-houses. Their owners
may sojourn for a few weeks during the vintage, but
the principal buildings in the enclosure are the cuvier
or press-house and the chaise or wine-stores.

Some of the most famous of these vine-lands are of
very trifling extent. The quality of soil in the Medoc
varies in the most capricious manner. The stranger
may look in vain for any external signs of difference ;
it looks much the same to him all over — a friable,
reddish, gravelly loam ; yet this side of a low ridge

SEPTEMBER 205

may produce a first growth wine, and the other side
may yield nothing but bourgeois — that is. unclassified
wine. Thus the world-renowned Chateau Lafite is but
a farm of less than 180 acres in extent, yet the grapes
grown thereon possess such an exquisite virtue that in
1868 the Rothschilds purchased it for £180,000— more
than £1000 an acre. Ten years later, when claret
was at the height of favour in England, the average
annual production at Chateau Lafite was estimated at
seven hundred and twenty hogsheads, worth, in a good
year, about £47,200. Reckoning three-fourths of these
gross receipts as absorbed by wages, renewal of stock,
repairs, and other expenses, there remained a balance of
£12,000 to meet interest on the purchase money at
four per cent., equal to £7200, and £4800 clear profit
besides. Here was a net return of £70, 12s. per acre.
Probably no other agricultural land in the world could
show financial results equal to those obtained from the
estate of Chateau Lafite and the three other 'first
growth ' vineyards of the Chateaux Latour, Margaux,
and Haut-Brion.

Most of the chateaux have their names proudly
carved on arched gateways abutting on the high road.
Travelling north by motor from Bordeaux, through the
Commune of Margaux, into that of Saint Julien, one
reads many an inscription familiar enough in wine
merchants' lists. Chateau Beycheville recalls the
days of le Roi Soleil, for it belonged of old to the Due
d'Epernon, who, as Lord High Admiral of France,
claimed a salute from every vessel passing up or
down the Gironde, which salute was performed by

206 THE M^DOC

lowering topsails ; wherefore, it is said, the sailor- men
called it Chateau Baisse- voile ; but I am not to be held
as endorsing this dubious piece of etymology.

And so forward by Chateau Langoa, passing Latour
and Lafite, as we enter the commune of Pauillac, by
Mouton- Rothschild, Pichon - Longueville, Gruard-la-
Rose, the two Leovilles, into the district of Saint
Estephe, where a host of familiar names may be
noted — Cos-Labory, Cos d'Estournel, Pontet - Canet,
and so on.

If the grinding of corn is admitted to be, probably,
the oldest human industry, that of wine-making seems
entitled to the second place. To one standing in one
of the great steam flour-mills of Liverpool or Cardiff,
watching the multiple and complex machinery whereby
the raw wheat is converted into the finest flour, it may
occur to muse on the vast development of the industry
from the primitive method of triturating grain by
hand-rolling one stone upon another, as may still be
seen practised by the women of many savage nations.

On the other hand, the wine-press remains in all
essential features the same simple affair as the earliest
literature shows it to have been. A few mechanical
conveniences have been devised and adopted in some,
not all, of the vineyards of France — the dgrappoir, for
instance, which is a machine outwardly resembling a
turnip-slicer, and which, driven by hand, strips the
grapes from the stalks before they pass into the press.
Also, in the larger cuviers or wine-sheds the press
itself is now usually constructed so as to run upon
rails laid in the floor, and to discharge the precious

SEPTEMBER 207

juice direct into one or another of the great vats
below. Then delicate instruments have been invented
for testing the sweetness and strength of the ' must ' or
fermenting juice; but steam and electricity — agencies
which have transformed so many industries — bear no
part in the manufacture of claret or burgundy, wines
which remain, as they always have been, the pure, un-
mixed juice of the grape, chemically altered, indeed, by
fermentation, but owing none of their character to
added material, such as has to be used in making the
wines of Spain and Portugal. The grapes of the
Peninsula are so much sweeter than those of France
that fermentation must be checked at a certain stage
by the addition of spirit, which increases the strength
of the wine and makes it a compound instead of a
simple beverage.

One has to remain long enough in one of the great
wine-producing districts of France to understand the
magnitude of the industry and its importance to the
country before he can realise the disaster which over-
took one district after another, and many districts
simultaneously, in the visitation of the vine-louse.
One cannot pass through this scene of universal,
feverish industry — one cannot watch the rows of men
and women at work, waist-deep in thick foliage, the
great, patient dun oxen, ' strong to labour,' the carmine
stream flowing from the pressoir into the vat — without
remembering how all this fruitful toil was arrested
throughout the whole district for several years by one
of the most insignificant of living creatures.

It was about the year 1875 that the vine-louse,

208 THE M&DOC

Phylloxera vastatrix, first made its presence manifest
in the Medoc. This creature is not indigenous to the
Old World ; it is a native of North America, whence it
was imported among some American vines about the
middle of last century. It belongs to a family closely
akin to the Aphides and Chermes, but is destitute of the
apparatus for secreting honey- dew, which distinguishes
that race of parasites.

Like the Aphides, the Phylloxera assumes different
forms in a fixed cycle of generations. Winged females
appear in August and September, each of which lays
three or four eggs on the under surface of a vine leaf,
whence are hatched wingless males and females. Thus
far the vine-lice are harmless, for in these two genera-
tions they have no piercing or sucking organs. The
wingless female contents herself with laying a single
egg on the bark of the vine, and dies. The eggs do not
hatch till the following spring, when mischief begins in
earnest. The third generation, also wingless, descends
into the earth, pierces the roots of the plant, sucks its
juices, and propagates itself with such amazing fecundity
that, according to a writer in the Agricultural Gazette
for September 1887, the descendants of one of these
wingless females may number 62,500,000,000 at the
end of the third generation. And whereas there are
born five or six generations in a single summer, it may
be well said that their numbers defy calculation. These
minute pests (a full-grown female is only l-25th of an
inch long) make such a drain on the plant that its
roots become warped and wasted, the foliage withers,
and death follows sooner or later. It has been reckoned

SEPTEMBER 209

that the invasion of Phylloxera cost the people of
France in thirteen years — 1873 to 1885 — about
£400,000,000 sterling, just about twice as much as
the war indemnity exacted by the victorious Germans
in 1871.

How was the mischief stemmed ? How has it been
brought about that the Medoc, which was a blasted
wilderness five-and- twenty years ago, is now as fertile
as ever, and that when I drove for forty miles north
from Bordeaux last September (1906), it was through
one continuous vine-field, where the exquisite bloom
upon the bunches and the deep verdure of the vine
foliage betokened the highest culture and the utmost
vigour of growth ?

The answer is found in one of the romances of
natural history. Among many chemical materials
applied to destroy the swarming parasites, the most
effective was proved to be sulpho-carbonate of potas-
sium, with a solution of which the soil had to be
saturated. The cost of this remedy, however, was
prohibitive to all except the owners of such soil as
produced a very high quality of wine. Small culti-
vators, and those whose land produced wine command-
ing a price of only from £6 or £7 a hogshead, could
not afford to employ a remedy which the Bordeaux
conference of 1881 reckoned to cost £11, 4s. per acre
the first year, and £8 per acre the second year.

Deliverance came from the quarter whence it might

have been least expected. The grape-vine, whereof so

many varieties are cultivated in Europe, is not native

to any part of that continent, but is the development

o

aiO THE M^DOC

of a purely Asiatic species ; but North America owns
four native species of vine capable of producing wine.
It was among these that Phylloxera vastatrix was first
recognised in 1854, and it was through imported
American vines that this terrible scourge obtained a
foothold in Europe. The superior vigour of the
American species, and the fact that, although far from
immune from the Phylloxera, they sustained the
parasite without perceptible loss of vitality, suggested
their use as stocks whereon the more delicate European
varieties might be grafted. The experiment, though
costly, has proved completely successful. The old
favourite varieties in the claret districts — Cabernet-
Sauvignon, Malbec, and Merlot vines — unite kindly
with their transatlantic cousins, and now produce their
purple clusters as freely and as delicately flavoured as
of yore. The New World, which at one time seemed
to have ruined one of the principal industries of the
Old, has come gallantly to the rescue and atoned
for the injury inflicted by providing an effective
remedy.

Whether or not the foreign stock has affected the
French scion so as to alter the fine quality of the
wine is a question upon which experts are not yet
agreed. This much is pretty certain, that no claret
has been produced equal to that of 1875, the last year
before Phylloxera ravaged the Medoc.

SEPTEMBER 211

Among the meteorological notanda of the present
season (1907), the following is not the least A sunless
remarkable. On the night of September 3-4, summer
in a garden not more than thirty or forty feet above
the sea, and within three hundred yards of tide-mark,
situated on the south-west coast of Scotland and in
latitude south of Durham, the dahlia blooms were
blackened by frost. The district is a peculiarly mild
one; so much so that I have it noted of a previous
season that heliotropes were blooming in the open
border on December 4, and the earliest blossom of
snowdrop was gathered on the 19th.

The persistent rainfall of the summer we have just
shivered through, although destructive of garden
brilliancy in general, has acted as a strong stimulus
to certain flowering plants. Herbaceous spiraeas have
seldom been so fine or lasted so long; herbaceous
phloxes have attained a stature and brilliancy quite
unusual ; and roses of the Kambler type, whereof
Dorothy Perkins is the unchallenged queen, have
prolonged their blooming season to an extent never
before experienced. Even now, at the very end of
September, these roses are wreathed with blossom,
although usually considered as summer - flowering
varieties. Alstromerias, as a rule, have but one fault,
their lovely, lily-like blooms are so fleeting; but last
summer they endured for many weeks, although
natives of a land which we usually associate with
torrid suns and baked soil. But these, like many

212 A SUNLESS SUMMER

Chilian herbs and shrubs, take most kindly to our cool
loams and cloudy skies.

The latest importation of importance from Chile is
a forest tree, which Mr. H. J. Elwes, who collected the
seeds some years ago, describes as attaining a great
stature and being of commercial value. It is a beech
(Fagus obliqud), and has proved perfectly hardy, at
least on the west coast of Scotland, during the trying
winter of 1906-7.1 As a young tree, the growth is
most graceful, the foliage being smaller and more
delicate than that of the European beech, and the
young sprays being of an agreeable ruddy tint.
Whether the timber produced in this country will
prove equal in quality to that in the natural forests
of the Andes remains for a future generation to
decide; but at all events, this beech is a noteworthy
addition to our list of ornamental trees.

1 It has taken no harm in the two winters following, and is growing
strongly (July 1909).

LI

' THE structure and effect of the wing, in its relation to birds,
finds a parallel in that of the beak — this organ of
birds so wonderful in its variety. If we look at The Cau8e
a long list of birds, we are met with a variety of Birds
beaks that seem to resemble a collection of tools.
. . . Let us take as extremes the tiny beak of the little long-
tailed titmouse, which is smaller than a grain of rice, and
that of the spoonbill, which is large and spoon-shaped ;
between these two extremes we have the greatest variety of
forms and modifications, which may be characterised as
follows : — The bill of the chiff-chaff is almost as fine as a
needle, and is suitable for seizing the smallest and most
delicate insects ; on the other hand, the bill of the hawfinch
is so powerful that it breaks the hardest cherry-stone with
ease. The tip of the woodcock's bill is a borer, forming an
apparatus of touch, and when the bird bores into the ground,
the apparatus, like a man's finger, enables it to trace the
buried food, whereas the beaks of birds of prey are con-
structed for tearing flesh or dividing, and, consequently, are
hooked and hatchet-like.'

The above extract is taken, not, as might be sup-
posed it was, from a popular work on ornithology, but
at random from a treatise written by direction of the
Hungarian Minister for Agriculture, M. Igndcz de

213

214 THE CAUSE OF THE BIRDS

Daranyi, and published by the department over which
he presides. Literature of this kind is not usually
found in blue-books, and the Hungarian Parliament,
it may be thought, has tougher work before it than
dissertations on titmice and flycatchers; but M. de
Daranyi knows his business as Minister for Agriculture
in a country which, unlike our own, regards agriculture
as the premier industry, and he shows good case for
modifying the well-worn adage De minimis non curat
lex. ' Mony pickles maks a mickle,' runs the old Scots
saw. Insect-eating birds may be individually diminu-
tive, but compose in the aggregate a beneficent host
which, as it passes to and fro over Europe in the
seasonal migration, ought to be greeted with gratitude
and protected on its journey, instead of being
slaughtered in millions for the market as diligently as
if it consisted of destructive vermin.

M. de Daranyi's object in this interesting and re-
markable publication is (1) to give a synopsis of the
steps which have led to the signing of an international
convention whereby eleven European States — to wit,
Austria and Hungary, the German Empire, Belgium,
France, Spain, Greece, Luxembourg, Monaco, Portugal,
Sweden and Norway, and Switzerland — have bound
themselves under sixteen articles for the protection of
birds useful to agriculture ; (2) to call attention to the
infinite service rendered to agriculture by numerous
species of birds ; and (3) to show how fruitless would
be independent action taken by individual States in
dealing with a class of creatures so mobile and regu-
larly migratory as birds.

OCTOBER 215

The movement, a strictly practical one, not to be
attributed to any sentimental or humanitarian im-
pulse, took its rise in 1868 among German farmers
and foresters, who, perceiving the enormous increase
of injurious insects coinciding with a sensible decrease
in the number of birds, petitioned for international
action to stop the mischief. It took a long time to
persuade most of the foreign Governments that they
had any common interest to serve by concerted action,
but facts proved convincing in the end ; crops suffered
more and more from insect pests in proportion as the
birds which should keep these in check were perse-
cuted. At last, in 1895, there assembled at Paris, on
the invitation of the French Government, representa-
tives of seventeen European States to consider pro-
posals for international co-operation in the protection
of useful birds. Mr. Howard Saunders, Mr. Dundas-
Harford, of the British Embassy in Paris, and myself
were appointed to represent her late Majesty's Govern-
ment. A protocol was drawn up and agreed to by
the delegates of all the States represented, except Italy,
the same to be submitted for the approval of their
respective Governments, and that protocol contained
practically the provisions of the Convention, which was
finally ratified in 1902.

From that Convention the Governments of Great
Britain, Holland, and Russia withdrew, although its
policy and provisions received the support of their
representatives at the Paris Conference. The chief
reason for Great Britain so holding aloof was that her
Parliament, by various Wild Birds' Preservation Acts,

216 THE CAUSE OF THE BIRDS

had already carried into effect most of the measures
which the other States were binding themselves to do.
Moreover, wild birds, at least singing birds, are not
persecuted for food in the British Islands as they are
in many European countries, and ample powers have
been put into the hands of County Councils to check
the ravages of professional bird-catchers.

Nevertheless it is to be regretted that Great Britain
should appear to desert the cause of bird protection
by declining to subscribe to the International Con-
vention. There is, indeed, crying and growing need
for a remedy against the evil of wholesale netting at
night, which has already practically exterminated ruffs
and reeves on [our coasts, and is now working sad
destruction in the flocks of that most useful bird, the
lapwing. We require the prohibition, to which the
subscribing States have bound themselves under
Article III. of the Convention, viz. : —

'The construction and employment of traps, cages, nets,
nooses, lime-twigs, or any other kind of instrument used for
the purpose of rendering easy the wholesale capture or
destruction of birds, shall be forbidden.'

Discrimination between useful and hurtful, pro-
tected and unprotected, birds is impossible in using
long and high nets set up on poles after dark on the
shore and mudflats for the capture of wild-fowl. The
use of these is extending in this country, and will
soon render many desirable species scarce which are
still plentiful.

The Italian Government announced at the Paris

OCTOBER 217

conference their inability to enforce any restrictions
upon bird traffic in their dominion. The abstention of
Italy is a far more serious misfortune than that of
Great Britain, for not only is Italy a main point
d'appui in the seasonal migration, but her whole
population, unlike the people of this country, rely on
birds of passage as a food supply, and keep a keen
look out for their appearance. Hence, although the
Italian Government was, and is, alive to the magnitude
of the evil, and is willing enough to co-operate in
remedying it if that were possible, they have been
obliged to confess their helplessness, owing to the in-
grained habits of their people.

The nets used in Italy are on the principle of a
fisherman's trammel. Decoy birds, blinded with red-
hot wires, are used habitually, and the nets often
measure a kilometre in length.

'The largest kind . . . may be found in the district
between Lago Maggiore and Lago di Lugano, and covers an
area of 1 to 1£ square kilometre. Tall reversible poles tower
towards heaven; on these, in small cages, are the blinded
decoy birds which are to entice their feathered relatives
from a height. Among the poor blinded creatures were
goldfinches, linnets, greenfinches, redbreasts, occasionally the
rare ortolan also, accentors, sparrows, and thrushes. Al-
though it was late autumn already, one cast of the roccolo
(a sham hawk) took 100 goldfinches, then another 100
thrushes and 50 or 60 chaffinches; then 17 accentors and
21 willow wrens. An ordinary morning's taking was 500
birds ; but in September the ordinary bag was up to 2000 —
on one day no less than 800 redbreasts.'

These birds were not reared in Italy; they were

218 CORD-GRASS

coming from the north of Europe, many of them from
the British Isles, on their journey to sunnier climes.
It is not in Italy alone that this dire destruction is
being wrought. The Balkan States are not included
in the Convention, and facilities of transport have
encouraged professional bird-catchers to station them-
selves all along the lower Danube and on the African
coast, whence they consign tons of small birds to the
great consuming centres. In October 1890, 8829
quintals (423,800 birds) of fly-catchers, warblers, pipits,
and titmice were enumerated in passing the frontier
at Brescia. Near Montegrado, 14,000 swallows were
taken in three days, and the take at Crao in a single
season was reckoned at three million swallows.

To another category belong the 400,000 pairs of larks'
wings supplied from Finland to a single fashion shop
in Paris.

Under the Convention the contracting States under-
take to legislate for the complete stoppage of this
kind of traffic. Let us hope that the necessary laws
may be speedily passed and stringently enforced.

LII

The Kew Bulletin (No. 5, 1907) contains a paper of
much interest, not only in its general bearing,
upon coast erosion, upon which a Royal Com-
mission is now sitting, but as concerning all those who
own land upon muddy estuaries. The subject of the
paper is the cord-grass (Spartina stricta) which appears
to have made its way to this country from the Atlantic

OCTOBER 219

coast of North America and to have established itself
abundantly in the Hampshire estuaries with beneficial
results. These results may be set to the credit of our
transatlantic cousins to balance the mischief arising
from their loan to us of the Canadian pond weed
(Elodea canadensis). The traditional origin and local
effects of cord-grass, which the Hampshire folk call
rice-grass, were described as follows by Lord Montagu
of Beaulieu in his evidence before the Royal Com-
mission : —

' The mudbanks on my property have recently been in-
creasing very rapidly. The accretion is due to a somewhat
extraordinary fact. Some years ago a ship came up South-
ampton Water from the River Plate with a quantity of
rice-grass on board. The seeds of this grass became dis-
tributed about the shores of Southampton Water, with the
result that the whole of that estuary is now covered with this
grass. It is a plant which grows very rapidly and spreads in
circles, and now the twenty miles from Hurst Castle to South-
ampton are covered with this grass, as are the mudbanks
on my foreshore. The stiff and sharp points catch the sea-
weed which comes over it, causing the bank to increase
rapidly in height.'

In a discussion following a lecture on the protection
of seashores from erosion, delivered by Mr. A. E. Carey
before the Society of Arts, Lord Montagu stated that
no cord-grass existed on the mud-flats of Solent ten
years ago (although it has been known for at least a
hundred years on both banks of the Itchen between
Itchen village and Northam Bridge), and he estimated
the area now covered and protected by this plant at
from 6000 to 8000 acres. There are two varieties of

220 CORD-GKASS

cord-grass, which some botanists distinguish as species.
Both of these are found on the Hampshire coast, the
kind known as Spartina alterniflora being the most
luxuriant. Birds of many kinds delight in the seeds ;
despite its rank and disagreeable smell, cattle eat it
greedily, and, so long ago as 1836, Dr. Bromfield stated
that "it is regularly mown at the end of September,
at which time large quantities may be seen lying on
the shore to dry, previous to carting. Hardly a single
accessible patch, either on the upper or the lower
station, is suffered to remain uncut, so that it is a plant
of real economical utility.'1 Bromfield quotes the
tradition of the grass having been brought over in a
ship's cargo, but this is a common way of accounting
for the local occurrence of exotic plants. The presence
of a colony of caraway (Carum carvi) on the west
coast of Scotland was explained to me many years ago
as the result of a shipwreck, but this plant occurs in
many parts of the British Isles, having been cultivated
from very early times for its aromatic seeds. If it be
not truly indigenous, it has become thoroughly
naturalised. Inasmuch as this cord-grass is found
growing in various detached places on the coasts both
of the North Sea and the Mediterranean, its transport
to Europe from America may be attributed with pro-
bability to the action of wind and wave. Now that we
have got it, it is our own fault if we do not make use
of its land-forming properties.

1 Companion to the Botanical Magazine, i. 254.

OCTOBER 221

LIII

Nature never designed a more successful form of

life than the Rodents or Gnawing Animals.

,.,.., 5 . Rabbits

which include a greater number of species

than any other order of mammals, and are found in-
digenous to all parts of the world from Ultima Thule
to Madagascar and Australasia. At first sight it might
appear that the distinctive feature of these creatures —
the pair of curving incisors or front teeth in each jaw,
constantly growing and requiring to be as constantly
ground down by gnawing — would be a hindrance rather
than a help in the struggle for existence. The majority
of men have imposed upon themselves the task of daily
shaving, but the only inconvenience arising from one
who suspends or neglects that operation is shrill remon-
strance from his feminine acquaintance — women being
the most conservative of created beings. But if a rat
or a rabbit were to spend a day or two without gnawing,
its irrepressible front teeth would grow to an un-
manageable length, so that it could not use them when
it would, and must die of starvation.

What, then, does a rodent do when there is nothing
to gnaw ? We are told in Leviticus xi. that ' the hare,
because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the
hoof, he is unclean unto you ' ; and most outdoor folk
will assure you that hares do chew the cud. But Mr.
J. G. Millais, that most patient and scrupulous of field
naturalists, having devoted careful observation to this
question, has come to the conclusion that the hare
neither does nor can chew the cud, and that the

222 RABBITS

munching action which has been mistaken for that
process is merely grinding the teeth to keep them
from growing too long.

There can be no doubt that, were the whole race of
rodents expunged from animated nature, human in-
terests would be greatly benefited. The flesh of hares
is succulent, and they afford pretty sport, despite
Mr. Jorrocks's depreciatory remarks about coursing;
rabbits are well enough in a pie, and shooting them
has a peculiar zest derived from the knowledge that
every rabbit killed is so much service done to the
farmer and the forester. But when all that has been
reckoned, what remains to the credit of rodents ? A
few pretty squirrel skins and other small furs, against
which must be set the devastation wrought by rats,
mice, voles, lemmings, etc.

Consider what is probably the annual cost of even a
moderate stock of rabbits on an estate. Attention has
been drawn at last — better late than never — to the
condition of British woodlands and the deplorable
neglect of our forest resources. Landowners are begin-
ning seriously to consider planting as a source of
revenue, and to calculate the possible return upon
capital sunk in that operation. In hardly any district
can protection against rabbits be dispensed with, and to
provide wire netting for that purpose is a considerable
addition to the initial cost of planting, for it cannot be
done for less than 6d. a running yard. To enclose a
single acre in a rectangle takes 280 yards of four foot wire
netting, and costs £7 — from 100 to 150 per cent, on the
cost of planting. Of course the cost is proportionately

OCTOBER 223

diminished if a considerable area be enclosed in a
rectangle; but even so it adds very seriously to the
outlay. Thus if a rectangular area of 64 acres is to be
planted, it will take 2240 yards of wire netting to
protect it, costing £56, or an extra charge of 17s. 6d.
per acre.

It may be said that it would pay the proprietor
better to destroy all the rabbits on his ground. Doubt-
less it would, but how shall he protect himself from
invasion off adjoining lands ? Rabbits have fine powers
of locomotion, travelling far in search of food and
comfortable quarters. You may destroy every rabbit in
your woods ; it only requires the arrival of two or three
courting pairs to drop in from your neighbour's ground,
to ensure you a full stock in eighteen months. For the
fecundity of rabbits is prodigious. A strong doe will
produce five or six litters of six or eight each in a single
season, and her daughters set about making her a
grandmother when they are six months old. Moreover,
you cannot reckon upon your tenants joining you in a
crusade of extermination. The very farmers whose
bitter and just complaint brought about the Ground
Game Act of 1880, now often looks with a jealous eye
upon their landlord if he exercises more than his equal
share in the joint right of killing rabbits ; so there is less
chance than ever of a successful co-operative effort to
exterminate these pests, and to confine them to their
proper place — the enclosed warren.

The provoking part of the business is that man him-
self is responsible for the mischief. Rabbits are not
indigenous either in the British Isles or in the greater

224 BABBITS

part of Europe. The Spanish peninsula is their reputed
ancestral home, though there is a good deal of doubt in
this matter. In Scotland they existed in but few
places a hundred years ago, and lairds were foolish
enough to transplant them to their 'policies' as a
desirable acquisition. And as if matters were not bad
enough at home, we must needs inoculate our colonies
in the southern hemisphere with the plague. Nature,
who had confined the Leporidce or .JIare family to
the Palaearctic and Nearctic regions of the globe
(except a single species Lepus braziliensis found in
South America) has avenged this infringement of her
dispositions with widespread calamity. Thousands of
fertile acres have been converted into desert by the
swarming hordes. Messrs. Robertson of Colac, Victoria,
claim to have cleared their own ground at a cost of
£20,000 by employing Scots trappers and building up
the burrows with bricks and mortar. Other people
imported foxes, ferrets, cats, stoats, and other foes of
the rabbits ; but bunny still nourishes, though much of
the interesting native fauna has disappeared. The very
dogs soon became indifferent, ceasing to pay any
attention to animals which their inordinate numbers
divested of all sporting interest.

Mr. W. Rodier succeeded in ridding his land in New
South Wales of rabbits by a remarkable device. He
observed that whenever buck rabbits exceed the does
in number, they kill all the young ones, apparently to
prevent a new generation of rival suitors coming on
the scene. Then they persecute the does to such an
extent with their marital attentions that these cease

OCTOBER 225

to breed and finally die ' out ; the bucks themselves
finally dying in the natural course of things. Mr.
Rodier, therefore, about twenty years ago, enclosed the
whole of his land with wire-netting, caught alive all the
rabbits he could, killing the does and setting the bucks
at liberty. The rabbits killed themselves out. 'He
can now ride over the whole of his run and hardly see
a rabbit, while his neighbours' lands are still swarming
with them.' In the Field, January 15, 1903, was
given a photograph showing the luxuriant growth
within Mr. Rodier's enclosure, and the desolated country
outside. This plan may be commended to the Office
of Woods in relation to their newly acquired estate
in Argyllshire, where it is intended to start scientific
State forestry.

Within the proper limits of a warren, rabbits are
desirable enough. The highest practical authority on
the management of warrens is Mr. Lloyd Price of
Rhiwlas. On a single day, in 1885, he and his party
shot 5086 rabbits; but that bag was exceeded at
Blenheim a few years later, when the almost incredible
number of 7000 were slain. Two points in manage-
ment seem to be essential to the healthiness of the
stock in a warren ; first, clean, dry food, which may be
secured by placing hay in low racks instead of laying
it to be trampled and fouled on the ground ; second, to
kill off nearly all the stock before Christmas, intro-
ducing fresh breeders after the ground has had a couple
of months' rest. Turnips should never be given as food,
for they cause the animals to die of dysentery.

Naturally a timid, even a craven, animal, there are
p

226 TOADS

moments when the rabbit exhibits remarkable courage,
especially in defence of its young. One of its chief
enemies is a fellow-rodent, the grey rat, which devours
little rabbits in the nest during the absence of the
mother-doe. But let the assassin beware of being caught
in the act, for a full-grown rabbit is more than a match
for a rat. I once saw a large rat as hotly pursued by
a wild rabbit (presumably a doe) as ever hare was by
greyhound. The rat was squealing with terror; the
rabbit caught him within three yards of my feet,
planted her sharp incisors in his back, and shook him
like a terrier. Finally, the rat escaped, badly mauled,
and limped away to the shelter of a rhododendron hard
by, while the rabbit hopped away home to give the
youngsters their supper.

LIV

A correspondent in the Midlands wrote to me lately
(1907) inquiring whether it was a usual thing
to find hibernating toads with their mouths
hermetically sealed. Three, said he, had been dug
up in his garden lately in that condition, their lips
being so firmly closed that nothing less effective than
an oyster knife would prevail to open them. Not
having observed this phenomenon myself, I forwarded
the letter to our highest authority on reptilian and
batrachian life. He replied that he was perfectly
familiar — not with the phenomenon, indeed, but with
letters and statements from persons claiming to have
observed it. The mistake, he explains, arises from a

OCTOBER 227

want of knowledge as to the exact position of a toad's
mouth, and he undertakes to open the mouth of any
toad at any time of the year ; not with an oyster knife
or any other lethal weapon, but simply by inserting his
finger nail.

The belief that the lips of a toad grow together in winter
probably will die as hard, if ever it dies, as the fable of
toads, hermetically immured in solid rock since the
carboniferous age, crawling away with all their faculties,
physical and mental, in a state of perfect efficiency so
soon as they are released by the quarryman's hammer.
One who realises what is involved in such a resurrec-
tion has to put restraint upon himself when, as happened
to myself not very long ago, an educated person claim-
ing to have acquaintance with natural history, solemnly
assures him that he has actually seen a block of sand-
stone split, and that within the block was a full-grown
living toad. On the occasion referred to, I kept silence.
Two or three other men were present ; the narrator had
not the least intention to deceive or exaggerate ; it was
not consistent with the laws of hospitality to declare that
to be impossible which a fellow-guest stated he had seen
with his own eyes ; and so the innocent falsehood was
propagated. Innocent as much in effect as in intent ;
because nobody with any acquaintance with biology
and physiology could possibly be misled by it, and to
those able to digest it no greater harm can come than
befell our forefathers from the belief that wild geese
were hatched from barnacles. That belief died pretty
hard; but dead it is, whereas the toad fable seems
destined to immortality.

228 TOADS

Its origin is not difficult to discern. Toads hibernate
regularly ; at the first hint of autumn frost they creep
into convenient holes and crannies, and doze away the
months till daffodils begin to peer, wasting little tissue
because they take no exercise, don't worry their brains
with perplexing problems, and have no cause for appre-
hension from the Chancellor of the Exchequer's next
budget. Sometimes they fall down coal mines, and
survive the shock. Finding subsistence there precarious,
consisting of such insects that may have been similarly
entrapped, they may economise tissue by premature
hibernation, and when one is discovered ensconced in a
block of coal, the old story is revived — the reptile is
hailed in newspaper paragraphs as a survival from the
age of the coal measures.

Frank Buckland honoured the myth by putting it
to practical, if somewhat heartless, test. Taking two
large blocks of stone, one of porous limestone, the
other of impervious sandstone, he caused twelve deep
holes to be bored in each, and in every hole he placed
a healthy toad, closing the holes hermetically with
glass, and then burying the blocks deep in the earth.
After the lapse of a year and two weeks the blocks
were exhumed. The toads in the air-proof sandstone
were all dead and decayed; so were two or three of
those in the porous limestone; but the majority of
these last were alive, with their eyes open. Strong
must have been the temptation to release them and
give them a restorative breakfast of creeping things ;
but science is very remorseless when in quest of
truth. Buckland buried them again. At the end of

OCTOBER 229

eighteen months of imprisonment all had died of
starvation.

Toads have suffered much from man in the past,
owing to the unjust inference that such an ugly,
crepuscular creature must be noxious. It is quite
true that, like many of the Amphibia, they possess a
protective poison, but they are quite incapable of
spitting it at a supposed enemy. A powerful venom
is contained in the warts on the upper parts of the
body, each of which has an open poison gland, whence
a milky secretion exudes when the animal is crushed
or wounded. This poison has no ill-effect upon toads
of the same species ; but Mr. Hans Gadow has found
that individuals of different species of the same genus,
if brought into forcible contact, as in a collector's bag,
may cause each other's death. Gardeners have learnt
to encourage the presence of toads in their borders,
knowing their diligence in consuming slugs, earwigs,
wood-lice, and other undesirable colonists. Nor need
the gardener fear injury to his children, provided the
children do not torment the toad. But let them be
warned against the custom, which once prevailed in
some country districts, of mutilating toads or putting
them to a painful death, for such cruelty may entail a
fitting punishment by causing a copious discharge
from the poison glands and severe suffering to the
tyrant.

The poison of Amphibia is of a peculiar nature ; that
of the common toad being held by some authorities
to be an acid and by others an alkaloid. It is ex-
plained as acting upon the heart through the nervous

230 TOADS

system. Few unprofessional persons, I fancy, would
care to emulate the intrepidity of the late Miss
Ormerod, who, desiring to verify or disprove the tradi-
tionary poison of amphibians, bit the back and tail of
a lively specimen of Triton cristatus, the gaily-coloured
crested newt of British horseponds. Proof was so con-
vincing as to have no need for further experiment.
The first effect was a bitter astringent feeling in the
mouth, with irritation of the upper part of the throat,
numbing of the teeth more immediately holding the
animal, and in about a minute from the first touch of
the newt, a strong flow of saliva. This was accom-
panied by much foam and violent spasmodic action,
approaching convulsions, but entirely confined to the
mouth itself. The experiment was immediately
followed by headache lasting for some hours, general
discomfort of the system, and half an hour after by
slight shivering fits.

As a protective agent the poison of amphibians
operates only hi the interest of the race, not like the
spines of a hedgehog or the battery of electric flashes
in that of the individual. ' A dog/ says Mr. Gadow,
' that has once been induced to bite a toad suffers so
severely that it will not easily repeat the experiment ' ;
and it may be supposed that an aversion to toads may
be hereditarily transmitted through generations of
dogs. Certainly it is difficult to account otherwise
than by heredity for one's own shrinking from certain
reptiles. Not one civilised man in a million has been
bitten by a snake, yet the warning hiss takes immediate
effect upon everybody. Whenever I meet a toad

OCTOBER 231

within easy reach of the garden, I transport him
thither; yet, knowing as I do that the creature is
absolutely powerless to direct the contents of its poison
glands against me, I cannot overcome an unreasonable
repugnance to handling it.

The race of toads certainly requires some special
provision for defence, seeing how destitute of armour
they are at all stages of existence. Nature gives our
native Bufo a good start by endowing Mother Toad
with prodigious fecundity, enabling her to lay from
2000 to 7000 eggs at a birth. Nobody knows what
becomes of the hordes of toadlings which, having
passed from the tadpole stage in about the twelfth
week after the eggs were laid, leave the water and
escape into the herbage. It takes them five years to
attain maturity, but only an infinitesimal fraction can
do so. What becomes of the rest, and what is the
cause of mortality? The grass snake is the only
vertebrate creature known to be capable of digesting
a toad, and grass snakes are rare in Britain.
So are toads, relatively to the multitudes hatched
annually.

Of the afflictions to which adult toads are subject
a heartrending synopsis is given in the Cambridge
Natural History (vol. viii. p. 176). The Kussian ento-
mologist Portschinsky has elucidated much. Not only
British, but Australian and other foreign toads are
persecuted by certain loathsome species of flies, which
lay their eggs in the nostrils of their victim, whence
the maggots eat their way into the brain, causing
locomotor ataxy and ultimate death. Some of these

232 THE GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER

maggots lose their way and enter the eyes of the
toad, but die in those unsuitable quarters, not, how-
ever, before destroying, or greatly impairing the sight
of their luckless host.

It is not to Nature that we must turn for lessons of
loving-kindness and altruism. Each for himself is
the dominant rule in her code.

LV

Readers must have wearied ere now of my persistent

The Great nowls over tne senseless slaughter of rare

spotted and beautiful birds ; but the attention of the

Woodpecker pubHc ^ hard ^ gam To make oneself

heard amid the complaints about matinee hats and
the motor nuisance, one must howl loud and long.
For the present I refrain from making my special
grievance prominent by interrupting the platform
eloquence of Cabinet Ministers. The success of that
method is not yet apparent ; should it become so, one
may be driven to adopt it in default of a better.
What distresses one is that no editor will print those
expressions which flow most readily from my pen in
regard to perpetrators of the misdeeds whereof I
complain ; so I am constrained to bottle my wrath
(which is very bad for anybody with gouty tendencies),
and, stating the bare facts, leave the verdict upon them
to a large-minded public.

The latest offence (October 1908) against the law of
hospitality has occurred in a certain strath in central
Scotland, which shall be nameless. It consisted in the

'OCTOBER 233

assassination of a great spotted or pied woodpecker ;
and if anything were wanting to darken the tragedy,
it is supplied in the terms in which the local news-
paper exults over the victim as ' a distinct novelty to
the district, as they are very seldom seen in the
strath.'

A distinct novelty ! Then why not encourage it to
remain ? instead of which it is floored with as much
eagerness as if it were a Bengal tiger harboured in the
woods, and set up in caricature of its brightness and
grace by the local bird-stuffer.

What makes this incident peculiarly distressing to
true naturalists is that the great spotted woodpecker
is beginning to reoccupy those haunts in Scotland
which it frequented before the disappearance of the
forests. It is believed to have become actually extinct
previous to 1850, but is now thoroughly re-established
as a breeding species in central, southern, and eastern
Scotland. The question has arisen among ornitholo-
gists whence did these Scottish colonists come ? Have
they spread gradually northwards from England, or is
it possible that they are a fresh and independent
immigration from northern Europe? At first sight
the English origin of these birds would seem most
probable, for none of the woodpeckers are constructed
for sustained flight, their pectoral muscles being very
shallow, so as to enable them to cling closely to vertical
surfaces. In this country one never sees them do
much more than flit from tree to tree. But in the
October number of the Annals of Scottish Natural
History Mr. William Evans adduces evidence in

234 THE GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER

favour of the Scandinavian origin of some, at least,
of the Scottish pied woodpeckers. The birds of
northern Europe differ considerably in various dimen-
sions from the English type. They have longer wings
and shorter, stouter bills than the English birds,
and there is a slight difference in coloration. Mr.
Evans has examined three pied woodpeckers in
breeding plumage recently killed in the south-east of
Scotland, and refers them all to the English race;
but a fourth, killed in December 1907, near Dunbar,
has been pronounced by Dr. Hartert to be a 'most
typical Swedish bird.' So also are two specimens
in the Perth Museum.

We appear, therefore, to have two distinct lines of
immigration ; one a short and simple one, across the
Cheviots, the other a long and hazardous one, across
the German Ocean. It is to be hoped that the
matter may be allowed to rest there. Most of us don't
care a hayseed whence woodpeckers come to us, so
long as they do come; and it would be intolerable
if, to determine a point of less than secondary impor-
tance, more breeding woodpeckers should be done to
death, as was the case in 1903, near Haddington, where
a pair were shot at their nest, which contained four
well-fledged young.

Those who have not examined an adult pied wood-
pecker closely can have little idea what a gay livery
he wears. Black and white, laid on with a bold brush,
are the dominant hues on the upper parts, but the
breast is buff, the back of the head and the feathers
about the vent are scarlet, and so are the irides.

OCTOBER 235

There is a strange peculiarity about the plumage of
nestlings. Like their cousins the kingfishers, and
unlike the young of nearly all other genera of birds,
their childish attire is as bright as that of their
parents. Nay, brighter, for both sexes, during the
first four or five months of existence wear gay
scarlet caps set on the forepart of the head. At five
months or so the feathers of this cap become dis-
coloured, turning quite black eventually, not by a
moult, but by the eclipse of the brilliant colour by
the sombre. Next, at the back of the male bird's
head, sparks of scarlet begin to appear, broadening
gradually into a transverse band, and this he wears
through life as one of his chief adornments. But on
the head of the hen-bird the fire once extinguished is
never rekindled. She has to go about her business
in a plain black cap bordered with white. As to the
purpose or significance of this freak of coloration it
would be difficult to offer any suggestion.

The lesser spotted or barred woodpecker is even
more showily attired than his greater congener, the
wing coverts and scapulars being conspicuously
barred with black and white. The cock bird wears a
jaunty scarlet cap, but the hen's head-dress is plain
white trimmed with black. I have only once seen this
bird north of the Tweed. A male in fine plumage was
captured and brought to me in a closed basket. It
anticipated release at my hands by pecking a neat
round hole through the side of the basket, through
which it escaped and was seen no more. The barred
woodpecker may inhabit a wood for a long time

236 THE GREAT SPOTTED WOODPECKER

without being detected, for it keeps habitually among
the upper branches and tree tops. All the three
British species of woodpecker are highly desirable,
and their presence with us should be encouraged in
all possible ways. The damage which they are
accused of doing to growing timber is infinitesimal,
and they are death to pine beetles and other injurious
creatures.

LVI

A MISGUIDED thrush was vociferating outside when I
was shaving this morning (November 1, 1908), A mild
endeavouring, I suppose, to persuade some A»funn
credulous female that the time had arrived, not for
anxious provision against approaching rigours, but for
the manufacture of those sky-blue eggs which reflect
the only rays of bright colour at any stage of the
existence of this subfusc species. One can hardly be
surprised at this bird blundering about the calendar,
so warm and spring-like has the weather been ever
since Michaelmas, so still the atmosphere and so
brilliant the sunshine. Only on the night of October
25 has the mercury fallen to freezing-point, and to-
day we have been gathering mushrooms, fresh and
succulent, from the green ' heughs ' bordering on Luce
Bay.

The autumnal leaf change came very late this season,
but its splendour is enduring longer, by reason that
the prevailing anticyclone has warded off the assault
of Atlantic storms. If there is one tree more beautiful
than another just now, it is the Himalayan Cotoneaster
frigidus. Most of the genus are mere shrubs, but this

238 A MILD AUTUMN

one attains the stature of a small tree, possibly of a
big one, for I speak with experience of nothing more
than forty years old, and there are several here be-
tween thirty and forty feet high. It is semi-evergreen,
but its glory consists in its fruit, with masses of which
at the present time its branches are weighed down.
It is neither scarlet, like holly berries, nor crimson,
like haws, but an intermediate vermilion, making a
perfect contrast with the foliage, which is of the flat,
opaque tint represented by the pigment known to
painters as terra verte. The berries are very bitter,
and are scrupulously avoided by birds until they are
driven by famine to consume them. Many of our
high roads might be redeemed from monotony by
planting this tree along the waysides, for it stands
wind exposure well, casts no great shadow to collect
damp, and, besides its berries, bears pretty corymbs of
white flowers in June. Set alternately with laburnums,
trees of much the same stature, the effect is very
charming.

Talking of laburnums, they are behaving as irra-
tionally this autumn as the thrush aforesaid. Many
young trees in the woods here are quite thickly hung
with golden tresses, to the detriment, I expect, of
the display next Whitsuntide ; for no tree can afford
to burn the candle at both ends.

Quite the most brilliant shrub just now is an
American beauty, Vaccinium corymbosum, which I
obtained some years ago from Messrs. Veitch's Combe
Wood nursery. Curiously enough, it was not its
autumnal brilliance which first attracted me, for it was

NOVEMBER 239

in the month of June that I beheld it, a mass of
myrtle green thickly covered with hanging clusters of
pink bells. I thought it one of the loveliest things I
had ever seen, never imagining that it was destined
to eclipse with its intense fiery glow every other wood-
land flame. Moreover it has the merit of prolonged
display, for no sooner is the blossom past in July than
the young growths begin to kindle, and the fire spreads
stealthily along the branches until it culminates in a
conflagration which must be seen to be believed. This
bush appears to be known to very few amateurs ; but
it is one to be sought after by the very elect. It
takes the place in our humid atmosphere of Nandina
domestica, which, although quite hardy, never in Eng-
land, except on the sunniest parts of the south coast,
flames out in the splendid way it does in southern
France and along the Mediterranean.

The Japanese plantain lily, Funkia ovata and sub-
cordata, are gorgeous beside woodland paths just now,
their great leaves having turned to the clearest,
brightest yellow, fully atoning for the rather dull tint
of their lilac flowers in July. This plant has the merit
of being unpalatable to rabbits.

LVII

George Bentham, nephew of the great jurisconsult,
earned the gratitude of generations unborn Autumnal
by compiling his invaluable Handbook to Bowers
the British Flora; but one is sometimes tempted to

240 AUTUMNAL FLOWERS

mild indignation by the dry, unemotional phrases in
which he describes the loveliest flowers, as if

' A primrose by the river's brim
Dicotyledon were to him,
And nothing more.'

No doubt he was right, for he who once begins to
gush over the beauty of flowers soon becomes an in-
tolerable bore. Still there seems to be something
short of completeness in describing the primrose merely
as having ' a corolla usually yellow or straw coloured ' ;
the harebell as having ' a few elegantly drooping blue
flowers,' and the sweetbriar as having ' flowers pink,
usually solitary.' However, even Bentham betrayed a
tinge of enthusiasm, in writing of the Heath family,
' which,' says he, ' comprises perhaps more ornamental
plants than any other order.' We have come to the
dullest time in all the outdoor gardener's calendar —
duller than it need be because of the fashion which
concentrates effort upon summer and autumn display.
But in the west country at least, from Ross-shire to
Cornwall, there need be no break in the succession of
flowers, except there happen an early and severe frost,
such as befell in the Novembers of 1905 and 1906. In
the present season (1908) we have escaped any such
affliction, and there is enough gay colour in border
and shrubbery to tempt one along swimming paths and
sloppy turf to enjoy it.

In mild districts there is no month in the year
during which some member of the Heath family may
not be had hi full flower in the open air. The Cornish

NOVEMBER 241

heath (Erica vagans) flowered abundantly till the end
of October, when its cousin, the arbutus or strawberry
tree, took up the running; and yesterday, November
26, I stood beside another member of the family,
Rhododendron nobleanum, fourteen feet high, bursting
into carmine blossom strangely in contrast with the
sober surroundings of early winter. This beautiful
shrub, a hybrid raised many years ago between the
Himalayan R. arboreum and R. caucasicum, seizes
every favourable opportunity for flowering. In cold
districts it does not often get a chance before February
or March; but near the sea it is already gay with
flowers. A night of sharp frost will destroy the ex-
panded blooms, but there are plenty more in waiting
for the next mild spell. The flower-bud of a rhododen-
dron is well worth examining as a sample of scientific
packing. The long leafy bracts are so beautifully
arranged, each with an embryo flower in its embrace,
and they lie so close, that both air and wet are
effectively excluded by a strong, resinous cement, and
the severest frost can make no impression upon the
floral treasure within.

The arbutus, on the other hand, boldly hangs out its
tassels of waxy white bells without any protection,
quite regardless of the prevailing temperature. More-
over, it carries its showy fruit, toothsome-looking globes
of orange-red, at the same time, which, together with
its evergreen foliage of fine myrtle green, make up a
combination which has no rival among British shrubs.
Botanists are a serious race, nor can they be gifted as
a class with a very quick sense of humour, else they
Q

242 AUTUMNAL FLOWERS

would show a nicer discrimination in their use of
polysyllables; but Linnaeus must have been in a
waggish mood when he named the strawberry trees
Arbutus unedo, that is, unum edo, I eat one — and no
more, thank you ! Many a child has proved the fitness
of that appellation by the grimace which follows the
experiment of tasting one of these berries of delicious
appearance. Nature, it may be presumed, in her
supreme solicitude for the perpetuation of every species,
gives certain fruits an attractive exterior so that
animals may be tempted to take them, and so distri-
bute the enclosed seeds in likely places ; but so long as
her object is attained, she seems pretty indifferent
to what benefit her ministers may derive from their
function. The pulp of a gooseberry or a strawberry
is sweet and palatable; the biped, feathered or un-
feathered, who gathers such berries is made welcome
to tickle his palate with the contents ; but that is not
Nature's prime purpose. She wants the seeds to be
scattered far and wide, a result which, in the case of the
arbutus, is attained almost as surely by tempting
children to gather the pretty berries, which they are
sure to throw away so soon as they have tasted one.

To a very different natural order belongs another
shrub, invaluable at this season, one of the Loganiacece
or Strychnine family. It has no English name, worse
luck, and has to answer to that of Desfontainea
spinosa. When out of flower most people take it for
a holly, an illusion which is sharply dispelled when,
in July and August, it clothes itself with brilliant
scarlet and yellow tubular flowers. Like so many

NOVEMBER 243

Chilian plants, it simply revels in the moist climate
of western Britain. It is evergreen, and has the
delightful faculty of putting forth a second bloom in
late autumn. There is a plant of this species within
view of the window as I write which has endured the
rigours of five-and-twenty Scottish winters, and carries
at this moment over one hundred expanded blossoms.

One other shrub let me warmly commend to amateurs
with sheltered gardens near the sea. It is a variety of
the common Hydrangea hortensia,1 known as Mariesii,
and outlasts all other species or varieties in duration of
bloom. It is loaded now, as it has been since August,
with great corymbs of bright rose. Gardening books
will tell you not to attempt to grow Hydrangeas out
of doors north of the Thames valley. Pay no attention
whatever to the warning if you live within influence of
the sea. A milestone near here on the old coach road
marks 397 miles to London, and this hydrangea is now
as I describe.

Among plants of humbler growth the Kaffir lily
(Schizostylus coccinea) sends up its vermilion spikes
till the first hard frost lays it low. It is particularly
fine this autumn (1908). A spring flower in its native
South Africa, it has never accommodated itself, as
most plants from the southern hemisphere do, to our
northern seasons, and persists in flowering in exile

1 I note that this name is now authoritatively written hortensis, as
if signifying that it is ' the garden ' hydrangea ; but this is not the
true meaning, for the plant was named after Hortense, Queen of
Holland, memorable, among other merits, for having composed the
song Partant pour la Syrie, which served awhile as the French national
anthem.

244 AUTUMNAL FLOWERS

simultaneously with its sisters on the veldt, so an early
frost is fatal to its fine and free vermilion blooms.

Those whom business or pleasure may have taken
to the Medoc during the claret vintage can scarcely
have failed to notice a bright yellow, crocus-like flower
that springs in September by sunny waysides and
cottage fronts. This we choose to call the winter
daffodil; goodness only knows why, for it is not a
daffodil, and it does not flower in winter, but in harvest
time. Its botanical name is Sternbergia lutea, and it
is one of the many flowers which has been claimed as
the Saviour's ' lilies of the field.' It grows wild along
both shores of the Mediterranean as far east as Syria
and Persia, and it flowers freely in hot corners of
Surrey and Sussex gardens. But as this is the season
when amateurs are studying bulb lists, it may be useful
to observe that nobody need attempt to grow this
pretty plant north of Trent, unless he would court
disappointment. That, at least, is the conclusion to
which I have been driven after five-and-twenty years'
endeavour to coax forth its chalices of shining gold to
gladden the autumn border. In our humid west the
bulbs multiply apace, and sheaves of foliage encourage
deceptive hopes year after year, but the plant requires
more baking than they can get here. Has anybody
succeeded with it in Scotland ?

There are other desirable flowering things which we
must forego — just counterpoise, I suppose, to our
privilege in the matter of whiter cold. The splendid
trumpet flower (Tecoma or Bignonia radicans) defies
twenty degrees of frost on a south wall, and has mounted

NOVEMBER 245

as many feet high, with abundant foliage, but in vain
have I watched these dozen years past for a single
truss of the rosy, orange bells that entitle this plant
to a place in the first rank of decorative climbers.
Why is it so seldom grown in south-country gardens ?
When I first met with it in flower on Sir George
Darwin's pretty house at Cambridge, I lost no time in
planting it three hundred miles further north, with the
result aforesaid.

Another disappointing plant in the north is the
Chinese Xanihoceras, for which no English name has
been devised since its introduction some thirty years
ago. I paid ten shillings apiece for three plants when
it was a novelty thirty years ago ; they have grown as
vigorously as could be wished, but all the return they
have made consists of plentiful feathery foliage like
that of a refined mountain ash, and a few sparse heads
of white flowers with a splash of claret at the base of
each petal. Yet I have seen a photograph of this
shrub in the south of England sheeted with blossom.

On the other hand, there are certain sun-loving
plants which surprise one by the facility with which
they adapt themselves to conditions of air and soil very
different from those of the land of their birth. Last
winter (1907-8) was the most trying that we have had
since the terror of 1894-95, not so much on account of
seasonable cold, but because of the unseasonable frost
at Eastertide, when many species were far advanced
in growth. Strange to say, the different kinds of
cistus escaped practically unhurt, and have flowered
abundantly throughout the summer. There is a great

246 AUTUMNAL FLOWERS

variety of these beautiful shrubs to choose from, but a
good deal of confusion in their nomenclature, and it
requires some trouble to obtain the species true to
name; but this matters less because there is not one
of the genus that is not worth growing. Perhaps the
best of the red-flowered kinds is Cistus crispus, which
unfolds innumerable blossoms with crinkled crimson
petals and golden centres in long succession throughout
the summer months. The gum cistus ((7. ladaniferus)
is not easy to obtain true to name, but C. cyprius,
which nurserymen usually supply as gum cistus, is
equally beautiful, growing six feet high and producing
crowds of large white blossoms, with a claret blotch at
the base of each petal. The true gum cistus may be
known by its flowers being solitary on the stalks,
whereas the other carries them in thyrses of four to
six. Nevertheless, C. cyprius is as fragrant and gummy
as the other, and was probably an ingredient in the
incense offered to Aphrodite at Paphos, though Pliny
only mentions it as being nobilis in vino — delicious in
wine — and an astringent drug. He describes the im-
memorial manner of collecting gum ladanum, by herd-
ing goats among the bushes and taking it off their
hair, which must have added finely to the bouquet of
the wine. Even so, it was probably less detestable
than the resinato universally drunk in Greece at this
day, wine flavoured with resin of Aleppo pines. In his
English Flower Garden, Mr. W. Robinson mentions
the white-flowered laurel-leaved cistus (C. laurifolius)
as the only species hardy enough to grow in Scotland.
He seldom misleads amateurs, but in this instance he

NOVEMBER 247

is at fault, for there are at least a dozen species which
will luxuriate on a sunny bank in poor sandy soil on
the west coast as far north as Ross-shire.

There is such a bewildering abundance and variety of
flowering plants at command of amateurs that I am
always grateful to anybody who calls attention to
something specially desirable. Mr. Reginald Farrer
has done so much yeoman service of this kind in his
charming and instructive book, My Rock Garden, that
little remains to be said about the class of plants
whereof he treats ; yet would I mention a speedwell
upon the merit of which he is silent — Veronica
Allioni, to wit. Wedged tightly between stones on the
topmost level of a wall-garden, this delightful little
alpine has spread out a cushion of leathery, deep-green
shining leaves, whence it rears in late summer flower-
spikes five inches high — deeply, darkly, beautifully
blue.

In August and September the herbaceous border was
lightened up by two yellow flowers worthy of note — one
of a rich Indian yellow or chrome colour, Coreopsis
lanceolata ; the other, pure gamboge, Anthemis tinc-
toria. Both are most abundant flowerers, especially
the last named, which endures for three months in
beauty, but care should be taken to get the right strain,
for there are some varieties with washy, and others with
unpleasantly strong tints.

After all, there is no more exquisitely pure yellow,
tending to lemon colour, than that of the North
American evening primrose ((Enothera biennis); but
being a plant which anybody can have for the asking,

248 AUTUMNAL FOLIAGE

comparatively few do so. It is usually considered
biennial, as its botanical name implies, but on cool soils
the robust variety called Lamarclciana becomes a true
perennial, growing into a bush six feet high and as many
in diameter — a splendid object when in full bloom. It
ripens seed by the hatful ; scatter this liberally in any
open moist wood where rabbits do not come, and you
ensure a yearly display for evermore.

LVIII

Nature seems to derive a sly pleasure in upsetting
Autumnal generalisations founded upon superficial ob-
Foiiage servation. She certainly has succeeded this
season (1907) in disproving what most of us had come
to regard as a fixed rule, namely, that the brilliancy of
autumnal tints were in some proportion to the heat of
the foregoing summer. We have passed through a
summer almost without precedent for cold and wet,
yet here we are surrounded by such splendour in dying
foliage as I have never seen surpassed in this country,
and hardly ever equalled. Moreover, owing to the
generally calm weather which has prevailed during the
present fall, the display has been so much prolonged
that it seems well worth while to take note of a few of
the more effective species with a view to securing the
best results in future seasons. It would lead us too far
and too deep into vegetable histology to examine the
causes in the structural and chemical changes in
foliage which, in the first stages of decay, cause it to
reflect red and yellow rays instead of green ones ; more-

NOVEMBER 249

over, the modifications undergone by chlorophyl, the
green colouring matter in plants, can only be described
in polysyllables of portentous complexity ; let us enjoy
the phenomena of the fall, without inquiring too
curiously into their cause.

The principal tints assumed by changing leaves are
yellow, red, tawny, and russet. Among the yellows,
there is none more pure than that of the Norway
maple, the English elm, and the sweet chestnut. Of
humbler stature, but equally brilliant in the fall, are
the North American yellow- wood (Cladrastis tinctoria),
a graceful, small, flowering tree too much neglected by
British decorative planters, and the Japanese witch-
hazel (Hamamelis arborea), which will be covered with
its claret and yellow blossoms in January. At the
ground level, the same bright colour is repeated by the
great leaves of the plaintain lilies (Funkia fortunei
and Sieboldi), which are invaluable for planting near
carriage drives or by woodland walks. When these fine
herbs are once established, rabbits leave them severely
alone. I had nearly forgotten the Ramanas rose (Rosa
rugosa), which lightens up the woodland in a charming
manner when its graceful, pinnate foliage turns to gold.
But to keep that foliage luxuriant, the knife should not
be spared in early spring, shortening the vigorous
growths by one- third of their length, and cutting out
old wood and spindly growths altogether.

The horse-chestnut, that noble, but economically
worthless native of Greece, which takes so kindly to
our moisture-laden atmosphere, fluctuates between gold
and scarlet, some individuals turning completely yellow,

250 AUTUMNAL FOLIAGE

others crimson and red, others again displaying a
gorgeous blend of both tints.

Vitis coignetce, finest of all the ornamental vines, is
another plant that oscillates between red and yellow ;
so it should be tested before being planted in the posi-
tion it is intended to adorn. Larches take high rank
among the rich yellows, both the European and the
Japanese species; so does the common birch, though
this is one of the few trees that have missed fire this
autumn, casting most of its leaves during the dry spell
in September. The Tibetan birch (Betula Bhojputra}
is already in the condition of

' Neptune and Venus,
And swate Nicodemus,
Standing mother naked in the open air.'

The Lespedezas attract notice at this season, long after
their clusters of purple and rose pea-flowers have
departed. It would be hard to beat L. cyrtobothria, a
rather recent introduction, for grace of form and rich-
ness of colour.

For brilliant red, approaching vermilion, our native
gean or wild cherry can give several shades to the
scarlet oak (Quercus coccinea), and beat it easily. This
neglected tree should be much more generally planted,
for it grows rapidly, propagates itself freely by seed,
and the timber is invaluable to cabinet-makers. Of the
oak aforesaid, it may be said that when it is good, it is
very, very good; when it is inferior, it is worthless.
The best I ever had from an English nursery were sup-
plied by old Antony Waterer, of Woking, now in the
land o' the leal. One is very apt to be supplied with

NOVEMBER 251

so-called scarlet oaks which never attain a brighter tint
than a gingerbread nut ; so it is well to visit the nursery
in autumn before purchasing.

Talking of nurseries, I was in my own one day
lately, when my eye was caught by a most brilliant
piece of colour, positively like a scarlet and yellow
carpet laid over one of the beds. I could not conceive
what it was. It turned out, on nearer inspection, to be
a bed of young Cercidiphyllum japonicum, raised from
seed sent me by a friend last spring. I know nothing
by experience about this shrub or tree, save that it is
of doubtful hardihood, but if it fulfils the promise of
babyhood it has but one other rival in those hues, to
wit, the poison ivy (Rhus toxicodendrori), which flames
out before its winter sleep with extraordinary effulgence.
But this Rhus is a dangerous plant, being intensely
poisonous, affecting very painfully the skin of him who
handles it unadvisedly. It is often offered for sale
under the name of Ampelopsis japonica, the purchaser
believing it to be a Japanese cousin of the innocuous
Virginian creeper, which it resembles in foliage and
scandent habit. There are many harmless species of
Rhus, notably cotinus, the Venetian sumach, with
pinnate foliage, and cotinoides, with round leaves,
which become almost as bright in autumn as the
poison ivy ; but these are not of scandent habit like
toxicodendron.

The North American sorrel- tree (Andromeda arborea)
displays very rich crimson tints at present, but it is
outdono by another member of the Heath family,
Vaccinlum corymbosum, whereof the leaves have

252 AUTUMNAL FOLIAGE

turned an intense blood-red, such as I have never seen
matched in autumnal colouring. Some of the common
Azalea pontica and its hybrids run it very hard;
indeed, there is no class of shrubs which enrich autumn
gardens with so much profusion and variety as these
deciduous rhododendrons. Yellow, orange, deep red,
carmine, and puce — it is rare to find two azaleas exhibit
identical dying tints. The Persian Parrotia is equally
brilliant just now. perfectly hardy in mild districts, but
said to require the protection of a wall in cold ones.

Passing to the orange and russet tints, British
beeches and oaks need fear no rivals in that line. The
Turkey oak changes more slowly, lingering long with a
subdued tawny glow before turning into russet. The
deciduous cypress (Taxodium distichum) takes on an
orange brown hue, peculiar to itself. The famous ones
at Syon must be a sight for gods and men at this
moment.

Do not forget in furnishing your landscape to finish off
with a liberal under-planting of Monbretia and its cousin,
Antholyza paniculata. Their flowers, like sparks of
fire, will not be all extinguished before the first hard
frost, and their flag-like foliage forms most delightful
undergrowth, taking on full tones of yellow and orange.
In the moister places and by the waterside the umbrella
plant (Saxifraga peltata), largest of its race, will charm
you with the fine red and orange which its great leaves,
as big as soup-plates, assume ; but this grand herb does
not stand as much overhead shade as the Monbretias do.

One other unexpected result from this wet summer
is the abundant promise of bloom next season. Profuse

NOVEMBER 253

flowering is commonly thought to depend on well-
ripened wood in the previous season, especially on trees
and shrubs which flower on the old wood. Rhodo-
dendrons do so, yet they are crowded in a very unusual
measure with next year's flower-buds, both the Hima-
layan species and their many hybrids.1

LIX

The conviction and fining of a fish-hawker in
Ilfracombe for cutting off the tail-end of a .^g crueity
conger eel before the creature was dead sug- of docking
gests sundry reflections on the uncertainty of H
our penal code. Apart from the difficulty of putting
to a merciful death an animal so tenacious of life, it is
not easy to determine the moment when death takes
place and consciousness ceases, owing to the life-like
contraction of the muscles after death, which continues
in eels for some time, even after the head has been cut
off. If the humble fish-hawker of Ilfracombe be held
to have received no more than was due for his act,
there are numbers of people in far better circumstances
who get off with a good deal less. Chopping chunks
off a living eel may be reprehensible enough, but it is
not the cause of a tenth part of the suffering caused
by the practice of docking horses, which prevails very
generally, and with perfect impunity to the perpetrators.
The present fashion, which decrees that hunters,
hackneys, and polo-ponies shall have shorter tails than

1 The display in 1908 was very fine (though early blossom was
ruined by the terrible frost at Eastertide), but it was far excelled in
1909.

254 THE CRUELTY OF DOCKING HORSES

the Designer of vertebrate mammals thought suitable,
entails an act of two-fold cruelty — present and pro-
spective. Present — by the senseless and violent mutila-
tion of an exceedingly sensitive and nervous animal;
prospective — by the removal of the natural fly-flap.
What thoughtful person has not been distressed by
the spectacle of a horse or brood mare turned out to
grass in summer, unable to protect its flanks from
pestering swarms, and ceaselessly wandering up and
down in vain endeavour to escape the torment ? The
pernicious practice of docking is a revival of eighteenth-
century practice by the present generation. In the
'fifties and 'sixties it was considered the correct thing
for hunters to carry not only the full length of the
dock, but a lot of hair beyond it. Later, the dock
itself was left its natural length, with the hair cut
square at its extremity, forming what was termed a
' bang tail.' But now the smart thing is to amputate
the greater part of the dock, which, of course, is but a
continuation of the spinal vertebrae, and even to nick
the sinew on the upper surface so as to form a ' cock-
tail.' This is a reversion to barbarous practice, and in
hunters and polo-ponies, is more or less injurious to
their efficiency, inasmuch as the tail acts as a rudder,
and is distinctly helpful in turning. The only practical
advantage ever derived from docking was in the
Peninsular War, when, as Wellington afterwards said,
he was able to distinguish the British light cavalry
from the French by their bob tails. The present army
authorities, to their credit, will not sanction the pur-
chase of remounts that have been docked.

NOVEMBER 255

If people wish to be fashionable, why not take the
Royal stables for their model, where all docks are of
the natural length ? Reason and remonstrance, how-
ever, will never prevail against the edicts of fashion ;
the only hope of reform lies with agricultural societies,
Avhich, if they refused to award prizes to mutilated
exhibits, would very effectively discourage the barbarous
practice of docking. The showyard, indeed, has con-
tributed a good deal to its prevalence, a short tail
having the effect of making a horse's quarters look
sweeter and more muscular.

LX

It would be difficult to imagine any occurrence less
likely to happen in an English village than A Foreigner
what took place at Langton in Sussex on ofDistinc-
Thursday evening, November 19 last, when a
strange bird new against a window of the vicarage, and
was brought in a half-stunned state to Miss Turner,
who, most luckily, is a good ornithologist. The
stranger revived under her care, and made a hearty
meal of bread and milk. Miss Turner then communi-
cated by telephone with Mrs. Johnstone, from whose
large aviary, about two miles distant, she supposed the
bird had escaped. It turned, out that she was right;
the wanderer was one of a consignment of birds-of-
paradise which Mr. Walter Goodfellow had brought
from New Guinea at the end of last August to be
placed in Mrs. Johnstone's aviary. Among them were

256 A FOREIGNER OF DISTINCTION

three pairs of the splendid rifle-bird (Ptilorrhis inter-
cedens), of which species the female had never previously
been brought alive to this country. In transferring
them from the travelling cages to the aviary, a hen
rifle-bird escaped, and although seen afterwards several
times in a neighbouring wood (last on September 7)
it defied recapture, and was written off as lost. It was,
indeed, most unlikely, even if the bird could pick up a
living after close confinement during the long voyage
from one hemisphere to another, that it would escape
the common fate of rare creatures in this country by
the hand of some over-curious gunner ; yet it has done
so during a period of more than ten weeks, during
which on one night the mercury registered seventeen
degrees of frost, and there were besides several excep-
tionally heavy and cold rainfalls. Attractive possi-
bilities are suggested of naturalising these gorgeous
birds in our woodlands ; but they are probably illusory,
for it is not likely that birds-of-paradise could find a
sufficient supply of berries and insects to sustain them
through an ordinary English winter.

Mr. Brooke of Hoddam, who has a richly furnished
and successful aviary at his beautiful place on the
Annan (once the residence of acrid old Kirkpatrick
Sharpe), tells me that these birds endure any reasonable
degree of winter cold, but suffer miserably in the east
winds of a British spring.

NOVEMBER 257

LXI

It must have been disagreeable to all naturalists who
are true sportsmen, and to all sportsmen who spare the
love wild nature, to read a long paper recently o«iew
in a leading sporting journal about shooting curlews.
The writer described with exultation how he had
destroyed between 200 and 300 of these quaint and
interesting birds by lying in wait for them on their
feeding grounds. Now one cannot blame shore-poppers,
who live by the produce of the gun, for bagging any
birds that they cannot dispose of in the market, at
however low a figure ; but to attempt to elevate the
destruction of curlews to the rank of sport by publishing
directions how it can best be accomplished, seems a
regrettable action on the part of a journal which we
look to for maintaining the chivalrous traditions of
British sport. Surely there is plenty of legitimate
game in the British Isles for everybody who claims to
be a sportsman as distinguished from a pothunter. It
is otherwise in France and some other countries where
gibier is an elastic term, including song birds and every
bird that can be converted into petit rdt or ragout.
But in no sense consistently with the traditions of
British sport can curlews be reckoned among game
birds. They are edible, it is true, but nobody who has
eaten of one hankers much after a second helping. It
is simply deplorable if young shooters — shooters for
sport, I mean, not for a bare living — are to be encour-
aged to regard all wild birds as fair targets. The
curlew ought to be held as sacred among us as his
B

258 SPAEE THE CURLEW

relative, the ibis, was among the ancient Egyptians
His wild whistle adds a characteristic charm to moor-
land and coast scenery ; his grotesque shape and
nocturnal flight carry us back in imagination to the
wastes and swamps of the Tertiary Age ; and among all
living creatures there is none of more blameless habits,
living as he does exclusively upon worms, molluscs, and
creeping things.

Curlews and their congeners are such familiar objects,
their habits are so easily watched, and there are such a
host of observers in these days, that it might seem
unlikely that any new fact about them would be likely
to turn up. Nevertheless Mr. Francis Heatherley, in
a description of the ternery at Wells in Norfolk
communicated to the October number of the Zoologist,
upsets a statement about the young of these birds
which has gone unchallenged for generations.

' In the case of many birds (he says), e.g. curlew, peewit,
and golden plover, the books say that the young leave the
nest as soon as hatched ; while I have found that they remain
in the nest upwards of sixty hours after hatching. But as
regards the ringed plover it seems literally true, the chicks
wandering off within half an hour of being hatched to feed
on the sandy shore under the paternal eye, leaving their
mother to hatch out the remaining eggs.'

Talking of young curlews, does any one wish to see a
consummate example of the lost art of wood-engraving ?
Let him turn up Yarrell's British Birds, vol. ii. p. 615
(third edition, 1856), and refresh his eye with the
portrait of a young curlew there. It is almost incred-
ible that such delicacy of line combined with such

NOVEMBER 259

depth of tint could be attained by carving a block of
boxwood. Deadened and jaded as the sense of true
chiaroscuro must be in all of us by plethora of cheap
'process' illustration, it is indeed a pleasure to con-
template such a combination of breadth and faithful
detail as is presented in this woodcut.

December

LXII

NOBODY can devote much attention to the processes
The perpetu- °f Nature without being impressed by the
ation of solicitude shown by her general manager for
the perpetuation of species by reproduction,
the bewildering variety of devices provided to that end,
and the absolute indifference manifested in regard to
their effect, whether injurious or beneficial, upon
individuals. Predacity and parasitism are dominant
features in the general scheme, comprehending both
the animal and vegetable kingdoms ; but it is not upon
these agencies as mere means of sustenance that the
following reflections are based, only upon their effect in
securing a succession of generations. Some of the
expedients are of exceeding cruelty, according to
human ideas, as in the case of the numerous species of
ichneumon flies, which deposit eggs in the bodies of
other creatures, to be hatched into maggots which
devour the living tissues of their defenceless hosts.
Others attain the end in view by gentler methods,
securing mutual advantages to both parties in the
transaction. Thus many flowering plants ensure the
fecundating visits of flying insects by offering them a cup

DECEMBER 261

of nectar, which is often advertised by seductive odours
and attractive colours. This seems an ideal arrange-
ment; the flower gets its business transacted at a
reasonable cost ; the insect flies off" well satisfied by
payment in kind for its services.

Other plants there are which stoop to gross de-
ception in order to gain the same end. I have
drawn attention elsewhere1 to the behaviour of that
strange vegetable the hairy arum {Arum, crinitum),
which I suspect not only of devouring insects for its
own nutriment, but of employing their larvae to
fertilise its own florets. I have not ascertained that
this is so, though I hope to work the question to a
conclusion next summer, and it is one in which the
co-operation of other observers would be most welcome.

The hairy arum is a native of the Mediterranean
region. Tubers can be had at a moderate price from
any bulb merchant at the present time ; and if planted
in lightish soil in a sheltered spot fully exposed to the
sun, will flower during next summer, though it will be apt
to succumb in the succeeding winter in mild districts.
Its blossom, when it does appear, is simply appalling in
aspect — the most hideous inflorescence known to me.
Like that of other aroids, it consists of a sheath or
' spathe,' within which is the ' spadix/ or flower spike ;
but these, instead of growing erect, as in the lords-and-
ladies of our hedgerows (Arum maculatum), hang
pendulous ; the spathe, eight to ten inches long, droops
and gapes like a huge wound, lurid purplish in colour,
with scattered coarse black hairs. Protruding from the

1 See p. 155 supra.

262 THE PERPETUATION OF SPECIES

spathe lolls the black spadix, with small degenerate
flowers clustered round it, the female flowers being at
the base, the male flowers above them, all of an evil
purplish tint, suggestive of carrion. Lest winged
insects should disregard the suggestion, the flowers in
opening emit a stench like putrid meat, accompanied
by a considerable rise of temperature, as if to strengthen
the impression of a gaping wound. The artifice is
completely successful ; blowflies and others crowd in ;
numbers of them die, and the throat of the spathe is
soon choked with their corpses, but others succeed in
depositing their eggs, so that in two or three days the
mass is full of maggots, feeding on their dead uncles
and aunts, and wriggling among the florets on the
spadix. Now the point which requires elucidation is
this — are the flies enticed into this chamber of horrors
and killed there either by a poisonous exhalation or by
some poisonous secretion they devour, solely in order
that the plant may derive nutriment from their bodies ?
or do the movements of the maggots contribute to the
fertilisation of the florets ? Observation and suggestion
are invited.

A good illustration of the sacrifice of a noble and
useful species to the requirements of an ignoble and
useless one may be in the life history of the felted
beech coccus (Cryptococcus fagi), a diminutive plant-
louse, already referred to as committing great havoc
among British beech woods.1 What good purpose can
be served by the perpetuation of such a creature does
not appear, nor would the world suffer any conceivable

1 See p. 102 supra.

DECEMBER 263

detriment should the last beech coccus expire child-
less. Nature has elaborated effective precaution against
a consummation so greatly to be desired. The coccus
itself is a shapeless sac about one twenty-fifth of an
inch long, armed with a sharp beak which it thrusts
into the bark of a beech and sucks the sap. Probably
it has existed unnoticed for ages, until a few years ago
some undetermined conditions favourable to its require-
ments caused it to multiply by millions of millions, so
as to cause the death of many fine beeches in several
counties and to threaten destruction of others. Aphids
and other plant-lice can be suppressed or kept in check
by insecticide sprays; but in making provision for
this precious coccus, Nature seems to have foreseen
and prepared against that danger, for she has given
each of these little yellow scourges the power of
secreting white, waxy fibres, which unite into a kind of
felt, making a covering quite impervious to poisonous
washes.

LXIII

Closely akin to the King of the Herrings or
oar-fish is the deal-fish or ' vaagmaer ' The Deai-
(Trachypterus arcticus), one of the rarest Flsl1
inhabitants of abysmal ocean to come under human
observation. Mr. William Evans, who recovered the
oar-fish mentioned above at p. 123, has been lucky
enough to secure (28th November 1908) a deal-fish near
the same place as the other was stranded, the first
recorded occurrence of this interesting species in the
Firth of Forth. There are difficulties, almost, if not

264 THE DEAL-FISH

quite, insuperable in the way of obtaining a perfect
specimen of the deal-fish, and it is doubtful whether
an un mutilated adult has ever come into human hands.
For despite its considerable size, the deal-fish is fitted
only for existence in the still, abysmal depths of the
northern ocean. It is so loosely put together as to be
quite unfit for conflict with the waves and strong
currents of the upper waters, and generally falls to
pieces when an attempt is made to raise it in a dead or
dying condition from the surface. Once let a deal-fish
be forced by some untoward agency from its native
profundity and its fate is sealed. It never can return
to the deep sea, for high pressure is essential to its
active existence, and when that pressure is removed by
the fish being forced into comparatively shallow water,
it drifts helplessly on the surface, without the power
of descending, until finally it is washed ashore and
supplies matter for a paragraph in the local journals.

Of the life history of the deal-fish practically nothing
is known, save that its home is in the deep sea between
Iceland and Norway. It is even uncertain what is its
normal aspect before the rude waters of the surface
have broken away many of its fin-rays, which, in the
closely kindred Mediterranean species (T. Iris) grow to
an extraordinary length, measuring in young specimens
four or five times the length of the body. But one of
the most distinctive features in this fish usually re-
mains— namely, the caudal fin, or tail, as it is popularly
called, which is not set continuously to the spine as in
other fishes, but juts up abruptly nearly at right angles
to the spine, having the appearance of a fan.

DECEMBEE 265

That the deal-fish is as predaceous as most marine
fishes is shown by a pretty serviceable set of sharp,
recurved teeth, and that it puts these to practical use
appears from the abundance of fat in the body, which
fat, say the Norwegian fishermen, drains away in oil
soon after death.

Dimly lighted as the abode of this animal must be,
in respect of decorative colouring the deal-fish is not
inferior to others. Its sides have the silvery lustre of a
spring salmon, and each side is marked with three
black discs as large as the creature's eye. In brilliant
contrast to the shining body, the high dorsal fin, which
extends the whole length of the back, is blood-red,
which colour pervades all the other fins also. Man
sometimes assumes, arrogantly enough, though not so
generally now as formerly, that Nature designed the
beauty of creatures chiefly for his special delectation ;
but here is a brilliant animal moving habitually so
remote from the light that, were it possible for a
human being to penetrate to those depths, he could
but be conscious of total darkness.

LXIV

Mr. Harry Beeston has published a mournful diary
in the Zoologist, kept during the winter of Belated
1906-7 to record the fate of a swallow and swallows
two sand-martins which missed the train in the autumn
migration, and attempted to spend the dark months
in Hampshire. Cold weather set in about Christmas,
the weather being very wintry, with several inches of

266 BELATED SWALLOWS

snow on the ground from 26th to 29th December. The
swallow did not survive this cold spell, dying, probably,
not from cold, but from starvation. The martins, how-
ever, made a gallant fight. On January 13 only one of
them was to be seen skimming close to the water after
such insects as were about, and so every day until the
23rd, when the entry in the diary was as follows : —

' Cutting wind from N.E. Eleven degrees of frost last night.
Martin still courageously and persistently hawking for food
close to the surface of the water. It appears to-day very
feeble, and is only just able to flutter along, and does not
attempt to leave the stream as yesterday.'

The bird was never seen again. It is a sad little story,
and illustrates the perils besetting all migratory birds.
Steaming one cold April day in a yacht across the
Adriatic from the Gulf of Taranto to Corfu, we saw
hundreds of birds — wheatears, hoopoes, warblers, etc. —
all flying north. There was a rough, lopping sea, and
many of the little wayfarers seemed scarcely able to
clear the tops of the waves. We were running not
more than nine knots, yet we overtook as many birds
as were able to overtake us. Their average speed,
therefore, may be reckoned at about nine knots an
hour, and as it is upwards of 400 geographical miles
from Jeb-el-Akbhar, the nearest point on the African
coast, to the coast of Greece, near Cephalonia, they
must have remained forty-eight hours on the wing
without food or water. Several birds alighted on our
decks, and immediately went to sleep, evidently in the
last stage of exhaustion. But they must have been
hungry too, and not the least part of the mystery of

DECEMBER 267

migration is how multitudes of birds, whether grain-
eating or insect- eating, arriving in rapidly successional
flocks on rock-bound coasts like those of Greece or
Albania, can find nourishment to fit them for the rest
of a journey whereof the end may still be many
thousands of miles distant.

LXV

For some years past Mr. J. H. Gurney has contri-
buted annually to the Zoologist a report on the Blrd notes
ornithology of Norfolk, which never fails to from East
contain much interesting matter. His report An&lia
for the year 1906 appeared in the April number of that
journal, and records the occurrence of an unusual
number of fatalities to wild birds. I do not refer to
the ordinary, senseless, apparently incorrigible practice
of shooting at every strange or beautiful bird that
ventures to alight on our inhospitable shores ; that con-
tinues as of yore, though there are welcome signs that
an increasing number of consciences are being pricked
by protests in the press and elsewhere. Mr. Gurney 's
paper contains evidence of the necessity for reiterating
such protests until it is generally counted a shameful
thing to destroy feathered strangers, the more so
because many of these are not truly wild, but stragglers
from aviaries or colonies of acclimatisation. The in-
corrigible propensity of birds, especially water-fowl, to
wander from the security of such places is a perpetual
source of disappointment to those who care only to
rear birds with their power of flight unimpaired, and

268 BIRD NOTES FROM EAST ANGLIA

who regard the practice of pinioning birds as of a piece
with that resorted to by men of certain Asiatic tribes, who
slit the noses of their brides in order to ensure conjugal
fidelity. I think I have already recorded the gradual
disappearance of my fleet of Carolina summer-ducks,
which, though generously fed in the sanctuary lake,
persisted in nocturnal expeditions to the seacoast, and
helped to fill the bags of flight-shooters. A friend on
the east coast, whose better success in keeping his flock
of summer-ducks together has stirred my envy these
many years past, lost the whole of them in the winter
of 1906-7. Probably the passage of a large flight of
indigenous wild-fowl proved too powerful an attrac-
tion to the foreigners, and they have all gone, never,
I fear, to return.

So the flamingoes, reported by Mr. Gurney as having
been shot on August 23 on Morston Sands, and in
November somewhere in Holland, doubtless were
deserters from the Duke of Bedford's wonderful collec-
tion at Woburn or Lady Dunleath's park in Ireland.

The birds, whose obituary is recorded in Mr. Gurney's
sorrowful note, are in a different category. There is no
reason to suppose that they were other than truly wild
birds on passage.

' Sept. 3. — A little flock of glossy ibises seen on Breydon
Broad. . . . They were soon disposed of, for I presume they
are the same which were shot in three different places in Ire-
land and one in Sussex shortly afterwards. Another was
killed in Devonshire.'

Though never likely to choose these blood-boultered

DECEMBER 269

islands as a nesting-place, the glossy ibis recurs pretty
frequently as a bird of passage, and it is truly exas-
perating to know that it is only the infernal diligence
of gunners and collectors that prevents us being more
familiar with the aspect of this beautiful creature,
like a glorified curlew, clad in russet and bronze, with
reflected gleams of purple and green.

'Sept. 4. — Immediately following the party of ibises,
and impelled no doubt by the same cause (a wave of intense
autumnal heat), came a misguided flock of thirteen red-
crested pochards (whistling ducks) which settled on Breydon
Mere, never to return. Eight were taken by Mr. So-and-So,
etc., etc.

1 August 8. — Purple heron (immature) shot at Barton . . .
15th August. Spoonbill on Breydon, seen again on 17th,
18th, and 20th. This or another was subsequently shot at
Aldeburgh in Suffolk, where I learn of five being seen.'

Spoonbills used to breed regularly in England, and
doubtless would do so again if they were allowed a
chance ; but the persecution will only cease when our
countrymen have been persuaded or constrained to
regard rare birds as visitors to be encouraged, instead
of done to violent death.

The other kind of casualty chronicled by Mr. Gurney
is of the kind which lawyers call an ' act of God,' and
being incidental to life on the wing, may well raise
some qualms, even in the minds of those who are
most eagerly anticipating the development of aerial
locomotion.

On February 8 came a violent storm of snow and
hail, with twenty minutes of incessant lightning. The

270 BIKD NOTES FROM EAST ANGLIA

wild geese in Holkam marshes, estimated to number
about four thousand, became greatly agitated, flying
to and fro in the tumult. The result proved that
they were geese indeed not to lie low, for no fewer
than nineteen of them — fifteen pink- footed and four
white-fronted — were found next day scattered through
the neighbouring parishes, having been struck by
lightning. A black-backed gull, killed in the same
manner, was picked up at Lowestoft.

On April 20 a woodcock, whose power of flight had
failed it during migration, was picked up on the beach.
On May 7 an ortolan bunting was found entangled in
some garden netting; on August 2 a great crested
grebe was drowned in a tunnel net, and another was
caught at Sidestrand, ' very thin, the stomach packed
with its own feathers, which were apparently the
only thing it had to eat for some time/ Then
came the severe frost at Christmastide, with heavy
snow, to lock up the larder of many birds. On
December 28, fieldfares, blackbirds, thrushes, skylarks,
rooks, titlarks, linnets, twites, and goldfinches streamed
along the beach between the snow and low-water
mark.

' So close were the flocks that no sooner had one passed
than another was in sight. Hour after hour, some of them
almost within arm's length, they struggled on silent and
weak for want of food . . . Kingfishers moped on stakes,
or died of starvation . . . This Siberian weather had a
disastrous effect upon the great-crested grebes. . . . One
bird-stuffer in Yarmouth had no fewer than eighteen brought
to him.'

Mr. Gurney does his utmost to encourage the pre-

DECEMBER 271

sence of barn-owls, and adds some valuable testimony
to the usefulness of their operations. In May he
analysed, by soaking in water, half a pailful of pelts or
castings of these birds, and found among them the
remains of eighteen finches (apparently sparrows), two
young thrushes, eleven young rats, twelve field-mice,
and four shrews. ' No remains of game,' he remarks.
' It always makes my blood boil to see this useful bird
proscribed by the unthinking gamekeeper.' In the
nest of a long-eared owl were found the remains of
seven young rats, ' which in a few weeks would have
been full grown and ready to prey on the young,
hand-reared pheasants, of which these woods are full.'

The value of such notes as these, made by an orni-
thologist of Mr. Gurney's experience and standing,
cannot be overestimated. It is too commonly sup-
posed and asserted that it is of no scientific use
reporting the occurrence of a rare bird unless its corpse
can be produced for examination by experts ; but here
is Mr. Gurney, whose scientific reputation nobody can
call in question, writing with approval of three among
his correspondents, Mr. E. C. Arnold, Mr. Power, and Mr.
Napier, 'who seldom use the gun where binoculars
will serve for identification.'

LXVI

Yesterday (26th December 1908) I found in a friend's
house the stuffed effigy of a handsome and xhe Great
uncommon winter visitor to these islands — Grey shrike
to wit, a great grey shrike (Lanius excubitor). It was

272 THE GREAT GREY SHRIKE

undergoing the process of dishevelment and distortion
which is the almost invariable doom of locally preserved
specimens, and the fine contrast of silver grey, sable,
and snowy white which its plumage once displayed
was obscured by a thick deposit of dust. The bird had
paid the usual penalty enacted in this country upon
creatures of conspicuous plumage. It had the mis-
fortune to take up temporary quarters in the garden
of a gamekeeper, where it remained some days before it
occurred to him that he might as well shoot it. The pity
of it ! for what a rare opportunity was lost of observing
the peculiar habits of the bird. Its practice of im-
paling beetles, mice, small birds and anything edible
upon thorns is too well known to require description,
but a record of the contents of its larder should have
been kept. How many of us would have derived
intense pleasure from the sojourn in our premises
of such a distinguished stranger. It is vexatious that
it chose for its host one who could derive no enjoyment
from glancing wings and delicate colouring, but could
be satisfied with nothing but blood.

The great grey shrike has not been recorded as breed-
ing hi Great Britain, which is difficult to account for,
as it nests regularly in Holland, where spring diet is
not more abundant than with us.

Since writing this note I find that another grey
shrike has been sacrificed in Galloway during the
present winter, in precisely similar circumstances to
the other. It was killed in a garden where it had
made itself at home for weeks.

A correspondent hi the Orange River Colony sends

DECEMBER 273

me an interesting note about the way the shrikes in
new lands avail themselves of the resources of civilisa-
tion. He does not mention what species of butcher-bird
is common in this colony, but there can be no scarcity
of thorns whereon they may impale their prey after the
hereditary manner of their kind, seeing how greatly that
land abounds in spiney growths. But butcher-birds
are not unreasonably conservative. Being intelligent
creatures, they have shown their readiness to move
with the times, and evidently regard the hundreds of
leagues of barbed wire which have overspread the colony
as a device specially contrived for their convenience.
Instead, therefore, of troubling themselves to hunt
out a suitable tree, they choose the top strand of a
barb-wire fence for a larder, and you may see a variety
of delicacies impaled in a long row upon the points —
frogs, lizards, beetles, small snakes, young birds, mice,
and suchlike.

LXVII

I have prosed before now in these notes on the
subject of the two larches at the west end of
Dunkeld Cathedral, noble monuments to the
silvicultural ardour of the second Duke of Atholl. It is
with sorrow that I here have to record that one of the
pair — reputed as the first larches rooted in Scotland —
has been killed by lightning (1907), having attained
the age of one hundred and seventy years or thereby.
It is well known that the said Duke was so well pleased
with the growth made by these new trees that before
s

274 THE LARCH

his death in 1764 he had planted some twenty square
miles with larch. A story comes to me from a corre-
spondent, prettily illustrating the Duke's intense interest
in the restoration of forest, and not the less worthy of
repeating because, my correspondent being a Cameron
himself, it indicates some degree of haziness in his
clansman's conception of meum and tuum. If distance
cannot lend enchantment to theft, surely petty larceny
may borrow some glamour from antiquity.

Mr. Cameron, one of many of his race who live
strenuous and useful lives in wealthier England, under-
took a few years ago a pious pilgrimage to the sepulchres
of his forbears in lonely Glen Nevis. As he trudged
up the glen from Fort William, his attention was drawn
to a group of eight huge larches growing on the bank of
the Nevis, and he remarked to his companion that
they reminded him of the parent larches of Dunkeld.
Their beauty and the grandeur of their branches im-
pressed him so much, that he spoke of them after-
wards in the presence of Canon M'Coll and Mr. ,

a tradesman of Fort William.

'Maybe you will not be knowing how these trees
came in the glen ? ' said Mr.

' I do not,' replied Mr. Cameron, ' but I would like to,
fine.'

' Well and indeed,' said the other, ' it was a very
long time ago. It came about that Cameron of Glen
Nevis was landing from a ship, and in the boat with
him was the Duke of Atholl himself, and with the
Duke was a parcel of small trees, which lay behind
Glen Nevis in the boat. Now Glen Nevis was the

DECEMBEE 275

great man for planting trees at that time. It was
he that planted the avenue of beeches you may be
seeing at Glen Nevis House, and many other trees he
planted. So when he sees the parcel of trees he
makes bold to ask the Duke what were they. " Oh ! "
says the Duke, " they are a very beautiful tree that I
have seen in my travels, and I am away to plant them
at Dunkeld." After that Glen Nevis keeps the Duke
in pleasant talk indeed, but all the while he keeps his
hand busy in the parcel of trees lying behind the
Duke's back. He would get, maybe, a dozen or so of
them, and these are the great larches of Glen Nevis
at this day.'

The European larch, unrivalled for the early
maturity and excellency of its deal, has become sorely
discredited with foresters of late owing to the ravages
of a minute fungus upon which cryptogamists have
bestowed a title more in proportion to the extent of
the mischief it works than to its dimensions, calling
it Dasyscyplia calycina. This pestilent little organism,
whereof the purpose in nature is impossible to discern,
fixes itself on some wound or abrasure of the bark,
and drives its mycelium into the wood of the tree
itself. Almost microscopic in size, its external display
consisting of a white cup not much bigger than a grain
of mustard-seed, it multiplies rapidly, and the first in-
dications to the forester of its presence is a morbid
swelling in the trunk, enclosing a deep-seated canker,
whence oozes black and unhealthy resin. No remedy
has been found for the mischief. Some vigorous
young trees seem to overcome the attack, and grow

276 THE LARCH

healthy wood round the canker, but a vast number
succumb, and when a larch wood is badly affected the
best thing to do is to fell all the diseased trees and
underplant with some shade-bearing trees like beech,
silver fir, or the giant cypress.

The last-named tree (Thuya gigantea or plicata,
according to the latest Kew nomenclature) is coming
to the front as one of the most valuable exotics for
planting in Britain, as Mr. Peter Lawson told me forty
years ago it would. It is very easily propagated. Six
years ago I raised 50,000 or 60,000 from 15s. worth of
seed which are now six feet high. In British Columbia
the timber of this beautiful tree is reckoned next in
value to that of the Douglas fir, and its durability is
extraordinary. In Messrs Elwes and Henry's sump-
tuous work on British and Irish Trees, there is a plate
representing a hemlock spruce 120 years old, rooted
astride of a trunk of the giant cypress, the wood of
which is as sound as on the day it fell.

The persistence of the European larch in British
woodland seems gravely menaced, if not doomed ; for,
as if the canker fungus were not enough, a new and
formidable foe has travelled hither from North
America, to which too prolific neighbour Europe owes,
besides a lot of bad weather, the Phylloxera, the potato
beetle and the gooseberry mildew. The newcomer is
the large larch sawfly (Nematus EricJisoni), a pretty
little hymenopterous insect not half an inch long.
What it lacks in stature it makes up for in diligence
of procreation, defying all human effort to keep it in
check. The parent fly, provided with a sawing blade

DECEMBER 277

of extraordinary delicacy in her ovipositor, slits the
bark of young shoots and deposits a vast number of
eggs, whence issue a horde of little caterpillars, grey-
green with round black heads. These are at their
busiest in July, stripping the larches of every green
leaf, and falling to the ground in autumn, where
they form cocoons and emerge in spring as perfect
flies.

This pest first appeared or was first noticed in
England in 1904, when the Dodd wood, on Miss
Spedding's Mirehouse estate, consisting of larches from
twenty to seventy years old, was found to be thickly
infested with sawflies. These increased and spread
during the two following summers until fully 300
acres of woodland in this district have been ravaged,
and many trees fatally injured; besides which, 200
acres on the other side of the Derwent valley have now
been attacked. It is reported that this has put a stop
to planting European larch in the Lake district. It
remains to be seen whether the Japanese larch
(L. leptolepis) is liable to this scourge. It is to be
hoped that Mr. Stewart MacDougall who has made
a special study of the larch sawfly, will ascertain by
experiment next summer whether this tree will nourish
the insect. It is well to be warned in time, for the
splendid vigour of the Japanese larch has kept it
hitherto immune, or nearly so, from the canker fungus,
and many foresters are planting no other species.

278 AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY LAIRD

LXVIII

A few years ago the late Mr. Henry Graham pre-
An Eight- sented us wita an interesting picture of
eentu Cen- social life in Scotland during the eighteenth
tury Laird centuryf The book was well received, as it
deserved to be on account of the undoubted fidelity of
many details, and has been extensively quoted from
since. Nevertheless, it appears to some of us that
he sets his palette with unduly sombre pigments;
that he dwelt overmuch upon the exceeding poverty
and parsimony of the gentry during the quarter of a
century following the Union, and, so dwelling, missed
some sources of comfort and pleasure which lightened
the lives of our forbears. It cannot be denied that,
in the reign of Queen Anne, the households of
Scottish country gentlemen were run on far more
frugal lines than those of their English contempor-
aries. Rude enough and comfortless we might esteem
them were we suddenly transported back to the early
eighteenth century; but, after all, everything is rela-
tive. The main difficulty with country gentlemen is
to make ends meet; those who succeeded in doing so
a hundred years ago probably got quite as much
enjoyment out of life, and were sensible of as little
discomfort, as their descendants in this age of motor
cars and marconigrams. It is in no spirit of fault-
finding or contradiction that I venture to submit
some direct evidence to prove that country life was
by no means uniformly dismal for men of moderate
estate. My witnesses shall be certain vellum- covered

DECEMBER 279

folios, once ivory-white, now tawny and tarnished with
the vicissitudes of two centuries. They form a set of
household and estate books wherein my great-great-
great-grandfather kept his accounts in a delightfully
conversational way, yielding a good deal of insight
into the daily life of a Scottish laird.

Sir Alexander Maxwell succeeded his father in
1710 in the estate of Monreith, which was then almost
identical in area with what it is now. Galloway
certainly was not a rich agricultural district in those
days, being mainly pastoral, and pretty rough at that :
it may be assumed that Sir Alexander's 17,000 and odd
acres did not yield the income that might have been
derived from similar extent in the Lothians or
Tweeddale.

'The gentry were miserably poor,' says Mr. Graham,
speaking of the early part of the century ; ' the nobles and
lairds were constantly at their wits' end to get means to pay
their way, and were obliged to live sparingly. . . . Gold was
never seen ; silver was exceedingly scarce, especially after all
the Scots coinage had been called in subsequently to the
Union.'

Sir Alexander, however, succeeding three years after
the Union, found a good deal more cash than a
Scottish gentleman of to-day would care to keep lying
beside him.

Sterling.
' In harn bag marked with much wax 40 queen

an's guineas £43 0 0

Sealed in large harn bag 413 guin : 9 shi : 4d

ster. (8000 merks Scots) . , , . 444 8 10

280 AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY LAIED

Sealed in large ham bag .... £64 0 0
Sealed of silver in little harn bag . , . 1300
Sealed in little harn bag . . . 50 0 0 '

In all, £614, 8s. lOd. in hard cash.

That gave the new laird a good start, and he managed
to keep it. Not by sitting tranquilly at home, content
to draw his rents; for these brought in little cash,
being chiefly paid in kind — sheep, capons, grain, etc.,
— for which it required good business habits and
connection to find a market.

The Scottish cattle trade with England was an
important source of revenue to Galloway landowners,
and the annual despatch of the autumn drove marked
an event even more important than the corn harvest.
The lairds bought in summer stock from the peasantry
who bred ' nolt,' fed them on the home pastures, and
at the end of August in each year sent them off to
the English markets. Large proprietors kept their
droves separate; smaller ones combined their cattle,
so as to make up a considerable drove. Most animated
and picturesque must have been the scenes on the
road, involving, no doubt, a prodigious amount of
strong language, strong drink, and competition for
grazing by the way ; the last-named consideration
affording a welcome opening for profits to owners of
pasture along the route.

Sir Alexander's first speculation in this line was
unlucky. On 28th August 1711 Mr. Patrick Maxwell
received 50 guineas ' to carry my drove to England ' ;
on llth November he brought back £2372, 10s. 7|d.
sterling, and received a present of £3 ' for his pains

DECEMBER 281

and trouble with the mercatt.' Another drove which
was sent at the same time to Hampton under Anthony
M'Caa, William Dun (of whom more hereafter), and
Thomas Little, produced £646, 6s. 3d. sterling. After
reckoning what he had paid in laying in* the stock,
the cost of their summer keep, and the expenses of
the drove, Sir Alexander comes to the melancholy
conclusion that his loss on the year's trading amounted
to £5415, 18s. 8d. Scots, 'which makes 8124 merks
Scots.' Taking the value of the depreciated Scots
currency as about 1 to 12 of English sterling money,
this represents a deficit of £450 sterling ; but the sale
of cows during the same year showed a profit of £1048
Scots or £87 sterling. In making out his balance-
sheet, the laird charged himself not only with interest
on borrowed money, but with £500 sterling, the esti-
mated annual value of the grazing occupied by the
herd ; so that the net result of this year's trading was
that he drew £157 from his grass parks instead of the
estimated rental of £500. Anyhow, at the end of that
year there was the snug sum of 600 guineas ' in the
large harn bag' and 124 guineas 'in the little harn
bag.' Other years showed a profit — £140 sterling in
1715, £177 in 1720, and so on, with occasional losses.
The year 1728 was especially unlucky, as Sir Alexander
explains in the voluble way which makes his account
and stock books such entertaining reading. The drove
that season consisted of 746 oxen and ' stots,' which
are entered as costing £2677, 15s. 9f d. [sic.],—

'which by William Dun's bill of sale amounts to .£2711, 4s.
6d., whereof to reduce of charges he gives in ane account

282 AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY LAIRD

£250, 9s. lid. ; which is a most extravagant account, there
being 18 of them died by the way going to the Mercat of
the murrain, which was a Ly invented by him for they were
killed by overdriving, and all the fat heavy nolt died being
driven till ten at night & got neither water nor grasse,
he constantlie Drunk and never came near them & under-
charged the prices he got. Soe there remains onlie to
bear charges 702, which makes them above 7 shil : 3 half-
pence per beast, which must be grosse mismanadgment or
dishonestie, which is the same as to my losse. Losse on
drove £172, 2s. 2d. sterling which is £2065, 6 Scots or
3098 merks; this besides the death of my cows & other
breeding stock, & death of my bull, in all £30, & the death
of my bay pad worth £30, being alsoe robbed of my cash,
the losse of which I cannot yet know till the accompts of my
cash book be made. Soe this year 1728 has been a remark-
able year to me for misfortunes & Calamities that are
unusuall.'

As every other landowner in Galloway, great and
small, seems to have been engaged in the cattle trade,
the amount of money flowing annually from England
into that remote part of Scotland must have been very
large. The money transactions between the lairds —
borrowing and lending — were incessant; the records
thereof preserved in these books are of bewildering
intricacy. At first the balance showed against Sir
Alexander, who owed in 1712 £2049 sterling against
£1306 owing to him ; but in 1730, the last year of his
life, he was able to write complacently, ' Bona excedunt
debita per £491, 10s. 6d. sterling.' For although, as
I shall show, he spent liberally, he was careful in small
disbursements, — how careful, let entries like the follow-
ing testify : —

DECEMBEK 283

' N.B. — Not to take any More herrings from Mr Lawrie
who made me pay 2 shill. a penny for 1200. John Semple
offered his for 22 pence.'

The labour of keeping accounts so minutely as did
Sir Alexander was complicated by notation in different
currencies. Although sterling money was established
by the Union in 1707, when the Scots currency was
called in, local transactions, such as rents, teinds, and
tradesmen's bills, continued to be reckoned in Scots
money long after that date, and that again was often
rendered into merks.

Now let us turn to the cash-book, and gather what
light it throws upon the daily life of a Scottish laird of
moderate estate. Sir Alexander's expenses during the
first year after his succession suggest no shortness of
ready money. Thus having occasion to consult Sir
John Fergusson of Kilkerran, an advocate of high
repute, upon his being served heir, he met him at
House o' the Hill, a lonely tavern, still the resort of
anglers and shepherds, on the march of Ayrshire, and
paid him a fee of £51, 12s. Scots— say four guineas
sterling — and tipped John Binny, his servant, half a
guinea and a crown = £9, 9s. Scots.

So much for the laird's life as a bachelor. On 29th
December 1711 Sir Alexander married Lady Jean
Montgomerie, youngest daughter of the ninth Earl of
Eglinton, and for the following fifteen years this lady's
name occurs constantly in the accounts, often with
terms of great affection. That she was beautiful her
portrait remains to testify. It cost the bridegroom
£6, 12s. Od. sterling — moderate enough for a charming

284 AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY LAIRD

kit-cat of one with soft brown eyes, a white skin, and
abundant curling dark hair. Artist unknown, but not
the same hand that portrayed Sir Alexander in a con-
ventional steel-jacket — one Mr. Aikman, whose fee was
£5, 7s. 6d. ' Within doors,' says Mr. Graham, ' the furni-
ture was rude, . . . the beds were closed like a box in
the wall, or in recesses with sliding doors, which im-
prisoned and stifled the sleeper ' [vol. i. p. 7]. But Sir
Alexander made better provision for his bride. On 5th
November 1711 appears the entry: —

Scot*.

'To I/. J. M. to buy a bed in Ireland 17

guineas and | for a down bed . . . £225 150'

This bed, a carved mahogany four-poster, is still in use.
Sir Alexander's dining-room table, round, of dark
mahogany, is that on which I am writing, and I hear an
eight-day clock also, which he bought about this time,
ticking out the seconds as faithfully as it did nearly
two hundred years ago.

Other references to this marriage and its conse-
quences lend some agreeable local colour. There were
some changes in the bachelor establishment that year,
as was natural. The laird paid £149, 2s. Scots for ' a
gray pad for my wife's use ' ; and later, 21 guineas
sterling to a midwife. He wanted a valet, so William
Dun (the same who sixteen years later got into such
disgrace over the English drove, and was discharged)
received £9, 12s. Scots (16s. sterling) to carry him to
Edinburgh, there ' to learn to sheave and dress.' And
so ran out the first year of married life : one of tranquil
happiness and tender anxiety. Lady Jean's eldest

DECEMBER 285

sister, the Countess of Galloway, lived at Glasserton,
only seven miles across the grazing land along the sea,
so she did not want for company, though she had to
give up riding the 'gray pad' for a while. And Sir
Alexander, grateful to his sister-in-law for helping his
wife through her trouble, made her a pretty present
at the New Year.

'To the Countess of Galloway, to pay for 10
yards of damask, as the outer half of her
nightgown £2 13 6'

Sir Alexander has given in his own handwriting a
detailed account of ' servants and their wadges as they
stand at Mertinmasse 1729,' which, with the quaint
note at the end of the list, it may be of interest to give
at length.

' Imp. Mr. Alexander Morison who is my Sterling.

son's governour £30 0 0

Mr. Archibald Campbell, chaplain, has yearlie 10 0 0

Kobert Turnbull my own servant . . 10 0 0

Adam Christie, butler 5 10 0

Alexander Steven, cook 600

His mens wadges which I pay are . . .300
Besides to Hugh M'Love a pair of shoes over

his wadges 030

Gavin Robinson groom, has of wadges £3 and

to buy shoes and stock . . . . 3120

Peter Monies under-groom . . . . 1 15 0
Andrew Coltran porter has yearlie besides a

pair of my old shoes 200

Mrs. Bettie Chalmers 500

Mrs. Margaret Vance, housekeeper, and a 4th

share of drink money, makes her wadges

better as the others 300

286 AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY LAIRD

Isobell M'Calla chambermaid £20 Scots . .£1130

Janet M'Cuillam, dairymaid £16 Scots . .168

Margaret Anderson, a help to her . . .100

Janet M'Guffack, washer, £12 Scots . . .100

Andrew Jamieson, Gardiner . . . . 7 10 0

£92 10 0

This is eleven hundred & ten punds Scots which is more
free money as many a Gentleman has to Live on & Maintain
their familie.

Add, to Duncan Craufurd's salary for buying

nolt £30 0 0

To my factor Mr Lawrie 20 0 0

£142 o o;

The servants, of course, received board; the cook
had as perquisite the ' shoreland skins,' whatever they
were ; and vails, or, as we now term them, ' tips,' to
servants bore a much larger proportion to wages than
they do at the present day, and extended to every grade
in the household.

The tower where Sir Alexander and Lady Jean spent
their days together stands grey and roofless now on
the green eminence beside the broad lake. It was en-
nobled by the presence of royalty once ; for James IV.,
that prince of adventure, lodged there on one of
the many pilgrimages which he undertook to the
neighbouring shrine of St Ninian at Whithorn. As in
many other instances, the deserted dwelling stands
upon a site far preferable to the modern mansion which
a later laird's lady persuaded her husband to build, ' as

DECEMBER 287

a more genteel residence.' Pity the move was ever
made, with the inevitable rupture of association, the
certain loss of household articles, furniture, and the
like, which might have been of little account then, but
would be priceless treasures now. A man should be as
chary of deserting the home of his fathers as of chang-
ing his religion or of taking a second wife.

There is abundant material in these old account-
books to disprove the idea that life in this old tower
was necessarily dull, even for ladies in the eighteenth
century. The modern mind can scarcely brook the
notion of existence without a daily post and daily and
weekly journals. Nor was Sir Alexander indifferent to
what was passing in the outer world ; for here he pays
' John Park, paper cryer, for news and gasets which he
is to send me constantly.' The library shelves at this
day confirm the evidence of the account-books in prov-
ing that he laid out large sums in the purchase of
books. The lady of the house had her time fully
occupied by duties which might prove irksome enough
to dames of our day ; but they occupied her thoughts
and hands. And who may aspire to higher felicity
than is derived from the useful exercise of mind and
body ? Instead of ordering tons of goods from the
Army and Navy or Harrod's stores, she relied mainly
for supplies on her husband's home-farm — that ' board-
land' which was attached to every mansion, and
which may be traced in modern maps as the frequent
farm name ' Boreland ' — and upon her orchard and
garden for fruits, which she worked up with her own
hands into delicacies prepared according to immemorial

288 AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY LAIRD

recipes. For instance, there is scarcely an ancient tower
in Scotland, whether ruinous or still inhabited, near
which, if the ground has not all been ploughed or
grazed, you will not find the garden angelica growing
wild : not the coarse-growing British weed (Angelica
sylvestris), so common along our water-courses and
fragrant enough in its degree, but the more aromatic
garden angelica (A. archangelica), a native of northern
and eastern Europe, ' long cultivated for confectionery,'
as the botany hand-books record. Preserved angelica
still appears on up-to-date dinner- tables ; but who
cares whether it be there or not ? Whereas in olden
time its culture, the due season for cutting it, the craft
of preparing it, and the encomiums bestowed upon it
by polite guests, represented part, though a small part,
of the duties of housekeeping, year in year out.

As for the laird, time cannot have hung very heavy
on the hands which kept these accounts. Landowning
was a business calling. Although Sir Alexander em-
ployed a factor or agent, he dealt personally with his
tenants, collected his own rents, planned and supervised
improvements, and in his own writing entered every
transaction as it took place. Then there were the local
' courts ' to preside over, where justice was administered
under the existing hereditary jurisdiction — every lord
of a barony exercising authority within his territory.
It was the life that the poets have sighed for —

' Happy the man whose wish and care
A few paternal acres bound,
Content to breathe his native air
In his own ground.

DECEMBER 289

Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread,
Whose flocks supply him with attire ;
Whose trees in summer yield him shade,
In winter fire.'

Howbeit, trees were scarce in those early days; land-
owners were just beginning timidly and tentatively to
plant near their houses, and the neighbouring peat-moss
(few neighbourhoods were without one or more) was
relied on for fuel. Cheerless kindling, you say, and
covers the furniture with dust. True, madam, of peat
when burnt in a modern grate with front and bottom
draught ; but no other fuel so steady, none so fragrant,
upon an old-fashioned hearth-stone, which was the
regular fireplace in Scottish houses of every grade in
the days whereof I am maundering.

Let me turn aside to tell how the old manner was
brought before me only a few years ago. We were
fishing a moorland loch, an English friend and I ; it
came on a bluster of cold June rain, and we took
shelter in the house of him who looked after the boats.
His wife (who, by the by, bore the historic name of
Hester Stanhope) proposed to bake us some scones for
luncheon. Agreed, and down she went on her knees
to blow aside a pile of white peat ' stour ' (ashes) which
lay on the hearth. Underneath was the live red coal
which surprised my Southron companion to see. 'I
could have sworn that fire was out,' quoth he; and
continued to our hostess, ' How long has that fire been
lighted ? ' expecting her to say from five o'clock that
morning. I can see the good dame now as, still on her
knees, she looked round at him and replied with
T

290 AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY LAIRD

emphasis : ' It's just seeven-an'-twenty years since Rab
and me cam to this hoose, and the fire 's never been oot
sin' syne ! '

For more than a quarter of a century that humble
hearth had never been cold. Night and day, summer
and winter, shine and storm, it had yielded warmth and
fragrance, and the ' stour ' remained in its proper place,
distributed by no baffling draughts through iron bars.
Alas ! when I was in that room three months ago the
open hearth had been built up, and some stinking
Whitehaven coal was smouldering in an up-to-date
kitchen-range.

Now let me back to my theme, from which there is
the less excuse for diverging, because, on closer inspec-
tion, I find that on sundry occasions Sir Alexander
paid 'fraught' for a cargo of sea-coal from White-
haven.

In the year following his marriage and the appearance
of his first-born, the laird allowed himself to be ' ta'en
up wi' affairs o' the State/ standing for the county
against his neighbour, Colonel Vans of Barnbarroch,
and getting returned for the moderate outlay of about
twelve guineas. This entailed parting for a while from
his bonnie Jean. He set out on horseback for London,
with 111 guineas 'sealed up in a harn bag,' glad to
know that the election left no bitterness between
neighbours.

' To Coll. Vance's eldest son, when I gave him
my good advice about his behaviour &
manadgement going abroad for Bristoll &
New England, a broad piece Carolus . £1 3 0 '

DECEMBER 291

As member of Parliament, Sir Alexander had taken
the oath of allegiance to the 'wee bit German lairdie,'
overriding his allegiance to his feudal chief, the Earl of
Nithsdaill, who forfeited lands and title for his share
in the '15, and owed his life solely to the devotion of
his countess — sometime Winifred Herbert. Kenmure
was on and awa', but western Galloway lay remote
from the vortex which drew down so many chivalrous
houses. Sir Alexander's only references to the rising
are:—

'Returned from my intended journey to Edinbr.,
bein stopped by the Highlanders coming
to Leith. My expenses in that fruitlesse Sterling.
journey ....... £11 511'

And again : —

' To my lord Galloway for charitie to supplie

the prisonours at Prestoun . . . 10 15 0'

Other entries in that year of dolour betoken a peace-
ful tenor of life.

' 29 June. For a piece of painted satin, being

10| yards, for a nightgoune to my wife Sterling.

[what we should call an evening gown] .£200
To 10£ yards of green cotton satin to line it

with .... 190

Oct. 4. To 2 pounds of tea & canister payed

to my lord Galloway . . . . 2 10 0 '

A dish of tea must have been a rare luxury at this rate.
Mr. Graham mentions the year 1720 as about the time
when tea-drinking became common, but in 1726 the

292 AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY LAIRD

price paid to Lord Galloway was still as much as 14s.
a pound.

The monotony of country life was lightened by
strolling musicians and professors of other arts. Thus —

'May 22, 1725. To John Cowand who came
to keep my birthday with a great deal of
company & for musick . . . .£110

July 21, same year. To the Irish musick who

stayed a week 0100'

John Cowand had more than one string to his bow,
for on the above-mentioned occasion he received half
a crown as the price — surely a moderate one — of ' three
salmond.' A soothsayer was not wanting.

'Oct. 13, 1715. To one Mr Gordoun, a dumb
man of wonderf ull sagacity, who pretended
to foretell future events, in charity . . £0100'

In another book it is noted under the same date : —

' N.B. — That ane Mr. Gordoun, a highland gentleman both
deaf & dumb signed of my son Wm. that he would be a
very great man & would be of the order of the knights of
St. Andrew with a Green Bibbond, & that he should attain
to verie great things & would be a great Scholar.'

A couple of years later the ' Highland gentleman '
had been found out, and there is an entry of five
shillings given ' to Dumbie Gordoun, ane impostor
deserves nothing.' His forecast about the boy William
was about as wide of the mark as could be, seeing that
the subject of it became that one of my ancestors in
reflecting upon whom I can take the least pride. An

DECEMBER 293

'ill liver,' as the phrase goes, he dipped the estate
heavily, and his only title to distinction consists in
having become the father of three handsome girls, one
of whom attained distinction in the social and political
annals of the day as Jane, Duchess of Gordon. William's
shortcomings cannot have had their source in his
father's neglect. Manners as well as morals were well
looked after ; e.g. —

'Jan. 2, 1727. To my son William Ms New
Year's gift a quarter Carolus, for quitting
the bad custom of biting his nails . .£050

Oct. 26, 1 728. To my son William to encourage

him to keep from conversing with servants £0 50'

Sir Alexander had his little weaknesses also. He was
fond of cards, and seems to have been a shocking bad
player ; for, whereas there are frequent entries of
payment of money lost, chiefly to Brigadier Stewart
and 'my lady Southesque,' no note appears of his
winnings. Within three weeks of his death in 1730
he records —

'May 11. Lost to Mr. Alexr. Lockhart at

cards to my eternall shame & follie . . £-256'

To field-sports there is provokingly little direct
reference in these books. Hunting-saddles are a con-
stant subject of expense, and transactions about dogs
receive mention, as when Sir Alexander bestows half
a crown upon ' one my Lord Eglintoune sent to enquire
how my wife was, & brought me a greyhound & two
pair of Aberdeen stockings.' In 1724 there is an

294 AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY LAIRD

agreement with one David Murdoch of Cumnock ' to
breed [train] the dog Game to be a setter. He is to
have thirty pounds Scots [£2, 10s.] in all when the
dog is made.' It will be remembered, perhaps, that
this is the exact date of the well-known picture at
Thoresby Park, representing the Duke of Kingston, with
the star of the Garter on his coat, walking up to no less
than twelve pointers setting game and backing beauti-
fully. This picture is reputed to be the earliest
representation of the English pointer. Some years
earlier than this, Sir Alexander paid the modest sum of
£2, 15s. for ' a gun which Mr. Le Blanc recommends,'
and 8s. for 'hail shot and gunpowder' for the same.
But shooting was a precarious means of supplying the
larVier;.' pouting nets' were purchased for the better
securing %bi muir- fowl and partridges. Of the two
following entries on 28th July 1728, the first records
a casualty in the kennel.

'To Mr. Cutler for visiting my dog GUverpo
who I was afraid had got his leg broke
by a french beggar a red hair fellow
blind of one eye, a notorious cheat and
impostor £050

To expenses at a Court held at Druchtag
where I was mobd and insulted by John
M'Haffie, John Martin in Chilcarroch and
several others and was obliged to raise the
Court to have this exemplarlie punished
and to get jogs made . . . . 030'

Jogs, more correctly 'jougs,' were the Scottish equivalent
of English stocks, but were made of iron.

DECEMBER 295

Sir Alexander kept a good cellar, and had some
thirsty neighbours. If tea was scarce and dear, wine
was plentiful and cheap, and a laird who lived on
Solway shore need never want for French brandy in
the days of Dirk Hatteraick and his kind.

'May 9, 1723. Payed for fraught of two
trunks, 4 caises of wine burgundy &
champagne & a box of books to Win.
Tompson Master of the ship Potomack
of Irvine £220'

The two last entries in the expense book read
thus : —

' 12 Januar 1730. Spent of old wine three bottles, Mirrie's
wine four bottles ; 2 bottles of french white wine, two bottles
of Lisbon, 3 bottles of Malaga wine. Of Arack [rack rum
for punch] three bottles. Mrs. Vance [housekeeper] has two
bottles of Arack of what was given out in the cellar. Of
Rhenish wine, two bottles spent in kitchin: all this
when Garthland & his brother were here three nights
onlie.

'17th Januar. Spent when Brigadeer Stewart was here,
ten bottles of white wine, 4 bottles of french white wine, 5
more of Lisbon, 4 bottles of Malaga wine, one bottle and a
half of Rhenish wine.'

Generous living entailed its corollary penalty. Spring
blood-letting was one of the works of obligation in
the eighteenth century. ' Mr. Craufurd, chirurgeon,'
appeared regularly at that season, and on 5th June
1717 received a guinea 'for blooding my wife, Peggie
and me, and giving Peggie a vomit.' Poor little Peggie

296 AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY LAIKD

cannot have been more than five years old at this time,
but she survived to be Mrs. Carruthers of Dormont.
So deeply rooted was the belief in blood-letting as both
remedy and preventive, that people actually incurred
the trouble of letting blood from their cattle. Part of
the annual expense of making ready the English drove
was the fees of the cow-doctor for bleeding the nolt.
If Dr. Craufurd retained the confidence of his patients,
so did not another genius, who was called in to prescribe
for the laird —

'To Doctor Stevenson, whom I had called to
heali up my arm, didd me noe good but
worse than when he came to it . .£770'

Sir Alexander then sent for a certain Dr. Bazin, of
Liege, who came for a fee of 60 guineas and his ex-
penses, and stayed for 8 months and 6 days, furnishing
medicines at the rate of a shilling a day. Dr. Bazin
also received a fee of ten Carolus (£11, 10s.) 'for
waiting on my wife & the whole children in the small-
pox.' When he went away he left three guineas' worth
of drugs to be sent down the laird's throat, and carried
off Sir Alexander's second son ' to cure him & learn
Latin & French conform to a signed contract.' For
this Dr. Bazin was to be remunerated at the rate of
24 guineas a year. Considering the relative value of
money then and now, this expenditure certainly cannot
be considered as consistent with the alleged penury of
the Scottish gentry.

As an improving landlord, Sir Alexander had the
usual experience of one who meddles with agrarian use

DECEMBER 297

and wont. The land was mainly grazing, pastoral, and
unfenced ; but there were numerous crofts also, and no
improvement could be carried on without interfering
with these. The first step was to increase the size of
the holdings, so that a family might earn a fair living
off a farm, and this spelt eviction. It also meant the
erection of fences, the abolition of the ancient rights
of common pasturage and the old and wasteful 'runrig'
system of cultivation, which had been handed down
from primitive Celtic times. Now the herding of cattle
upon unfenced pasture was a constant source of em-
ployment to the rural population, who viewed with
intense displeasure the erection of dry-stone dykes.
Under the leadership of one Billy Marshall, of the
blood-royal of the gypsies, they formed themselves
into an association of 'Levellers,' whose business it
was to throw down the obnoxious fences. Billy had
deserted from the Scots Greys when serving under
Marlborough in Flanders, and his military experience
enabled him to impart a formidable character to this
organisation. Their nocturnal raids were not confined
to inanimate objects. Numerous entries in the laird's
accounts refer to proceedings against ' those who haked
& destroyed my cattle.'

The Levellers were not put down without difficulty ;
soldiers had to be marched into Galloway to quell the
rioting ; several men were killed, and in one encounter
at Cuiquha in the Stewartry, some two hundred
prisoners were taken, many of whom were consigned
to a fate more dreaded than death — banishment to the
plantations. Scraps of verse may still be gathered in

298 AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY LAIRD

the district, breathing the class bitterness engendered
by land enclosure : —

' Against the poor the lairds prevail

With all their wicked works,
Who will enclose both hill and dale,

And turn corn-fields to parks.
The lords and lairds they drive us out

From mailings where we dwell ;
The poor man cries, " Where shall we go ? "

The rich say, " Go to hell ! " '

Travelling was slow and difficult in Galloway before
the era of Macadam. The only mail road in the province
was the military one to Portpatrick, then called Port
Montgomerie, which was the chief line of communica-
tion with Ireland: once off that, travellers had to
follow the pack-horse tracks, which did not admit of
carriages on springs. Nevertheless Sir Alexander, be-
sides frequent visits to Edinburgh and his annual
journey to London for the parliamentary session, moved
about a good deal. Thus —

'Aug. 15, 1724. Returned from the west
country from seeing my lords Eglintoun,
Dundonald, Wigtoun & Loudoun, wheren
half-a-guinea given to my nephew Sandie Sterling.
Stewart is compted £16 6 0'

Lady Jean also took occasional jaunts, — to Edinburgh,
and to Moffat for the waters.

In 1720 Sir Alexander went farther afield. Having
paid £3 'to Baily Osburn for a blue coat to wear in
travelling/ he notes, ' 11 June. N.B. — That day begun
my journey to Aix-la-Chapelle.'

DECEMBER 299

Sterling.
'Dec. 11. Returned from Aix-la-Chapelle,

which journey cost . ..,:-•• . . £590 7 8
To cash laid out for books in my travells . 22 2 2£
Given in compliment to my wife for her extra-
ordinary care & good management of my
affairs in my absence abroad . . . 21 0 0 '

Too soon this happy, prosperous household was
wrapped in gloom. Beautiful Lady Jean had borne
seven children to Sir Alexander, and was expecting an
eighth when she fell into ill-health. They bled her on
6th April, on 4th and 18th May, poor thing! The
following touching note, in strange contrast with the
dry entries in the ledger, describes the result of such
treatment : —

'Saturday, 28 May 1726, Lady Jean Maxwell dyed be-
tween six & seven in the afternoon, having been delivered on
Sunday the 22 of a dead-born Son, being the second she had
born soe : took a High fever on Munday morning about three
o'clock, & died on the Saturday, to my unspeakable Losse &
greif, the only trouble she ever gave, the greatest wound to
my Spirit. She was but thirty-six years of age past the first
of December last. Wee was fourteen year & five Months
married. Never two lived more happily together; never
man had soe great a Losse of a Loving virtuous wife &
faithful friend and companion, endowed with the greatest
ornaments and qualities of bodie & Mind, capable of the
greatest affairs, the best counsellor I ever had, indefatigable
about any businesse she was employed in.'

The funeral was on a lavish scale of expenditure.
One payment in connection with it, including mourn-
ings for sundry persons, amounted to £216, 12s. 10d.,
and the total expenses cannot have been less than

300 AN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY LAIRD

£300. It is difficult to calculate what would be the
equivalent of this sum in the twentieth century ; im-
possible, indeed, if regard is had to the incredibly small
charges made by working tailors in the country. For
instance, John M' Morrow makes two frocks and two
pair of breeches for a couple of grooms for half a crown.
John Gun, in 1724, makes a suit of clothes to Pat
Monies for 3s. 4d. And here is

' James M'Kie taylor for making 3 frocks for
the servants at 10 pence per peice & 3 pair
breeches at 6 pence £040

Itt. for 8 skins to line there breeches at 5

pence per skin 030'

It does not appear that the cloth was supplied by Sir
Alexander, else surely the breeches would cost more to
make than the frocks. If the mourning clothes supplied
to household and retainers were no dearer than others,
the payment represents supply to a vast number of
persons. At all events, the expenditure on this doleful
occasion ill accords with the idea that a Scottish laird
was normally in straitened circumstances. There is far
more money about at the present day than there was
in the reign of George I., but it does not go nearly so far.
Sir Alexander did not survive his excellent wife for
many years. His books are full of mournful reference
to his loss.

'August 18, 1726. Payed to M'Guffock by
my dear wife's desire as the price of 60 Ib.
of soap. She was not certain if it was due
or not, but out of her justice would err on
the safe side £1 10 0 '

DECEMBER 301

He was not an old man — probably not more than
fifty — but his health was breaking; and the remedies
he sought from divers ' chirurgeons ' — bleeding and
powerful drugs- — hastened the end. In August 1729
he paid 3s. ' to one Wallace for a shoe to my right foot,
big swelled/ and in May following he was laid beside
his bonnie Jean in the roofless chapel of Kirkmaiden
by the sea, where the winds and waves, the curlew and
the black-backed gull, chant ceaseless requiem. The
last payment entered in his beloved cash-book, only ten
days before his demise, was 7s. l(Hd. for 2£ yards of
muslin ' for two aprons to Peggie.'

The impression received from an examination of
these venerable volumes is that of a cheerful affectionate
family inhabiting a comfortable home, finding ample
occupation in the affairs of their own neighbourhood,
yet not indifferent to what was moving in the outer
world. A recent authority has pronounced the books
of the period to have been few and dull. Well, it was
the age of Addison and Steele, Jonathan Swift and
Alexander Pope, not to mention a few others who drove
the quill to some purpose. Sir Alexander was a great
book-buyer, for which the present writer has daily cause
for gratitude. Probably the sunlight lay as broad upon
his landscape as it does upon that of men of his class
in the present day.

302 A WINTER STORM

LXIX

After lulling the land with preposterously balmy air
A winter f°r gix weeks on end, Nature changed her
storm mood with a vengeance on Saturday, Decem-
ber 26, 1908. Summoning an angry easterly and south-
easterly gale to accentuate the sudden fall of
temperature, she assumed an aspect of appalling
gloom. Twilight reigned from sunrise to sunset;
snow feegan to fall in the night, drifting outrageously,
so that from Saturday morning till Thursday following
we were entirely cut off' from the rest of the world.
Never, not even in the great snow of January 1895,
have I seen such rapid drifting. A singular feature of
the storm was that, although on the west coast of Scot-
land it was accompanied by furious easterly and south-
easterly gales, in corresponding latitudes on the east
coast, at Alnwick, for instance, snow fell to the depth
of about eighteen inches without a breath of wind,
wherefore there was no drifting.

The rigour of those days told with remarkable
severity upon winged creatures. In districts so far
apart as Edinburgh and Torquay observers have
recorded a premonitory southward movement of
various species in great numbers, taking place before
snow began to fall; and during the storm my own
woods swarmed with blackbirds and thrushes in extra-
ordinary quantity.

One is accustomed to regard the common partridge
as one of our hardiest native birds, yet many of them
succumbed in the snow. Several were picked up dead

DECEMBER 303

— not from hunger, apparently, for the storm only
lasted three days, and the crops of most of them were
crammed with young grass; nor was the cold so
intense, although aggravated by the gale, as to account
for their death. Probably they were buried in drifts,
although sheep have been known to live three weeks
under the snow, and the blood temperature of a
partridge is several degrees higher than a sheep's.

It was interesting to watch the businesslike proceed-
ings of the starlings. Unlike their cousins, the rooks
and jackdaws, these most intelligent birds do not nest
in colonies, but at all other times of the year they are
intensely gregarious. Let it be said in passing that
their passion for company of their own kind ought to
prevail upon humane persons never to keep a solitary
caged starling, as is too often done, seeing how greatly
the penalty of imprisonment is intensified for creatures
of social temperament and habit.

Well, in these fierce last days of December the
starlings went about in gangs of twenty or thirty,
alighting on lawns where the snow lay thinnest. Form-
ing a regular line, they worked off the snow systema-
tically and pecked the tender grass and clover shoots.
Taking pity on a party of the little rascals which were
working just under our breakfast-room window, we
flung out a savoury mixture of porridge and kedgeree.
Immediately they sent one of their number to report
upon the nature of the consignment, the main body
continuing to prod under the snow. Now a blackbird
would have set to gobbling without hesitation, but a
blackbird is a child in intellect and wariness beside a

304 A WINTER STORM

starling. The scout starling ran up to the food, sidled
round and round it, approached it, retreated, approached
it again, seemed most strongly tempted to sample it,
but resisted, and flew back to his comrades with his
report. Evidently he told them he could not be sure
about the nature of the supply; it looked all right,

smelt particularly well, but ; so they sent him

back, the same bird, for a fresh inspection. He went
through the same performance, circling round the
alluring substance, all but touching it, never quite.
Finally he made up his mind that it wouldn't do —
better leave it alone, he reported ; and no more atten-
tion was paid to it, the hungry little party continuing
to burrow in the snow for insipid green stuff, while the
nutritive and tasty offering we had made was declined
with, or without, thanks. It is a good thing to be
clever, but it is as possible for starlings as for other
people to be too clever by half.

THE END

Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to His Majesty
at the Edinburgh University Press

Telegrams : and Maddox Street

' Scholarly. London.

~ . , Bond Street, London, W.

Telephone :
No. 1883 May fair. September, 1909.

Mr. Edward Arnold's

Autumn Announcements,
1909.

MEMORIES OF FIFTY YEARS.

By MARY JEUNE (LADY ST. HELIER).
With Illustrations. One Volume. Demy Svo., cloth. 153. net.

Lady Jeune's salon was the rendezvous of all that was best in
English society during the last thirty years of the nineteenth
century. To her house in Harley Street flocked notabilities in every
walk of life — statesmen, politicians, men distinguished in literature,
science, and art, famous generals and naval officers, legal luminaries,
and apostles of culture. It would probably be difficult to mention
a single person of distinction of either sex who had not at some time
or other been present at her receptions, sure of meeting there the most
interesting ' lions ' of the day. To European and American
visitors, Lady Jeune's parties stood for the English counterpart
of the brightest French salons, and their popularity remained
unabated after Sir Francis Jeune was raised to the peerage as
Baron St. Helier, until his death caused them to be discontinued.

It can truly be asserted that Lady St. Helier's ' Reminiscences '
form an integral part of the history of the Nineteenth Century, if
the social life of England counts for anything in its pages. No
mere summary of the book would give a clue to the interest of its
contents ; this is the grand vin of society, sparkling and unique.

LONDON : EDWARD ARNOLD, 41 & 43 MADDOX STREET, W.

2 Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements.

SOUTH AFRICAN MEMORIES.

By THE LADY SARAH WILSON.
With Illustrations. One Volume. Demy 8vo., cloth. 155. net.

These entertaining memories of society, war, and sport in South
Africa, covering a period from 1895 to I9°4» are written from diaries
kept at the time, and contain many novel and interesting episodes.
The author tells us that everything of interest that has happened to
her in life has been in connection with Africa : she was there at the
time of the Jameson Raid ; she was present in the siege of Mafeking
during the war, an episode that has never yet been adequately de-
scribed ; she has hunted lions in the vast country north of the Zambesi ;
she has been nearly drowned in the Nile; and in Africa she has made
some of her best friends. Lady Sarah Wilson has often proved the
truth of the saying that ' adventures are to the adventurous,' and no
more attractive motto could be found for such a volume as the present.
The book is dedicated to the memory of her sister Georgina, Countess
Howe, whose health and life were sacrificed in labours undertaken on
behalf of the Yeomanry Hospitals during the war.

HOUSEBOAT DAYS IN CHINA.

By J. O. P. BLAND,

AUTHOR OF ' LAVS OF FAR CATHAY,' ETC.

Illustrated by WILLIAM STRAIGHT.
With Map. One Volume. Medium 8vo., cloth. 155. net.

To charter a houseboat and make an expedition along a river
' up country ' is one of the favourite recreations of British residents
in China. Mr. Bland is an old hand at the game, and knows how
to accept its drawbacks with philosophy, while enjoying the pleasures
to the full. Sport is the ostensible object of these expeditions, and
Mr. Bland had many exciting days in the pursuit of duck, geese,
and snipe. Even more entertaining than his sporting episodes are his
shrewd descriptions and comments on the types of Chinamen he
came across, from the Lowdah who managed the boat, and his crew,
to the Mandarin and the Missionary. The Ethics of Houseboat
Travel forms an amusing chapter, and however far he journeys he
cannot escape ' The Eternal Feminine.' Thoughts on books and
poetry intrude themselves among recollections of smuggling and the
coming of railways. The volume winds up with a subject ever
present to the Briton in China — reflections ' On Coming Home.'

The volume is charmingly illustrated by Mr. William Straight,
every chapter having appropriate head-pieces and terminals, while
there are a large number of delicate vignettes in the text.

Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements

SIKHIM AND BHUTAN.

of Hwentg JtJeare on tbe 1Rortb=j£astern

frontier of Snoia.
By JOHN CLAUDE WHITE, C.I.E.,

LATE POLITICAL AGENT IN SIKHIM.

With 7 Photogravure and numerous other Full-page Illustrations and a Map.

One Volume. Royal 8vo., cloth. 2 is. net.

Until the recent expedition to Lhasa, the north-east frontier of
India attracted much less attention than the north-west, and the
regions of Sikhim and Bhutan have remained shrouded in the
isolation of inaccessible mountains and shadowed by the proximity
of mysterious Tibet. This independence of the outer world makes
their inhabitants a most interesting study. The primitive state of
society, the influence of the priests and monks, and the way in which
the gradual spread of British influence was received, read like a
chapter of history from another world. For twenty years Mr. John
Claude White has been the one Englishman who has had the key to
these remote countries, conducting missions to their rulers, travers-
ing their fastnesses from end to end, studying the people and their
curious customs. He has had to combine the energy of the explorer
with the arts of the diplomatist and administrator, and has been
responsible for such measure of development as has been possible of
achievement. The present volume owes much to its illustrations,
for the author is an expert and enthusiastic photographer, and his
zeal has induced him to carry a large camera into spots where most
people would find even a Kodak a burden.

WITH A PRE-HISTORIC PEOPLE.

Sbe a*fcf=fcu*gu of JBritfsb East Sfrtca.

By W. SCORESBY ROUTLEDGE, M.A., OXON,

And KATHARINE ROUTLEDGE (born PEASE), M.A.

TRIN. COLL., DUBLIN.

With a great many Illustrations. Medium Svo. i8s. net.
This is the first published account of one of the most interesting
of African peoples, previously unknown to white men, who have
lately come under British rule. The object of the authors, who
have just returned from a prolonged sojourn amongst them, is to
describe primitive life as it really exists, and the book should be of
great value to those who are interested in our Empire and its
responsibilities as well as to those of more scientific tastes. It should
also prove of material assistance to Government officials, settlers,
and travellers in the country described, enabling them to understand
native thought and custom. 'The great interest of the subject,'
say the authors, ' lies in the fact that the A-ki-ku-yu of to-day are
at the point where our ancesters stood in earliest times.' There are
over a hundred pages of illustrations from the authors' photographs.

4 Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements

THE SALMON RIVERS AND LOCHS
OF SCOTLAND.

By W. L. CALDERWOOD,

INSPECTOR OF FISHERIES TO THE FISHERY BOARD FOR SCOTLAND.
AUTHOR OF ' THE LIFE OF THE SALMON.'

With Illustrations and Maps of the Principal Rivers. One Volume.
Demy 8vo., cloth. 2 is. net.

Also a Large Paper Edition de Luxe, limited to 250 copies, on hand-made
paper. Handsomely bound. One Volume. Quarto. £2 25. net.

This comprehensive and valuable work gives a complete account
of the rivers and lochs of Scotland frequented by salmon. The
author has personally visited every important river described, and
possesses unequalled knowledge of his subject.

Among the matters discussed in the book are the boundaries and
fisheries of estuaries ; obstructions and sources of pollution in the
rivers ; fish passes and croys ; means adopted for maintaining the
water supply ; descriptions of angling waters ; ownership of the dif-
ferent fisheries ; angling obtainable at hotels ; records of the annual
catch on various fisheries ; influence of temperature on the salmon ;
stories of great ' days ' on famous rivers ; the scenery of the river-
valleys, etc., etc.

The book is well illustrated, and contains several maps, specially
drawn on the scale of 2 inches to the mile, to show the different
fisheries on such important rivers as the Tweed, Tay, Dee,
Spey, etc.

A FIFTH SERIES OF
MEMORIES OF THE MONTHS.

By the Right Hon. Sir HERBERT MAXWELL, Bart.,

AUTHOR OF ' SCOTTISH GARDENS,' ETC.

With Photogravure Illustrations. Large Crown 8vo., cloth, js. 6d.

The pleasure given by each fresh instalment of Sir Herbert
Maxwell's ' Memories of the Months ' continues unabated, and the
welcome accorded to the Fourth Series was such that a large circle
of readers may be confidently predicted for the Fifth.

Every year rings new changes on the old order of Nature, and the
observant eye can always find fresh features on the face of the Seasons.
Sir Herbert Maxwell goes out to meet Nature on the moor and loch,
in garden and forest, and writes of what he sees and feels. This is
what gives his work its abiding charm, and makes these memories
fill the place of old friends on the library bookshelf.

Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements 5

THE COTTAGE HOMES OF ENGLAND.

Drawn by HELEN ALLINGHAM,
and Described by STEWART DICK.

With 64 Full-page Coloured Plates from Pictures never before reproduced.
In One Volume. 8vo., cloth. 2 is. net.

Also a Large Paper Edition, limited to 500 copies for the British Empire.
Handsomely bound, with the Plates artistically mounted. £2 2s. net.

Mrs. Allingham's pictures of English rural life and scenery are
already famous. She possesses a rare power of expressing the
incomparable beauty of the commons, gardens, and cottages of
England, and each drawing forms a perfect little idyll in colour.
The counties of Surrey, Sussex, and Kent naturally provide a
wealth of charming subjects for the volume, and examples are also
given of cottages in Cheshire, Wiltshire, Dorset, Devon, the Isle of
Wight, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, etc.

Mr. Stewart Dick's letterpress gives an extremely interesting
account of the history and construction of the ancient cottages and
farmhouses for which English country districts are conspicuous.
Among the contents are chapters on the Evolution of the Cottage,
the Great Building Time, the Structure, Tiled and Thatched
Cottages, Mud Cottages, Stone Cottages of the Cotswolds, Farm-
houses, Inns, and Old Gardens.

TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING.

By OWEN JONES.

With Numerous Illustrations from Photographs by the Author. One
Volume. Demy 8vo., cloth. IDS. 6d. net.

The author, who was educated at Marlborough and Oxford Uni-
versity, being reluctant to follow a conventional pursuit, took up the
occupation of a Gamekeeper as a means of livelihood. After twelve
years' experience he feels that he is thoroughly acquainted with his
subject, and that the public may be interested to read a record of
what he has seen and learned in the course of his duties. As regards
game, Mr. Owen Jones gives many a wrinkle about partridges,
pheasants, hares, rabbits, and wild fowl, that may be studied with
advantage by the owner or tenant of a shooting. There are chapters
on vermin, trespassers and poachers, and the great question of foxes.

Some very attractive reminiscences are given of ' My Dogs ' ;
while ' My First Shoot,' ' My Brother Keepers,' 'Tips and Tippers,'
present certain aspects of sport from an original and novel point of

6 Mr. Edward A mold's A utumn A nnouncements

IN A YORKSHIRE GARDEN.

By REGINALD FARRER,

AUTHOR OF 'Mv ROCK -GARDEN,' 'ALPINES AND BOG PLANTS,' ETC.

With Illustrations. Demy 8vo., cloth. los. 6d. net.

In his latest book on the garden, Mr. Farrer will delight his many
readers by conveying them round all his own provinces, with
accounts of this plant and that as he goes. Though less technical
and severe than ' My Rock- Garden,' his new book will be found more
practical and helpful than ' Alpines and Bog Plants,' in so far as it
deals with the garden as it is, its ups and downs and difficulties as
they lie before us, rather than with any purely abstract and visionary
ideal of bog-garden or mountain-slope. In especial, will those who
have long waited for help on the subject be delighted to hear that
Mr. Farrer has at last dealt exhaustively and practically with the
Moraine Garden ; nor, though rock-plants are, of course, Mr. Farrer's
particular friends, has he neglected other parts of the garden, but has
many words to say on shrubs, and herbaceous treasures, and
bamboos, and the wild garden. Let the names of a few chapters
give a hint of the rest : The Old Garden ; The Piz Languard and
the Piz Padella ; Among the Primulas ; The Old Moraine ; Round
the Frames ; The Cliff-garden ; The Terrace-wall ; Alice's Garden
in the Wood.

A HANDBOOK OF
ENGLISH LITERATURE.

By C. E. BAINES.

Cvown 8vo.t cloth.

This volume covers the entire period of the history of our
literature down to the close of the Victorian Age, with the deaths of
Swinburne and Meredith — but the period before Chaucer is only
briefly dealt with. Special care has been taken that, while the book
contains all the names, dates, etc., that a text-book should contain,
it should be as little cumbered as possible with the names of writers
who ' deserve a passing mention.' Occasionally a typical author or
work is dealt with at some length, even though this involves a
sacrifice of proportion. This seems, on the whole, the best way, in
a short book, to give the reader a general idea of any particular
period without employing undesirably vague generalities.

Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements 7

A CENTURY OF EMPIRE, 1801-1900.

By the Right Hon. Sir HERBERT MAXWELL, Bart., P.C.,

AUTHOR OF ' THE LIFE OF WELLINGTON,' ETC.

Volume I., from 1801 to 1832. With Photogravure Portraits. About
400 pages. Demy 8vo., cloth. 145. net.

NOTE. — The work will be completed in Three Volumes, which will be
issued at intervals of about six months.

The great task which Sir Herbert Maxwell has undertaken, and of
which the first instalment is now offered to the public, is the history
of the British people during the nineteenth century. It is a history
in the broadest interpretation of that term ; the back-bone of it is
political, as was inevitable in the case of a constitutionally governed
country, but all the principal aspects of the national life are duly
dealt with in his closely knit narrative. Sir Herbert Maxwell writes
with the authority conferred by a union of wide knowledge and with
practised literary skill, and the insight gained by an active and varied
participation in the public affairs of his own time. To these quali-
fications he adds an intimate familiarity with that side of social and
political history which is embedded in countless volumes of the letters
and memoirs of the leading personages of the time. From this
source arises what forms perhaps the most characteristic excellence
of his narrative, the many dramatic touches which enable us to follow
the progress of events, not only in the light of subsequent knowledge,
but as they presented themselves to the actors at the time.

EDMUND GARRETT.

a Memoir.
By E. T. COOK,

AUTHOR OF ' RIGHTS AND WRONGS OF THE TRANSVAAL WAR,' JOINT EDITOR or RUSKIN'S
WORKS, ETC.

With Portrait. One Volume. Demy 8vo., cloth. IDS. 6d net.

Edmund Garrett was a journalist of genius, and his short but
brilliant career was tinged with romance. Going to South Africa,
in the first instance temporarily for reasons of health, he eventually
settled there, and so it came about that at the time of the Jameson
Raid, of which he wrote a singularly lucid and convincing account
in ' The Story of an African Crisis,' he was Editor of the Cape Times.
Henceforward he was involved in the turmoil of events of world-
wide significance, and it was no small matter that his post should
have been occupied by one so clear-sighted and courageous.

8 Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements

THE LIFE OF
SIR SYDNEY WATERLOW, BART.

By GEORGE SMALLEY, M.A.,

AUTHOR OF ' STUDIES OF MEN,' ETC.

With Portrait. One Volume. Demy &vo.t cloth. los. 6d. net.

There have never been lacking in the City of London men of the
type which is associated in the popular mind with the name of
Richard Whittington, and the story of their early struggles and
gradual rise to wealth and distinction can never fail to appeal to the
imagination. Sir Sydney Waterlow was one of Whittington's most
eminent successors ; from small beginnings and slender resources he
created one of the greatest printing businesses in the whole country,
and in due course he arrived at the highest distinction which London
can bestow, the office of Lord Mayor. But his chief title to remem-
brance is his unequalled success as a practical philanthropist, and at
the present time this side of his strenuously active life is probably
the most interesting and valuable, more especially the story — fully
told in these pages — of his wise and far-reaching work in connection
with the housing of the poor.

TEN GREAT AND GOOD MEN.

Lectures by HENRY MONTAGU BUTLER, D.D., D.C.L.,

MASTER OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE.

One Volume. Crown 8vo., cloth. 6s. net.

These studies are not, in the ordinary sense of the word, bio-
graphical ; the object of the author was in each case to give his
audience, in broad outline and with as little as might be of historical
fact and detail, some understanding of the mind and soul of a great
figure by whom the destinies of the country had been moulded.
Thus, while he has illustrated his studies by characteristic examples
of the great public utterances in which the aspirations and ideals of
his heroes are formulated, he has also enlivened them by recording
those incidents which, trivial in themselves, reveal the personality of
the man behind the trappings of the statesman. For his purpose,
to take a single example, Pitt dominating the House of Commons
with his eloquence is scarcely more interesting than Pitt romping
with a roomful of children. The skilled and sympathetic employ-
ment of this method has resulted in a singularly charming gallery of
portraits.

Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements 9

A HISTORY OF
THE LONDON HOSPITAL.

By E. W. MORRIS,

SECRETARY OF THE LONDON HOSPITAL.

Illustrated. One Volume. Cloth. 6s. net.

The history of this great Hospital is not only interesting on
account of the particular incidents of its long and honourable career,
and the prominent men who have been connected with it, but also
provides a typical example of the way in which our splendid medical
charities have grown and developed. Beginning with a survey of
the condition of Medicine and Surgery in 1741, the date of the
foundation of the Hospital, the author describes its early days in
Goodman's Field, the move to Whitechapel, and the gradual growth
during the last hundred and fifty years. He then deals with the
system of Administration, Finance, and Management, the relation of
the Hospital to Medical and Surgical Science, the Medical School,
and the Development of Sick Nursing. The reader is initiated into
some noteworthy customs and ceremonies of the Hospital, and some
account is given of the men whose names stand out in its history.
The author has enjoyed exceptional advantages in writing his book,
through his position as Secretary of the Hospital, and has collected
some valuable materials for illustrating it from sources not generally
accessible.

A GREAT BISHOP
OF ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO:

ffiefng a Sfcetcb of tbe OLifc of JBfsbop Doraleg.
By the Rev. H. H. JEBB,

RECTOR OF STREATHAM.

Crown Svo. 55. net.

This book has considerable historical interest. It touches on several
present problems, including the condition of the Welsh Church,
Passive Resistance, and the immigration of Roman Catholics.
Overton, the historian, says that Bishop Horsley was regarded as
far and above all other contemporary writers on the side of the
Church. The author possesses the Bishop's private letters, and
information hitherto unpublished.

io Mr, Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements

HIGH ALBANIA.

By M. EDITH DURHAM,

AUTHOR OF ' THE BURDEN OF THE BALKANS ' AND ' THROUGH THE LANDS OF THE SERB."

Illustrated from the Author's Sketches. One Volume. Demy 8vo.
145. net.

No writer on the Balkan peoples displays more intimate know-
ledge and sympathy than Miss Durham, and it is fortunate that she
should have taken up her pen again at the present moment when so
much attention is focussed on Turkish affairs, for the warlike and
independent Albanians are nominally within the Ottoman Empire,
despite the fact that there is no conscription and Albanians cannot
be tried by Turkish law. Miss Durham's new volume is the first
book to deal with the whole district, and is written mainly for the
purpose of recording manners and customs that will soon be extinct,
and which belong to a very early period of the world's history. The
humour and spirit of tolerance that distinguish her other works is
again present, and the author contributes her own very effective
illustrations.

A SCAMPER THROUGH THE
FAR EAST.

5nclu&tn0 a Visit to tbe d&ancbutian JBattlefiel&e.
By Major H. H. AUSTIN, C.M.G., D.S.O., R.E.,

AUTHOR OF ' WITH MACDONALD IN UGANDA,' ETC.

With Illustrations and Maps. One Volume. Demy Svo., cloth. 155. net.

Major Austin is a keen-eyed and practised observer, with a
remarkable flair for the minor details and incidents which make a
narrative of travel pictorial and lively. The story of his scamper
across Siberia, and through China, Corea, and Japan, would have
been well worth telling even if he had enjoyed no privileges and
experiences of an exceptional character ; but the record of this
accomplished soldier's visit, in the company of veteran Japanese

Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements n

officers, to the scenes of the great battles in Manchuria, and to the
approaches to Port Arthur, raises his book to an altogether higher
plane of interest. Moreover, he was fortunate enough to be present
at some manoeuvres carried out, on a grand scale, by Japanese
troops under the eyes of the Mikado himself, and to take part as a
guest in the accompanying festivities. Major Austin's knowledge of
the points of interest to look out for, and his trained eye for resem-
blances and contrasts with similar operations carried on in other
countries, have enabled him to describe the spectacle with exceptional
vividness and force.

TURKEY IN TRANSITION.

By G. F. ABBOTT,

AUTHOR OF 'THE TALE OF A TOUR IN MACEDONIA,' 'THROUGH INDIA WITH THE PRINCE,' ETC.

With Illustrations. One Volume. Demy 8vo., cloth. ias. 6d. net.

Mr. Abbott's original intention was to write a book about the
present position of affairs in the Balkan States generally, but while
he was in Turkey collecting and amplifying his material he had the
good fortune to be an eye-witness of the counter-revolution — a
subject that he felt must be treated with all the fulness it deserves.
It not only afforded admirable material for the illustration of the
political conditions which caused it, and which will continue to
influence the situation, but it also gave him a splendid opportunity
for dramatic writing. The Advance of the Macedonian Army on
Constantinople, the Siege, the Capture of the City, the Fall of Abdul
Hamid and his subsequent fate — all these events could not be
spoilt by the dullest pen, let alone one so racy and graphic as
Mr. Abbott's.

He has devoted, as well, considerable space to the social changes
that have come over Turkish life since the establishment of the
Constitution — e.g., the new Turkish woman. It was a rare chance,
and Mr. Abbott has made the most of it.

12 Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements

NEW NOVELS.

THE PASQUE FLOWER.

By JANE WARDLE.

AUTHOR OF 'MARGERY PIGEON,' 'THE LORD OF LATIMER STREET,' ETC.

Crown 8vo., cloth. 6s.

Jane Wardle's new story centres primarily in the search for a
monkish treasure supposed to be hidden at an ancient mansion in
the Wiltshire downs, and secondarily in the love affairs of a young-
man who is not able to make up his mind which of two girls he is
in love with. Such is the groundwork of a tale that is told in the
author's charming and original manner, and one that displays her
talent for character drawing to its fullest advantage.

A CRUCIAL EXPERIMENT.

By A. C. FARQUHARSON,

AUTHOR OF 'ST. NAZARIUS,' ETC.

Crown 8vo., cloth. 6s.

A distinguished composer and teacher of music, wealthy and
independent, but wholly wrapped up in his art, goes through the
form of marriage with a young girl possessing a genius for music, in
order to enable her to escape from hostile surroundings, and pursue
her true vocation under his roof. This is the crucial experiment.
Needless to say, it does not work out in the way contemplated by its
originator. The situation develops to a tragic climax ; the interest
of the book lies in the portrayal of the emotional conflicts which
rack the essentially noble and upright characters whose destinies are
involved.

THE BEGGAR IN THE HEART.

By EDITH RICKERT,

AUTHOR OF 'THE GOLDEN HAWK,' 'THE REAPER,' ETC.

Crown 8vo., cloth. 6s.

Miss Rickert has already shown in ' The Golden Hawk ' that she
possesses the true spirit of romance, and her new story will not
disappoint her large and increasing circle of admirers. The scene is
for the most part laid in London, and the characters are drawn with
remarkable charm and delicacy. It is a story that cannot fail to
give pleasure, and to remain long in the memory.

Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements 13

THE MYSTERY OF THE YELLOW
ROOM.

By GASTON LEROUX.

Crown 8vo., cloth. 6s.

This mysterious and fascinating story has not yet been published
in a form adapted for library reading, and it may be confidently
expected to prove the same wonderful success in this edition as in
the cheap sixpenny issue which made such an impression upon a
section of the public not repelled by small type and paper covers.
The book deserves to have a place beside the classic works of
Gaboriau, and can safely be recommended as one of the most
thrilling mysteries of modern fiction.

ORPHEUS WITH HIS LUTE.

Stories of tbe TJClorlo's Springtime.
By W. M. L. HUTCHINSON,

AUTHOR OF ' THE GOLDEN PORCH,' ETC.

Illustrated. Crown 8vo., cloth. 53.

In this book some of the earliest and most beautiful of Greek
myths are presented under the guise of stories told to the child Orpheus
by the Muses, whom he meets on nine moonlight nights in their
woodland haunts. Thus, the first part, entitled ' The Making of
a Minstrel,' forms a ' Forest Night's Entertainment/ including,
among others, the legends of Prometheus, Pandora, the Coming of
Apollo to Delphi, Demeter and her Maiden, and the fortunes of
Cadmus and his house. The shorter second part deals with Orpheus
the Singer, and 'his half-regained Eurydice,' and takes us to the
Underworld, where the minstrel hears from the shades of ancient
heroes — Sisyphus, Ixion, Meleager — the tale of their crime or
misfortune. We are shown the realm of Pluto, not in the darker
colouring of Virgil's pencil, but as Greek imagination pictured it,
a shadowy land where souls dwell, as in Dante's Limbo, ' only so
far afflicted that they live Desiring without hope.' The fate of
Orpheus is reticently and simply told, and the story has the happiest
of endings — in the Elysian Fields.

14 Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements

A New and Cheaper Edition.

IN THE DESERT :
THE HINTERLAND OF ALGIERS.

By L. MARCH PHILLIPPS.
With Illustrations. One Volume. Crown 8vo. 6s. net.
The original edition of this interesting book being quite out of
print, it has been thought advisable to re-issue it in a cheaper form,
for the benefit of the numerous travellers who visit Algeria and the
Desert beyond. The volume provides an admirable supplement to
the guide-book, enlarging upon the life of the Desert Tribes, the scope
and meaning of their art, and the influence of natural surroundings
in shaping their destiny.

From a review in The Times '. — ' There are many who go to the Desert, but few are chosen. Mr.
Phillipps is one of the few. He sees, and can tell us what he has seen ; and reading him, we look
through his eyes and his sympathies are ours. He can be lyrical without irritating, and analytic
without boring.'

A New and Cheaper Edition.

RUTHLESS RHYMES FOR HEARTLESS
HOMES.

By Col. D. STREAMER (Captain HARRY GRAHAM).
A New and Cheaper Edition, with Additional Illustrations by Hon.

G. Gathorne- Hardy, and some New Rhymes.

One Volume. Oblong Crown 8vo., paper boards. 2s. 6d. net.

The steady and continuous sale of these Rhymes for over ten

years seems to indicate the permanent elements of popularity, that

bid fair to make them a classic of their kind. They have therefore

been reprinted in a more handy form, and the author has included

a few additional ' Ruthless Rhymes ' which were not in the earlier

editions. He has fortunately been able to enlist the assistance of the

original illustrator, whose style has matured considerably without

losing any of its quaint freshness.

A Popular Cheap Edition.

THE POEMS OF GEORGE CRABBE.

Edited by BERNARD HOLLAND,

AUTHOR OF 'IMPERIUM ET LIBERTAS,' 'LETTERS OF MARY SIBYLLA HOLLAND,' ETC.

With Photogravure Frontispiece. One Volume. Crown Svo.,

cloth. 35. 6d. net.

This edition of Crabbe's poems was originally issued with a
number of illustrations, but it is felt that the demand is rather for a
cheap well-printed standard volume than for a more costly and
ornamental edition.

Crabbe's readers are more numerous than ever, and it is hoped
that the present issue will bring his works within the reach of all.

Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements 15

THE THEORY OF STRUCTURES.

By R. J. WOODS, M.lNST.C.E.,

FELLOW AND FORMERLY ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ENGINEERING, ROYAL INDIAN ENGINEERING
COLLEGF., COOPER'S HILL.

With 157 Illustrations. Demy 8vo., cloth. ios. 6d. net.

The author deals with the design of masonry and steel structures,
as based upon the determination of the working stresses in them.
Various types of girders, with parallel chords, parabolic, and with
curved chords not parabolic, plate girders, arched ribs, and suspen-
sion bridges are in turn considered.

Other chapters are concerned with the strength of columns and
design of struts, riveted joints, and earth pressure, and a final
chapter is devoted to reinforced concrete construction.

The subjects are treated from a practical point of view, and a large
number of examples from everyday practice are worked out.
Although self-contained and independent, the volume forms a more
advanced continuation of the same author's previous book, 'The
Strength and Elasticity of Structural Members.'

THE GEOLOGY OF ORE-DEPOSITS.

By H. H. THOMAS and D. A. MACALISTER,

OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF GREAT BRITAIN.

Illustrated. Crown 8vo., cloth. 75, 6d. net.

This book forms the second volume in the Geological Series now
being issued under the general editorship of Dr. J. E. Marr, F.R.S., in
in which especial attention is paid to the economic aspect of Geology.

The authors here present as concisely as possible an account of the
various processes by which in nature local concentrations of metal-
liferous material have been brought about in such amounts and
under such conditions that the ores become commercially valuable.
Segregation from igneous magmas, pneumatolysis, hydatogenesis,
and metasomasis are first described ; next, precipitation from solution,
and sedimentary deposits ; and lastly, secondary changes in lodes.
The subject is one of great importance, not only to the student of
geology, but also to the practical mining expert, and the authors
have considered typical deposits of all the principal metals with
examples from various parts of the world.

A TEXT-BOOK OF
ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING.

By DR. ADOLF THOMALEN.
Translated by G. W. O. HOWE, M.Sc.,

SENIOR WHITWORTH SCHOLAR, LECTURER IN ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING AT THE
CITY AND GUILDS COLLEGE.

Second edition, revised and enlarged. With 454 Illustrations. Royal 8vo.,

cloth, 155. net.

The call for a second edition of Mr. Howe's translation of Dr.
Thomalen's ' Kurze Lehrbuch der Elektrotechnik ' shows that it has
successfully met the want for a good text-book to bridge the gap

1 6 Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements

between elementary books and specialized works on advanced
electrical engineering. Second and third year students will here find a
book dealing with the broad principles of electrical machinery without
entering into all the details of its practical construction and design.

In thoroughly revising the book for a second edition, the translator
has further added several valuable sections on the rise of tempera-
ture of electric motors under continuous and intermittent loads, on
the Rosenberg constant-current variable-speed dynamo, and on
six-phase rotary converters.

AN INTRODUCTION TO
THE THEORY OF OPTICS.

By ARTHUR SCHUSTER, Pn.D., Sc.D., F.R.S.,

HONORARY PROFESSOR -OF PHYSICS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER.

Second Edition. With 180 Illustrations. Demy 8vo., cloth. 155. net.
The second edition of Prof. Schuster's introduction to the study of
the advanced theory of optics has had the advantage of complete
and thorough revision by the author. Among the new matter added
may be especially mentioned the fuller account of Michelson's and
other methods for the absolute determination of wave-lengths, and
the direct comparison of the lengths so determined with the French
standard metre.

ELEMENTARY PHYSIOLOGY
FOR TEACHERS AND STUDENTS.

By W. B. DRUMMOND, M.B., C.M., F.R.C.P.E.,

MEDICAL OFFICER AND LECTURER ON HYGIENE TO THE EDINBURGH PROVINCIAL COMMITTEE

FOR TRAINING TEACHERS.
AUTHOR OF ' AN INTRODUCTION TO CHILD STUDY," ETC.

With Illustrations. Crown 8vo., cloth. 25. 6d.

This work differs from the usual type of text-book on Elementary
Anatomy and Physiology in several important particulars. In the first
place special reference is made throughout the book to the differences
between children and grown people. For example, there are special
sections dealing with the diet of children, with the peculiarities of
the child's skeleton, and with the nervous system in childhood.

In the second place, those organs and systems are described most
fully which are of special importance in reference to the care of
children. Thus, the skeleton and muscles are described in greater
detail than usual in works of the same size in reference to physical
training. The effect of exercise on the different organs of the body
is discussed. Considerable space, as might be expected in a book
intended for teachers, is devoted to the nervous system.

Lastly, while the work does not deal directly with either hygiene
or education, the bearing of physiology on these subjects has been
kept in view throughout.

LONDON : EDWARD ARNOLD, 41 & 43 MADDOX STREET, W.

Los Angeles
This book is DUE on the last date stamped below.

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