NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
53
measure is shelved. Over and over again has the project of enforcing an absolute
preservation of all insectivorous birds been before the Chambers, been considered
by ministers, and urged by prefects and syndics ; but invariably it has come to
nothing through the fear of displeasing the electorate and interfering with the
pleasures of the mob."
The preservation of birds in the British Isles is usually one of the subjects dis-
cussed during meetings of the British Association at the Conferences of Delegates
of the Corresponding Societies, but Ouida brings before us a matter not hitherto
touched upon, I believe, at those Conferences, the desirability of co-operation for
this end, not merely between the various districts of the British Isles, but between
the nations of northern and southern Europe.—T. V. Holmes.
Birds in the Winter.—Whenever we are passing through an unusually
severe winter, paragraphs in the newspapers mention the abundance of seagulls
far inland, and of shy, country-loving birds in town parks and suburban gardens.
It appears to me that some interesting information about the habits of birds in
winter would be obtained, if members of the Essex Field Club living in rural,
suburban, and town houses, would not only throw out food, but would compare
notes on the effects of severe weather when unusually prolonged, in attracting
birds to their gardens not usually to be seen there. For example, my own house
fronts Greenwich Park, and birds might fly to it from the fields around Eltham with-
out passing any repulsive mass of houses. But while there is plenty of open space to
the east and south-east, on the west the ground is mainly occupied with town houses
and gardens. In mild or moderately severe winters, in which frosts are seldom
thoroughly continuous for more than a week, the birds picking up food in my
garden are mainly sparrows, though robins, thrushes, blackbirds, chaffinches, and
great tits are not uncommon. But when a frost is severe and prolonged enough
to allow of skating in the parks, two or three starlings appear, though I have
never noticed any in mild winters or at other times of year, and become more and
more numerous daily during the continuance of the frost. I counted one morn-
ing at the end of January a flock of between forty and fifty, all feeding at once,
and quite outnumbering even the sparrows. Now blackbirds, thrushes, and
chaffinches are all more commonly seen in severe winters than at other times ;
but, whatever the season, they come as individuals or in pairs, and not, like
starlings, in a flock. It would be interesting to know what the experiences of
other members are as to the birds which specially or solely visit their premises in
the winter.—T. V. Holmes, Greenwich Park, February 14th, 1895.
Coleosporium senicionis (FORMERLY KNOWN as Peridermium pini).—A
specimen of this fungus has been sent to me by our member, Mr. Rowland T.
Cobbold, of Dedham. A Weymouth pine in his garden was so infested with this
fungus that the ground was coloured yellow by the spores from it. This fungus is by
no means common. It is, I am told, one of the fungi which proceed through an
alternation of generations. It attacks, as "host-plants," one or more species of
Senecio (S. jacobaea, S. vulgaris, etc.), upon which its spores develop into the form
known as Undo senecionis.—J. C. Shenstone, Colchester, May, 1895.
Ancient Mortar-stone or Corn-crusher and Roman Flue-tiles, from
Epping Forest.—In reference to the globular stone which I exhibited at the
meeting of the Club on February 24th, 1894 (E. N. viii., pp. 48, 49), the officials
of the Society of Antiquaries have very kindly examined it, together with pieces
of tile, which I have also found in the Forest. Mr. W. H. St. John Hope
courteously writes me as follows :