286
NOTES.—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
paper was illustrated by a large number of lantern-slides, diagrams and maps.
It will be published in full in the Essex Naturalist (Vol. xvi., pp. 1-25).
During the reading of the paper, Prof. Meldola occupied the chair.
A highly appreciative discussion on the matters referred to in the paper was
carried on by Professor Meldola. Mr. Christy, Mr. Shenstone, Mr. W. Cole, Mr.
Groves (President of the Toynbee Natural History Society), Mr. Linder, Mr.
John Spiller, and others. Mr. Dymond and Mr. Dent replied.
A cordial vote of thanks to the authors concluded the meeting.
NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
BIRDS.
Bird-Life, Plants and Insects on Railways.—Mr. T.
V. Holmes has directed attention to an article in The Times of
December 7th, 1907, on the subject of birds and railways. The
writer of the article remarks that the slopes of railway cuttings
and embankments, and the strips of land which border the
courses of lines, present in many cases exactly those natural
features which birds like best, as well as a freedom from dis-
turbance at nesting time hardly to be found elsewhere. Birds
and animals soon learn that the trains, though noisy, are harm-
less, and that the fenced-off margins of the railways form a
sanctuary into which horses and cattle never come, and which is
seldom entered by boys. Steep cuttings, he adds, do not, on the
whole, offer many advantages to birds ; "they are apt to be
damp, cold, and bare of surface, and afford little of the sheltering
cover which most of the smaller birds love." Stretches of
embankment, on the other hand, are often as perfectly adapted
to the needs of the smaller birds as if they had been constructed
with their special interests in view. "Warm, well-drained
slopes, covered with tussocky grass and many kinds of flowery
herbage, supply exactly the kind of nesting-site which is loved
by the ground-building species." Skylarks are particularly fond
of nesting on the upper slopes of a grassy and flower-grown
embankment that faces the south or west, the birds showing
absolute unconcern at the trains running within a few feet of
them. Many examples are given of the birds which are
specially attracted by this or that kind of land within railway
enclosures. But, as the writer remarks, "the traveller by train
has, as a rule, little suspicion of the unusual wealth of bird-life
which is concentrated upon the railway line at many points of