COUNTRY LIFE

Weeds and Prairies The other day I met an inspector under the County Council, busy at the work of looking for noxious weeds on farm and other land. He found glaring examples of the utter neglect of the Act which makes it a legal offence to allow docks, ragwort and thistles to flourish. On interrogation he con- fessed that, in spite of the free growing of these weeds, all of which have winged seeds that travel far, the Act was virtually a dead letter. The inspectors inspect and there is an end of the matter. Grievous sins against the land of England are allowed to be committed without protest. Let me give an example well known to me, for it is characteristic. A number of acres of farm land were bought for the purpose of building houses. The idea,- however, was not carried out and is postponed sine die. Such changes of intention are inevitable ; but the sacrifice of- the land is not inevitable. The acres, like hundreds of acres in many counties, are withdrawn from the productive force of the nation, which is so much the poorer.

A New Zealand Comment

One of the oversea visitors to England this summer is an eminent New Zealand farmer and landowner. -He has toured both England and Scotland, chiefly for his pleasure, but all the while with a special eye to farming conditions. His point of view would, perhaps, surprise most English farmers. He cannot understand why farming in England is not a most • thriving industry. -The prices that are obtain- able—this is his view—would make the mouths of any New Zealand farmer water for mere envy. The finest market in the world is at the elbow of the English farmer whatever he produces ; and lastly land is incredibly cheap and rents low by the •New Zealand standard. Nothing seems to stand between .the, farmer, especially in animal husbandry, and a good profit. What is the trouble ? Is it the fewness of co-operative factories ? Satisfactory answers to his questions are not altogether easy to find; and a good many people begin to hold ,the opinion that if any young man wishes to become a farmer he may be well advised to try England first, if he is willing to work there as he would work elsewhere.

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Save Eskdale

It is to be Loped that all those who care at all for the preser- vation of English country places will help the National Trust in the matter of their latest success. By wisdom as well as zeal they have acquired the right to purchase this priceless .bit of Lake scenery at a moderate cost. It has happened not once but many times that some too ardent votary has bruited abroad the necessity of purchasing this or that lovely spot, with the result that those who had meditated its desecration or hoped for profit have raised the price in direct proportion to the clamour. The would-be preservers have played into the hand of the Philistines. They may even have prevented the preservation of the spot. It is necessary to preserve with judgement ; and when a piece of precious land is threat- ened much the wisest thing to do is to communicate direct either with the C.P.R.E. (4 Hobart Place, S.W.z), or with the National Trust. In regard to Eskdale no fewer than 5,000 acres can be bought for £r,480. Gifts should be sent to the C.P.R.E., and it is hoped that they will be sent quickly. The sum, in Mr. Micawber's idiom, is ridiculous, but the Council is ridiculously poor in comparison with the value of its work. The money is wanted urgently and at once.

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Bird Idiosyncrasies A good many results have lately been published concerning the migration of birds as tested by the device of ringing their legs ; and a good many of them suggest that though birds are driven by the compulsion of instinct to take seasonal journeys along particular routes, a good number move more or less by caprice. Why, for example, should a Cumberland curlew journey to Spain or, more curiously, a redwing which came to England from the far North East fly on to Italy ? A number of duck of various species are now caught up in the few decoys left, and ringed ; and generally speaking, as it seems to me, this class of bird and the waders are more capricious- and individual than other birds in their choice both of summer and of winter quarters. Birds are clever and high-spirited

beings ; and though they are impelled by unresisted and half- blind instincts, the theme may be so varied that it may scarcely be traceable.

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Buzzards and Snakes - Here is a, question that is asked not in the Lewis Carroll sense : Do buzzards eat snakes ? Buzzards, thole splendid hawks, have multiplied and still multiply in many parts of Britain, especially in the Vest. They are, for example, as I can testify from my own observation, a common bird in Devonshire and Merioneth. It is alleged by local observers that where the buzzards are many, the snakes are few, and the inference is drawn that the snakes are kept down by the. birds. There is more solid ground for the supposition than the two coin- cident facts of increasing buzzards and diminishing snakes. A very distinguished naturalist recently discovered a number of snakes' skins underneath a buzzard's eyrie ; and elsewhere a buzzard was seen carrying prey that was either an eel or slow- worm or snake. If there is foundation for the view, then the buzzard may be considered unique in this regar4. among English birds. We have no Secretary birds to eat our snakes, though of course eel-eaters are numerous. They include, I am told, the polecat, which also is an animal that has increased in the West country after being virtually exterminated.

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An East African Theory - - - The discussion of the mystery why birds (including rooks, warblers, wagtails and sparrows) will on occasion -tap on the windows of our houses has brought a conjecture from East Africa. It seems that the habit more usual there than in England ; and it is supposed that the birds are seeking nesting sites.. It is, I think, true that the tapping is more comnionly. heard in spring ; but the explanation does not sound very convincing. Perhaps there are many causes ; the reflection of the bird in the glass may be one ; the perception of. flies on the inside of the pane another. On this latter point tnyllog cannot pass the glass-panelled door of a certain summerhouse without stopping and casting a puzzled look at .the faint effigy in the glass. One correspondent, both .puzzled and annoyed by the regular early morning hammering of a rook on the mortar just below the window came to the conviction that the bird was mad ; and dogs are not. the only animals that go mad. Hens certainly lose at times the few wits they possess.

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A Foxhound's Earth

In a kennel of hounds, privately kept for a draghunt, was born the other day a very fine litter. The mother; desiring to escape from unwanted • companions, removed all these puppies while still blind to a hedge where she enlarged a rabbit hole to more than the proportions of a fox's earth, and in this, out of sight of the common 'herd; she nurses her young. It is, of course, common to most animals to bring up - the family in comparative isolation ; and I suppose the rabbit is the most striking example among animals that at other seasons like plenty of ' company. One motive doubtless is to escape the buck; which is a bad parent: This hound welcomes the presence of any of the household at her earth; but dislikes the approaCh any other animal. The action is, I think, rare ' in the foxhound. It is not subterranean by nature. • * * * *

In the Garden It is worth while in a .gardaz growing some plants- and bushes not so Much for- the beauty of their flowers or leaves as for their attractive qualities : they draw beautiful iniects. It is comnion property that two plants—Buddleia Vatiabilis and Sedum Spectabile -are a certain lure for Peacock• and Red Admiral butterflies ; : but there are others that are equally attractive to butterflies and moths. In one famous west country garden it is noticed. year after year that the 'lovely blue flowers of the Ceratostigma are visited almost exclusively by the Humming Bird Hawk moths. The bush is hardy enough if planted in a moderately- sheltered site -and is worth its place in any garden for its own -sake. "I should doubt whether any bush, even the Buddleia, is visited by so many of the finer butterflies as Clerodendron Foetidum, for it has to be confessed that butterflies are as 'fond of the smells disagree- able to us as of the-honey scents. • _ W. BEACH THOMAS.