Dec. 21.—Green Plovers are very plentiful jin our near country this winter,.and a few notes about them may not be put of place. To begin with, og there are so many Kinds "of Plovers, T think we had hotier call these birds Lapwings (Vanellus vanellus) to distinguish them: from Golden, Kentish, Ringed or any other "kind of Plover we may meet:" their Popular name in, Bngland is "Peewlt" because fof their ery....but the usual alarm call wher the "birds "are. disturbed ly a long-draw /"Weet" While. the Lapwing hes. green upper paris, back crown with tong black crest, white throat (in winter), black breast, white inder-and chestnut' tall covers, the birds look just plain black-and-white when seen in grace: {ful, broad-winged ight. Often you may approach them very closely when they are feeding or resting, and this morning I'got within a few Tete youn panty by having the dorset" Use your ly by having the gorget. Une stead of black) a sort of dull brown, and much narrower than that of the adults. Note also that: we only have these birds in winter when the chin' and throat are white: instead of being black as they are in summer. 'The food of the Lapwing consists. mainly of worms, insects, slugs etc., and in' winter they must depend largely on the beetles and hibernating grubs which have been turned up by the hoe or plough. The Lapwing's liking for worms-caused Oliver Goldsmith nearly two centuries ago. (at 'a period when he seriously pretended to be a naturalist) to. write in his "Animated "Their chiot food is worms...when the bird meets the rolls of earth that are thrown out by the worm's perforations, it frst gently removes the earth from the mouth of the Hole, than striges the ground at the side-with its foot...and walls the sue: the reptile, alarmed. by the shock, emerges from its retreat, and is instantly He forgot to add that, while this was going on, birdcatchers came and put salt on the Dec. 23-—Having arrived at' the mellow age when 1 no longer contradict. people flatly unless, perhaps, concerning the sum total of two plus two, if written plainly) I am not going to take issue with the correspondent who writes. to say that birds do not. spread mistletoe seed with their beaks. 1 disagree with him, that's all; and 1 would ike him to read what Mr. L. J, F.. Brimble, a lecturer at more than one leading University says: "the (mistletoe) seedy get on the branches of the hosts through the pick the berries, and the sticky material off their beaks, they, rub their beaks on the branches of the trees. Thus the seeds are sown." I could quote many similar statements, but. prefer these interesting lines by, Sir' Herbert Maxwell, a great @larist and a' man with infinite experience in the management of trees, which prove def-Inltely that mistletoe seeds grow without any assistance from the birds: digestive organs:—
"December 31, 1698, This moming we have been busy. planting mistletoe berries on some The names of Euclid (though they do him Aishonour nowadays by solving his problems. by the dull ald of algebra), Pythagoras and Archimedes will at once occur to everyone.
An interesting example of the Greek in-stiner for mathematics may be seen in the buildings on Colton Hill at Edinburgh, which were copied from the temple of Athena on the Acropolis at Athens. When it was finished the builders were disgusted to see that the'pillars of the portico looked as if they were narrower in the centre than at top and put fort growth ts steady and' rapid..."
Note that Sir Herbert chooses the under side of the branch for better protection. bottom.
The Gtecks in building their temple were aware of the optical Musion produced by a row of pillars side by side all of the same diameter throughout, and had made their pillars with a slight bulge in the middle to overcome the defect. Similarly, they made the row of steps before the portico a little higher in the middle than at the ends in order to avoid the appearance they would otherwise have had of sagging.
Chinese seamen now coming to London in some numbers have formed a union in this country. It was formed after a dispute which began in San Francisco, spread to Curagao' and ended in the law courts in London. They complain that. their pay is inadequate, considering the dangerous duties they do in bringing petrol to England and the Union of British Seamen is helping them to obtain better treatment.
'Their honorary secretary {s Dr, W. T. Chen, a Chinese from Malaya, who came to' England thirteen years ago and was called to the Bar, He spoke at a recent lunch got up by the China Campaign Committee very convincingly. Another "speaker was the veteran Ben Tillett, who in spite of his age as vigorous as ever. He recalled that he had once been at sea himself, and paid tribute to the qualities of the Chinese man, which all: who know that imperturbable individual will warmly endorse.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.