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 



