EDITORIAL GLEANINGS. 233 
In the ‘Essex Naturalist’ (1897, p. 169), Mr. H. C. Sorby has con- 
tributed ‘‘ Notes on the Food of Oysters in Kssex ”:—‘‘ Some years ago I 
was led to think that very much remained to be discovered with regard to 
the food of Oysters in different localities. No reliance can of course be 
placed on the examination of the contents of the stomach after the Oysters 
have been kept for some hours out of the natural water, since the food 
would be digested; and the sooner they are examined the better. When 
lying in the yacht at Paglesham, I had a good opportunity for studying this 
question, since my friend Mr. James Wiseman gave orders to his men to 
supply me with Oysters, which were brought to me and the contents of the 
_ stomach examined with a microscope only a few minutes after having been 
taken out of the water; so that some of the diatoms they had eaten were 
still alive. I found that at Paglesham the chief, if not the entire, food was 
diatoms. Soon afterwards I had the opportunity of observing Oysters taken 
out of Brightlingsea Creek, and which were examined as soon as I could, 
but not so immediately as in the case of those at Paglesham. I was 
surprised to find that the food of the Drightlingsea Oysters was very diffe- 
rent. Diatoms were few in number, or absent; but, on the contrary, the 
stomachs contained very small animals, which I took to be Infusoria, or 
small larvee, not easily identified. At all events, the contrast in these two 
cases was so great as to readily explain why the growth and flavour of Oysters 
fed in different waters may be so different.” 
WE have received from the Society for the Protection of Birds a tract 
entitled ‘ The Trade in Birds’ Feathers,’ reprinted from the ‘ Times.’ The 
first instalment is a letter written to that journal by Mr. W. H. Hudson, 
from which we extract the following details :— 
“ Thursday, Dec. 14th, was a purple day at the Commercial Sale Rooms 
in the City, where feathers for the decoration of our women formed the 
attraction, and besides some hundreds of boxes of white Ospreys an in- 
credible number of bird-skins of brilliant plumage, collected from all 
quarters of the world, were disposed of. Birds of modest-coloured plumage 
were also to be had ; and it was surprising to see huge cases filled with Tits 
and other small species from Japan, a proof that the once artistic and bird- 
loving people of that distant beautiful country are anxious to be up to date 
and Western in all things, even to the extermination of their little feathered 
fellow-creatures. There were also some magnificent Pigeons, the most 
notable being the Bronze, the Goura, and the Victoria Crowned Pigeon. 
A curious destiny—to be pulled to pieces and used in the ornamenting of 
hats—of the last noble Dove, appropriately named after our august and 
tender-hearted Sovereign, whose love of all things, both great and small, 
is so well known to her subjects. Conspicuous even among the most 
