SELBORNIANA 
207 
through the woods we first saw the Merlin and the Hobby, 
watched the squealing Rabbit halt to let the persistent Stoat 
kill it, and could not part them when we shot the pair. There 
I remember lying in a ditch watching the flocks of Sparrows, 
Reed-Buntings and Linnets on the stubbles and seeing the 
observant Sparrow-Hawk plan his attack. At last he swooped 
right over and past the crouching flocks : they rose for the wood : 
he turned like lightning and came right through, and in his 
claws a Sparrow chirped his last. We remember, too, the old 
gravel-pit where the hibernating Snakes and Adders were exposed 
in hundreds in mid-winter, and every track has some well-known 
spot for flowers or butterflies which we found when we were 
boys. Now it is autumn, the time of reveries; the gun and the 
White Pheasant are forgotten in the talk over old times on 
“ the Site ” we both love. How deeply the homeland beauties 
have sunk in mind and soul in this beauty spot of Sussex ! 
W. A. Shaw. 
SELBORNIANA. 
Crosby Hall. — The question of the preservation of Crosby 
Hall has occupied the attention of the Council of the Selborne 
Society on several occasions, and all steps possible have been 
taken to secure its preservation. The Lord Avebury, who is 
President of the Society of Antiquaries, signed a petition of 
that body in his official capacity as President of the Selborne 
Society. A special petition was also drawn up and had been 
signed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, when the news came 
that the matter had passed out* of the hands of the common 
Council. Letters to the Press were written by Dr. Dudley 
Buxton, Chairman of Council, and those City Companies who 
possess no halls were approached with a view to their sub- 
scribing to the purchase of Crosby Hall for their common 
use. As the subscription of the Selborne Society is very small 
it is not possible to make any adequate contribution to the 
purchase fund, but an appeal has been made to members and 
those interested in the work of the Society through the public 
press. At the time of writing the safety of Crosby Hall is 
apparently secured by the guarantee of the last £10,000 required 
by a gentleman who wishes to remain anonymous. 
The Cinematograph in Ornithology. — Mr. Oliver G. Pike, 
who is a member of the Selborne Society, was successful this 
year in obtaining a number of cinematograph films showing the 
movements of birds in their natural haunts, and they were 
exhibited each evening for a month at the Palace Theatre. 
Most of the pictures were of sea birds, taken on islands in the 
North, but a striking series showing the hatching of a chicken 
from the egg is worthy of special mention. 
