94 
NATURE NOTES. 
(4) Song. 
Observations on song generally , e.g. 
(a) Attempts to sing by young birds. 
(b) Local variations in song of birds of the same species. 
(c) Seasonal variations in song of an individual bird. 
Also notes on the courtship of birds, whether carried on by song, or dancing, 
or otherwise. 
(5) Local Distribution of the various species should be noted. Rarities and 
varieties recorded. 
(6) General Habits. 
A Suggestion from the “Saturday Review.”— In the Saturday 
Review of April nth, the author of an article on the recent recognition of bird 
preservation by the Zoological Society, suggests that a Birds’ Protection Union 
should be formed. The Saturday Revieiv has always been a faithful friend to the 
Selborne Society, and we trust that this suggestion, coming from such a source 
may be unanimously adopted by the members of the Society which ought to be 
exactly the kind of association in the mind of the writer. It is scarcely necessary 
to impress on our members that the scheme of the Selborne Society is intended to 
cover all reasonable protection, and that any failure in carrying out judicious 
aggressive work is owing to a neglect of the requirements of a certain district. 
Members who have the ability have been constantly urged to lay before their 
Branch Meetings papers on the flora and fauna of the neighbourhood and to 
promote discussion on subject of preservation, obtainable through the willing 
co-operation of land owners and occupiers. Our business in the Selborne Society 
is not to attempt to protect this or that object of wild nature out of caprice, but 
for sound reasons gathered from practical persons and made public at our meetings 
and in our publications. 
Of course it takes time to reach a public easily moved by sentimentality for 
a passing moment and to get them to take a real interest in obtaining a reasonable 
preservation ! Nevertheless this is the task, which we have set ourselves to 
perform, feeling that without the hearty and enduring sympathy of the unscientific 
public, all the Birds’ Protection Societies and even the very Acts for the pro- 
tection of birds would be useless. 
Every month brings us fresh adherents anxious to spread our conservative 
teaching in the schools of towns and villages, and in our workshops and factories 
to turn the destroyer into the willing protector and gradually to make the Society 
into an apt handmaiden to the great scientific and testhetic associations of this 
country. We have already some influential and numerical strength, but we want 
an unlimited amount of it. We want patience and we want money. Our organ 
Nature Notes, should be “ endowed ” and we ought to be able to print for free 
•distribution our scientific leaflets written in language intelligible to the rural 
population. 
Furzebank, Torquay. Geo. A. Musgrave. 
Selborne Leaflets. — We have received a very large number of letters on 
this matter, many of our correspondents offering to distribute such leaflets if sup- 
plied to them. The Rev. Robert Simpson, Southgate Road, Bowes Park, who 
has on many occasions taken much trouble about the operations of the Society, 
makes some valuable suggestions on this point and urges that each member of the 
Society should undertake to distribute one hundred such leaflets. This would, 
indeed, be a splendid propaganda of our views. Mr. R. Marshman Wattson, 
lion. sec. of the Lea Valley Branch, who throws an amount of energy into its 
management which might well serve as an example to much larger associations, 
sends us some excellent handbills on the Protection of Birds and Flowers in 
Epping Forest, distributed by him and exposed in shops, schools, &c. Mr. Watt- 
son also urges the construction of a Selborne Almanack, a suggestion which we 
hope will not be allowed to drop. Mrs. Ilervey Pechell, who sends us from her 
Italian residence a larger selection of relevant cuttings from English papers than 
almost any of our home correspondents, desires a leaflet on the Wild Birds Pro- 
tection Act, and advises that petitions should be sent to members of the House 
of Lords, urging them to support Lord Lilford’s Bill. Mr. W. Ward, Cleveland 
