SELBORNIANA. 
177 
SELBORNIANA. 
Starving Tortoises. — I cannot refrain from drawing attention to the 
cruelty with which these inoffensive creatures are often treated with regard to 
their food. One constantly hears the remark, “ We had a tortoise for a few 
months, but it died.” Either from carelessness or ignorance the poor tortoise is 
hardly ever properly fed, and though it can endure privation for a longer time than 
most creatures, it must die miserably of starvation at last. The ordinary land- 
tortoise feeds on cabbage, sow-thistle, lettuce leaves and dandelion flowers, while 
some specimens will enjoy bread and milk as well. I have been carefully watch- 
ing a tame one in my conservatory, and find that, day after day, he eats a lettuce 
nearly half his own size. If, then, he requires so much food to keep him in 
health and vigour, how miserable must be the condition of those kept without 
food, or those that are perhaps offered a dandelion flower once a week ! The 
water-tortoises are equally ill-used, for often from lack of knowledge they are 
constantly offered vegetable diet which they cannot eat, their proper food being 
the live creatures they find in the water they live in. They are best fed in cap- 
tivity by supplying them with little bits of raw meat, or remains of boiled cod or 
turbot. They are easily distinguished from the land-tortoises by their lively 
movements and by their being able to swim in water. Still they do not care to be 
always afloat, so there should be a piece of cork or some small island for them to 
rest upon when they are tired of swimming. Both the land and water species can 
be made very tame by kindness and attention. In a dim sort of way they appear 
to like companionship, for my tortoise will walk briskly up to the cage of a mon- 
goose in my possession and remain for hours gazing at him as if pondering, in 
a stolid sort of way, what kind of a tortoise he may be. I have found him also 
trying to climb the wires of the recess where my ruffed lemurs are kept, and if 
removed he would return to the same place time after time. One would like to 
know what kind of thoughts, if any, pass through the brain of this curious animal. 
Through a glass door I can watch his movements in the conservatory, where the 
equal warmth, no doubt, makes the tortoise feel lively and happy, so that I am 
favourably circumstanced for observing his habits and manners. If each reader of 
this paper would kindly tell those who possess tortoises the kind of food they 
require, it would tend to do away with much unintentional cruelty, and thus carry 
out one of the special aims of our Society. 
Eliza Brightwen. 
The Abuses of Advertising. — The paralysis of ordinary business in the 
House of Commons has made it impossible for the National Society for Checking 
the Abuses of Public Advertising to take any parliamentary action. The interval 
is being utilised to revise and amend in the light of criticisms and suggestions 
received from many members, the draft bill which was submitted at the general 
meeting held in June last. It is comprehensive and perhaps drastic, and it may be 
thought expedient to proceed only with portions of it in the first instance, but there 
is every reason to hope that provisions asserting the principle of representative 
control and dealing effectually with the more flagrant abuses in the rural districts 
will meet with legislative sanction. Meanwhile it is very desirable that steps 
should be taken for the formation of local associations, where no bodies already 
exist interested in cognate subjects. Communications have been received from 
the Cockburn Society in Edinburgh and the Leicester Branch of the Kyrle Society, 
which suggest that for these important centres no special organisation is necessary. 
The frequent notices in the press show that the National Society is already be- 
coming widely known, and that its object and general methods command almost 
unanimous approval. Members may do much to promote its ends by writing to 
local newspapers to draw attention to any particularly striking instances of dis- 
figurement, and making them the text for commending the claims of the Society 
to support. It is hardly necessary to say that in the holiday season the oppor- 
tunities of unobtrusive propagandism almost thrust themselves upon the attention 
of the sensitive traveller. As it is hoped to make the list of members a standing 
petition in favour of protection for the quiet eye, every recruit gained is a 
distinct step towards ultimate success. Amongst many others who have joined 
since the general meeting are E. \V. Byrne, Esq., M.P., Sidney Colvin, Esq., 
