SELBORNIANA 
1 1 1 
threatened with destruction, when the Selborne Society and 
the Open Spaces Society jointly urged the Government to pur- 
chase the Bute estate to save it from the ruthless builder. Not- 
withstanding the energy displayed by the Societies referred to, 
this fine old place has been razed to the ground — and its once 
lovely grounds are at this moment being ‘ prepared ’ to receive 
an ‘Institute’! If this is allowed to be erected, it will 
obviously still further assist in ‘ vanishing ’ Petersham’s 
village traits ; and I would advocate prompt action in such 
matters, to stay the ‘ hand of the spoiler ’ ere it is too late. In 
addition to the above facts, many of the handsome old trees in 
the long Dysart avenue have recently been felled in a ‘ thinning- 
out ’ process, quite altering the previous aspect, and a new 
red-brick lodge has been erected at the avenue’s entrance, 
completely obscuring the fine view hitherto obtainable from the 
main road. Again, of late years, one or two inartistic coffee 
houses, &c., have been built, tending to modernise the village, 
of course. All this, to say nothing of any amount of the approved 
up-to-date iron fencing and wicket-gates now to be seen through- 
out the neighbourhood, will enable you to understand me when 
I assert that, in addition to Petersham’s undoubted ‘ vanishing ’ 
from a historic point of view, it is also decidedly losing its 
rurality and natural beauty.” 
Heads of Stuffed Animals. — A member writes ; — “ I should 
feel very grateful if some of your readers would give me some 
conclusive reasons why a lover of animals should not wear the 
stuffed head of any animal as an ornament. Of course I would 
not wear anything of the kind myself, ’out I want to be able to 
give good reasons to those who do not see any harm in wearing 
them, why they should not do so.” 
Conference on Big Game. — It is with great pleasure that 
we reprint the following from the Daily Mail of May 30 : — 
“ Great Britain, Germany, Spain, the Congo Free State, 
France, Italy and Portugal have agreed, we learn from an 
official paper just issued, to a fifteen years’ convention, which 
binds one and all to enforce within their respective territories 
rules which deal with animal life in the following zone : — 
“ North. — 20th parallel of latitude {e.g., north of Timbuctoo 
on the west and Dongola on the east). 
“ West. — -Atlantic Ocean. 
“ East. — Red Sea and Indian Ocean. 
“ South. — A line following the northern boundary of German 
South-West Africa from its western extremity to its junction 
with the Zambesi, and thence along the right bank of that river 
to the Indian Ocean. 
“ This Convention, in which improvements may be made by 
common accord, also urges the establishment of large game 
reserves, close seasons, the prohibition of unlicensed big game 
