IRature IRotes : 
XTbe Selbome Society’s flDagasine. 
No. i2g. SEPTEMBER, 1900. Vol. XI. 
SELBORNIANA. 
The Financial Position of the Society. — -The Treasurer 
reports that — with a very small amount of cash in hand — the 
Society was, at the end of July, still nearly £\o in debt to its 
printer on the 1899 account ; that a large number of subscriptions 
for this year are still unpaid ; and that there is, in fact, nothing 
in hand from the receipts of this year to meet the e.xpenditure 
belonging to the same period. It is obvious, therefore, that, if 
we are to continue in 1900 to pay off debt as we did in 1899, it must 
be by the receipt of subscriptions which are now in arrear and 
of donations. It is needless to point out how the whole work 
of the Society is crippled by this unsatisfactory state of its 
finances. 
The Birds’ Paradise at Kew. — -We read with pleasure an 
able article in the Daily Mail, of August 7, on Kew Gardens as 
a Birds’ Paradise. The writer states that about fifty species 
habitually breed there, and refers appreciatively to the value to 
the naturalist of the fifty acres of ground surrounding the Queen’s 
Cottage, a piece of old-established woodland. We were, how- 
ever, sorry not to see in the article a word of protest against the 
ruin of this sanctuary which is threatened by the scheme for 
a physical laboratory recently brought forward. 
Audi alteram partem. — The Rev. E. T. Daubeny writes : — 
“ Little did I think when ‘ A Norfolk Rectory ’ was published 
that I should get into hot water. There appears to be a certain 
class of literature that objects to one’s shooting a rabbit or 
catching a fish. At all events it has been so in my case. I 
