DRAWING ROOM MEETING. 
i5> 
Town (same publisher and price) suggests by its very title Nahtre near London. 
The latter work of this author, as its amplified title tells, is limited to “Wild 
Birds and their Haunts,” and is thus less comprehensive than Jefferies’s volume. 
Jefferies, indeed, usually took a wider range of view than his successor, notably in 
the direction of wild flowers and trees, which had for him a more individual 
interest than they seem to possess for the “ Son of the Marshes.” 
It is pleasant to know that to the seeing eye there is so much nature to be 
met with within an hour of what we style “the metropolis” — pleasanter still 
that we need not even go so far as this to meet with wild life. Not much more 
than half that time will put us down at Epsom station, when a very few minutes will 
bring us on to the Downs, among birds and insects and flowers. The “ Son of 
the Marshes” takes us farther afield — to Leith Hill anil Dorking, to the Tilling- 
bourne, and on to the Essex Marshes. Everywhere he is the same genial and 
observant companion — everywhere he makes us feel that he is determined to 
replace Jefferies as far as he may, and well he succeeds. Not only in the field but 
in his own home he knows the birds — the account of his pet owl “ Patch” (pp. 
40-47) is in every way charming, and we should regret that space will not permit 
us to reproduce it, were it not that we would rather our readers obtained the book, 
for themselves. Like Mr. Knight, he takes up the cudgels for the sparrow, and 
it must be confessed that he brings strong evidence in support of his case — indeed, 
the chapter on “ The Farmer’s Feathered Friends” might well be reproduced in 
some standard school-reader, or spread broadcast as a penny tract. Other birds, 
however, come in for his censure : — •“ In those districts of .Surrey where peas are 
grown, hawfinches are a perfect plague, more especially if wood or copse lands- 
are near ; ” as to bullfinches “ it is nonsense to assert that the buds of which bull- 
finches and other birds make such havoc have insects in them ; ” and “ some 
members of the finch tribe do a great amount of mischief in a garden.” There is 
an admirable chapter on “ The Good Old Times,” which contains much worthy 
of attention in these days when “ the agricultural labourer” is becoming of poli- 
tical importance, although we may feel that a writer who prefaces his remarks 
with a denunciation of “those interested agitators who, in their crass ignorance, 
speak of our true agricultural population as if they were down-trodden serfs ” is 
likely to be somewhat of a partisan. 
We should like to dwell longer upon the contents of this delightful book, but 
the demands on our space forbid, and our notice of the Annals of a L'ishing 
Village must stand over till next month. 
A DRAWING ROOM MEETING. 
A drawing-room meeting of the Society was held on June 22nd, at i. Palace 
Houses, Bayswater, by the invitation of Lady Fry, and was very numerously 
attended. Sir Edward Fry, who presided, briefly opened the meeting by an 
explanation of the objects of the Society as set forth in its prospectus. It seemed 
to him that the easiest way of promoting the.se objects was to discontinue the 
wearing for ornaments the skins and feathers of birds of plumage. That was a 
matter which rested very much with the ladies, and he hoped the movement 
against this cruel custom would extend amongst them. He read a letter of regret 
for absence from Mr. Bryce, who was called away on election business, and called 
upon 
Mr. T. H. Wakefield, who moved a resolution setting forth the objects of the 
Society, and declaring that those objects deserved support. It might be said that 
the attainment of these objects might be left to Nature to work out for herself by 
the “survival of the fittest,” but unfortunately it was not always the gentlest and 
most beautiful that survived, but freiiuently the cunning and cruel. There was 
in man an instinct of destruction, and this was especially prominent in children. 
The work of the Selborne Society was one of culture. It recognised the right of 
life, and denied to man the right to take away life except for some good and sufficient 
purpose. The Society had already done good work in pursuance of its objects. 
