SELBORNIANA. 
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SELBORNIANA. 
Sslbornian Teaching in France. — A correspondent sends us the 
following article Irom Le Jour of August ist, which we reprint in extenso . — 
“Le Plumage des Oiseaux. 
“ Si les mondaines savaient comment on se procure la plupart des brillants 
plumages dont elles ornent leurs chapeaux, certainement elies s’en montreraient 
moins fieres ! La plume, en effet, une fois arrachee a I’aile de I’oiseau mort, a 
perdu ses vives couleurs ; elle n’est plus qu’une pale image de ce qu’elle etait 
lorsque I’animal, debordant de vie, s’elan^ait joyeux et libre dans I’air. 
*• Aussi, pour lui conserver son eclat soyeux et sa chaude douceur, I’homme, 
etre tres ingenieux, I’arrache brutalement a I’animal encore vivant, alors que le 
sang chaud circule encore dans ses veines. Et, par un raffinement de cruaute, il 
choisit pour cette sinistre operation I’epoque de I’annce ou I’oiseau, tout a I'ivresse 
du printemps, se livre aux joies de I’amour. 
“ Dans certains magasins de Londres, oil s’opere en grand le trafic des plumes, 
on les enlasse a hauteur d’homme et Ton a peine a marcher au milieu de cette 
mer de duvet. Un niarchand recevait dernierement, en un seul envoi, 32,000 
colibris, 80,000 oiseaux aquatiques et 800,000 paires d’ailes. De meme, dans une 
recente vente aux encheres, on adjudgeait, a des prix varies, 404,389 peaux 
d’oiseaux du Bresil ou des Antilles, 356,389 des Indes orientales, sans compter 
des milliers de faisans et oiseaux de paradis. Long-Island, seul, exportait Tan 
dernier 40,000 hirondelles de mer. Et, comme on le pense bien, pour fournir a 
la consommation une telle quantite de plumes, il faut se livrer parfois a une 
veritable guerre d’exterraination. 
“ Plusieurs especes admirables ont deja disparu ou sont en train de disparaltre. 
Dans le nord du Malabar, 1' Alcyon sniyrnsnsis, entres autres, aura bientot cesse 
d’exister : il y a quelques jours, on vendait en bloc, au prix derisoire de 50 
centimes la piece, 5,000 depouilles de ces merveilleux oiseau. 
“On a dit souvent qu’une femme doit souffrir pour etre belle. Doit-elle pour 
cela faire souffrir les plus charmantes bestioles de la creation ? ” 
The New Forest Out of Danger. — We are glad to learn from the 
Entomologists’ Monthly Magazine for August that the exertions of Mr. Herbert 
Goss have been crowned with success. Mr. Goss writes ; — “ Persons interested 
in the New Forest will be gl.ad to hear (if they have not already heard) that the 
vigorous opposition made during the winter and spring months to the Govern- 
ment proposal to acquire sites in the Forest for rifle ranges has been successful. 
In the first place, the Ranges Act, 1891, under the authority of which the tuhole 
Forest was at the mercy ol the War Office, has been repealed ; and subsequently 
the objectionable clauses of the Military Lands (Consolidation) Bill, 1892 — by 
virtue of which the Government, although giving up under pressure their 
greater powers, might still have retained 800 acres of the Forest — have been 
struck out in committee. Further, a clause has been inserted in the Bill last 
mentioned providing that nothing in this Act shall authorise the taking of any 
land in the New Forest, or shall empower the Commissioners of Woods to grant 
or lease, or give any license over any land in the New Forest. 
“ The result of the recent agitation, and the consequent repeal of the Ranges 
Act, 1891, and the modification of the Military Lands (Consolidation) Bill, 1892, 
is to leave the F'orest in exactly the same position, legally, as it was in after the 
passing of the New Forest Act, 1877, by which Act it was secured to the public 
as an open space. All naturalists should feel much indebted to the verderers and 
commoners of the Forest, the Commons’ Preservation Society, the London and 
local press, and to various individuals, for their continuous efforts to preserve the 
Forest for the public, and for a result which has been attained only after a long 
and uphill struggle and the expenditure of a considerable sum of money.” 
Should not the Selborne Society have been enumerated among the bodies to 
whom naturalists should feel indebted ? 
A Good Example.— .\ case of considerable interest far beyond the locality 
immediately concerned has just been decided at the Bristol Assizes. The 
