IRature IRotes : 
TLhe Selbovne Society’s flDagasfne. 
No. 109. JANUARY, 1899. Vol. X. 
EDITORIAL. 
HILE beginning our tenth volume we may, we hope, 
judging from the letters we receive and the comments 
of our contemporaries, congratulate ourselves on the 
continued interest of the magazine. Our chief 
embarrassment, indeed, has been the limited space at our 
command, which has compelled us to delay the issue of 
many excellent articles. What is, after all, of more impor- 
tance than our success as a magazine, is the advance of 
the cause of humanity and the love of nature ; and this too, 
thanks in a great measure to the efforts of the many agencies 
working in sympathy with us, such as the National Trust, the 
Humanitarian League, the R.S.P.C.A., the Society for the 
Protection of Birds, and the Commons Preservation Society, 
we may confidently assert to have been furthered. The 
formation of a Parliamentary Committee for joint action 
has been a great gain, and we shall hope to see many 
more occasions for our concerted co-operation in such matters, 
the Spurious Sports Bill, for instance. If we could only 
persuade people that a horse’s tail when docked is ugly, that 
“ ospreys” are vulgar, and that cruelty generally is as degrading 
a vice as drunkenness, we should certainly have done more than 
anything accomplished during 1898. Meanwhile it is humiliat- 
ing and discouraging to find the Selborne Society prevented from 
doing its proper share in this work merely by lack of funds. 
