•55 
THE NEW FOREST AS A SANCTUARY. 
The desire expressed by Mr. Rawnsley in the April number 
of Nature Notes is one which I hear so constantly echoed by 
the cultivated people I meet and talk with on the subject, that 
it seems strange that so little progress is made in that direction. 
We are told that if the people desire it enough the sanctuary 
will be accorded, so that it appears that the authorities only 
wait for a sufficiently formidable representation on the matter. 
.As the Selborne Society has taken the most conspicuous interest 
in the subject, I suggest that every branch of the Society initiate 
simultaneously a memorial or petition to the Commissioner of 
Woods and Forests, praying him to take the necessary steps to 
establish the legal immunity of certain portions of the New 
Forest from invasions of any micidal character, either with 
reference to birds, flowers, quadrupeds or reptiles of a harm- 
less character, including prohibition of taking nests or uprooting 
plants, this immunity to apply to such woodland portions of the 
Forest, and the open country involved, as can be set apart by 
regulation, and efficiently policed to secure it from invasion. 
The remaining sections of the Forest may be left for future 
consideration, when the effect of the partial sanctuary shall be 
seen, leaving present rights and privileges undisturbed, and 
those of the authorities unprejudiced. It is evidently useless 
for the friends of the animals to ask the immunity of the entire 
region, and it would be impossible to secure the efficient protec- 
tion of it, but a few thousand acres chosen in a section where 
the nature of the land ensures a feeding ground for all the 
natural inhabitants, might with no injury to any vested rights 
be protected without raising any rational opposition. Five 
thousand acres “in a ring fence” with a couple of efficient 
custodians will serve all the purposes of a model forest, and the 
result would show what should be done in regard to the rest, if 
indeed more were demanded. The chief objection to so small 
an enclosure is that it would be so crowded by visitors that the 
necessary seclusion for nesting and breeding would not be pre- 
served ; but this difficulty would gradually disappear, for the 
familiarisation of the wild creatures, when they have come to 
recognise the immunity from disturbance of any kind thus 
given them, proceeds so rapidly as to surprise anyone who has 
not tried the experiment. 
What ought to be finally aimed at as a definite disposition 
is a law for all the land held by the Crown as a public posses- 
sion, forbidding the killing of any creature on it except such 
as may be found too destructive of species more desirable, and 
which shall be scheduled to that end, and perhaps permitting 
the killing of game on such portions as are not declared as 
sanctuaries. This will leave private estates free from other 
restrictions than those which the proprietors decide to be 
