222 
SELBORNIANA. 
The Letters of John Mulso to Gilbert White. — Mr. 
Rashleigh Holt-White has recently edited and prepared an intro- 
duction to the letters written to Gilbert White by his intimate 
friend, the Rev. John Mulso. The book, which is to be pub- 
lished by Mr. R. H. Porter, of 7, Prince’s Street, Cavendish 
Square, is now in the press and will be welcomed by all Selbor- 
nians when it appears, as is expected, about Christmas time. 
Readers of Mr. Holt- White’s “ Life and Letters of Gilbert 
White,” will remember that in it quotations from the letters 
alluded to above are often given, and that they contain many 
passages of great interest, owing to the fact that they illustrate 
the career and character of the father of English Field Natural 
History, whose memory our Selborne Society perpetuates. We 
hope to review the book in the next number of Nature Notes. 
Coming Educational Conference. — The League of the 
Empire held a very successful annual meeting at Caxton Hall 
on November 7. Lord Tennyson, the President, was in the 
Chair, and among other speakers, were Sir Philip Hutchins, 
Mr. S. H. Butcher, M.P., Lord Reay, Sir Philip Magnus, and 
Sir Michael Foster. The latter seconded the resolution to 
extend a cordial welcome to the representatives of the different 
Countries and Crown Colonies of our Empire to a Federal Con- 
ference on Education to be held from May 24 to June 1, 1907. 
He most amusingly alluded to the parochial spirit which is 
rampant in this country and which is to be found, he said, even 
in the University (Cambridge) with which he had long been 
associated. Sir Michael pointed out that if we meet with “ the 
parochial spirit in high places, how much more shall we find it 
in low places.” The general opinion of the Meeting was, that 
although the Congress would be useful to those coming from 
beyond the Seas, we should learn the most from the experience 
of those who are not trammelled in their educational work as we 
are by tradition and vested interests. One of the subjects 
put down on the suggested programme is the “ Encouragement 
of Nature Study in Schools.” 
Traffic in Wild Birds. — The following extract from the 
Islington Daily Gazette, will be interesting to all Selbornians : 
“Perhaps no one has a better chance of noting the illegal cap- 
ture of wild birds than the carriers to whom boxes and crates are 
entrusted by the bird catchers. It is a common enough sight 
to see such boxes at country railway stations; but it is usually 
looked upon as nobody’s business to interfere, and the package 
is sent on its way to the town dealer’s shop, where evidence as 
to when and where the birds were caught is at once lost. The 
station-master at Frome takes a more public-spirited view of the 
matter. According to the annual report of the Weston-super- 
Mare branch of the R.S.P.C.A., a crate containing song birds, 
