SELBORNIANA. 
97 
A Plea for Sea-gulls (pp. i6, 37). — A correspondent of the Whitehaven 
News having called attention to the shooting of gulls from the pier at Whitehaven, 
the Rev. Canon Rawnsley published in that paper, for March 22, the following 
letter : — “To shoot a seagull from the pierhead is about as mean a thing as a man 
can do at any time ; but now, within the breeding season, it is as cruel as it is 
cowardly and illegal. The close season for wild birds began on March l. But 
what I would point out is that the man who shoots at a seagull at any time is as 
much the enemy of man as he is of the poor sea-bird. These seagulls are the 
scavengers of our coasts ; 
‘ the ocean at its task 
Of pure ablution round otir English shores,’ 
is much helped therein, by the fact that all the garbage that floats out to sea and 
would infallibly be returned to the shore by the next tide is disposed of by these 
voracious birds, and thus many a creek and harbour is by them rendered sanitary, 
that would otherwise breed pestilence, or at the least become offensive and 
horrible to the senses. Nor is it only as seashore scavengers these gulls are our 
friends ; they are, as every fisherman can tell, invaluable sentinels for the prey by 
which he earns his daily bread. A school of herring would many a time pass by 
unnoticed if it were not for these swift-eyed, swift-winged watchmen of the sea. 
I say nothing of the glory and life that these gifts of God add to our coasts. 
Whether they be swinging out and in to the red cliffs of St. Bees and ‘ Tomlin 
Head,’ or ‘dapple the fallows’ behind the plowman far inland, these beneficent 
creatures — these friends of the fisher and the farmer — are so full of grace they 
need no one to plead for their beauty’s sake. But the effect of a cowardly shot 
that kills or cripples and leads to torture and drowning one of these friends of 
man from the sea, does not cease with the seagull’s life. It hurts our English 
character. It hardens a human heart, and dwarfs that power of pity by which 
men grow in likeness to their Saviour, and become as the angels of God.” 
To Poultry Lovers. — Being a farmer’s daughter I was interested to find 
in the Leeds Mercury for February 13 an article on a series of lectures being 
given at the Yorkshire College, under the auspices of the Board of Agriculture 
on Dairy-work and Poultry-rearing. Fifteen lectures are to be given on poultry- 
keeping in all its branches — breeding, housing, hatching, feeding, fattening, kill- 
ing and marketing. One of the representatives of the Mercury had had an 
interview with the lecturer, and I read with interest of the incubators and 
brooders, the artificial appliances for breeding and rearing chickens. Then came 
the following paragraph, which I must admit was a revelation to me : “ When 
the chickens are fit to be fattened, the cramming machine comes into use. I will 
show you how that is worked. Here it is. This vessel on the top contains the 
food ; below it is a cylinder worked by a foot-lever ; and here is an india-rubber 
tube attached to the cylinder. In order to cram the bird, you open its mouth, 
push the tube down its throat into the crop, and with your foot on the lever, inject 
as much food into the crop as you think proper. The fattening process occupies 
about three weeks. If it is continued longer the bird begins to sicken.” I should 
think so indeed, poor thing ! The wonder is it does not sicken before ! To me 
this seems a most inhuman and cruel mode of procedure. Certainly most 
unnatural, and I should much like to know if it is carried on to any extent 
among poultry-rearers. I was horrified some time ago to learn that fowls were 
frequently alive, because the flesh was much whiter in consequence. I 
have only known personally of one such case, and when discovered by the lady 
who sent her poultry to the woman to dress, I need not say it was very speedily- 
stopped, and the woman herself thoroughly terrified by the prospect of a raid of 
policemen and authorities from various humane societies to inspect her premises. 
Since then I have found by inquiry that such a cruel practice is by no means 
uncommon. Surely if the English poultry-buying public were aware of such 
customs they would refuse to patronise the perpetrators of such barbarity. 
L. Hinchcliff. 
