SELBORNIANA. 
iiy 
in animal and bird life for our food supply, many of which animals have the 
most beautiful fur ; but in this there is no waste, the carcase is wanted, and if 
the skin can be put to any practical use so much the better ; therefore, economi- 
cally considered, it must be very wrong and culpable to add another to the 
already long list of our victims. 
Through the steps taken by a few right-minded persons, a check has been put 
to the wholesale slaughter of small birds for decorative purposes, which has been, 
and is, a reproach to our generation. Can we not, therefore, do something to 
arrest this still greater evil that is threatened? I say greater, in that it is worse 
because of the encouragement given to reproduction for no other purpose than 
the using of so small a part of the subject. Then again, how will these cats be 
killed? Will their skins be removed in the same way that we are given to under- 
stand those are of the best specimens of our pets, which often disappear round 
about London, viz., when still alive or partly conscious ? It is not necessary to 
detail the case, but proof of this hot long since came under my notice; it is 
scarcely reasonable to suppose that those who would stoop to such a traffic would 
hesitate to present their goods in the most marketable form and to the best advan- 
tage, although that would mean untold further suffering. 
A. J. B. 
Fashions and. Feathers. — Will the bird murder so long fostered by 
fashion ever abate ? I send you two extracts from a recent number of the 
Morning Post. The first is from a description of the “ Battle of Flowers ”at East- 
bourne (surely a culpable waste of the beautiful things of nature), and the other 
is from an account of a wedding in high life : “ One of the prettiest vehicles was 
a tiny goat-chaise trimmed with pink and white flowers, and having a canopy to 
which stuffed, white-winged birds were attached. . . . For this tasteful 
entry Mr. received a silver tea-service given by the proprietors of The 
Gentlewoman.^' “The bride’s travelling dress was, &c., &c. ... a Marie 
Antoinette toque of white satin, having a large black osprey at the side.” 
A. L. H. 
I am glad to say that the barbarous fashion of wearing feathers in hats, &c., 
has, thanks to the laudable efforts of those who are interested in bird-life, con- 
siderably decreased ; there is still, however, much room for further improvement. 
During the last two months I have succeeded in persuading three ladies to give up 
this custom. This may seem a very small thing, but if everyone would make up 
his or her mind to convert one woman a month the effect would be enormous. I 
am sure a great part of the feather-wearing women are ignorant of the cruelty 
they cause. I know one who all through this terrible winter fed the birds three 
times a day, and yet did not think it at all inconsistent to wear a swallow in her 
hat 
Staines. Graham W. Kerr. 
Wild Nature. — We have now what has long been a desideratum — an edition 
(the sixth) of Mrs. Brightwen’s Wild Nature won by Kindness, for eighteenpence, 
bound in cloth flush, with all the illustrations of the 5s. edition. We shall be 
surprised if in this form it does not find its way into every school library that does 
not already possess it, and obtain a further circulation as a prize in Bands of 
Mercy as well as in schools. Mr. Fisher Unwin may expect a seventh edition 
to be called for ere long ; but it must be a cheap one, for this is emphatically 
a book for the people. 
A Visit to Gilbert White. — On looking through a chest of old family 
papers, I have discovered a diary of a visit to Selborne, in 1763, written by my 
great-grandmother, Mrs. Rashleigh, the wife of John Rashleigh, Esq., of 
Penquit, Fowey, Cornwall. It is entitled “A Little Journal of some of the 
happiest days I have had in the happy valley, in the year 1763.” The writer, nee 
Miss Katharine Batty, was visiting her relation Mrs. Etty, the wife of Gilbert 
White’s friend, the vicar of Selborne from 1758 to 1784. She gives an interesting 
account of Gilbert White and his friends. This journal will probably be published 
shortly in Longman's Magazine. 
Rashleigh Holt White. 
