238 
NATURE NOTES. 
instance, is not mentioned ; and of some of our most interesting birds, e.g., the 
jackdaw, there is not a single anecdote, only a bald paragraph of ten lines. The 
idea of the book is a good one ; its execution is singularly unsatisfactory, and 
the hopes expressed in the preface are by no means fulfilled. A book of this 
kind can only be compiled by a naturalist, and there is no evidence that the 
compiler has any acquaintance with his subject. 
We have received the first volume of The Animals’ Friend (20, Victoria Street, 
S.W.), which contains the first sixteen numbers of an unpretending but useful 
little periodical. The editor, Mr. S. G. Trist, may be congratulated on the 
number of distinguished contributors he has succeeded in enlisting, many of 
whose portraits adorn his pages. The numerous illustrations form an attractive 
feature of the volume. We are somewhat surprised to see our own title “ Nature 
Notes,” appropriated for a section of The Animals' Friend, more especially as it 
is followed by the word “ copyright,” which, however, applies, we presume, not 
to the title, but to the paper which Miss Carrington is contributing under that 
heading. 
Several other books stand over for notice. 
SELBORNIANA. 
Sanctuaries. — We have heard a good deal lately of the protection of birds 
by providing “sanctuaries,” or enclosures within which no bird is to be molested 
in any way whatever. This artificial protection of one great division of the animal 
kingdom (would not republic or commune be a better term ?) must, sooner or later, 
lead to the protection of others. If we protect the insectivorous birds, naturally the 
insects will be reduced ; and although there are some that can well be spared, 
there are others whose absence would be a great loss — to many of us a 
greater loss than the absence of the birds. The birds will not discriminate 
between useful and harmful insects, nor between the beautiful and the un- 
lovely. The beautiful and harmless insects must, therefore, be protected ! 
Not only are they in need of protection from the birds, but from unscrupulous 
collectors, who never seem to understand that long, unvarying series of one 
species in their cabinets is a great waste of living beauty, a great waste of 
time, gratifying only their selfish sense of possession, and tending more than 
any other means to bring about the extinction of species once fairly common. 
I would suggest that entomological and general natural history societies, 
and the Selborne Society amongst them, should combine to purchase a few 
acres of freehold ground immediately adjoining an extensive tract of common 
land, such as the New Forest, Epping Forest, or the the Surrey commons of 
Esher and Oxshott, or any similar situation, and after planting it with the 
flora of the adjoining forest land (of course giving prominence to those plants 
most attractive to the insects it is desired to encourage), use every endeavour 
to reintroduce species once common in the district, but now scarce, or perhaps 
extinct. In course of time, should a species become sufficiently common, the 
system in vogue at Geneva, where “ L’Association pour la Protection des 
Plantes ” distributes packets of seeds of local species at a small charge, might 
be introduced ; and the ova, larvae, or pupre, but not the perfect insect, might 
be disposed of to subscribers for a small sum. If a stream of water ran through 
the grounds so much the more desirable, but in any case a pond would have 
to be provided for aquatic insects ; and should sufficient funds be forthcoming, 
a glass temperate house could be added for the better care of more delicate 
species. Botanists could also have an interest in the enclosure, where plants 
becoming rare, or already extinct in the district, could be cared for, and the 
seeds disposed of, as in the society mentioned above. It is quite time some- 
thing more was done in the study of insects than the majority of entomo- 
logists have in view — the placing of perfect specimens (and, as before stated, 
to a most unreasonable extent) in a cabinet. I am quite aware there is a 
great improvement upon the “ collecting ” of thirty or forty years ago, that 
