CORRESPONDENCE. 
15 
the poor things, bleeding and mutilated, thrown into the river with a kick and a 
flourish of adjectives. “ Fishermen who behave with such wanton cruelty justify 
the diatribes which those who are not anglers often heap upon the gentle craft.” 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
A Hawk and a Heron — Psha! 
TO THE EDITOR OF “NATURE NOTES,” THE SELBORNE SOCIETY’S MAGAZINE. 
Sir, —I extract the following letter from that excellent provincial journal, the 
Western Morning News, as an illustration of the way in which the Selborne 
Society is regarded by a gentleman who is not, we trust, a member of the famed 
Devon and Cornwall Philosophical Society, whose Transactions form such a valu- 
able addition to our scientific literature : — 
“ THE SHOOTING OF RARE BIRDS. 
“ Sir, — I very much fear that in the eyes of the sentimentalists who weep over 
the capture of rare birds and beasts and fishes, I shall appear as ‘ indeed little 
better than one of the wicked.’ Since I wrote you last on this subject I have com- 
passed the death of a heron, and have eaten it. I have found its flesh dark, better 
in taste than pheasant or partridge, on a level with woodcock and snipe, but 
inferior to grouse or harvest curlew ; but I judged from an old receipt-book that 
it was a dry bird, and I had it cooked w'ith one of the old and somewhat expen- 
sive wine sauces. This sauce will probably prove the most effectual means of pre- 
serving the bird. I have also compassed the death of a common buzzard, a hawk 
perfectly well known (as indeed its name imports) in England, and which breeds 
freely in Cornwall as far west as the cliffs of Tintagel, but of which a specimen 
has not been procured in this neighbourhood for the last thirty years. 
“ Yours truly, 
“ Thos. Cornish. 
“ Penzance, 15 Ih December, 1889.” 
What useful purpose has Mr. Cornish achieved by eating a stuffy heron and 
stuffing a common buzzard ? Dyspepsia, no doubt, produced by not having pre- 
viously buried the heron in wood ashes, has made him ready to sneer at those who 
have long known “ a hawk from a hernshaw ” and who without “ sentimentality,” 
but with honest sentiment, think that science gains more by the preservation of a 
vermin-killing bird such as the buzzard, which has not appeared in the neighbour- 
hood of Penzance for the last thirty years, than by compassing its death. 
As there is an admirable museum in Penzance, surely this rare visitant to the 
neighbourhood was not wanted for scientific purposes ? But could it have been 
with a view to self-preservation in the cause of science that this ardent naturalist 
stuffed himself — with heron and “ old expensive wine sauce ”? I believe that any 
good taxidermist would assure him that to recommend this method of stuffing, 
even for that common and valueless bird, Ajiser ineptus, was “ all stuff.” 
Yours truly, 
Cornubiensis Indignans. 
The Preservation of Sud brook Park. 
TO THE EDITOR OF “ NATURE NOTES,” THE SELBORNE SOCIETY’S MAGAZINE. 
Sir, — Sudbrook Park is a piece of Crown land, beautifully situated in the 
Vale of Petersham, immediately adjoining Richmond Park. The Lower Thames 
Valley Branch of the Selborne Society, on finding that this spot was likely to be 
built over, called a meeting, which was held at the “Star and Garter” Hotel, and 
