SELB0RN1ANA . 
i S i 
The readers of Nature Notes may be glad to know that Mr. Stacy Marks is 
an active member of the Selborne Society, and has been instrumental in adding to 
our ranks some influential members, amongst the number being Mr. Justice 
Denman and Mr. Justice North. A. J. Western. 
Guinea Pigs Rampant. — A most amusing “ tempest in a tea-pot ” has been 
raging on this subject during the last month. It took its rise in a ludicrous misappre- 
hension of a passage in Mrs. Brightwen’s charming book, Wild Nature won by 
Kindness , which we are much pleased to hear has attained a very wide circulation. 
As everyone who has read the book knows, it does not contain a description of 
classes of animals, but a series of charming biographies of individual pets of the 
writer. Two guinea pigs, Jamrach and Fluff, are mentioned therein. Under 
peculiar circumstances of confinement, Fluff led a most inactive life, and was 
about as amusing as a stuffed animal would be. Of him, and him only, Mrs. 
Brightwen says : — “ He is the only instance of any animal I ever knew who 
seemed to be literally without a single habit, apparently without affection, without 
a temper, good or bad, with no wishes or desires except to be let alone to doze 
away his aimless life.” This sentence (with its proper limitation to the individual 
Fluff) we quoted last month in a review of Wild Nature in Nature Notes. 
This review had the honour of being made the basis of one of the delightful 
paragraphs in the Daily News which are so dear to Nature lovers. The D. N. para- 
grapher clothed its dry bones with flesh and breathed into it his own spirit ; but in the 
process possibly some of the precision of the original was lost, and the imperfections 
of the unfortunate Fluff seemed to careless readers as if they were set down as the 
badge of all his tribe. At any rate at once the din of war arose on all sides ; letters 
poured in from outraged “ guinea-piggers,” who fiercely protested that cavies in 
general had been grossly libelled. For many days members of the National Cavy 
Club inundated the columns of the Daily News and other papers with details of their 
pets. Many striking instances were given of their qualities, which assuredly prove 
that they have habits — some of them most unpleasant habits ; they are not without 
temper — for the tempers of many of them are horribly bad. On the authority of a 
leading Cavian, we ar assured that “ they will fight tooth and nail with their dearest 
friend ; they will take a piece out of your finger without the slightest provocation.” 
Of a guinea pig with the innocent name of “ Babe ” it is asserted that she will “bite 
you sharply and spring up into the air with a comical twist of her little body and 
loud squeaks.” A Rugby Schoolboy hastens to announce that he possesses a 
guinea pig who can when necessary “ make a delightful noise after the manner of 
the cat !” None of these statements appear to us to go very far in the rehabili- 
tation of the guinea pig as an amiable member of society, but even if it could be 
proved that be was possessed of the highest intellect and all the virtues under 
heaven, it would have nothing whatever to do with Mrs. Brightwen’s statement. 
She had two guinea pigs ; one of them happened to be an extremely dull and un- 
interesting little beast, and Mrs. Brightwen, with her usual candour, mentions 
the fact. The construing of this statement into an “ attack upon guinea pigs ” is 
one of the most absurd misapplications of ex uno disce omnes we have ever heard. 
Just imagine what results this mode of argument would lead to if acted upon in 
other cases. In one of Mr. Black’s novels there is represented a rollicking 
Scotchman who has the greatest objection to be paid for his pictures, and who, 
when the money is forced upon him, displays quite a profligate anxiety to lend it 
to others. In the same book there is a calm, philosophical, water-drinking Irish- 
man, who cultivates literature on a little oatmeal, and spurns with disdain the 
offer of a loan from the aforesaid Scotchman. We have never heard that Mr. 
Black has been violently attacked for his misrepresentation of national character, 
or has been persecuted with indignant letters assuring him that there were other 
Irishmen and other Scotchmen who did not answer to the description given in 
his book. To take a humbler instance : did it happen (we are of course per- 
fectly certain it never could happen) that some one member of the National 
Guinea Pig Association had fallen so far below the N. G. P. A.’s standard of 
propriety as to eat peas with his knife or to pull his mother-in-law’s nose, can we 
suppose that all the other members of the Association would consider it their 
duty to write letters to the paper immediately to assert that they understood 
the use of their forks, and that their mother-in-laws’ noses were still intact? 
