SEL/^OKN/ANA 83 
Insanity in Sussex. — Several correspondents liave naturally 
called our attention to the following record : — 
“ TAe Sussex Daily News of to-day (Wednesday, March 29) says that during 
the past winter members of the Hodle Street and District Rat and Sparrow Club, 
near Herstmonceux (Sussex), killed 4,143 rats and moles, 40 stoats, 40 rooks, 
jays, bullfinches, magpies and hawks, 615 blackbirds, larks and linnets, and 2,994 
sparrows, starlings, greybirds and chatfinches. The member who secured most 
heads and tails got a prize of £2, the second a sovereign, third 15s. 6d., and 
fourth 7s. 6d. The rules of the Club provide that a tine shall be imposed on 
members (ailing to bring in twenty units every fortnight. Rooks, jays, bull- 
finches, magpies, hawks and stoats count three points ; rats, moles, blackbirds, 
larks and linnets two ; sparrows, starlings, greybirds and chaffinches one.” 
Greybirds are, we believe, thrushes. Are none of these birds 
protected all the year round in East Sussex ? 
Threatened Extinction oe the Goldfinch. — The gold- 
finch, perhaps the prettiest bird in the English hedge-row, is 
becoming scarcer every year, and it is now rarely seen in a wild 
state around Leeds. Its beauty has been its doom, marking it out 
as it feeds among the nettles as the special prize for the clever 
bird-catcher. It is easily sold to the dealers at anything from 
3s. 6d. to 8s. 6d., according to song and plumage. Unless the 
goldfinch is rigidly protected not only during the breeding season, 
but all the year round, its extinction is not far off. 
At the end of February the Wild Birds Protection Act again 
resumed operations, and professional bird-catchers, who are 
more numerous around Leeds than is popularly imagined, had 
to put away their nets or carry on their business with great 
secrecy and in defiance of the law. For many of them the law 
has few terrors, and the lax way in which the Act is administered, 
and the difficulties in carrying it out, make the detection of 
offenders almost impossible. Even where a fine is imposed the 
offender usually regards it as an advertisement. — Leeds Mercury. 
The Cost of a Hat. — A valued correspondent sends us the 
following extract : — 
In his interesting book, “ The Great Mountains and Forests 
of South America,” Mr. Paul Fountain says : — 
“ As we proceeded I noticed that a flock of turkey-buzzards were hovering 
overhead, and presently about twenty of these birds flew up from among the trees 
in front of us. Here was a small clearing with a rough hut in the middle of it, 
constructed like those we had seen yesterday, and a fire-place which had been 
recently used. An old tin pot, with a hole burnt in the bottom of it, left no doubt 
in my mind that the people who had bivouacked here were whites. But my 
attention was attracted most by a large heap on the ground of what looked like 
small pieces of raw meat, but which, on examination, proved to be the carcases 
of birds which had been skinned. The skinning had been performed with a 
certain amount of skill, the leg- and wing-bones and the heads being severed and 
carried away in the skins, proving that the latter were required for the bird- 
stuffer, and I concluded that a party of those rascals who make a trade of catching 
birds of the finest plumage for the purpose of decorating ladies’ hats had found 
their way hither. Unlikely as it may seem at first glance, there can be no doubt 
but that a party of those bird-exterminators had found their way to this obscure 
