AN EARNEST APPEAL. 
I [ 
and the same body will now have power to acquire, in many 
parishes, open spaces that have been reckoned as village greens, 
though not held as such by any parish authority. 
In pleading the cause of open spaces in these pages we 
have often called attention to their value in the neighbourhood of 
large towns as conducing to the health of the inhabitants, more 
especially of those dwelling in the crowded parts. But the 
preservation, in rural districts, of footpaths, of commons, and of 
village greens, is of equal importance, as the author of the 
pamphlet under review emphasizes. The causes of migration of 
country-dwellers into towns are doubtless comple.x, and could not 
properly be discussed here, but unquestionably villagers love 
their birth-place none the better for the common being enclosed 
and the footpath stopped up. It is our earnest hope, therefore, 
that the newer and happier order of things may serve to check 
the hitherto ever-increasing e.xodus from the country-side. 
Archibald Clarke. 
AN EARNEST APPEAL. 
HE Council wish to take the opportunity of the begin- 
ning of a new volume of N.ature Notes to impress 
upon each member of the Selborne Society the 
importance of making an effort to extend the work 
of the Society. The good that has been done should be an 
encouragement to increase our efforts rather than an excuse for 
relaxing them. Many flowers and birds, once plentiful, are 
becoming scarcer every year ; some of the most beautiful spots 
in our lands have been attacked by that vandalism which feeds 
on selfishness ; millions of birds, both common and rare, are 
killed annually for millinery decorations, and there are wrongs 
and cruelties inflicted on innocent and helpless creatures which 
can but sadden the thoughtful. 
It is the province of the Selborne Society to endeavour to 
lessen these evils, and whilst any remain, it has work to do. 
But its efforts in this direction must be practically futile if it is 
left to the few to make them. There should be no lukewarm 
members of the Selborne Society. Its objects are such- that 
none can plead inability to assist. All cannot, of course, have 
equal opportunities, but all can foster and endeavour to spread 
the same keen sympathy with the beauties of nature and the life 
beneath us, and make known the existence and objects of our 
Society. The importance of adding to the number of members 
should not be overlooked, and if each member would obtain a't 
least one recruit at the commencement of our new year, the 
actual doubling of our members would be only one of the 
benefits that would arise. The hands of the Council would be 
