125 
ANNUAL MEETING. 
public opinion, by the work of the Selborne Society, spread a 
knowledge and love of animals for their own sake, we should 
have no need for these laws. 
The Chairman then formally moved the adoption of the 
Report. 
Ur. Dudley Buxton, in seconding the adoption of the Report, 
expressed his gratification at the work the Society was doing, 
and that the interest in the Society had been so well kept up 
during the past year. Particularly he approved of the extension 
of the Junior Branches, so that young people might learn to find 
in every hedgerow a practical lesson in botany, in every running 
stream a practical lesson in geology, and to see in the birds that 
fly about them and the flowers beneath their feet, the poetry of 
nature, a poetry which is even finer than the poetry of man ; so 
they never need grow dull, but having learned the lesson them- 
selves can go on and teach each man, woman and child, that 
there are things higher and better than money-grubbing, some- 
thing that would take them out of themselves and make them 
feel that life was worth living. This duty, of course, applied 
first at home. The members of the Selborne Society who had 
themselves learnt the lesson would impress it upon their children, 
so that they would find in nature beauty — something to think 
about, something to look forward to. There were, of course, 
different ways of attaining our object, and one of the most 
important means was through the medium of the magazine. 
Nature Notes was really, in his opinion, the spinal cord of 
the Society, and the Society owed much to its Editor. No man 
probably had more to put up with — if he were not a bookseller — 
than an editor, and though they were all pleased to see Mr. 
Britten there without any signs of maltreatment upon him, yet 
doubtless he had Suffered many bad quarters of an hour, and 
they all recognised the very great debt they owed to him. 
The Earl of Stamford, in rising to support the adoption of 
the Report, stated that having had the honour of bringing a Bill 
into the House of Lords some time ago relating to- the protection 
of wild birds, he knew something of the legislation on the 
subject, and if that should become law he did not think it would 
interfere with the principles stated by the Chairman. It was 
not intended to prevent the making of collections for museums 
or by hona fide students, but it was aimed at the professional bird- 
catcher — generally a very objectionable character about our 
towns, and one whose calling involved a very large amount of 
needless cruelty over and above the extensive natural destruction 
of bird life. And it had been felt that the practices of these 
men had become an evil calling for legislation. The Bill had, 
therefore, been introduced as embodying the views of the various 
County Councils round London. He also had much pleasure 
that evening in presenting to the Society, on behalf of Mr. R. 
Holt White, a manuscript sermon of Gilbert White’s containing 
endorsements of the various occasions on which it had been 
preached at Selborne and elsewhere. 
B 
