236 
NATURE NOTES. 
the lovers of Kew ought to make Mr. Dyer pause in his experiments. If not, 
perhaps the Office of Works had better look into the matter.” 
A Malvern Note. — I regret to hear that Lord Beauchamp has sold a 
beautiful old farm and homestead below West Malvern to the Dowager Lady 
Howard de Walden, and to see that she is making it hideous. Whilst her lady- 
ship was buying up smaller holdings for her characteristically walled-in estate, 
I hoped his lordship would have stood firm. When the water works come to fill 
up the glens, and either inundate or remove a few more cottages. West Malvern 
will be spoilt, except for the wealthy who do not care for common beauty. In 
these matters are local Selbornians everywhere justifying their existence as pro- 
tectors of pleasant places ? 
West Malvern. Oswald Birchall. 
Feathers. — After all that has been published about the fashion of wearing 
wings, aigrettes and other feather ornaments, one may well be surprised to see 
them still in use, for ignorance cannot now be pleaded by the wearers. Still, it 
is some comfort to know that a very large proportion of these additions to bonnets 
and hats are made up of separate feathers of the peacock, ostrich, rook, and 
farm-yard fowl. The exainple, however, still remains, and is a bad one. Many 
ladies have given up all kinds of feathers for the sake of setting a good example, 
but many who still wear even the most objectionable kinds, have taken care to 
buy only manufactured wings, &c. It would be no great sacrifice to desist 
altogether, as the choice of other decorations is such a large one ; tulles and laces, 
ribtons, flowers, leaves, fruit, fur, shells, beads ; even delicate coralines and 
seaweeds might be worn with advantage, and would be something new and 
■therefore delightful to the female mind. 
Elizabeth Lecky. 
“Egrets.” — It seems to follow that the killing of the egrets must be very 
false economy, and that the immense numbers of egrets’ plumes sold must in a 
very great measure be those cast by the birds themselves after the breeding season. 
A l^dy missionary in China sent me a number of plumes which she herself had 
gathered from quantities shed by the egrets on the walls in China. I could have 
had as many as ever I wished, and they were then, and are now, in very good 
condition, though I have worn them some years, and they have never been cleaned. 
Surely these feathers must — by thousands, and possibly millions— be sold in the 
London shops. 
Edith C. Stock. 
GrOlf and Wild Flowers. — It is to be feared that the great and growing 
passion for golf is working unfavourably to the preservation of some of our most 
interesting wild flowers, especially on sandy sea shores, which are becoming 
so extensively utilized for links. A recent visit to St. Helen’s Spit, at the east 
end of the Isle of Wight, well known as a habitat of uncommon seaside plants, 
showed that in the last few years the old area has been reduced to a fraction of its 
former extent, and is now almost confined to a narrow margin next the sea, while 
the rest has undergone a change to which the golfer and the botanist would give 
very different names. The same change has probably occurred in other places. 
Many .Selbornians must be both golfers and botanists, and it is to be hoped that 
their influence will be exerted where necessary, that the old order (as old as 
Paradise) may not be entirely supplanted by the new. 
B. WooDD Smith. 
Insect Collecting (p. 201). — All true naturalists must have hailed Mr. 
Kirby’s article with joy, and everyone who has pursued the study of entomology 
can corroborate his statements. I have been a coleopterist from a very early age, 
and these arc the principal discoveries I have made: first, that children begin to 
collect long before they can have any conception of the true purposes and methods 
of collecting ; second, that parents are too ready to encourage this practice, since 
it “keeps them out of mischief”; third, that the puerile covetousness and 
avariciousnc.ss of adult collectors is very often simply amazing. Mr. Kirby has 
hit the right nail on the he.id ; let us hope it will be driven home. 
Cleveland, Yorks. Gii.bf.rt Hudson. 
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