142 
NATURE NOTES 
to the Conversazione Committee, and was to some extent responsible for the 
exhibits, I beg that you will publish in Nature Notes this my disavowal of any 
sympathy with the importation of bird skins and biid plumage into this country, 
and that you will allow me to state that the presence of the exhibit came as a 
great surprise to myself as to other people. 
A Plea for Local Secretaries for the Selborne 
Society. — We have received the following suggestion from 
Mrs. E. O. Proud : — 
If a Society means to extend the field of its operations and be a power in 
the country, it cannot do better than secure the help of pioneers in the shape of 
assistant -secretaries. 
In many places it would be impossible to form a Branch, viz., in busy business 
towns where there is neither inclination nor leisure to embark in such a scheme ; 
also in many country places where the population is too widely scattered to admit 
of bringing a number of people together. But in places like these an energetic 
secretary may do much useful work : — 
(1) By studying the local papers many a delinquent may be brought to book. 
(2) Seeing and hearing what is going wrong in your district and reporting 
same. 
(3) Spreading a knowledge of the Society’s work by distributing leaflets and 
calling people’s attention to the charming state of things that would result if 
everyone kept the Selborne Society’s rules. 
These secretaries ought to form a net-work over the whole country, and I feel 
sure many would write to them giving information who would hesitate before 
addressing to head-quarters. 
Richmond View. — An important step in the preservation of 
this beauty spot was taken on May 30, when Lord Monkswell, 
as Chairman of the London County Council, opened the Marble 
Hill estate at Twickenham. The Society was represented on 
the occasion by its Secretary, but the proceedings were marred 
by most inclement weather. The Council issued a sumptuous 
illustrated souvenir of the proceedings written by their inde- 
fatigable clerk, Mr. G. L. Gotnme, and containing among other 
illustrations a most interesting map of all the lands which have 
been dealt with in connection with the preservation of the view. 
Henley Street, Stratford-on-Avon. — The Council ap- 
pointed a delegate, Mr. J. S. Phillips, who visited Stratford 
on June 5, in company with representatives of the British 
Archaeological Society, examined the site of the proposed Free 
Library, and interviewed the Chairman of the Library Com- 
mittee and Miss Corelli. Mr. Phillips reports the pulling down 
of the cottage next to the china-shop as producing a gap in the 
line of old red-brick fronts, deprecates any interference with the 
front of the china-shop, the interior of which is too old to permit 
of structural alterations, and recommends that this cottage 
should be merely repaired and thrown open to the public. 
Bird Protection in Egypt. — The notice of the Society 
was called to the following, in the Globe, of May 2, 1903, and 
the Council communicated with the Foreign Office on this 
subject : — 
