SELBORNIANA 
165 
made in the press, and are feeding the larger serpents with 
newly-killed rabbits and poultry instead of with live ones. This 
is the plan adopted in the New York Gardens, and it is believed 
that it will in nearly every case be successful. The new Secre- 
tary of the Zoological Gardens is to be congratulated on his 
enterprise .” — The Animals’ Friend. 
“Protection of Coast Birds. — We are glad to hear that 
the Admiralty has sanctioned the co-operation of the coastguard 
in carrying out the provisions of the Wild Birds’ Protection 
Acts. This is likely to prove a most useful step for the pro- 
tection of sea-birds especially. We understand there are 677 
coastguard stations, and the knowledge that there is a possible 
watcher at each cannot but act as a deterrent on many a would- 
be law-breaker. Our friends on the coast should do all they can 
to make the fact known, and also to arouse the personal interest 
of the coastguardsmen in the subject .” — The Animals’ Friend. 
A Costless (?) Garden. — A correspondent directs our 
attention to an article in the Daily Mail for July 20, in which 
a lady describes how she stocks her garden with wild flowers, 
getting orchids from Box Hill, ferns from Devon, and primroses 
from Sussex and Lancashire ! She recommends others to 
follow her example in thus getting together a garden without 
cost, never for a moment considering that were this a general 
practice the cost to the community at large in the loss of the 
beauties of wild Nature entailed thereby would be a serious one. 
We doubt if the writer will have any success in her suburban 
garden with the man and bee orchids sufficient to justify even 
to herself the removal of these beautiful plants from their native 
haunt. 
The Home Counties Nature-Study Exhibition. — Though 
the place is not as yet absolutely determined, the date of this 
exhibition has been fixed for October 28 to 31. 
A Protest. — We have received the following from Mr. 
Harold Hamel Smith : — 
“ I have just read in your July issue Mr. E. A. Martin’s 
protest against the four parrots and one peacock skin exhibited 
at the Conversazione of the Selborne Society on May 5. As the 
exhibitor of those birds I shall be much obliged if you will let 
me comment on this protest. 
“ First, I would point out that Mr. Martin appears to doubt 
whether parrots and peacocks are injurious to the crops ; if so, 
he could easily ascertain that they are by turning to any work 
on the Natural History of India or to the publications of the 
India Museum, and he will learn that parrots are universally 
regarded as pests in India. In a communication received by my 
firm from the Indian Government they acknowledge that the 
prohibition extends to wild birds that are injurious to crops, and 
