NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 
139 
This meeting was opened by Dr. Wager referring to the death of the 
Rev. Ashington Bullen, their honorary secretary, and moved that a vote 
of condolence be sent to Mrs. Bullen in her bereavement. 
Mr. Claridge Druce referred to the national trust and to the work it 
has accomplished in purchasing land for the preservation in a natural state 
as a sanctuary for our native fauna and flora. Several delegates spoke in 
favour of it, and suggested that the scope of the trust be extended in the 
interests of geology as well as in preserving our native wild animals and 
plants. 
[At the meeting of the Club on October 26th, at which this report was 
read, Mr. W. Cole remarked that it was unfair to charge the evil of destroy¬ 
ing wild plants upon children. He referred to some recent letters in 
Nature in which the probable approaching destruction of two rare British 
plants—the Cheddar Pink ( Dianthus ccesius) and Arabis stricta —was 
discussed by several eminent botanists. Only collectors of botanical 
specimens for Herbaria would be likely to gather these. Mr. Cole referred 
to the experiments of his sister Miss Jane E. Cole, in growing the Dianthus 
from seed. Simply hundreds of plants had been obtained in two 
years. Why then seek to destroy the few wild ones still lingering in 
Britain ? He strongly advocated the growing of wild plants from seed, an 
occupation which amateur botanists would find most delightful and 
instructive.] 
Some dissatisfaction was expressed as to the work done at the con¬ 
ference, it being thought by some delegates that much important time was 
wasted and that the benefits derivable by having delegates from all parts 
were not sufficiently utilised. 
Mr. W. Mark Webb, the Honorary Secretary of the Selbourne Society, 
delivered an interesting lecture on “ The Brent Valley Bird Sanctuary/’ 
and illustrated his remarks by a series of lantern slides and specimens of 
the nesting boxes used there, which he said were fully taken advantage of 
by the feathered inhabitants. 
NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED. 
BIRDS. 
Owl Hunting in Day-time. —Mr. E. E. Turner, of Coggeshall, 
writes :—“ On the afternoon of 4 February 1912, in broad day¬ 
light, at 3.30 p.m., when the ground was covered with snow, 
and the temperature very low, a Barn Owl came from just over 
the hedge in the parish of Feering, and as it passed a few yards 
over my head, a mouse could be seen in its claws ; it then crossed 
the corner of a field to a large elm tree, where it, no doubt, 
devoured its quarry. As there had been a blizzard during the 
previous night, one could not but think that the bird had gone 
