In the 'Essex Naturalist' (1897, p. 169), Mr. H.C. Sorby has contributed "Notes on the Food of Oysters in Essex":—"Some years ago I was led to think that very much remained to be discovered with regard to the food of Oysters in different localities. No reliance can of course be placed on the examination of the contents of the stomach after the Oysters have been kept for some hours out of the natural water, since the food would be digested; and the sooner they are examined the better. When lying in the yacht at Paglesham, I had a good opportunity for studying this question, since my friend Mr. James Wiseman gave orders to his men to supply me with Oysters, which were brought to me and the contents of the stomach examined with a microscope only a few minutes after having been taken out of the water; so that some of the diatoms they had eaten were still alive. I found that at Paglesham the chief, if not the entire, food was diatoms. Soon afterwards I had the opportunity of observing Oysters taken out of Brightlingsea Creek, and which were examined as soon as I could, but not so immediately as in the case of those at Paglesham. I was surprised to find that the food of the Brightlingsea Oysters was very different. Diatoms were few in number, or absent; but, on the contrary, the stomachs contained very small animals, which I took to be Infusoria, or small larvæ, not easily identified. At all events, the contrast in these two cases was so great as to readily explain why the growth and flavour of Oysters fed in different waters may be so different."
We have received from the Society for the Protection of Birds a tract entitled 'The Trade in Birds' Feathers,' reprinted from the 'Times.' The first instalment is a letter written to that journal by Mr. W. H. Hudson, from which we extract the following details:—
"Thursday, Dec. 14th, was a purple day at the Commercial Sale Rooms in the City, where feathers for the decoration of our women formed the attraction, and besides some hundreds of boxes of white Ospreys an incredible number of bird-skins of brilliant plumage, collected from all quarters of the world, were disposed of. Birds of modest-coloured plumage were also to be had; and it was surprising to see huge cases filled with Tits and other small species from Japan, a proof that the once artistic and bird-loving people of that distant beautiful country are anxious to be up to date and Western in all things, even to the extermination of their little feathered fellow-creatures. There were also some magnificent Pigeons, the most notable being the Bronze, the Goura, and the Victoria Crowned Pigeon. A curious destiny—to be pulled to pieces and used in the ornamenting of hats—of the last noble Dove, appropriately named after our august and tender-hearted Sovereign, whose love of all things, both great and small, is so well known to her subjects. Conspicuous even among the most
