218 Thk Ottawa Naturalist. [Mar. 



winter and after their breeding time. In many of the German 

 states and other parts of Europe bird encouragement by means 

 of nest boxes is undertaken by the State, Hungary being one of 

 the foremcst in this respect, at the instigation of Otto Hermann. 

 The value of encouragement in increasing the number of birds is 

 further illustrated by the use made of these means when they are 

 employed. On and near Baron Berlepsch's estate, 90% of 2,000 

 nest boxes in one wood were occupied and nearly all of 500 and 

 2,100 in other localities. Of 9,300 boxes hung up by the Govern- 

 ment of the State of Hesse 70 to 80% were occupied during the 

 first year, and in 1907 all had occupants. 



It will be seen, therefore, that this question of bird protec- 

 tion and encouragement is one in which all lovers of Nature and 

 of our forests, and especially those who are dependent upon 

 forests and agriculture for their subsistence, as we are all in- 

 directly, should be deeply concerned. Our native birds are a 

 resource of inestimable value, practical and aesthetic. 



Public Health. 



If the conservation of natural resources is for the benefit 

 of man and of the future generations, it naturally follows that 

 for such benefits, as may accrue from this policy of conservation, 

 to be utilized and enjoyed to their fullest extent, man himself 

 must be conserved. In other words, the public health must be 

 an object of conservation. It is useless to colonize if care is not 

 taken of the people. Of what use are these resources if there is 

 not a healthy nation to enjoy them? I may be accused of 

 wandering beyond the appointed limit in my treatment of this 

 subject and asked how the question of public health comes 

 within the domain of the naturalist. This question could certain- 

 ly not be asked in any of those countries where such diseases as 

 malaria, yellow fever, sleeping sickness and other insect-borne 

 diseases are prevalent. Fifty thousand deaths from yellow fever 

 was the price paid by the French in cutting a portion of the 

 Panama Canal; the annual mortality in the Indian peninsula 

 from malaria is over a miillion human beings. The methods 

 adopted for the prevention of these devastating diseases are 

 based upon entomological knowledge. As Lord Robson recently 

 said in London: "It is the man of science who is to decide the 

 fate of the tropics, not the soldier or the statesman with his 

 programmes and perorations, but the quiet entomologist. He is 

 the man of science who of all others strikes the popular imagina- 

 tion the least and gets less of popular prestige ; but he has begun 

 a fascinating campaign for the sanitary conquest of those 

 enormous tracts of the earth, and before long he will have added 

 their intensely fertile soil almost a free gift to the productive 



