318 THE NA TURE-STUDY REVIEW [2 ^-dec, .906 



where the common furs are as abundant as they were in the regions known 

 fifty vears ago. Apparently the fact that the trappers are continually moving 

 on to new regions and thus giving the animals a chance to multiply in regions 

 once hunted is the explanation of the continuous supply. 



Birds and Boll-Weevils. A recent pamphlet from the Department of 

 Agriculture states that 28 species of birds feed on the boll-weevils of cotton. 

 Orioles are most important in summer; blackbirds and meadow larks in winter. 

 Unfortunatelv the demand for their bright plumage for millinery purposes has 

 greatly reduced the number of orioles. 



Salt in New York State. All the salt wells in the State obtain their 

 brine from the same rock-salt deposit in the Upper Silurian. Rock salt is 

 now mined at a depth of 1,270 feet from a bed 70 feet in thickness. The 

 Syracuse wells have produced over 12 million tons since 1788. [Science, 

 Aug. 24, '06.] 



New Game Laws. Sale of protected game is prohibited now in Mississippi, 

 Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, Texas, Montana and 

 Arizona. Arkansas, Alabama and Texas are the only regions in the United 

 States and Canada where there are no game- wardens. Canada in 1905 

 established a game preserve of 2,500 square miles in the Province of Alberta. 

 Congress ordered a lease of 3,500 acres for buffalo pasture in South Dakota 

 and established a game refuge in the Grand Canyon Forest Preserve in 

 Arizona. Farmers' Bulletin 265 (free from Department of Agriculture, 

 Washington, D. C.) gives full details. 



Alfalfa and Bees. On one farm where no bees were kept the yield of 

 seed, in 1905, was two bushels to the acre. On another farm, on the same 

 bottom, one mile from the first, where only three colonies of bees were kept, 

 the yield of alfalfa seed was between four and five bushels to the acre. On 

 still another farm, where about twenty colonies of bees are kept, the yield 

 was between seven and eight bushels per acre; and two miles below, with- 

 out bees, the vield again dropped to two bushels. [American Bee Journal. ] 



Height of Birds in Flight. By pointing an astronomical telescope 

 towards the moon on clear nights in the seasons of migration birds may often 

 be seen as dark objects passing rapidly across the bright back-ground. Pro- 

 fessors Stebbins and Carpenter, at the University of Illinois, have been making 

 observations by means of two telescopes set so that simultaneous observations 

 of a bird makes it possible to get measurements necessary for computing the 

 height of the bird above the ground. Eighteen birds were measured. Only 

 one was one mile high; the majority were less than one-half mile; one was 

 1,200 feet high. Most works on ornithology estimate the elevation of 

 migrating birds at one to three miles. [Popular Astronomy, Feb., '06. 

 7 he Auk, April.] 



