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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



sounds, speak with the accent of their coun- 

 try ; and he believes that, as they have 

 never heard any one speak, their peculiar 

 accent can only proceed from their having 

 organic conformations like those of their 

 parents. M. Hement is supported by a 

 communication from Mr. W. E. A. Axon, 

 published in "Nature." M. Emil Blan- 

 chard, contradicting this view, cited the ex- 

 ample of a French-speaking Chinaman with 

 whom he had talked, who had no trouble 

 with his r's ; and he suggested that the ques- 

 tion could not be considered satisfactorily 

 solved till a number of children of people 

 speaking peculiar idioms had been sepa- 

 rated from their parents from birth, and 

 taught to speak a single language. Mr. A. 

 Graham Bell has communicated a paper to 

 the "Academy," stating that, in observing the 

 pronunciation of at least four hundred deaf- 

 mutes whom he had taught to speak, he has 

 never remarked any tendency of the kind 

 described by M. Hement. In some cases, it 

 was true, dialectic accents could be detected ; 

 but he has always found, on investigation, 

 that such children had been able to speak 

 before they became deaf. M. Hement de- 

 clares that his opinions are not shaken by 

 Mr. Bell's observations, and even professes 

 to find in them new arguments in support 

 of his own theory. 



Insect Enemies cf Forest and Shade 

 Trees. Dr. A. S. Packard, Jr., of the Unit- 

 ed States Entomological Commission, Las 

 published a valuable report on insects in- 

 jurious to forest and shade trees, which is 

 intended, not so much to embody the fruits 

 of any original research, as to give a sum- 

 mary of what is up to this time known of 

 the habits and appearance of such insects 

 as are injurious to the more useful kinds of 

 trees. The amount of knowledge we have 

 on the subject is really scanty enough, and 

 the report is, therefore, largely a simple 

 list of the insects that live upon our more 

 important forest-trees. The matter is emi- 

 nently worthy of the attention of farmers 

 and gardeners and others, who have the op- 

 portunity and are competent to make intel- 

 ligent investigations relative to it and in- 

 form naturalists of what they find out ; and 

 such persons are invited to communicate 

 the substance of their observations to the 



commission. Much has been done in France 

 and Germany, both of which countries pos- 

 sess valuable illustrated works on forest- 

 insects. Kaltenbach, in his work on the 

 insect enemies of plants, describes astonish- 

 ing numbers of insects as found -on some 

 kinds of forest-trees, only a comparative 

 few of which are, however, particularly de- 

 structive. Thus, 537 species are injurious 

 to the oak, and 107 are obnoxious to the 

 elm ; the poplars afford a livelihood to 264 

 kinds ; the willows yield food to 396 species, 

 the birches harbor 270, the alder 119, the 

 beech 154, the hazel-nut 97, and the horn- 

 beam 88. Among the coniferous trees, the 

 junipers supply 33 species, and 299 species 

 prey upon the pines, larches, spruces, and firs 

 collectively. In France, Perris has observed 

 more than one hundred species either inju- 

 rious to the maritime pine or living upon 

 it without being especially injurious to it. 

 The number known to attack the different 

 kinds of trees in the United States is suffi- 

 ciently large to excite great fears for the 

 future prosperity of our diminished forests 

 unless some means are found to check their 

 increase, and the subject of forest entomol- 

 ogy is becoming one of really great impor- 

 tance. 



Domestication of Wild Dacks. Mr. 



Charles Linden has made report to the Buffa- 

 lo Society of Natural Sciences of the experi- 

 ments which Mr. George Irwin, of Mayville, 

 on Chautauqua Lake, has been conducting 

 for more than thirty years in the domestica- 

 tion of several species of wild duck. A suit- 

 able lot of about an acre in extent, on the 

 edge of the lake, was fitted up with protecting 

 sheds and nesting-places, and stocked from 

 time to time with eggs for hatching, duck- 

 lings, and old birds. The pin-tail and 

 American swan freely bred and raised their 

 young in the inclosure, without anymore re- 

 straint than was necessary for safe-keeping, 

 but w r ere never fully domesticated, nor even 

 transferred from the breeding-pen to the 

 barn-yard. The dusky duck and mallard, 

 which proved most tractable for domestica- 

 tion or complete metamorphosis into tamed 

 barn-yard fowl, resisted all efforts for this 

 purpose if they were transferred to the pen 

 when one year old, but were readily tamed 

 when they were raised from eggs or capt- 



