NA TURE STUDY NO TES 9 5 



The proposed destruction of Anopheles by the introduction of sea 

 water seems not to be rational. 



Shields' Magazine. The recent numbers of this magazine have con- 

 tinued the good fight for bird and game protection. Mr. Shields is doing 

 a good work and his magazine deserves far better support than it has so 

 far received. If any readers of The Review know real boys of 15 to 20 

 years who are interested in hunting and fishing, do not fail tobrder Shield's 

 Magazine for them. It will be good nature-study for the boys and soon 

 will enlist them in the cause of game protection. 



St. Nicholas for January has some interesting notes in the "Nature and 

 Science for Young Folks" department; especially the illustrations of 

 snow images of animals made at Andreasburg, Germany ; and the account 

 of the large pigeon farm at Los Angeles with 100,000 birds and selling 

 1,000 dozen squabs per month, bringing a gross annual income of more 

 than $30,000 a year. 



Bounty for Cats. In his annual report the Secretary of the Pennsylvania 

 State Game Commission recommends that the house cat be added to the 

 bounty list, because it is such a great destroyer of bird life. 



Sesquipedalian Words in Science. A recent critic (See Science, Dec. 27, 

 1907, p. 909) calls attention to an article on ants in the December Popular 

 Science Monthly as "an attempt to parade an aggregation of inane 

 verbosity." Most of the examples cited, like symbiosis and polymor- 

 phism are useful scientific words ; but when the average man reads in this 

 article that "Slavery or dulosis is rare among ants" and then looks up 

 dulosis to find it simply a Greek synonym for slavery, he is inclined to 

 agree with the critic in the suggestion that science men introduce such 

 words "to show that the author has some knowledge of Greek" or wishes 

 "to clarify his meaning and make science popular." It certainly reminds 

 one of the text-books which read: "The crayfish has a beak called 

 rostrum and legs called ambulatory appendages." 



Humor in Nature-Study. The funny man has seen possibilities in the 

 line of nature-study and his publisher now offers "Nature Series, No. 23, 

 How to Tell the Birds from the Flowers." The publisher is not en- 

 gaged in the text-book business and hence we need not fear that the book 

 will be adopted for regular work in schools. 



Economy in Christmas Trees. Those interested in forest preservation 

 will be glad to learn that, probably owing to business complications, the 

 New York City wholesale dealers ordered 65,000 less evergreen trees than 

 last year. 



Dandelions as Food. This despised weed seems to be steadily gaining 

 ground as an edible and in the Old World is frequently cultivated. In the 

 markets of our larger cities the cultivated dandelion is often exposed for 

 sale while in smaller towns the plants that grow so profusely in waste 

 grounds are not disdained. But even in so apparently simple a matter as 

 cooking dandelions there seems to be some tricks. The majority simply 

 cut off the leaves, wash them and cook until tender. A better way is to 



