4 6 



IIARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



deer has originated under our eyes in the United 

 States, the following being extracted from Darwin's 

 "Descent of Man," vol. ii. pages 255-256: "A 

 writer in an excellent American Journal (the 

 " American Naturalist ") says that he has hunted for 

 the last twenty-one years in the ' Adirondacks ' where 

 the Cervus Virginianus abounds. About fourteen years 

 ago he first heard of spike-horn-bucks, these became 

 from year to year more common ; about five years 

 ago he shot one, and subsequently another, and now 

 they are frequently killed." The new species has a 

 horny spike projecting forwards from the forehead 

 more slender than antlers and about half as long, the 

 end being a sharp point. The same writer then 

 continues : " Undoubtedly the first spike-horn-buck 

 was an accidental freak of nature. But his spike- 

 horns gave him an advantage, and enabled him to 

 propagate his peculiarity. His descendants having a 

 like advantage have propagated the peculiarity in a 

 constantly increasing ratio, till they are slowly 

 crowding the antlered deer from the region they 

 inhabit." I think we have here an unquestionable 

 case of a new species arising of which we have the 

 origin, and other species may have originated in the 

 same manner. When Mr. H. D. Barclay says that 

 sterility ensues in an animal propagated from two 

 different species, I would remark that the varieties of 

 ducks, dogs, pigeons, &c, are almost endless, but the 

 first of each variety was the result of cross-breeding 

 of two species of dogs, ducks, or pigeons, as the case 

 may be, and who has not heard of and seen mongrel 

 dogs, produced by the mixing of two species ? It 

 maybe argued that such " freaks of nature " are only 

 occasional occurrences, but the animal kingdom has 

 existed for an enormous length of time. — E. A. 

 Briuietti. 



Mr. Dealy and the Gamekeepers. — I am glad 

 to find that Mr. S. Woolley has taken the trouble to 

 expose the fallacy of Mr. Dealy's very curious calcula- 

 tion " with regard to the destruction of small birds 

 by the sparrow-hawk," and I quite agree with him 

 that such a style of writing cannot be too highly 

 condemned as misleading in the extreme, in proof of 

 which this curious calculation will be found seriously 

 quoted in a letter which appeared in the " Standard " 

 newspaper of January 2. Nothing can be more 

 illogical than Mr. Dealy's whole style of reasoning; he 

 first takes great pains to show that the habitat of the 

 sparrow-hawk is " the wooded districts of mountain- 

 ous regions . . . . amid the savage repose of nature," 

 &c, that its "shy, wary, restless disposition .... 

 necessitates it to shun man's society, and seek rather 

 the deep solitudes and quiet seclusion of the most 

 tangled retreats of the forest ;" he then chooses for 

 its favourite food the house sparrow, which, as its 

 name implies, is scarcely to be found beyond the 

 busy haunts of man. There can be no doubt that 

 the sparrow-hawk is a great destroyer of insect- 

 eating birds, and that if Mr. Dealy's argument for 

 their preservation were the only one which could be 

 adduced, their chance of finding favour would be 

 small indeed. But my object in troubling you is not 

 at all in defence of the sparrow-hawk, but of a class 

 of honest industrious men whom Mr. Dealy has 

 chosen to speak of in terms of the greatest severity — 

 I refer to gamekeepers. I have had no little experi- 

 ence of gamekeepers, and am persuaded that if they 

 are no better than the average of men in their class of 

 life, they are certainly no worse. The gamekeeper 

 holds a position of very considerable trust, much 

 valuable and very marketable property is absolutely 

 at his disposal, from hatching-time till his coverts are 

 shot his whole time (day and night) and energy are 



given up to the care of his birds, and very often his life 

 risked in their protection. The gamekeeper well 

 knows that the estimation in which he is held by his 

 master will be just in proportion to the head of 

 game he is able to show at the proper season, and his 

 " dark illiterate mind " tells him that if he wishes to 

 keep his birds, he must destroy their enemies. What 

 says Mr. Dealy ? " If there are any preserves of 

 partridges or pheasants in its vicinage, it will 

 acquaint them with its presence. It levies frequent 

 contributions on all — farm-yard and preserve, poultry 

 and game," and again, " In fact, its life is essentially 

 one of continued action and exertion, of marauding 

 expeditions, of ceaseless plunder and deeds of piracy. 

 Indeed this bird is a pirate among feathered creatures, 

 the tyrannical despot of the woods, a rover, a 

 pillager and a plunderer. It shoots through the air 

 like a passing meteor — dark and mysterious— and as a 

 flash of heavenly light (sic) dashes itself upon its poor 

 luckless victim," &c, and much more to the same 

 purpose. Surely this is quite sufficient to procure the 

 death-warrant of the poor sparrow-hawk ! And yet 

 Mr. Dealy exclaims, " Keepers of the woods, divest 

 yourselves of selfish prejudice or the wrong will 

 recoil on your own heads," &c. I cannot but think 

 the gamekeeper who chances to read Mr. Dealy's 

 article will go into the woods, his heart more steeled 

 than ever against the poor sparrow-hawk, and not the 

 least cause of this result will be the hard and un- 

 deserved language which has been used towards him. 

 It is quite true that "the balance of nature is 

 disturbed, nay, her equilibrium is upset," and we 

 "behold the consequence, witness the result," but it 

 is not by attacking the gamekeeper that things can be 

 put right, the remedy must come from their masters ; 

 and if Mr. Dealy can induce the landed proprietors 

 to sternly interdict the destruction of hawks and owls, 

 and enjoin greater attention to the rats, he will be 

 doing a service in which all good ornithologists will 

 wish him success. — T. Southwell, Nonvich. 



Friends in Council — if you like — i.e. folks to 

 help one another, mutually (according to the exact 

 meaning of that word). I however never "signified 

 my ability ( which willingness implies) tohelp learners," 

 but only that I was willing to correspond with others, 

 and so to interchange views as well as specimens — 

 botanical, geological and mineralogical— with such. — 

 Veneo, 



Troubles of "Assisting Naturalists." — As 

 one of the "assisting" naturalists, whose names 

 appeared in your list in December last, I have received 

 many parcels of mosses and a few hepaticre for iden- 

 tification. Some, however, have been sent in such a 

 state of confusion as to make it impossible to name 

 them, e.g., half-a-dozen species of hypnum in one 

 mass ; in another parcel infinitesimal fragments of a 

 Bryum with enough soil and lime dust to cause extra 

 postage. The packet however of one lady mycolo- 

 gist was a pattern for all others. Each species 

 (most of them excellent examples) was enclosed in a 

 folded envelope of thin but tough paper, on which 

 was a number, with a note of the habitat, soil, &c, 

 while on a half sheet of note-paper were corresponding 

 numbers, habitats, &c, with a blank for the names, 

 thus leaving the nomenclator nothing else to do but 

 to inscribe the name of the species opposite to its 

 corresponding number. Good examples should be 

 sent, and, if possible, specimens in fruit. — R. A., 

 Wellington, Shropshire. 



The Extermination of Birds. — Major Lawson's 

 suggestions to ornithologists have again drawn the 

 attention of all those interested in the protection of 



