1897] NOTES AND COMMENTS 75 



given facilities for attending the yearly meeting not less than those 

 accorded to nearly all provincial curators by the much-abused town 

 and county councils. 



The Protection of our Fauna and Flora 



We have heard a good deal lately, both from naturalists and those 

 whom the world in its rude way calls faddists, about the exter- 

 mination of many of our native plants and animals. There is, 

 unfortunately, little room for doubt that, however ill-advised may 

 be the action of certain enthusiasts, their fears are on the whole 

 well founded. " Naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurrit," is 

 only true up to a point : and when ' furca ' has to be translated 

 ' bricklayer's trowel,' that point has been passed. Those who wish 

 to preserve at least a sample of what was once English country 

 should read the level-headed paper sent by the Kev. J. J. Scargill 

 of Bromley to the Congress of the South-Eastern Union. Here 

 is a suggestion of his: "There are, perhaps, a dozen animals, 

 furred or feathered, that are habitually killed by keepers. Let a 

 man devote himself to investigating the habits (of course, in its 

 wild state) of one of these — hawk, owl or magpie, stoat or weasel 

 — noting all that it feeds on, and recording his observations day by 

 day. In a few years, and with a sufficient number of observers, a 

 fair estimate of the truth might be arrived at. It would be no 

 easy task, but it would be good ' naturalists' work ' worthy the 

 attention of any follower of Darwin." 



The want of thought that works so much ill can only be 

 checked by the creation of a public conscience. " There are," says 

 Mr Scargill, " several obvious means — 1st, County Councils should 

 be active in exercising their powers under the Act of last year, 

 and prohibit altogether the taking or killing of such birds as those 

 just mentioned ; 2nd, the editors of natural history magazines 

 should never let an issue pass without a few words on the subject; 

 3rd, instruction on the duty and the reasons for it should be 

 periodically given in every school." 



As for the naturalists themselves, especially those whom Mr 

 Scargill describes as " the camp-followers of science, eager for the 

 loot, but inclined to shirk the discipline," they may remedy matters 

 in two ways. First, let them collect only for their local museum, 

 and themselves pay more attention to the habits or the structure 

 of the animals and plants they meet with ; secondly, let them leave 

 the butterflies and the petaliferous plants alone for a time : they 

 will find the flies, the grasses, the "mosses, the marine invertebrates 

 quite as interesting and far more profitable. Let us add that 

 there is never any harm in collecting fossils, for they are dead 



