180 Hints for Improvements. 



manager. Vov example: if I send up specimens worth 1/. I shall be 

 entitled to others bearing a similar value, less by 20 or 25 per cent (or 

 whatever is thought proper), and in this case I should receive to the value 

 of \Qs. or 15^. I might also sell or purchase by the same scale. It also 

 occurs to me that every person, sending specimens for exchange should, in 

 addition to what he is entitled to, be required to take others, to an amount 

 in a certain ratio, for which he shall pay in money j otherwise the master 

 ©f the establishment might soon become possessed of a large stock of 

 specimens (provided that the bu'k of his contributors wanted payment for 

 what they sent up), while but little money might be received. No doubt 

 many admirers of nature, and even naturalists who have not opportunities 

 of collecting, would purchase ; but it would still be well to provide against 

 the contingency I have supposed above. — J» E. Bowman, The Court near 

 Wrexham, March 6. 1830. 



A cheap Work on the Microscope, with lithographic plates, is much 

 wanted. Adams is not to be had, and is too dear, as is Goring' s, for 

 general readers. Perhaps a hint in the Magazine might call the attention 

 of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge to the subject, or 

 induce some one to republish Adams, with notes and plates, in octavo, at 

 less than half its original price. — W, S. Buckingham, May 31. 1830. 



Causes of the Scarcity of Game. — It must have occurred to every sports- 

 man, preserver of game, and game-keepers in particular, that hundreds of 

 eggs are yearly spoiled by being moved out. By having no hen at hand 

 ready to take to them, all care is useless ; and more game is often destroyed 

 from this cause than any other, because it is yearly and regularly operating. 

 If to this we add a bad season during the period of hatching ; the waste 

 committed by many gentlemen in their French mode of sporting, namely, 

 driving the game to a focus ; and also the depredations of poachers, we 

 may well wonder that we have so much game as we have. If, however, we 

 could save only half the eggs that are every year thrown out, what an in- 

 crease should we have in seven years ! The application of fire seems not 

 to answer ; but perhaps a hot-bed made of dung, and carefully attended to, 

 would answer the purpose. We well know that by regulating the heat by 

 £i thermometer we can attain and keep up any degree that might be required ; 

 and it seems preferable to any other mode, from its easy application in every 

 situation, and from its furnishing a moist heat, which seems to be absolutely 

 necessary to the success of the undertaking. Prizes should be given by 

 game preservers to those who hatch and bring up the greatest number of 

 'healthy..birds, in proportion to the number of eggs. The eggs, for the con- 

 . veniencefqf turning, should be placed in a kind of frame, made of slips of 

 wood, with wire across; the wire on one side to be fixed, but made to 

 open on, the other. In this frame the eggs would lie in order, with hay 

 " between them, and the frame painted white on one side and dark on the 

 other, to prevent mistakes in turning them: for if all the frames are placed 

 with the white side up one day, all must have the dark side up the other, 

 and no mistake can happen ; and if each frame held fifteen or twenty eggs, 

 the operation would be speedily performed. Except these frames, nothing 

 else would be required but a common cucumber frame and thermometer, 

 A few directions, as to .the quantity of heat, should be printed, and the 

 ihing tried next spring. 



Another thing, as an old sportsman, I wish to add, although many may 

 not agree with me, yet experience tells me I am right ; namely, we do 

 wrong in killing all the hawks and owls. Of this I am daily more and 

 more convinced. These creatures, it is true, destroy some game ; but the 

 mischief is not done by any animal that lives only on animals ; the great 

 destruction proceeds from weasels, stoats, rats, &c., which suck the eggs, 

 and in one night destroy the whole. Now hawks and owls, although they 

 will kill a bird or two, live chiefly on these nightly poachers ; and as we 



