208 Letters, Announcements, ^c. 



would prove to be a successful investment or call for 

 ministerial interference ; but in your version you have so 

 much improved upon the invention^ that the experiment may 

 be safely predicted to end in total failure; and the electric 

 shock on the birds, which are expected to " fall like ripe 

 fruit '^ from the " dead tree encircled with a band of copper/' 

 would be much less severe in its efiects than that which 

 you administered by your account upon the diaphragm of 

 your readers. 



Natural History Museum, A. GuNTHER. 



Feb. 25, 1886. 



[The writer of the notice in question does not appear to 

 have made his meaning clear to Dr. Giinther. No doul)t 

 Golden Orioles do feed, to an extent varying with circum- 

 stances, upon ripe cherries, but the idea considered unde- 

 sirable for propagation was that cherries constituted the 

 ordinary food of this species during the period of incubation. 

 The only English county in which Golden Orioles have been 

 proved to have nested is Kent, renowned for its cherry- 

 orchards. Suppose that another pair escape the usual fate 

 of a conspicuous species until the cradle-shaped nest is 

 formed : the unsophisticated proprietor of the orchard is 

 pleased to watch the birds whose habits^ food, &c. are 

 unknown to him, and he proudly exhibits them to his friends. 

 " Ah \" says one who has studied in the British Museum 

 of Natural History, " those birds won't leave you a 

 cherry on your trees — why, they just live on cherries ; 

 I've seen them stuffed at the Museum, with the hen bird 

 sitting comfortable on her nest, while the old cock has 

 just brought her two cherries in his bill." The subsequent 

 action of that Kentish farmer will depend upon his credulity, 

 but it may be imagined ! Take a parallel case. There is 

 the greatest difficulty in persuading a gamekeeper to spare 

 a Kestrel, although its value to the farmer is undoubted, 

 mice forming the principal part of its food. It is, however, 

 certain that the Kestrel, when pressed by a clamorous brood, 

 will pick up young Pheasants ; but it would be quite 



