Short Xotices. 139 



they deserve to be. Investigation shows the birds to be no 

 less important in their economic than in their other relations 

 to man. They are found to be exceedingly valuable allies to 

 agriculture because of the quantity of noxious insects and 

 weed seeds they destroy, while the harm they do is insigni- 

 ficant." These highly instructive and well got up little 

 pamphlets serve to show us what careful investigation can do 

 and are certainly valuable object lessons to us here in S.A. 



(16) In the ' Avicultural Magazine ' for Nov. 1905 appears 

 a sensible little article by the Editor (D. Seth-Smith, F.Z.S., 

 M.B.O.U.), on " The Common-sense of Bird Protection." 

 In this paper he points out the hmits that should be drawn 

 between ruthless destruction of bird-life on the one hand and 

 narrow-minded " protection at all costs " (not even allowing 

 legitimate scientific collecting), i. e. " extremists," on the other. 

 He says : " we fail to see any excuse whatever for collecting 

 the few remaining specimens of a vanishing species to enrich 

 cabinet collections . . . . " ; and again " .... of course the 

 collecting of birds in foreign lands, and whose natural history 

 is little known, is deserving of all encouragement . . . . " 

 Remarks with which we fully concur. 



(17) An important work on the Avifauna of the Congo Free 

 State, entitled " Remarques sur I'Ornithologie de T^tat 

 Independant du Congo, suivies d'une liste des especes re- 

 cueillis jusqu'ici dans cet Etat," has recently been published 

 by Dr. Alph Dubois. Four hundred and eighty-three species 

 are enumerated, and the book is illustrated by a valuable 

 series of coloured plates. Several forms quite new to Science 

 are described : Barhatula ruhrigidaris, Ispidina leopoldi, 

 P seudospermestes goossensi, and Francolinus nahani. This 

 great Belgian possession still offers a great field for ornitho- 

 logical research. The work is published in Brussels : Spineux 

 et C^ 1905. Large 4to. 



(18) With the issue of the second part of the third volume 



