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 Rev. 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—Ist, 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 ; 
drd, 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 
