Natural History Notes. 35 



Cainberwell Beauty, the Apollo butterfly, and the Purple 

 Emperor seen in bundrecls in the sunny glades of the Black 

 Forest. Some of the mountain slopes of Dauphiny, blue with 

 wild Lavender, struck me as especially rich in butterflies, many 

 of them being species quite new to me. The mountains and 

 valleys of Dauphiny offer a grand field for the botanist, the flora 

 seeming even richer than that of Switzerland. At Bouqu6ron, 

 near Grenoble, I noticed two or three of the species of butterfly 

 known in Britain as the Rare Swallow-tail ( Pajnlio Podalirnis) 

 flitting about the double scarlet flowei's of the pomegranate 

 bushes, and so tame that one lit on my straw hat and remained 

 while I removed it and held it in my hand. 



Bird life is sadly wanting in many parts of France and 

 Germany I have visited. In some parts of Switzerland the 

 copses still ring with the nightingale's song, but in the endless 

 woods of the Black Forest, which one would expect to be full of 

 life, one may walk from morning to night and never hear the 

 chirp of a bird nor see the flicker of a wing. All was silent thus 

 to me, though others whose hearing takes in acute insect sounds 

 complained of the din of the tree crickets. In this country we 

 are more fortunate, but some old acquaintances have left us. 

 Most people of about my age or older must remember the magpie 

 as a very common bird here. I have seen as many as six in a 

 row on the fence of the field in front of my house. The keepers 

 have killed them out, as they are now exterminating the hawks 

 of all kinds — a deplorable fact. I am convinced this is not 

 necessary for the preservation of game. Some two and twenty 

 years ago the buzzard was pretty common, as also the peregrine, 

 the sparrow hawk, and the kestrel ; and I think game was as 

 plentiful then as now. I remember four or tive buzzards being 

 killed on one grouse moor in the Stewartry, one of the best, and 

 that moor was as well stocked with grouse before as since. 

 Hawks and magpies are no doubt somewhat destructive to game, 

 but a small number of them, such as used to exist when thev 

 were let alone, would do far less injury than the hordes of rats 

 with which the country is now overi-un, thanks to the destruction 

 of stoats and weasels, or than the rooks which are allowed to 

 increase and multiply almost unchecked. The I'ook is a most 

 destructive enemy not of game only but of all the smaller birds. 

 Now that the nobler birds of prey are banislied, the rooks make 

 a very good attempt at tilling their place, so far as other occupa- 



