Change of Habit due to War 
come possible to plough one day and sow the 
next, birds (such as GULLS, Rooks, and PHEA- 
SANTS) have not the same opportunity of de- 
stroying wireworms and other noxious insects, 
of which, under the more protracted system 
of ploughing with horses, they so beneficially 
availed themselves. 
It was not to be supposed that the un- 
qualified success of the institution of ‘‘summer 
time ’’’ would in any way affect Nature. PET 
BIRDs in houses and PoULTRY in farmyards 
utterly ignored the ‘‘ Willetted watch ”’ (ObD- 
server, 24.1X.16); but a PEACOCK which had 
always been in the habit of going to its 
night rest at 8.40 p.m. is alleged to have re- 
tired to bed at 8.40 p.m. (summer time) on 
the first day of the innovation and to have 
continued thereafter to do so! (Daily Express, 
27.V.16). 
Mr. William Beebe, in his recently pub- 
lished Monograph of the Pheasants, has pointed 
out that the far-flung influence of the War 
has granted a fresh lease of hfe to many 
species, such as the PHASIANIDZ&, which were 
jeopardised by the persecution of the plume- 
159 
