July 20, 1893] 



NA TURE 



283 



Greek congeners. But there are thiee objections which render 

 this method almost worthless except for employment in houses, 

 gardens, enclosed fields, or other limited areas : — 



"(l) It is very expensive ; the virus supplied to the Greek 

 Government was paid for at the rate of 4s. a tube, containing 

 enough when dissolved to treat about two imperial acres, a cost 

 which in many instances would exceed the rent of the Scottish 

 hill pasture. To this must be added the price of bread used 

 in distributing the virus, which would appreciably raise the 

 cost of the process. Thus to deal effectually with a hill farm of 

 say 6000 acres, would entail an expenditure of from £^ClO to 

 ;^iooo, making the remedy more costly than the evil. 



" (2) Mouse typhus is not contagious ; it can only be com- 

 municated to those animals that will swallow some of the virus. 

 The allegation that healthy voles will become infected by 

 devouring the bodies of the dead has not been satisfactorily 

 proved. That Greek voles when in captivity have been observed 

 to feed upon the corpses of their fellows hardly warrants the 

 assumption that Scottish voles in a state of liberty will do the 

 same ; and unless the disease were communicable from one 

 animal to the other, it is inot ea^y to see how the remedy could 

 prove effective on extensive hill pastures. 



"(3) The fluid loses its value in about eight days after pre- 

 paration. Consequently much disappointment might ensue if, 

 after a supply had been obtained, a fall of snow or wet weather 

 were to interfere with its distribution over the land. 



" The remedy which has been found most effectual in Thessaly 

 is an injection of the fumes of bi-sulphide of carbon into the 

 burrows. This, however, is a more expensive process than the 

 other, besides being injurious to the health of those engaged in 

 its application. It is, moreover, inapplicable to the Scottish 

 vole (Arvkola agrestis), which does not burrow to a depth like 

 the vole of Thessaly {Arvicola Guntheri), but lives in shallow 

 runs amongst the roots of herbage. 



"With the under-noted exceptions the natural enemies of the 

 voles may be divided into two classes, viz., those which destroy 

 1 he voles, and are harmless to sheep, crops, and game; and 

 those which, though preying on voles, are so hurtful in other 

 ways as to have no claim to preservation : — 



(ii.) Vole-killers, hurtful in other 

 ways. 



(i.) Vole-killers, harmless, or nearly so, 

 to sheep, crops, and game. 

 Owls of all sorts. 

 Buzzards, 

 Kestrels, 

 and the smaller Seagulls 



Foxes, 



Ravens, 



Carrion and Hooded Crows, 



Great Blackbacked Gulls, 



and Adders. 



" Strict injunctions ought to be given by landowners that the 

 birds mentioned in the first class should not be destroyed. 

 Their presence in full numbers, though inadequate to avert ar 

 outbreak, would undoubtedly tend to mitigate it, and, as has 

 been proved in the case of the short-eared owl, they have the 

 faculty of multiplying a normally in presence of an unusual 

 supply of food. They are at all events most useful allies to man 

 in combating attacks of ground vermin. 



"The Committee further deprecate in the strongest manner 

 possible the use of the pole-trap for the capture of hawks. Be- 

 sides the inhumanity of this device, it is indiscriminate, and 

 harmless owls, kestrels, and buzzards are just as likely to be 

 taken by it as are the more mischievous species. 



" Three animals, diligent vole destroyers, have been omitted 

 from both these lists, because they are undoubtedly hurtful to 

 game. The first of these is the common rook (known to the 

 shepherds as the corn crow), of which, however, the services to 

 agriculture are now generally recognised. 



" The other two animals referred to are the stoat and weasel. 

 Of all the smaller beasts of prey these are perhaps the most 

 hateful to gamekeepers, and it is hirdly reasonable to expect 

 that stoats should be allowed to multiply in game coverts, or in 

 the vicinity of pheasant coops. But the Committee have no 

 hesitation in recommending that weasels, which are persistent 

 mouse-hunters and do little damage to game, should not be 

 molested, at least on moorlands and hill pastures, where they 

 can do little harm and much good." 



THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



'pHE report of the Council of the Zoological Society of 



London for the year 1892 was read at the annual general 



nieeting on April 28, and printed copies of it were distributed 



shortly afterwards. The following extracts are of general interest. 



NO. 1238, VOL. 48] 



" The considerations which prompted the Council of the So- 

 ciety, as announced in their report last year, to award two of its 

 medals to the representatives of families through whose exer- 

 tions the Great Skua has been retained as a veritable member 

 of the British fauna, have induced the Council to act this year 

 in like manner in regard to a still scarcer species — the osprey 

 {Pandion haluctus). It has been represented to the Council 

 that for some years past but three pairs of this bird, which on 

 many accounts is of great interest, have regularly bred in Scot- 

 land, and that their protection has been an object of much 

 solicitude to those on whose property the nests are built. The 

 Council are able to state that the effect of their former award 

 has not only been beneficial to the birds concerned, but has been 

 highly appreciated by the public at large, and they trust that the 

 same good result will follow the bestowal of the Society's silver 

 medal upon Donald Cameron, of Lochiel, and John Peter 

 Grant, of Rothiemurchus, in recognition of the efforts made to 

 protect the osprey in their respective districts." 



These medals were presented to the above-named gentlemen 

 at the general meeting of the Society on June 22. 



Reference was made to the resolutions adopted by the Council 

 in regard to steps proposed to be taken by the Government of 

 New Zealand ibr the preservation of the native birds of that 

 country. The resolutions were as follows : — 



"That the Council of this Society have learnt with great 

 satisfaction the steps that were proposed to be taken by the 

 Earl of Onslow, when Governor of New Zealand, and by the 

 Houses of General Assembly, for the preservation of the native 

 birds of New Zealand, by reserving certain small islands suitable 

 for the purpose, and by affording the birds special protection on 

 these islands. 



" That the Council much regret to hear that difficulties have 

 been encountered in carrying out this plan as regards one of 

 these islands (Little Barrier Island), and trust that the Governor 

 of New Zealand may be induced to take the necessary steps to 

 overcome these difficulties, and to carry out this excellent scheme 

 in its entirety. 



"The Council venture to suggest that, besides the native 

 birds to be protected in these reserves, shelter should also be 

 afforded to the remarkable Saurian, the Tuatera lizard {Spheno- 

 don punctaliis), which is at present restricted to some small 

 islands on the north coast of New Zealand in the Bay of 

 Plenty. 



" The number of visitors to the Society's gardens in 1892 was 

 605,718. The corresponding number in 1S91 was 598,730, 

 showing an increase of 6988 entrances. 



" The deaths during the past year have been 862 in number, 

 being 40 in excess of the number of deaths during 1891. Of 

 these the more important were — a lioness, a male cheetah, two 

 common zebras, an aard wolf, a male beatrix antelope, and the 

 last surviving giraffe. 



Two gentlemen have utilised the students'^rooms for carrying 

 on investigations. Mr. F. G. Parsons has been studying the 

 coniparative myology of the rodents ; and Mr. P. Chalmers 

 Mitchell has commenced an investigation upon the spleen of the 

 vertebrata. 



"The number of animals belonging to the first three classes of 

 vertebrates living in the Society's menagerie at the close of 1892 

 was 2413. The corresponding number on December 31, 1891, 

 was 2232. 



" The total number of registered additions to the menagerie in 

 1892 was 1335, of which 69S were acquired by presentation, 

 3 '5 by purchase, 141 were bred in the gardens, 142 were re- 

 ceived on deposit, and 39 obtained in exchange. 



"Among the deaths of animals in 1892 occurs that of the last 

 remaining individual of the stock of giraffes, a male, purchased 

 January 27, 1879. The Society is now, for the first time since 

 the arrival of the four original giraffes on May 24, 1836, with- 

 out any representative of this mammal in its series. Nor does 

 there seem to be at present much chance of our being able to 

 supply the deficiency. Owing to the closure of the Soudan by the 

 Mahdists the supplies of this and other large African mammals, 

 which were formerly obtained via Cassala and Suakim, have 

 ceased, and, so far as can be ascertained, there are now no living 

 giraffes in the European market. There have been thirty indi- 

 viduals of the giraffe in the Society's gardens since 1836, of 

 which seventeen were born there, and thirteen acquired by pur- 

 chase. Of these thirty, one was presented to the Royal Zoo- 

 logical Society of Ireland in 1844, five have been sold at prices 

 varying from ;i450 to ^{^150, and the remainder have died in 

 the gardens. 



