relative to the Habits of Animals. 15 



intervals are thrown aside as crude and unconnected materials, 

 the loss is the same. True it is " non omnes arbusta juvant hu- 

 milesque myricae : " but, if we really have the advancement of 

 natural history at heart, we must, some of us at least, be content 

 to descend from the " majora " to more humble details. 



It is not one of the least advantages of the periodical publica- 

 tions -which are now open to every department of science, that 

 matters, which would scarcely find room elsewhere, and which 

 would, in the absence of some such asylum, be probably lost, are 

 contributed to the general stock of materials. If any one be in- 

 clined to keep back his alms from the supposed poverty of the 

 offering, let him remember the widow's mite : the truth is, that 

 no information which throws light on the habits of any animal, 

 however apparently low in the scale of creation, is valueless ; 

 while it may be highly important, even when considered with a 

 view to utility, and the effect that such animal may have upon the 

 luxuries, the comforts, nay the very necessaries of life. 



In the last number of this Journal is recorded the destruction 

 which an army of mice dealt upon whole forests : in their van 

 were the saplings which would have formed the future navies of 

 Great Britain ; they marched on, and behind them was desola- 

 tion.* While one insect defaces the beauty of our parks and 

 woodlands in the South, another lays low the pine plantations of 



• The following extract stating the ravages of rats, is taken from a book 

 lately published on Jamaica. As it does not appear that any attempt has yet 

 been made to extirpate these nuisances by the means recommended in the late 

 Lord Glenbervie's paper above alluded to, would it not be worth the Planter's 

 while to resort to the method of digging holes as therein described; taking 

 care to increase their dimensions iu proportion to the size of the quadruped 

 whose destruction is intended? In the case mentioned by Lord Glenbervie, 

 the success of this plan, after the failure of every other, appears to have been 

 complete; and W. S. MacLeay, Esq. in the next article Con Hylohius Abietis) 

 mentions it as the only means that seemed to answer towards the extirpation of 

 swarms of mice which infested the neighbourhood of Strasburg a few years ago. 



" In no country is there a creature so destructive of property as the rat is in 

 Jamaica ; their ravages are inconceivable. One year with another, it is sup- 

 posed that they destroy at least about a twentieth part of the sugar canes throughout 

 the island, amounting to little sJiort 0/ ^200,000 currency per annum. The sugar 

 cane is their favourite food; but they also prey upon the Indian corn, on all 

 the fruits that are accessible to them, and on many of tl>e roots. Some idea 



