7740 Birds. 



" Let us look the matter in the face. The evil is great, and if we 

 do not take care it will be beyond a remedy. 



" Some species have already abandoned us. The stork no longer 

 builds his nests on our cottage roofs ; the smaller species are rapidly 

 diminishing ; insects are increasing in proportion, to the great detri' 

 ment of Agriculture. Prompt and energetic measures are required. 

 What are those remedies ? Let us resume them in a few words." 



The Report then reviews the actual existing laws on " La Chasse" 

 in France, and proposes a reform with a view to the protection of 

 those birds which are of service to the agriculturist. The Report 

 concludes as follows : — 



" It cannot be denied that the reforms proj^jsed by the petitioners 

 will clash with many prejudices, with many established customs in 

 different parts of the country. Would it not be well to try persuasion 

 before having recourse to coercion ? 



" The petitioners request that the Ministers of Agriculture and of 

 Public Instruction shall concert together to give simple and clear 

 instructions to schoolmasters, which would afford useful occupation 

 in their classes. Already many ecclesiastics — among others the 

 Cardinal Archbishop of Bordeaux — have taken the initiative in this 

 moral as well as agricultural instruction ; there is everj- reason to 

 hope that they will be seconded in this good work by our respected 

 country curates. 



" From these various considerations, gentlemen, the Committee 

 proposes that the four petitions in question be laid before the 

 Minister of Agriculture, Commerce and Public Works." 



The Senate decided that the petitions should be presented as 

 requested. 



Destruction of Birds. — At page 7707 of the ' Zoologist' are soine good observa- 

 tions on the scarcity and destruction of the feathered race ; and it gives one pleasure 

 to read that the people of France are taking up the sulject, and endeavouring to pre- 

 serve native singing birds, as many of them destroy myriads of caterpillars and grubs, 

 and are of essential use to the farmer. When travelling in France I have often been 

 struck at the absence of the native singing birds. In some parts of Piccardy there 

 are very few hedges, which may account for their paucity, at least as far as some 

 sorts are concerned ; but in the woods the same absence is noticed, with the exception 

 of the migrating genus. On one occasion, when travelling by diligence, in the month 

 of May, we stopped une petite heure near Montreuil, and I listened with great 

 pleasure to the sweet notes of at least twenty nightingales in full song, within a hun- 

 dred yards of the inn where the diligence changed horses, at midnight. Notwith- 

 standing this, I have been much astonished in the day time, in my walks near Dieppe, 



