158 The Zoologist — April, 1866. 



species of the genus Gelechia." The plates leave nothing to be 

 desired, and the work altogether well maintains its character for 

 excellence. An analytical notice will be found in No. 2 of the 

 ' Entomologist.' 



Edward Newman. 



* Jlie Food, Use and Beauty of British Birds : an Essay ' By 

 Charles Ottley Groom Napier. London : Grooinbridge. 

 1865. 83 pp. 12mo. Price 3s. Gd. 



A TRACT written with the best intention, that of modifying in some 

 degree the senseless destruction of birds which is going on all round 

 us; but a question very naturally arises in the mind, how is such a 

 tract to get into circulation ? and how, without getting into circula- 

 tion, is it to do good ? Will the bird-shooters and the bird-poisoners 

 and the sparrow clubs give three and sixpence for a tract that is 

 directly antagonistic not only to the acts and professions, but to the 

 religiously cherished belief in the noxious qualities of birds? 



The subjoined paragraph, which I extract entire, stales the evil as 

 it exists, and the aulhors's idea of a remedy : — 



" The extinction of species in their various haunts, the cliff, the 

 shore, the islet, the grove, the marsh and the mountain, calls for 

 inquiry. First, ought these birds to be extirpated or not? If so, 

 1 have argued in vain. If the balance in creation is to be preserved, 

 let man disturb it as little unnecessarily as he can. If birds are ever 

 worth destroying by a sporting population — and every man who 

 carries a gun is in some sense a sportsman— let them not be wantonly 

 molested in the breeding-season. A small tax for the right of shooting 

 birds not commonly considered game, would produce a revenue suffi- 

 cient for the maintenance of efficient guardians of our feathered tribes, 

 whose great services would thus meet with a tardy acknowledguient. 

 Two shillings and sixpence annually for the privilege of shooting 

 sparrows, not inclusive of the rights of private property', would be 

 sufficient for this." 



Edward Newman. 



A Climling Rat. — As I was passing by a hawilioin hedge, during one of my walks 

 in the country, my attention was attracted bj a nibbling sound coming from the 



