THE ZooLocist—June, 1872. $109 
Are Guernsey Birds British !—The above question (Zool. S. 8. 8066) is 
really not a naturalist’s but a collector's question: it has, I believe, been 
raised before, both by entomologists and botanists; the former do not, as 
far as I am aware, include the Channel Islands insects in their British 
cabinets, but the latter do, I am told, include the plants of those islands in 
their British Herbaria. Without wishing to be thought to attach more than 
the very slightest importance to the British collector’s question, it seems to 
me that there must be first an agreement as to a definition of “ British,” 
and then your correspondent’s query may be easily answered. “ British” may 
mean, found in a state of nature, first, in the British Empire, or, secondly, 
merely in Great Britain and Ireland, with their adjacent islets. No 
collectors that I ever heard of use the word in the first of these meanings ; 
and if the latter is the one meant, then it only remains to ask whether, 
geographically, the Channel Islands are part of England. It appears to me 
that there can hardly be two opinions on this—i. e. that these islands belong 
geographically to the mainland on the French side. The idea mentioned by 
your correspondent, of a line extending to a certain and equal distance round 
Great Britain beyond which the productions are not “ British,” is quite new 
tome. Of course the question whether a bird or an insect, or what not, is 
British, has a considerable amount of legitimate and scientific interest, but 
the extreme to which “collectors” have carried it has done great mischief 
to the pursuit of Natural History generally. What can be more absurd, 
from a scientific point of view, than that a bird, for instance, which, on 
account of its abundance on the southern side of the Channel, might be 
procured there for sixpence, should command some fabulous sum when 
found on the northern side, and merely because of its rare occurrence there ? 
This fictitious value leads to—in fact, it bids for—the grossest deceit and 
imposition on the part of the dealers and collectors for sale; but while the 
“ British collector” with a well-filled purse exists, I fear that the question 
“What is British?” will always assume an importance not really belonging 
to it; still it would be well if the “scientific” in all branches of Natural 
History were to agree upon one rule in respect to its geographical 
aspect: we might then leave the “ British collector” to be “stamped 
out” by the progress of knowledge and the increasing facilities for foreign 
travel. — O. Pickard-Cambridge; Bloxworth Rectory, Blandford, May 2, 
1872. 
A Visit to the Freshwater Cliffs,—Hearing that a great number of sea- 
fowl were breeding on the Freshwater Cliffs, and being in the Isle of Wight, 
I determined to go and have a look at them. The first day it was too 
roush to venture, but next day, being my last chance, and the sea rather 
calmer, I took a boat, a stiff breeze still blowing and a ground swell going 
on at the same time; however, after leaving the bay it was much calmer. 
The cliffs from Freshwater to the Needles extend for about two miles, and 
SECOND SERIES— VOL. VII. 2 
