4336 THE ZooLoGIsT—FEBRUARY, 1875. 
living birds, viz. blackbirds, thrushes, starlings, goldfinches, redpolls, of each 
100; hedgesparrows, 150; linnets, 140; goldfinches, 160; yellowhammers, 
170; and, lastly, partridges, 110. These, birds have been collected with 
great care and expense by Mr. Bills, son of the gentleman who has in 
former years achieved such great success in taking cargoes of birds to the 
Antipodes. The cages are made after patterns suggested by long experience. 
The partridges are the worst to carry, as they are very nervous birds and 
beat themselves about at the least provocation. There is always a danger 
in transporting birds on board ship that they will fly up and hit their heads 
against the top of the cage. The partridge cages, therefore, are covered 
over with a roof of soft canvas, which will yield when the birds fly up 
suddenly against it. The quantity of food required for these various birds 
during the transport is very considerable. As a sauce to their dinners, and 
to enable the gizzards to grind the food, no less than two tons of the proper 
kind of sandy gravel are on board, as well as materials to make German 
paste, &c. When the birds arrive in New Zealand, they will be let fly 
under proper authority. There is, we understand, a heavy penalty enforced 
against shooting at or injuring these birds in New Zealand; and it is hoped 
that they will do well at the Antipodes. The gratuitous services of these 
birds is not sufficiently appreciated at home. The New Zealand farmers 
cannot get on well without them, for they will keep down the insects that 
ravage the crops. A little bird single-handed would, from his size and 
build, be able to get at and destroy in a few hours more insects than ten 
men would in a week. To keep down the insects will be the practical work 
of the birds in New Zealand, while our friends, by their presence, beautiful 
plumage, and song, will be reminded of their far-distant home in old 
England.—‘ Daily News,’ January 11, 1875. 
Ornithologieal and Entomological Interruptions to Telegraphy in India. 
—At a recent session of the Asiatic Society, Mr. L. Schwendler exhibited a 
crow’s nest, made of pieces of telegraph wire, twisted together in a most 
ingenious and knowing manner. He said that lately such nests had been 
frequently found, and that the crows often selected telegraph-posts, between 
which and the telegraph-wires they built those wire nests, causing what are 
known as “earth” and “contact,” and interfering with communication. 
Crows, however, were by no means the only animals interfering, by their 
domestic arrangements, with overland telegraphy. Wasps build their mud 
nests in the porcelain insulators, causing, in rain and dew, leakage from the 
wire to the ground. Birds of prey frequently dropped dead fish and other 
offal upon the wires, causing contact. These were all frequent sources of 
temporary interferences with telegraphic communication upon overland lines, 
and they, combined with many other facts not necessary to mention, seemed 
to show that it would be a very great advantage to use subterranean tele- 
graphs instead of overland lines,—‘ Scientific American,’ August 1, 1874. 
