74 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



India, and that the mortality caused by them can only be checked by a 

 system of organized and sustained efforts for the destruction of certain 

 species. He advocates the employment in every district of an organized 

 body of men to seek out and destroy the poisonous species, receiving a 

 reward proportionate to the deadly character and number of those killed, 

 and suggests that magistrates, district and police officers, and civil surgeons 

 be authorized to give the following rewards, namely : — for a Cobra, 8 annas ; 

 Bungarus camdeus, 6 ; B.fasciatus, 4 ; Ophiophagus, 8 ; Russell's Viper, 8 ; 

 Echis, 4 ; and Trimeresurus, 2. 



The Fauna of a Welsh Village Church.— Our pretty little church, 

 before it was restored a few years since, was in a very dilapidated state. 

 Rabbits had their burrows in the old walls, and the rotten ivy-covered roof 

 was tenanted by Slow worms, which occasionally fell on the heads of the 

 congregation to their great alarm. At the present time numbers of Bats 

 come into the church from an adjoining wood, and make an untidy mess on 

 the floor and seats with the debris of their insect-food. One Sunday 

 morning the sexton was told that it would be a good thing if they could be 

 dispersed, and, on returning to the church for the afternoon service, the 

 villagers were amazed to find a large paper tray, upon an old altar-tomb in 

 the churchyard, on which were arranged in rows the bodies of some thirty 

 Long-eared Bats, the spoils of a successful raid after the morning service. 

 Sometimes the preacher, in the midst of his discourse, may hear the Brown 

 Owls hooting from an old tree in the churchyard close at hand. — Murray 

 A. Mathew (Stone Hall, Wolfscastle, Pembrokeshire). 



English Deer Parks. — Apropos of a paragraph which has been going 

 the round, relative to the immunity of Deer-parks from taxation, it may be 

 interesting to show that there are many more such parks in England thau 

 is generally supposed. There are no less than 334 Deer-parks south of the 

 Tweed, thirty-one of which contain Red-deer. Eridge Park, Sussex, is the 

 oldest ; the largest is at the Cheshire seat of Lord Egerton, of Tatton. The 

 extent of this park is 2500 acres. Blenheim is sometimes said to be the 

 largest; but this is an error. It is true that Blenheim Park measures 

 2800 acres, but only 1150 acres are occupied by Deer. Near London the 

 largest and most famous Deer-parks are those of Richmond and Eastwell; 

 in the Midlands is Thoresby ; in the North, Knowsley ; and in East Anglia, 

 Grimsthorpe. — ' Land.' 



[This information is apparently derived from Shirley's 'English Deer 

 Parks,' published in 1867, and must be considered to be only approximately 

 correct; for in some counties there are more Deer-parks than Mr. Shirley 

 seemed to be aware. In Hertfordshire, for example, there are ten, although 

 he only enumerates six. — Ed.] 



