Notes and Comments, 245 
protests against the ground which has for so long been set apart 
for the extension of the Natural History Museum at South 
Kensington being used for any other purpose, and urges the 
Government to reconsider its proposal with reference to it.’ 
The resolution was necessary on account of a recent attempt 
to appropriate the land for other purposes than those for which 
it was intended. There is no doubt that the whole of the 
unoccupied part of the site will be required in the near future, 
for the accommodation of the Natural History Department. 
Copies of the resolution have been sent to local Members of 
Parliament, who have kindly promised to give the matter 
attention, and also the the Trustees of the British Museum, 
and to the Prime Minister, who have acknowledged their 
receipt. 
DESTRUCTION OF BIRDS. 
Mr. W. H. St. Quintin, the Chairman of the Yorkshire Wild 
Birds’ Protection Committee, has written to the press appealing 
on behalf of the rarer birds. In this he points out that it does 
not in the least follow that because a bird of prey is a large 
one, it is necessarily highly destructive to game. The honey 
buzzard lives entirely on insects and their larve. The kite 
and the buzzards feed mainly on mice and rats, moles, lizards, 
and frogs, and an occasional young rabbit ; the golden and the 
sea eagle chiefly on the remains of dead animals. But, granted 
that occasional damage is done on a shooting, he would still 
appeal for the bird, who may next week be hundreds of miles 
away, if, as is so often the case, his unexpected visit is paid in 
spring or autumn. Our larger species are sadly reduced, and 
the sight of them gives pleasure to almost every one ; scarcely 
any one would admit that he would wish the splendid creatures 
to be utterly exterminated! But with some of them it is a 
very near thing indeed. The white tailed or sea eagle has not 
reared young in the British Isles for several years, though a 
few very old individuals survive in the extreme north. The 
kite 1s only prevented from being absolutely wiped out by the 
strenuous effort of certain landowners and others in their last 
district. The osprey, till last year, had not reared young in 
Great Britain for several seasons. He greatly fears that it was 
one of the young birds that met its death at the hands of a 
shooter near Pickering last autumn. 
Dr. A. Keith contributes an interesting note on the teeth of Paleolithic 
Man, to Nature (No. 2169). 
In The Zoologist (No. 839), the Rev. Hilderic Friend describes a new 
earthworm (Dendvobena meyciensis) from Derbyshire. In the same 
journal (No. 838), Mr. J. M. Charlton describes the birds of the Northumber- 
land coast, and it is also recorded that the Corncrake is by no means 
decreasing in the Scarborough district, although it seems to be geting 
much rarer in other parts of England. 
1git July 1. 
