358 Notes and Comments. 



NATURAL HISTORY IN ' ARMS.' 



The ammonites or snake-stones, usnally represented by the 

 species Ammonites communis, have formed the arms of the 

 town of Whitby for a considerable time, and, as is well known 

 to collectors of old Yorkshire tokens, a half -penny, by Henry 

 Sneaton, in 1667, bears representations of three snake-stones. 

 Two examples of these tokens have been placed with the 

 ' snake-stones ' in the Hull Museum to illustrate the promin- 

 ence these fossils obtained nearly three centuries ago. The 

 arms of Street, near Glastonbury, include a representation of 

 an Ichthyosaurus, and a letter recently received from Sir 



George Fordham showed the arms of his County Council (in 

 Norfolk) supported by two Great Bustards. 



BIRDS AND FORESTRY. 



It is pleasing to have to record the evidence of a competent 

 observer upon the usefulness of birds, both to the agriculturist 

 and the forester. In a paper entitled ' The Principles of 

 Forestry,' recently given before the members of the Yorkshire 

 Branches of the Surveyors Institution and Land Agents' 

 Society, Mr. John Maughan, of Jervaulx Abbey, a Professional 

 Associate Member of the Council, whole-heartedly advocates 

 the protection of birds as an aid to Forestry. He says : — 

 ' Although damage by insects, fungi and animals is outside 

 the limits of this paper, attention ma}^ be called to the 

 necessity of encouraging and protecting birds, which are the 

 invaluable unpaid workers on the forester's staff, by leaving 

 nesting-places (such as walls and hollow trees), especially on 

 the sunny sides of the woods, and, if necessary, providing nest- 

 ing boxes. It would even pay to feed them during severe 

 storms, as their utility cannot be overestimated. The much- 

 abused pheasant destroys the pups and caterpillars of many 

 injurious insects. During the visit of the Royal English 

 Arbor icultural Society of Yorkshire in July, 1914, an attack 

 of the large larch saw-fly was observed in one of the Jervaulx 

 Woods, which was reported to the Board of Agriculture and 

 Fisheries, who, owing to the outbreak of war, had no time to 

 deal with the matter, but urged that means should be taken 

 to prevent it spreading, and, for want of a better, pheasants 

 were turned into the wood. Whether these birds took the 



Naturalist 



