62 ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 
avicultural journals. They advocate bounties 
to bring back the game, a thing which never 
happened since the world began. The vanished 
species must be restocked by man. Vanished 
dead birds never come back themselves. 
In Paris a few pigeon ramier still are to be 
noted in the parks and gardens, but not one 
where there were ten before the war. 
In conclusion, I do not think that the war has 
changed the condition of wild life either forward 
or backward. A steady decrease of everything 
has been and is going on, due to the vast army 
of hunters with improved firearms, who make 
game laws a joke by the immense volume of 
their lawful slaughter. Nature’s balance has 
been upset everywhere by the destruction of 
predatory animals and birds, hence bounties are 
placed on the animals or birds which these 
creatures formerly preyed on. This means the 
wiping out of species formerly overlooked by 
the hunters. For example, in Algeria (in the 
Kabylie country) since the forest rangers have 
well-nigh exterminated the leopards, wild boars 
have greatly increased, and they can now be 
killed at all seasons. One native has killed sixty 
boars this winter, hunting them with dogs; and 
such slaughter soon will wipe them out. It is 
all very doleful to those who love wild life, and 
desire to see it perpetuated for future genera- 
tions. 
*Immediately following the end of the war, the 
French National League for the Protection of Birds 
began to reassemble its scattered forces for new 
and vigorous campaigns for the protection and in- 
crease of the birds of France. In a short time this 
new movement will be in evidence, all over France, 
and practical results may confidently be expected.— 
Weil Ee 
ITEMS OF INTEREST 
Ancient Brearine Oxive Trees.—There are 
few trees that bear edible fruit which are good 
for more than half a century, the olive tree 
standing alone with its long period of useful- 
ness to mankind. Some of these trees are ex- 
tremely long lived. There are some in Syria 
which are known to be more than 400 years 
old; and not only are they in a flourishing con- 
dition but they bid fair to bear fruit for an- 
other century or two. 
The Syrians have learned much about car- 
ing for trees from Europeans. Formerly their 
olive trees were not expected to produce fruit 
oftener than once in three years, but with im* 
proved methods of culture they now bear abun- 
dantly each season. In ancient times the olives 
were thrashed from the trees with sticks, but 
now the Syrians pick them by hand, thereby 
preserving their trees and also improving the 
quality of the fruit—Kwening Post; New York. 
Seats INcreastnc.—Juneau, Alaska, April 7. 
—Residents of Sitka say that the herds of seal 
migrating northward toward Bering Sea this 
spring are greater than they have seen in years 
and that the migration is three weeks ahead 
of its usual time. Countless thousands of the 
seal have been passing Sitka. Government of- 
ficials say the great size of the migratory herd is 
evidence that the government’s protective 
measures have been eftective— 
Messenger, St. Albans, Vt. 
Tue Baru Caves.—The Batu Caves, Pahang, 
in the Malay Peninsula are natural palaces and 
cathedrals, limestone Alhambras and Notre 
Dames, caryen, dissolved, precipitated, etched 
within the great mountain chain which extends 
from Siam to the southern sea. The great 
stalactites and stalagmites are like milky opals, 
and near the entrance the vines from the jungle 
drape the cliffs and send skeins of green foliage 
as far in as the light of day can reach. 
A herd of elephants spent several nights 
there during my visit, and a tiger slept out the 
days in a small side cavern, with bones of wild 
boars scattered about the openings to his lair. 
Monkeys clambered down the jungle ratlines 
and looked fearfully into the dark depths; while 
wild monkey-like Sakai men, tied bundles of 
bones left from meals high up among the stalac- 
tite rafters, for superstition’s sake. Besides 
fear and superstition, these great earth caverns 
exert an even stranger fascination, and strange 
beings have deserted the warmth and light of 
the mountain jungles, and, drawn by some in- 
conceivable desire or need have become accus- 
tomed in sense and body to the unchangeable 
night—such are innumerable bats, hosts of pale 
yellow roaches, and a few blind snakes. Just 
outside, venturing only to the portals I found, 
and studied and shot splendid fire-backed pheas- 
ants, and while the flash of my gun was drowned 
in the blaze of tropical sunshine, the sound found 
echoes deep in the black caverns, where no ray 
of light ever came.—William Beebe. 
Tue Hearn Hen ts INcreasinG.—An attempt 
was made in late April to take the annual census 
of the heath hen, but the cold storm that oc- 
curred at that time so affected the birds that 
they kept silent for the most part, and no com- 
plete count could be made. Reports received 
from many people on Marthas Vineyard indi- 
cated that the number of the species on the is- 
