Birds. 2451 



price we have to buy it. I therefore thought of trying heat, which I am glad to say 

 has fully answered the purpose. The plan adopted was to take out the wires and the 

 whole of the stuffing, — to wrap the skin in a coarse cloth, which was laid on a hoard, 

 and placed in the oven of a common bakehouse for about six or seven minutes, the 

 heat being about 208 degrees. Since then I have never seen any signs of life, either 

 from pupa or ova. — Joseph Duff; Bishops Auckland, May 7, 1849. 



[I believe that heat is an effectual temporary cure for the moth in bird-skins, but 

 I have not found it a preventive. — E. Newman.'] 



Collecting of Birds' Eggs. — I cannot but think that the present rage for collecting 

 eggs, both amongst the scientific and non-scientific, must have a powerful influence 

 in rendering our rarer species of birds still rarer, and so in some degree curtail the 

 pleasures of the study of ornithology, — since much of the pleasure resulting from that 

 pursuit lies in studying birds in their native habitats, and marking their peculiarities 

 and manners. Nothing else can indeed make us acquainted with the true character- 

 istics of any object of nature but such kind of observation. We may admire the race 

 of falcons in a museum or in a zoological garden ; but the person who has only seen 

 these birds in such condition will have a very poor conception of their real character 

 compared with him who has seen them on their native wilds, — seen their daring dash, 

 their power of wing and activity of momentum when in pursuit of their prey. I know 

 that dealers of eggs now give boys general orders to bring them all the eggs they can 

 find, and the rarer the kinds of eggs are of course they pay the better for them, so 

 that there can be no doubt, if this rage continues much longer, many of our species 

 must become very rare indeed, if not extinct. I cannot but think, also, that robbing 

 the bird of its eggs is inflicting the greatest possible misery upon it which it can suf- 

 fer; for its chief pleasure — indeed the greatest object of its existence — appears to be 

 the propagation of its species. It is at the period of nesting when the song of birds 

 delights us most, — when, in fact, their measure of joy is so full that they must give 

 expression to it in their notes of gladness, which Lord Byron has classed amongst the 

 " sweets" of Nature. How great their suffering, then, when their treasure is gone, 

 who can say ! Their melancholy note after such a loss, and their expressions of alarm 

 at our approach to their nest, may well assure every egg-collector that his treasures 

 must have produced many an aching heart and anxious breast ere he could become 

 possessed of them. The knavery, too, which is practiced by dealers, ought to make 

 collectors feel very little confidence in the truth of their specimens, and more espe- 

 cially of their most valued kinds. St. John's ' Tour in Sutherland ' may give them 

 information on this subject. — W. R. Scott, M.D. ; St. Leonard's, Exeter, May 4, 1849. 



Note on the Griffon Vulture (Vultur fulvus). — I believe Mr. Wolley is correct in 

 supposing the bird he saw on the banks of the Guadalquivir to have been Vultur ful- 

 vus. I did not see this bird in Spain, but made its acquaintance some years ago in 

 the East. Mr. Wolley's description, and that of a friend who saw it at San Lucar, 

 satisfy me as to its species. I allude to the subject chiefly in order to point out the 

 fact of this vulture, like the neophron, being migratory. When we descended the 

 Guadalquivir, February 1st, no vulture was to be seen (and I kept a pretty sharp look- 

 out for all that was ornithological). In March, my friend, while staying at San 

 Lucar, very nearly succeeded in knocking down with a stick one of these huge fellows 

 who had over-eaten himself, — a temptation, by the way, to which a featherless biped, 

 in the shape of an Englishman, is little exposed in Spain. I heard of this large vul- 

 ture both at Gibraltar and at Malaga, but saw it not ; and therefore made no allusion 



