172 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



bits of the calyx and letting them fall, searching busily inside, 

 and apparently eating the ants ; possibly also making a fresh bait 

 in the juice which exudes. It is quite curious to see them so 

 busily employed on these pendulous flowers, which are also visited 

 by humble bees, but in a manner different from that which takes 

 place in the Hibiscus, where they enter the flower by crawling 

 along the lower petals, and can only probe the spaces betwixt the 

 upper ones. In Abutilon they climb up the stamens, and — the 

 spaces at the base of the petals being much wider than in 

 Hibiscus — they are able to reach the nectary through them all. 



These facts are, I think, interesting, but they do not seem 

 quite so remarkable as those which relate to the Blackcap. I 

 shall be glad to learn whether they have any novelty. 





PEOPOSED AMENDMENT OF THE WILD BIRDS 

 PROTECTION ACT, 1880. 



A Bill to amend the Wild Birds Protection Act, 1880, has 

 been prepared and brought in by Sir Herbert Maxwell, Sir John 

 Lubbock, Mr. Baird, Mr. J. A. Pease, Mr. Loder, and Mr. Bagot ; 

 and on the 13th April was ordered by the House of Commons to 

 be printed. Its provisions are as follow : — 



WHEBEAS it is expedient to provide for the better pro- 

 tection of certain species of wild birds in the United Kingdom : 



Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, 

 by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and 

 Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, 

 and by the authority of the same, as follows : 



I. This Act may for all purposes be cited as the Wild Birds 

 Protection Act, 1893, and shall be construed as one with the Wild 

 Birds Protection Act, 1880 (hereinafter referred to as "the 

 principal Act "), except as hereinafter provided. 



II. — (1.) Any county council as to any county in Great Britain 

 and the justices in quarter sessions as to any county in Ireland 

 (which bodies are hereinafter respectively referred to as M the 

 authority "), may, after the passing of this Act, prohibit the taking 

 or destroying the eggs of any species of wild bird in any place or 

 places within the county, and any person who shall take or 



