EDITORIAL GLEANINGS. 2S7 



Frohner, Knudsen,* and I. Schneider,f the flesh of animals killed by 

 strychnia poisoning may be consumed without fear of poisoning after being 

 freed from the entrails, and prepared in the proper manner. 



Jakrold & Sons, of Warwick Lane, E.G., invite subscriptions to a 

 proposed volume — ' Letters and Notes on the Natural History of Norfolk, 

 more especially on the Birds and Fishes, from the MSS. of Sir Thomas 

 Browne, M.D. (1605-8-2). With Notes by Thomas Southwell, F.Z.S,, 

 M.B.O.U.' We understand that the appearance of this book is dependent 

 on a certain measure of promised support. 



In the ' Transactions ' of the Natural History Society of Glasgow, 

 vol. vi. pt. 1, Mr. Hugh Boyd Watt has contributed " A Census of Glasgow 

 Rookeries," compiled in the season of 1900. The following is a summary 

 of results: — Eight Rookeries inside the city (Dalmarnock, Belvidere, 

 Langside, Camphill, Crossbill, Ibroxhill, Bellahouston, and Botanic Gar- 

 dens) contain 384 nests ; and the other Rookeries of which details are given 

 (say) 911 nests = 1295 in all. Add to this 10 per cent, for omissions and 

 oversights (Mr. Watt's experience is that he under-estimates the numbers of 

 birds, generally speaking), making a total of 1425 nests. This represents 

 2850 parent birds, and, assuming that each nest sends out into the world 

 two young birds, there are a further 2850, making the native Rook popula- 

 tion of the outskirts of Glasgow last summer amount to 5700 birds. 



Mr. Alfred J, North has drawn attention to the importation of foreign 

 mammals in New South Wales as an indirect factor in the destruction of a 

 vast number of Australian Birds (' Records, Australian Museum,' vol, iv. 

 p. 19). The phosphorized oats used as poisoned baits for decreasing the 

 number of Rabbits has also caused the annual destruction of thousands of 

 graminivorous birds, " chiefly the ground- and grass-frequenting species of 

 Pigeons, Parakeets, Finches, and Quail." To cope with the Rabbits, 

 domestic Cats were also turned loose, with the result that, after the Rabbits 

 had been eradicated or disappeared, the felines — now become wild and of 

 increased size — turned their attention to the ground- and low-bush fre- 

 quenting birds, destroying large numbers of many species, and causing the 

 total extinction of others where they were once common. The Fox, de- 

 scribed as " that acclimatised curse " in Victoria, is not only robbing 

 poultry-yards, but destroying numbers of most interesting species of the 

 Victorian avifauna. In the lair of one of these animals the remains of 

 upwards of thirty tails of Queen Victoria's Lyre-bird were found, mostly 

 those of female and presumably sitting birds. 



* ' Monatssh. f. prakt. Thierheilk.,' vol. i. p. 529, vol. ii. p. 374. 

 t Ibid. vol. xi. p. 269, 



