820 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



EDITORIAL GLEANINGS. 



Mr. Percy M. Clark, F.R.G.S., writes from the Victoria Falls, 

 calling attention to the trapping of small Monkeys which is being 

 carried on there. He points out that the Monkeys are entirely 

 inoffensive, and are, in their natural haunts, of great interest to 

 visitors, and it seems a great pity that they should be frightened 

 away, as will be the case in a short time if this trapping continues. 

 Visitors to the Falls, he adds, much prefer to see Monkeys in the 

 Eain Forest and Palm Kloof than boxed up in a cage. That is not 

 natural, and the little fellows are so absolutely harmless. — ' The 

 African World,' August 9th, 1913. 



Rooks at Sandown Park. — " Gareth," writing in the ' Referee ' 

 of August 10th, 1913, says : — I heard something during the after- 

 noon, unconnected with horses, which interested me not a little, 

 being a student and a lover of birds. As sportsmen are aware, there 

 is an extensive rookery at Sandown. In the immediate neighbour- 

 hood of the racecourse a considerable amount of corn is grown, and 

 it might be supposed that the Rooks would take liberal toll. These 

 birds are generally accused of doing an infinity of mischief to buds, 

 blossoms, and growing crops in all stages of their growth, from the 

 time the sprouts appear to the period when the corn is ripe. Mr. 

 Hwfa Williams assures me that the Sandown Rooks are never known 

 to go outside the Park ; the corn does not in the least tempt them, 

 nor have they any hankering after other vegetarian diet ; they busily 

 devote themselves to destroying the five-furlong course by delving 

 down for wireworms, which, of course, are a pest ; so the birds do a 

 great deal of good and no harm to farmers and fruit-growers round 

 about, though the mischief they effect on the course — why they 

 should prefer the five-furlong to the rest of the grounds I have no 

 idea, but so it appears to be — is a standing cause of expenditure. 



