1880. | Scientific News. 467 
Massachusetts alone there are annually destroyed not less than 
50,000 partridges, 30,000 woodcock,. 15,000 quail, and 5000 
` snipe, Or 100,000 game birds, while in the same State 250,00 
wild birds (counting their eggs) are placed hors du combat. Mr. 
Minot says that we must not be surprised if no less than 1,000,- 
000,000 wild birds are annually destroyed in the United States. 
Hine ile lachyme, so far as regards the diary of this bird, which 
if it may seem in some degree to stay this unseemly carnage has 
not been written in vain. 
— One of the reports of the Challenger Expedition has at last 
been issued, and will form the specimen to which the other 
reporters will model their memoirs. The work will make alto- 
gether some fourteen or fifteen quarto volumes, illustrated by 
ona oe gi plates. The section intrusted to the care of Prof. 
volumes will make their appearance now as rapidly as possible, 
as many are already in the hands of the printer. 
— Congress is showing a commendable disposition to protect 
some of the great natural curiosities of the country against dese- 
cration or destruction. The Yellowstone Park,through the exer- 
tions of Dr, Hayden, was set aside forever as a public reserve. 
The project of preserving Niagara Falls by constituting the lands 
around them an international park has not yet been completed, 
but it is under consideration; and the House of Representatives 
passed, in January, a bill reserving from sale or other disposition 
the lands on which the “ Big Trees” of California stand. The 
reservation is to be dedicated to the people, and set apart as a 
public park. 
— The Annual Report of the Entomological Society of the 
Province of Ontario, Canada, for 1879, is quite fully illustrated, 
