318 General Notes. [ April, 
cies. Dr. E. L. Sturtevant of South Framingham, Mass., has 
undertaken an investigation involving the ratios between the 
weight of fruits and their contained seeds; the number of per- 
fect, shriveled and abortive seeds, etc. He has printed blanks 
which he asks observers in different parts of the country to fill 
and forward to him. Uhlworm's Botantsches Centralblatt for 
1881, fullfMsustains its high character. The promptness of its 
notices of botanical publications and papers is a source of wonder 
as well as of profit to its readers. Botanists will be glad to 
learn that Centuries v and vi, of Ravenel’s “ Fungi Americani” 
are now nearly ready for distribution. 
ZOOLOGY. 
VALUE OF THE House WrEN AS AN Insect DestTRoveR.—Or- 
nithologists and entomologists are always most properly and 
sensibly urging upon people the duty and necessity of protecting 
the birds. In fact, when any destructive insect appears in over- 
whelming numbers, the good offices of our feathered friends would 
seem to be almost our sole dependence for protection from their 
ravages. And yet our laws and usages are singularly defective, 
regarded simply from a selfish point of view—leaving humanity 
entirely out of the question. But the matter is constantly forcing 
itself upon public attention, and gradually we shall make laws 
which ought to have been upon our statute books from the 
foundation of the Government, In the meantime let us all, who 
have this subject at heart, keep on ‘‘ preaching” until this glorious 
end is achieved. The observations I have been able to make 
during a residence of several years on a farm have convinced me 
that the common house wren is really one of our most valuable 
birds, not, perhaps, for what they have done, but from the posst- 
bilities wrapped up in their diminutive bodies. ‘They are quite as 
social as the purple martin or the bluebird, and greatly surpass 
both of these in the rapidity with which they increase. I began 
several years ago to provide them with nesting-places in the vicin- 
ity of my buildings. Sometimes I fastened the skull of a horse 
or ox, or a small box, in a tree-top. But latterly I have made it 
a practice every spring to obtain thitty or forty cigar boxes for 
this purpose. If the box is long and large, I put a partition across 
the middle and make a hole through into each apartment. It it 
very seldom that these boxes are not occupied by one of these 
little families. In most instances two broods are annually reared 
in each nesting-place. ne of my boxes last season turned out 
single day! Like all young, rapidly growing birds, they are 
‘known to be most voracious eaters, living entirely upon insects. 
