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JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 
SMALL Brros.—-My cbservations in a general way have led to the 
following results for this year:—Ist. The parroquets coming down in 
myriads during the summer appeared to press more and more severely 
upon the means of subsistence of the other birds, especially the foreign 
birds. I generally lose a good deal of fruit, but last autumn I lost 
nearly all. For the first time I noticed blackbirds and other birds 
eating hard unripe winter pears. The trees were covered with scarred 
pears. I generally lose a few ripe jargonelles, but never saw the hard 
winter pears attacked before. None of this mischief was done by the 
parroquets, which did very little harm in my garden. Next I noticed 
very few birds in winter. Lastly, I notice very few birds this spring ; 
far fewer, apparently, than usual. The most remarkable effect, however, 
is the destruction of insects. I can only attribute it to the. fact that 
food was so scarce that the insects suffered more than usual. ‘Certain it 
is that my garden, which for years harboured innumerable slugs, is now 
nearly clear of them. I have very little doubt that several kinds of 
birds took to eating food to which they were not accustomed. This 
spring I miss the swarms of Zosterops ; I cannot say that I have seen 
one. Some of my neighbours confirm my experience about the slugs, 
but still have complaints to make on the subject.--F. R. C. 
Tue Forster Herparium.—-We learn by an article in “Nature” of 
Sept. 24th, that this herbarium, “a portion of the collections of Cook’s 
second voyage, has been acquired by exchange from the Liverpool Cor- 
poration for the Kew Herbarium.” Dr. John Reinhold Forster and 
George Forster, father and son, were the botanists of Cook’s second 
voyage (1772-75), but how their collection came into the possession of 
the proprietors of the Liverpool Botanic Gardens is not clear. This 
collection comprises 1359 species, of which 785 were collected on this 
voyage with Cook ; of this number 119 species were collected in New 
Zealand, chiefly at Dusky Bay and Queen Charlotte’s Sound. It was in 
honour of J. R. Forster that Linnzeus named the genus Forstera, while 
many of our species bear the specific name /orsterz (e.g., Microseris, 
Olearia, Myosotis, Carex, &c.) 
SaLmMon IN LanpD-LocKED LakeEs.—lIt is intended by the Otago 
Acclimatisatiou Society to keep some of their salmon permanently in 
their breeding-ponds, and the question has been raised as to whether 
these fish can thus be kept and brought to maturity without going down 
to sea. The following note from an article in the “ Century” of Dec. 
1884 (p. 202) is of interest in this connection :—‘“The existence of land- 
locked salmon has so often been disputed that it is interesting to note 
that in the Kootenay Lake these fish can be found in great quantities 
and of large size. Salmon, as everyone knows, ascend the Columbia in 
millions, but none can get over the falls in the Kootenay Lake outlet,— 
the only connection between the Columbia and Kootenay Lake,—so 
that the presence of land-locked salmon in the lake would be puzzling 
but for the close approach of the Kootenay River to the Upper Columbia 
Lake, where during high freshets a natural connection between the two 
waters was formerly established. From an ichthyological point of view 
Kootenay Lake is, therefore, an exceedingly interesting and, one might 
say, perfectly unexplored region.” 
