286 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
work, and the women and children might be employed in more remunerative 
labour. In the streets of Bordeaux, during the autumn and winter, 
Thrushes and Starlings are offered for sale by thousands, and yet these 
birds live exclusively on insects.’ It is not surprising to learn that a Bill 
is shortly to be introduced into the Chamber for the protection of birds 
‘useful to agriculture.’ —Westminster Gazette. 
Ir is evident that the crusade against murderous millinery needs to be 
renewed, and that in quarters where one would have supposed it to be 
least necessary. A lady communicates to the ‘ Christian World’ the 
startling fact that at the May meetings she has noticed Ospreys everywhere, 
even on the platform. At one important ladies’ missionary meeting, both 
the lady who presided and a missionary who described the cruelties 
of Indian life wore Ospreys. She supposes they have been told that their 
plumes were imitation, but adds that in nineteen cases out of twenty they 
were real. 
——_—_—_—_—_——_ 
In ‘ Popular Science News ’ (New York), Mr. John Mortimer Murphy 
has contributed a most interesting article on the Alligator. We read that 
‘the Alligator is rapidly disappearing in the settled regions of Florida, and 
becoming scarcer every day even in such remote regions as the Everglades, 
owing to the war of extermination waged against it by hide-hunters, taxi- 
dermists, and dealers in curiosities. These pursue it night and day, year 
in and year out. The little fingerlings just out of the nest are in great 
demand, as they are worth from two to three dollars per hundred in the 
local markets. The ‘curio’ dealers who purchase them often resell them 
at a dollar each to northern visitors, or else they kill and stuff them 
into card-plates, cigar-holders, or whatever else their fancy suggests, and 
dispose of them at good prices. The young are frequently lured from their 
lurking-places by a poor imitation of the grunts of their mother, and men 
expert in mimicking her may capture a large number in a day, as they 
respond promptly to the calls, and pour out of cavities in hot haste to see 
the caller. The most expert ‘ ‘gator callers’ I ever knew were swamp 
rangers, both white and black, who were born and-bred within a short 
distance of an Alligator swamp, and therefore knew every intonation of the 
saurian’s voice. These men could make a matron charge wildly at them 
across a broad stream by imitating the frightened cries of her young, or 
lure a decrepit old bull by mimicking the grunts of the female. They 
could, in fact, delude both old and young, and often earned good sums by 
their art.” | | 
