126 



SCTEXCE. 



[Vol. VII , No. 157 



selling licenses to supply the markets, and also 

 to catch with small nets for table use. This was 

 the plan in Burmah also, while the erection of 

 weirs was greatly restricted, or, in some regions, 

 prohibited altogether. 



Under British rule these regulations have lost 

 force, and notions once distinct as to fishing 

 privileges and rights have become confused. At 

 first fishermen and fishing implements were both 

 taxed, besides the leasing fees of the fishing- 

 grounds. Gradually these were removed, and 

 many fisheries were made free ; but this intended 

 boon has proved an evil, as was the case with 

 the sea-fisheries. Now the inland fisheries are 

 open to all. When whole districts were let to 

 contractors, they were not so short-sighted as to 

 permit indiscriminate destruction ; but now every- 

 body does as he likes, when he likes, and how he 

 likes. Every device that can be thought of is 

 called into use. As soon as the monsoon has set 

 in, and the fry begin to move, women and children 

 daily search for them in all the sheltered spots 

 to which they retire for rest or hiding. Nets that 

 would not let a mosquito pass, and even solid 

 cloths, are used for raking out the last one of 

 these fingerlings. So soon as fish commence 

 moving up the rivers for the purpose of breeding, 

 so soon begins the work of destruction, aided by 

 every implement of capture which human in- 

 genuity can invent, not even excepting the scoop- 

 ing-up of whole deposits of fresh ova, and the 

 wholesale poisoning of streams. When the few 

 agile survivors have succeeded in running the 

 gauntlet of weirs, traps, wicker baskets, and 

 nets, of every size and shape, these are all re- 

 versed, and set in waiting for their return to the 

 sea. The rod-fishing for mahaseer, the principal 

 game-fish of northern India, is utterly mined in 

 many districts. Even fishes' eggs do not escape the 

 general hunt to which the persecuted finny-tribes 

 are subjected ; for these are collected to be made 

 into cakes, which are thought a great delicacy. 



The result of all this heedlessness and indis- 

 criminate destruction is already apparent, and is 

 at last exciting the anxious attention of the rulers 

 of India. The professional fishermen of the em- 

 pire have decreased in numbers, and their villages 

 are declining into deeper and deeper poverty. In 

 the markets fish-food commands a higher rate than 

 naturally l)elongs to it, and there is prospect of its 

 steady rise. The longer this goes on, the more 

 fish becomes a luxury for the rich, instead of a 

 common resource for the poor, as seems to be its 

 natural level ; and it affords to other nations, as 

 well as India, an example of the poor policy of 

 placing no restrictions upon the harvest of sea 

 and river. Ernest Ingersoll. 



THE MO USE-FLAG UE OF BRAZIL. 



It is well known that the fauna of America, 

 especially that of the higher animals, presents a 

 large number of peculiar types. Not only many 

 of the lesser groups, but sometimes whole families 

 of cosmopolitan orders, such as apes, opossums, 

 etc., we find distinctly separated from those of the 

 old world by some general peculiarity. The in- 

 digenous mice of America differ from those of the 

 eastern hemisphere in some features of dentition, 

 and also show a considerable variance in their 

 habits. 



The larger number of all the native species be- 

 long to a single genus, Hesperomys, of which in 

 Brazil a dozen or more are known, differing in size 

 from that of the ordinary mouse to that of the 

 largest rat. They do not invade dwellings except 

 under unusual circumstances, but mostly live in 

 burrows of greater or less extent ; some not less 

 than seven or eight feet in length, widened at the 

 end into a large excavation or chamber, which is 

 filled with grass. They are omnivorous in their 

 habits, feeding indifferently upon grass, seeds, and 

 flesh. Their enemies are numerous, the more im- 

 portant of which are various snakes, and espe- 

 cially the tiger-cat and fox. A large dipterous in- 

 sect, a bot-fly, is also parasitic upon many, the 

 larvae of which are as large as the end of one's 

 finger, and burrow beneath the skin. 



Under ordinary circumstances they are not at 

 all abundant, so that at times naturalists can 

 secure specimens of many species only with dif- 

 ficulty. The almost inconceivable increase and 

 abundance during certain years, to such an extent 

 that they become a national calamity, is thus the 

 more remarkable. In the colony of Lourenco one 

 of these remarkable visitations has thus been de- 

 scribed. 1 In the months of May and June, 187C, 

 they suddenly appeared in enormous numbers. 

 They invaded the maize-fields in such great num- 

 bers that the com seemed literally alive with them, 

 destroying in a few days every thing that was 

 edible ; and where, but a short time before, bushels 

 of grain might have been harvested, not an ear 

 remained, and the noise produced by their nib- 

 bling and climbing was audible for a considerable 

 distance. After the corn-fields were devastated, 

 the potatoes next received their attention. Only 

 the largest were eaten in the ground : such as 

 were transportable were carried away, and hidden 

 in hollow trees or other retreats for future use. 

 Gourds and pumpkins, even the hardest, were 

 gnawed through and eaten. Of green food, such 

 as clover, oats, barley, not a leaf was left standing : 



1 Zur kenntnisB der brasilianisehen mause und miiuse- 

 pla^en. Dr. H. von Ihring, Kosmos, December, 1885. 



