1912.] Official Notices and Circulars. 



1045 



The chief disadvantages of the machine appeared to be the great 

 difficulty of keeping" various parts of the machine in a suitably clean 

 state, and the apparent impossibility of preventing the teat-cups fall- 

 ing off during the milking, with resulting loss of time and contamina- 

 tion of the milk. 



Miscellaneous. 



The Food of the Starling (Second Report on Economic Biology, by 



W. E. Collinge, 1912). — 146 starlings were shot in the vicinity of 

 Birmingham from January to June, 191 1, and the contents of their 

 stomachs examined. Details of the results are given, from which 

 it is clear that the food of the birds had been of a distinctly insec- 

 tivorous nature, and in hardly a single case was there any grain or 

 other farm or garden crops. It is, however, pointed out that the 

 results might have been different if the birds had been shot in a purely 

 agricultural district, and that in order to make the investigation com- 

 plete, it should have been continued over the whole year, when informa- 

 tion as to the extent to which starlings inflict loss on fruit-growers would 

 have been obtained. 



OFFICIAL NOTICES AND CIRCULARS. 

 The Right Hon. Walter Runciman, M.P., President of the Board 

 of Agriculture and Fisheries, has appointed a Committee to advise 

 the Board on matters relating to the develop- 

 r - +f + u ment of forestry. References will be made to 



Committee on the the Committee from time t0 time as occasion 



Development arises> The Committee will be asked in the 



of Forestry. first instance : _ 



(1) To consider and advise upon proposals for a Forestry Survey; 



(2) To draw up plans for experiments in sylviculture, and to report 

 upon questions relating to the selection and laying out of forestal 

 demonstration areas ; 



(3) To advise as to the provision required for the instruction of 

 woodmen. 



The Committee is constituted as follows : Sir Stafford Howard, 

 K.C.B. (Chairman); Mr. F. D. Williams-Drummond ; Sir S. Eardley- 

 Wilmot, K.C.I. E. ; The Right Hon. R. C. Munro-Ferguson, M.P. ; 

 Lieut.-Col. D. Prain, C.M.G., CLE., F.R.S. ; Mr. E. R. Pratt, Presi- 

 dent of the Royal English Arboricultural Society; Professor Sir W. 

 Schlich, K.C.I. E., F.R.S. ; Professor Wm. Somerville, D.Sc. ; The 

 Hon. Arthur L. Stanley. 



Mr. R. L. Robinson, of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, will 

 act as Secretary. 



The Right Hon. Walter Runciman, M.P., President of the Board 

 of Agriculture and Fisheries, has appointed a Departmental Com- 

 mittee to inquire and report as to the prob- 

 Departmental able duration G f the various classes and de- 

 Committee on scriptions of buildings and other works re- 

 Buildings for quired for the equipment and adaptation of 

 Small Holdings. lanc j f or sma n holdings in the various districts 



of England and Wales. 



The Committee is constituted as follows The Hon. E. G. Strutt 

 (Chairman); Mr. M. T. Baines, Senior Small Holdings Commis- 



