NOTES AND NEWS. 



We learn with regret of the death of Mr. George Mawson, formerly of 

 Cockermouth, on the loth of November. He was well known as a lepidopterist, 

 and the Transactions of the Cumberland Association for 1882-83 contains an 

 enumeration of the Lepidoptera of West Cumberland, with localities, from his 

 pen. We believe he was also an occasional contributor to our entomological 

 periodicals. >co< 



An interesting presentation was made at Huddersfield, on the 25th of October, 

 when a silver tea and coffee service and an illuminated address were given to Mr. 

 C. P. Hobkirk, F.L.S., on the occasion of his removal from that town to take 

 the management of the branch bank at Dewsbury. There was a goodly attendance 

 of Mr. Hobkirk's friends, and in the course of the proceedings reference was made 

 to the valuable service which he has during a period of thirty years rendered to the 

 town of Huddersfield and to scientific progress, whether as founder of the 

 Huddersfield Literary and Scientific Society, or as president of it and of the other 

 Huddersfield societies, the Naturalists' and the Paxton, or as author of ' The History 

 and Natural History of Huddersfield' — a model book of its kind, or as editor of 

 this journal for nine years in conjunction with Mr. Porritt, or as author of a 

 ' Synopsis of British Mosses,' or the sincere and appreciated friend of junior workers 

 in natural histor}\ In all these varied capacities — and they do not adequately 

 represent all the phases of ]Mr. Hobkirk's usefulness, his merits were generously 

 and freely spoken of. >co< 



We note with great regret that Mr. Albones, of Brigg, having succeeded in landing 

 in New Zealand nearly a hundred stoats and weasels, has sailed again with a third 

 instalment of these animals, about 1 50 in number, which have been got together 

 in different parts of Lincolnshire. In this matter the New Zealand Government — who 

 are otherwise noted for their liberality and sound judgment in matters scientific — have 

 made a very great mistake. The fauna of New Zealand is so peculiar and so 

 interesting that it behoves that Government to do everything in their power to 

 preserve it. The result of the importation of such bloodthirsty little creatures will 

 probably be disastrous to the native fauna. Their introduction seals in all 

 probability the fate of such interesting but helpless creatures as the Apteryx, the 

 Owl-parrot, and other wingless birds, which cannot but fall an easy prey to the 

 new marauders. The mistake has been made before in New Zealand ; the rabbits 

 which were formerly imported are now a complete pest and over-run the colony, 

 and it is to mitigate this pest that a fresh one is to be introduced. We trust that 

 every New Zealander who values the integrity of the indigenous fauna will protest 

 his utmost, and that the eyes of the Government may be opened before it is too late 

 to remedy the evil. Doubtless we shall hear in a few years that the New 

 Zealanders are at their wit's end to devise means for getting rid of the weasels. 



>co< 



And so history repeats itself. The result of the introduction of the European 

 Sparrow into the United States is another proof of the folly of introducing aliens 

 into a fauna. This bird was imported about the year 1869, for the purpose of 

 checking the ravages of a moth {Orgyia leiicostignia) — as if America were deficient 

 in the number and variety of her insectivorous birds — and under State protection 

 has increased enormously, while it has naturally failed, being a graminivorous coni- 

 rostral species, to accomplish the desired end, while moreover it has ousted from 

 their former haunts several valued and favourite indigenous insectivorous species. 

 Thus the minds of the American ornithologists are much exercised about this little 

 bird, and the American Ornithologists' Union appointed a committee to enquire 

 into the 'Eligibility or Ineligibility of the European House Sparrow in America,' 

 which committee has reported that the result of its wide-spread enquiries is over- 

 whelmingly against the bird, and they urge that application should be at once made 

 for the withdrawal of State protection. The report admits that the Sparrow feeds 

 its young largely upon insects, although it prefers a diet of grain and seeds. An 

 amusing and very voluminous controversy has been going on in the American 

 journals between a few individuals who look with favour upon the stranger and 

 the ornithologists, who are to a man against the ' cussed little Britisher ' or 'infernal 

 little fraud,' as some of them are pleased to dub him. The vernacular names of 

 'Gamin,' 'Hoodlum,' and ' Parasite ' are also significant of the degree of estima- 

 tion in which it is held. 



Jan. 1885. 



