NATURE NOTES 
182 
must not in the least relax their careful watch over the public 
interest in the matter. An absurd attempt has been made to 
draw a parallel between this proposed line and that in the city 
of Rome. i\Iany may well regret that the latter was ever 
established ; but it at any rate is in a city and not in the midst 
of wild nature. 
Distress in Indi.\. — Indian agriculture, whether engaged 
directly in the production of food or in that of clothing, is always 
hovering on the verge of famine. In an article contributed to the 
Madras Mail of iMarch 27, Sir Charles Lawson states that in 
some parts of the Empire “ one-fourth of the cotton crop is 
sometimes lost from the ravages of one insect, Depressaria gossy- 
piella,” and the Madras Mail in this and in a subsequent article 
points out that the wholesale destruction of insectivorous birds 
for the sake of their plumage leaves grain and cotton fields alike 
at the mercy of insect pests, thus causing “ a deplorable sacrifice 
of human food and the materials of human raiment, besides 
inflicting penury on individuals and great loss on the State.” 
The Society for the Protection of Birds, which has reprinted 
these articles as a leaflet entitled “ India and her Wild Birds,” 
is endeavouring to establish an Indian Society for the Pro- 
tection of Birds. 
M.\lvern Hills in D.\nger. — A Worcester syndicate has 
approached the conservators with a project of a funicular railway 
up the Worcestershire Beacon. Some of the conservators 
favoured the project, which seems to be in abeyance at present, 
as the Syndicate did not send a definite scheme, as was expected, 
to the last meeting of the conservators on September 12. It is 
to be hoped that this railway will never be introduced. It 
would entirely destroy the quiet beauty of these hills so dear to 
all lovers of Nature. There is no excuse, as zigzag roads and 
green paths with frequent seats have been skilfully engineered, 
so that the ascents are possible even to invalids. It would in- 
deed be a pity if, in the interest of a few summer trippers, the 
charm of these unique hills should be so grievously impaired. 
Gunners on the Broads. — “ A Norfolk Bird-lover ” writes : 
“ The destruction of bird life on the Norfolk Broads has, in my 
opinion, been greater than ever this year. Whether the desire 
to kill has been fostered by the war-fever I know not, suffice it 
to say that almost every pleasure party seems to have had one 
or more guns : air-guns especially are very popular, as they are 
practically noiseless and inexpensive. These latter, however, 
are not of the destructive power of the shot gun, but there are 
sufficient of the latter to make the slaughter of reedbirds, coots, 
moorhens, &c., almost phenomenally great. The worst feature 
is the pure wantonness of it all, for the dead and wounded birds 
are seldom retrieved, and days afterwards are found fluttering 
pitifully in the reed beds where they gradually starve or drown. 
