NATURE NOTES. 
76 
Longman's Magazine contains also a short paper, or a fragment of a paper, by 
Richard Jefferies, on “ The Lions in Trafalgar Square ” — the last, says the editor, 
that will appear above his signature. 
The Destruction of Larks (p. 56). — There is, I fear, little doubt that 
many thousands of larks are netted and killed for food at Brighton. When I was 
there in the autumn, the curator of the Booth Museum told me that a man had 
Just passed with a sack full of larks ' J. Jexner Weir. 
Birds and "Wireworms. — In the Annual Report for 1891, of observations 
by Miss E. A. Ormerod, Just published, it appears that there was a remarkable 
abundance of the common garden and farm insects last summer. When the 
ground has been covered with snow for some weeks in the spring, as was the case 
in 1891, insect life is abundant during the following summer, as the larva: are pro- 
tected by the covering of the snow, and very many of the smaller insectivorous 
birds perish ; but when there is continued frost without snow, the contrary is the 
case, and insect life is less abundant, partly because the larvae are killed by the 
frost, and partly also because there are more birds to consume them. The fol- 
lowing extract from the Rural World of I2th Februar)-, 1892, will show how 
inefficient are all the means that have been devised for the destruction of the 
insects that are so injurious to the fruits and crops in the spring, and the great 
importance of preserving insectivorous birds as the only and most effective check 
to their undue increase : — 
“ The undermentioned are the results of the experiments made upon wireworm 
in the larval state, which of course is the most destructive to plant life. Two sets 
of cages were tilled with soil and planted with seeds of Indian corn. The seeds 
in the experiment cages were coated with some poisonous material, and the others 
used in the natural state by way of check. A number of larvx were put into each 
cage, and their behaviour watched. The seeds in one series of experiments were 
coated with Baris green and flour, and the experiments were extended over nearly 
two years. The results were that the poisonous coating to the seeds retarded 
germination, but did not seem to injure the larvx even when they ate the seeds. 
Somewhat similar results attended the coating of the seeds with tar. Germination 
is retarded, and it was found that wireworms would attack the seeds even when 
completely coated with tar. In other trials the seeds were soaked in solutions of 
salt for ten and eighteen and twenty hours respectively before planting, and they 
were greedily devoured by the wireworms, which suffered no injury. Sulphate of 
iron or copperas was used for soaking the seeds, in a series of trials extending over 
two years, but the larvx ate and destroyed the seeds without injury to themselves. 
Seeds were soaked in chloride of lime and copperas, and planted on April 27th, 
along with others that had not Ireen treated. The seeds were destroyed in both 
cases before germination by the 15th of May, and the larvx showed no signs of 
injury. Seeds soaked in kerosene oil fared in the same way in the course of a 
month. Spirits of turpentine were used in another case, but neither prevented 
the wireworms from eating the seeds, nor did it injure them. What appeared to 
be more drastic measures were then undertaken. .Some seeds were soaked for 
eighteen hours in one part of sulphate of strj'chnine to 400 parts of water, and in 
another trial some seeds were soaked for twenty hours in one part of strychnine to 
200 parts of water, and then planted. The poison neither prevented the worms 
from eating the seeds, nor did it injure them.” J. A. Kerr. 
The Rectory, Clyst St. Mary. 
An Appeal. — Will you draw attention to the iniquity of rooting up wild 
flowers to sell them to English dealers? I could name a district in the Basses 
Pyrenees, where not a single wild daffodil is now to be found. The flower was 
once abundant there, but an English resident chose to bargain with a well-known 
dealer, to furnish him with roots ; and this has, I think, been attended by grave 
injustice to France. E. H. H. 
Sending Living Creatures by Post.— There is a widespread custom 
in existence amongst naturalists, by which they transfer living animals by means of 
the parcel post. This means is also largely used by dealers, when supplying their 
customers with living specimens. Apart from the fact that the senders of such 
