6 
NATURE NOTES. 
issued a series of regulations, and appointed commissions to visit 
waste and cultivated lands in their respective districts. The 
dates of the various visits were to be made known eight days 
beforehand, and those on whose land the objectionable weed 
was found were ordered to remove and destroy it at once. If 
this was found undone at a succeeding visit, the commission had 
power to fine the offender, and to have the weed destroyed at his 
expense. The name Franzosenkraut, or French weed, by which 
this troublesome annual is known in Germany, would seem to 
point the inference that it had found its way first to Germany 
by wa}- of France; but I believe there is no evidence to back 
this view. 
(To be continued.) 
PROTECTION OF BIRDS ON THE CONTINENT. 
By A VICE-PRESIDENT. 
HE belief that nothing is done on the Continent for the 
preservation of wild birds is so generally entertained 
that it may be useful at the commencement of the 
year to place before our readers the opinions of M. 
Oustalet, Doctor of Science and Assistant Naturalist to the 
Museum of Paris, submitted to the Agricultural Department of 
the French Republic after his return from Vienna in 1884. 
The Agricultural Department sent M. Oustalet as delegate 
to the Ornithological Congress and Exhibition, requesting him 
to present a succinct report of the discussions, resolutions and 
measures proposed for the protection of wild birds, and improve- 
ments in the methods of raising poultry. 
The Report, which is not sold to the public, was issued in the 
year 1885, and contains an account of the origin of the Ornitho- 
logical Union of Vienna, through whose instrumentality the 
Congress was convoked ; also a list of the representatives of the 
chief nations of the world and delegates of scientific societies, 
and a carefully written precis of the business of the Congress, 
which was opened with an address by the Archduke Rudolf. 
The Congress was divided into three sections, open to all 
members, for the consideration of the following subjects: — (1) 
The protection of birds by an international law. (2) An exam- 
ination into the origin of the domestic fowl and the means to be 
taken with a view to an improvement in the method of raising 
poultr)'. (3) The establishment of a system of stations for or- 
nithological observations all over the inhabited globe. Priority 
was unanimously given to the question concerning the protec- 
tion of birds as being of international interest, and on account 
of the position already occupied b} r it in the measures taken by 
