142 
NATURE NOTES 
writes to a daily contemporary declares that in some of the 
‘enclosures’ the squirrel is almost extinct. No doubt trippers, 
pic-nics, forest fires, and the rushing motor car do much to drive 
away, or destroy, the wilder and more timid species, but ‘ birds 
and animals of prey are ruthlessly exterminated by the woodmen 
and keepers acting under the orders of our State Bureau of 
Woods and Forests, because they annually rear large numbers 
of pheasants in the heart of the forest, and for this badger and 
hedgehog, falcon and hawk, owls and magpies, receive short 
shrift.’ If this be really so, it is indefensible. There is so little 
wild life left in England that it is of far more importance than 
pheasants, and we may reasonably expect to have the New 
Forest kept as a preserve rather than as a breeding ground 
for game. There have been many complaints to the same 
effect, and the matter is, we fear, growing urgent .” — Estates 
Gazette. 
Penguins. — At the final General Meeting of the recent 
Ornithological Congress, it was resolved, on the motion of the 
Hon. Walter Rothschild, M.P., to send a telegram in the name 
of the Congress to the Governments of the Commonwealth of 
Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania, urging them to pass 
legislation to put a stop to the enormous destruction of the 
penguins now going on in the Macquarie Islands, and other 
groups in the South Pacific. It appears that these birds are 
being killed by the million, for the purpose of being boiled down 
for the oil, and if their massacre is allowed to go on unchecked 
the extermination of the species will soon be brought about. 
This was the last piece of business transacted by the Congress, 
and it is to be hoped that the action of the members may have 
the desired effect. 
Swallows. — At the same Congress it was decided to appeal 
to our Government to join the International Convention, with 
France, Germany, Austria and Sweden, for the protection of 
birds useful to agriculture, so as to influence Italy in the interests 
of the swallows, which at present are netted and slaughtered 
by tens of thousands on their migration through that country. 
As has been well pointed out, it is of little use to take measures 
for sparing birds in the northern lands, while they are so 
ruthlessly destroyed in the south, and only a joint effort of all 
countries will prevent the arrival of a time when not a swallow, 
but hosts of gnats, will indicate the approach of an English 
summer. 
Stag-Beeti.es. — We have received the following appeal 
from Mr. II. D. Gower, of Croydon: — 
“ May I appeal to your reader.s, more especially those who may be teachers 
and instructors of lads in our public schools, to impress upon such lads the wanton 
cruelty of the practice of sciewing off the heads of the male .Stag Beetles, an 
insect so well known in our home counties as to need no de.scriplion. 
“The so-called ilecapilation lakes the form of an amusement, coupled with 
