EARTH AND SHINGLE SUPS. 
5 
tible field, and one can only regret that one is unable to start 
afresh with observations and inquiries from the standpoint which 
one has reached at its close.” A somewhat technical chapter 
on “colour changes without moulting ” is included in this work, 
and a complete list of all the birds which have been noticed in 
Heligoland, numbering upwards of three hundred and ninety 
varieties. 
We wish it were possible for these travellers of the air, who 
out-do the proudest human achievements as regards speed, to 
rest and proceed unmolested on their way by nets, snares or 
guns. For purposes of science some slaughter may be neces- 
sary, but we would it might stop there, and at least the song- 
birds be spared. This, to Selbornians especially, is the one 
blemish of this otherwise deeply interesting book. When we 
read of the vast migration columns of hooded crows, and great 
flocks of other birds of prey, one wonders, with Mr. Giitke, that 
any of our small birds remain. 
Helen J. Ormerod. 
EARTH AND SHINGLE SLIPS. 
OME time ago articles of mine, dealing with the 
changes in flower life and bird life consequent on the 
settlement of New Zealand, appeared in Nature 
Notes. These were comparatively superficial altera- 
tions, and I think it may be of interest now to consider the more 
radical and profound changes produced by slips on the face of 
nature. 
First of all, let us dwell briefly on the shingle slips of the 
South Island. The backbone of that part of the colony is cut 
up into sheep stations, usually many thousand acres in extent. 
The mountains average five or six thousand feet, the loftiest 
peaks attaining a very much greater elevation. These high 
lands are stocked with the wild and active merino sheep. 
Generally the larger runs on these our Southern Alps are fenced 
into two divisions — the “summer country” and the “winter 
country.” The “ summer country,” highest and most exposed, 
is where the stock can run safely during the snowless summer 
months ; the “ winter country,” where the sheep are carried 
during the colder portion of the year, is the lower and more 
sheltered portion of the run. In each case the division has 
accentuated these original differences. 
The “ winter country ” has greatly increased in value, for 
year after year imported grasses and clovers have sown them- 
selves, the hill tops have been heavily manured, and year by year 
the sward has become denser. 
