156 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 
of the already overworked police, who cannot, even if they 
have the time and wish, make themselves familiar with more 
than one or two of the scheduled species. Consequently, 
although breaches of the Act occur in dozens every day, 
prosecutions under it, if we except those for shooting duck. and 
quail out of season, could be counted on one’s fingers. 
Education is what is needed to enforce the present legisla- 
tion, which, with a few slight amendments, is good enough, 
and to teach thoughtless people the value of the bird-life they 
are carelessly destroying. We must teach the grown man the 
value of birds to his sheep, his grass or his crop, and before all 
things we must teach the child, so that when he becomes a 
man he may act more wisely than his father. 
This teaching will be a big business, and will take a long 
time, but the sooner itis begun, the better. Itis now proposed to 
form a popular society (to be called the Gounp Socrury, after 
the great historian of our birds) for bird protection. This 
society will charge a nominal subscription, say five shillings 
per annum, and will, if well enough supported, publish an 
educative journal on a small scale. It will undertake lectures 
to schools and similar institutions, and it will publish the facts 
of economic ornithology wherever it can get them printed. 
The work is a good work, and deserves the support of all 
humane people. Upon the amount of such support will depend 
the value of the society’s work. An inaugural meeting will be 
called early in February, and the writer will be pleased to hear, 
before that date, from all persons who are interested. 
NOTES AND COMMENTS. 
Note.—Some time ago it was announced that an evening 
would be put aside for short papers, under the title of “ A 
Night with the Nature Poets.” It is proposed to hold such at 
the Monthly Meeting, to be held on Thursday, March 4. There 
is ample material for such a programme—in fact, the subject 
_ is practically inexhaustible. Members are specially requested 
to bear this in mind, and to unite in endeavouring to make the 
evening a success. ‘The Council will be especially pleased to 
hear from those whose modest and retiring natures have, up to 
the present held them (so faras papers are concerned), in the 
thraldom of silence at the meetings of the Club. It should be 
borne in mind that the Narurauists’ Cus or New Sour WauEs 
was formed for the purpose of encouraging and assisting 
beginners in the study of natural science, and not solely for the 
