EDITORIAL. 
SOME INJURIOUS BIRDS. 
In his recommendations to the Irrigation. Commissioners, Captain 
White urged the appointment of an inspector, who would educate the 
settlers and enable them to identify bird friends from bird enemies: 
For providing a sanctuary he indicated a strip of country which could 
be utilized both for the protection of flora and fauna. . Shooting on 
“water canals and channels should be prohibited and, in fact, no shooting 
should be allowed on the irrigation areas with the exception of scaring 
and killing injurious birds. Part of the work of the inspector should 
be to visit the children in the schools, and address them as frequently 
as convenient. In this catalogue of the worst enemies, Captain White 
places, first’ and foremost, the English Starling. ‘The method he advo- 
cates for dealing with the pest is to harass the birds by every mechanical 
and human power, for they are easily scared. “Not only are they 
enormously destructive of fruit and crops, but they are also very dirty 
birds, being infested with lice. Their nests become a great nuisance in 
the roofs of dwellings, and they have been known to transmit their 
parasites to useful birds with disastrous results. ‘Sparrows and 
imported goldfinches are two other enemies mentioned. (Cormorants, or 
“shags” as they are more commonly known, Captain White strongly 
defends. A grave mistake, he states, has been made by the settlers in 
destroying and scaring them away. He is of opinion that “the Com- 
mission will do well to give these birds their full-hearted protection, for” 
they are without doubt some of the best friends you have. These. birds 
are persecuted because they devour introduced fish, but that is no 
business of the Commission. You have no angling business on the 
areas, and if these rid the water channels of the most destructive 
enemies, the Yabbies, they are worth much more than their weight in 
gold. That the Cormorant is ridding the channels of the Yabbies was 
very strongly illustrated at these localities where the birds rested, for 
here I found many claws and a few tail fans, rejected by the birds, 
showing that their habits are the same as in every other part of Aus- 
tralia. All the Heron family are of greatest service to the irrigation 
settlements, and they also feed largely on Yabbies, ‘80 it is absolutely 
necessary to gazette sanctuaries for them and the Ibis, for they are all 
indispensable to an irrigation settlement.” . 
POWER-ALCOHOL IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
The production and utilization of alcohol for power purposes is 
making rapid strides in the United States of America. Reference has 
already been made in this Journal to certain industrial enterprises 
which are manufacturing large quantities of alcohol for power purposes. 
Another alcohol mixture, called “ Fermogas,” is now being placed on 
the American market. In a, circular relating to the process for ite 
manufacture attention is drawn to the acute situation which America: 
now faces in regard to petrol, and-to the necessity for finding a sub- 
stitute. nS ‘ ia rae 
Dr. W. R. Ormandy, one of the leading British authorities on liquid- 
fuels, has recently expressed the opinion that in a very few years every 
country producing motor-fuel will require the whole of its own supplies, 
and that the only solution of the problem lies in the production of 
power-alcohol. 
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