6 SEPTEMBER 1946, Page 14

Libelled Peacocks It used to be said that no reporter

ever got his facts quite right where sport or natural history wag- concerned. This is no longer true. "The crack of the ,rifle on the moor" becomes an extinct howler. But un- fortunate mistakes occur. Last week, for example, a Sunday paper congratulated small farmers on the unusual paucity of their enemies, the autumnal butterflies. It is, of course, a blessed fact that none of these• most beautiful insects, save only the cabbage white's, does any harm whatever to the producer of food, and it would be a pity- if the view that it would be a kindness to kill them' were spread abroad.