The English wild fauna has been increased of recent years
by the musk-rat, the grey squirrel, the barking deer and the little owl, as well as a certain number of " fancy birds " such as the fine but quarrelsome Amherst pheasant. All these have been released without any " by your leave " or " if you please " and without permission. It is true that Government permits were given for the musk-rat brought into Britain by fur farmers ; but the first group to escape seem not to have been strictly commercial and not to have been fenced and put under regulation. It is surely rash, if no more, to allow anyone, even if he is as good a naturalist as the Duke of Bedford or the late Lord Lilford (who was a supreme a Ithority on birds) to make experiments. These two both let loose animals that we can well do without ; the grey squirrel spread from Woburn Park, as well as other centres, and the little owl from the aviaries of Lilford.
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