HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIP. 



The " Selborne Magazine" is now published by 

 Mr. Elliot Stock. The last number is the best yet 

 issued. 



Among new recent issues, special notice must be 

 taken of "The Westmoreland Note-book, and 

 Natural History Record," a quarterly magazine, 

 published by Mr. Elliot Stock. The first part is 

 capital reading. 



An important paper, by Mr. W. J. Simmons, on 

 the "Study of the Mango-Weevil," has just been 

 reprinted from the "Journal of the Horticultural and 

 Agricultural Society of India." 



Engineers ought to read a paper in the last 

 number of "The Naturalist," by the Rev. Arthur 

 Watts, on " Coal-dust and Explosions in Coal- 

 Mines." 



W e have received the second part of Mr. Howard 

 Saunders' "Illustrated Manual of British Birds," 

 (London : Gurney and Jackson ; successors to Van 

 Voorst). Both text and illustrations promise that 

 this will be the best popular work on the; subject yet 

 issued. 



An Italian Microscopical Society has just been 

 formed, whose articles and pajjers are to be published 

 in Latin, French, English, and German. The address 

 of the Secretary is Mr. J. Platania, 14, Via S. 

 ^Giuseppe, Acireale, Sicily. 



The members of the Geologists' Association made a 

 two days excursion on Whit Monday and Tuesday 

 (May 21st and ;22nd) to Charnwood Forest, under the 

 ^directorship of the Rev. E. Hill and Mr. J. D. Paul. 

 On June 1st, Mr. J. G. Goodchild reads a paper on 

 " The Natural History of Gypsum." 



At a meeting of the Philadelphia Academy of 

 Natural Sciences, Professor Ryder described a ring- 

 3ike prolongation of the placenta in embryo mice and 

 ■rats as indicating the descent of these animals from 

 lower types in which the placenta was zonary. 



Professor Claypole ("American Naturalist "j 

 concludes that the ice at one time dammed up the Ohio 

 above the site of Cincinnati, forming a sheet of water 

 which he names Lake Ohio. As the banks of the 

 Ohio are 400 to 500 feet high at Cincinnati, the ice 

 must have been thicker than this. If assumed at 500 

 ieet, the rim of the ice would be 365 feet above the 

 level of lake Erie. The entire south of Ohio, a large 

 portion of West Virginia, and parts of Kentucky and 

 Pennsylvania must thus have been under water, 

 .forming a lake about 400 miles by 200. At one time 

 .Lakes Erie and Ontario formed a single vast sheet of 

 water, held by an ice-dam at a level of 700 feet above 

 the sea. 



An island has been selected by the New South 

 Wales authorities on which Pasteur's method of 

 .extirpating rabbits is to be thoroughly tried. 



MICROSCOPY. 



The Royal Microscopical Society. — The last 

 number of the Journal is a valuable one. It contains, 

 in addition to the exhaustive summary of Current 

 researches relating to Zoology and Botany, the 

 Address of the President (the Rev. Dr. Dallinger), 

 and a paper (illustrated) by Mr. George Massee, 

 " On the Type of a New Order of Fungi." The 

 latter is intermediate between the Nidulariaceoe and 

 the Hymenogastres. 



Volvox Globator. — In reply to R. H. Nisbett 

 Brown's query, the Tremella he speaks of is probably 

 the genus of that name among the Hymenomycetous 

 Fungi. If he wishes to make the infusion referred to, 

 and note if V. globator occurs in it ; let him search on 

 decayed stumps, logs &c, after rain, and if he lights 

 on a shapeless jelly-like substance, it is almost certain 

 to be some species of Tremella. ■ — P. F. Gillel. 



ZOOLOGY. 



The Development of the Polyzoa. — We 

 regret that, owing to a clerical error, Figs. 47 and 

 48, in Mr. Shipman's important paper on this subject 

 last month, the name of Fredericella was placed 

 under them instead of Paludicella. Readers inter- 

 ested in the subject will please note. 



Tennyson's Natural History. — In a volume 

 of "Early Poems" by the Poet Laureate, recently 

 published, there occur some expressions which, to 

 say the least of them, are rather eccentric from a 

 natural history point of view, e.g., this line — 



"Deeply the wood-dove coos : shrilly the owlet halloos." 



Surely the author is sacrificing accuracy for the sake 

 of catching a bad rhyme. No stretch of imagination 

 could represent the sounds emitted by the owlet as a 

 "shrill halloo." Then what are the "quick lark's 

 clovest carolled strains " ? Again, we read that Nature 



"greens 

 The swamp where hum the dropping snipe." 



Does the snipe hum ? These, and many similar 

 instances which may be quoted, seem to exceed the 

 licence allowed even to poets. But the Laureate has 

 achieved a reputation as a naturalist among some of 

 his admirers for such discoveries as that ash birds 

 are black in March, a fact known to every village 

 boy in the kingdom. — E. H. V. 



Hawaiian Butterflies. — At the last meeting of 

 the Entomological Society of London, Mr. E. Meyrick 

 communicated a paper " On the Pyralidina of the 

 Hawaiian Islands." Mr. Meyrick pointed out that the 

 exceptional position of these islands renders an 

 accurate knowledge of their fauna a subject of great 



