G. GENERAL NATURAL HISTORY AND ZOOLOGY. 291 



and other scents. In this experiment the results were very 

 marked, and no one who watclied the behavior of the ants un- 

 der these circumstances could have the slightest doubt as to 

 their power of smell. 



I then took a large female of i^ ligniperda., and tethered her 

 on a board by a thread as before. When she was quite quiet 

 I tried her with the tuning-forks ; but they did not disturb 

 her in the least. I then approached the feather of a pen very 

 quietly, so as just to touch first one and then the other of the 

 antennae, which, however, did not move. I then dipped the 

 pen in essence of musk and did the same ; the antenna was 

 slowly retracted and drawn quite back. I then repeated the 

 same with the other antenna. If I touched the antenna, the 

 ant started away, apparently smarting. I repeated the same 

 with essence of lavender and with a second ant. Journal of 

 the Linnoean Society, 1876. 



THE WEATHER AND INSECT LIFE. 



The connection between insect life and the weather is re- 

 marked upon by Mr. Cotton in some notes presented to the 

 Waterford Natural History Society. He states the occasion- 

 al appearances, in unusual numbers, of any insect, are one of 

 the greatest puzzles to entomologists, and are not in any way 

 satisfactorily accounted for by them. Thus a pale, cloudy- 

 yellow butterfly was very abundant in 1846, but scarce from 

 that year until 1868, when it was positively commoner than 

 almost any other butterfly all along the south coast of En- 

 gland ; in some places twenty or thirty could be seen flying 

 at once. Since that year hardly a single specimen has been 

 seen. Probably the occurrence of a few wet or hot or cold or 

 dry days at the time of the hatching of the larvae of this in- 

 sect determines the question as to whether the butterfly shall 

 be common or rare during a given season. Transactions of 

 the Waterford Natural History Society, 1875, 50. 



USE OF THE BATON AMONG ANCIENT EGYPTIANS AND JEWS. 



F. Chabas is the author of a pamphlet upon the use of the 

 baton among the ancient Egyptians and the Jews. All na- 

 tions of the East have considered the baton not only a staff" 

 and a weapon, but a badge of authority. The same might 

 be said of Western peoples, whose antiquities are not so 



