9 8 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



such rare occurrence that we shall look forward with interest 

 to the results of the microscopical examination of the 

 specimens in question. The ligament has been carefully 

 removed from one of them and preserved in spirit, with a 

 view to its being embedded later in paraffin and cut into 

 sections for the microscope. 



An interesting and detailed account of the nests and 

 nest-building of False-Scorpions has been recently published 

 by H. Wallis Kerr, a recognised authority on these tiny 

 creatures. 1 It appears that the nests, which are used for 

 the protection of the inmate during the period of moulting 

 for brood-purposes, or as shelters during hibernation, are 

 constructed partly or wholly of silk from their own bodies. 

 They have sometimes an external covering of extraneous 

 substances, such as sawdust or fragments of cork, and are 

 roughly circular in form, although the shape varies some- 

 what in accordance with the build of the inmate. The 

 internal lining is smooth and composed purely of silk. The 

 spinning is done by the chelicerae, and the work is all done 

 from within, while the silk itself is a product of certain 

 glands in the cephalothorax. Many other interesting details 

 are recorded in this valuable paper, to which a full bibli- 

 ography is appended. 



An account of the love-song, and of the prolonged, 

 patient, and ineffective attempts of several males of a familiar 

 Grasshopper, Gomphocerus maculatus, to woo an unwilling 

 female, is given in the Entomologist by S. E. Brock from 

 observations made at Kirkliston ; 2 and in the same magazine 

 (p. 80) is to be found a careful description of the larval 

 development of the common Dragon-Fly, Sympetrum strio- 

 latum. With the voracity of the nymphs everyone is familiar, 

 but it is amazing, nevertheless, to find that although they 

 were fed on bloodworms almost daily, they " would some- 

 times eat as many as eight in succession, though each was as 

 long as the nymph itself." 



The study of the " lesser fleas " proceeds apace. No 

 fewer than thirteen different species of protozoa have been 



1 Proc. Zool. Soc, 1 914, part i., pp. 93-1 n. 



2 Entomologist, March 1914, p. 104. 



