36S NATURAL SCIENCE [December 



While this book will, as we have said, be an important aid to 

 students of the European fossil brachiopods, it by no means fills the 

 gap that has long yawned before them. A corresponding European 

 work is greatly to be desired. E. Beclard began something of the 

 kind, but death has stopped his energetic research. In England we 

 hardly take our fair share in the production of these useful biblio- 

 graphic lists of recent or fossil organisms ; and yet their publication 

 would prevent many of the descriptions of supposed new species 

 that are constantly being thrust upon us. Once upon a time there 

 was a great flourish of trumpets over a new edition of Morris' 

 " Catalogue of British Fossils " as a memorial to that geologist, but 

 though the talkers were many the labourers were few. Surely the 

 scheme might be undertaken by half a dozen really serious workers, 

 and brought up to the end of the century. 



To return to Mr Schuchert. We can do no more than thank 

 him for the result of his labours : he has given us a key to the 

 writings of the last two decades, he has simplified our researches, 

 and has taken a heavy load off our minds. We congratulate him 

 on the completion of his task, and are glad to place another solid 

 contribution to zoological literature on our bookshelves. 



Wasps and Weather 



On two previous occasions {Natural Science, Vol. iii., pp. 273-275, 

 and vi., pp. 178-179) Mr Oswald H. Latter has called attention in 

 these pages to an apparent connection between abundance or scarcity 

 of wasps and certain meteorological phenomena. Briefly, his con- 

 clusion then was — (1) that wasps were favoured by dry springs and 

 early summer, while if these seasons were wet wasps were scarce 

 in the later summer and autumn ; (2) that low temperature during 

 the winter and early spring had little or no effect. He now favours 

 us with a supplementary communication, pointing out how his obser- 

 vations and enquiries during the present year confirm his earlier 

 conclusions. " A complete survey," he remarks, " must begin with 

 September 1896 : this was the wettest September known for many 

 years, the rainfall at Godalming amounting to 7'12 inches; from 

 that month up to the end of May of the present year the rainfall 

 for every month, except November, was considerably in excess of 

 the average, while that of March amounted to 5'01 inches. The 

 total rainfall for the nine months, September 1896 to May 1897, 

 amounted to 30*38 inches, which is rather more than 2h inches in 

 excess of the annual rainfall. Thus the period of hibernation and 

 nest-founding among wasps was extremely rainy. The temperature 

 of these months, notably that of February and March, was decidedly 



