6o The Irish Natmalist. March, 1910, 



and some curious facts are stated. While the young eaglet was helpless 

 in the nest, unable to move, the mother was most careful to remove every 

 offensive object at once, but later on when the young bird was able to 

 walk about the ledge, the nest became a mass of decaying abominations, 

 as little or nothing was removed. For the first few weeks the young one 

 was fed regularly twice a day only, at daybreak and about 5 p.m., but 

 when older a '* snack'' was administered about noon, and when much 

 older the gorging was frequent. We also learn that at first the eaglet 

 was fed solely upon grouse, though the parents devoured liares and 

 rabbits beside the nest, the grouse being carefully plucked and headless 

 before being given to the youngster. W'hen older the hind legs of a hare 

 formed a favourite lunch. The 32 photographic plates are equally suc- 

 cessful and wonderful. We congratulate Mr. Macpherson on his unique 

 contribution to British ornithology, and we cordially recommend the 

 lover of wild life to obtain this book. 



R. P. 



INSECT STEUCTURE AND DEVELOPMENT. 



Sur la IVlorphologic de rinsccte. Pp. 76. Sur I'Ontogenese 

 de I'Insectc. Pp. 130. Par Chari.es Jankt. Limoges, 1909. 



Students of insects cannot but feel constant gratitude and admiration 

 for the beautifully clear series of memoirs which M. Janet continues to 

 publish in w^elcome succession. The logical French mind is apparent 

 in the first of the memoirs now before us. M. Janet returns to the 

 consideration of the segmentation of the insect body and finds fresh 

 support for his thesis that the metameres are arranged in "triads" or 

 groups of three. To make out this suspiciously symmetrical plan it is 

 necessary to ignore the maxillular segment of the head advocated by 

 Hansen and P'olsom, and to hypothecate three segments between the 

 ninth abdominal and the anal for two of which little or no evidence can 

 be adduced. 



The second memoir is a suggestive essay on insect growth and trans- 

 formation, dealing for the most part with changes after hatching. The 

 division of the whole life-history into an ovulo-ovarian, an embryo- 

 larval, and a nympho-imaginal stage is open to criticism, for the iuvsect 

 larva is in no sense a prematurely hatched embryo, but rather a modifi- 

 cation from the primitive wingless insect stock, adapted for some 

 special mode of life. The successive stages are traced with special 

 reference to that highly specialised fly as the green-bottle {Liidlia 

 tarsar) and to the ants, instructive and suggestive comparisons being 

 made with other insects. 



G. H. C. 



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