3 i2 NATURAL SCIENCE. Oct., 



A beautiful new example of protective resemblance in animals has been added 

 to the collection in the hall of the Natural History Branch of the British Museum. 

 It is a beetle [Lithinus nigroctistatus) from Madagascar, living on lichen, and adorned 

 in such a manner as to precisely resemble the latter. A very fine collection of 

 madreporarian corals from Western Australia has just been sent to the Zoological 

 Department by Mr. W. Saville Kent, and a nearly complete skeleton of the extinct 

 New Zealand rail, Aptornis, has been added to the exhibited collection in the 

 Geological Department. 



The political disturbances in Bohemia are seriously retarding the arrangement 

 of the Natural History collections in the new Royal Bohemian Museum at Prague. 

 The annual grant of money this year has been greatly reduced. The cases 

 for the Barrande collection of fossils are still unfinished, and probably will not be 

 ready until next spring ; while there is little prospect of the completion of the new 

 cases for the other fossils within the next two years. Considering the lavish 

 expenditure on the architectural features of the Museum, this niggardliness in pro- 

 viding fittings is much to be deplored. For the student of Paheozoic fossils, the 

 Bohemian collection is perhaps the most important in Europe, and any delay in 

 rendering it of service is a great misfortune. 



The Proceedings of the meeting of the German Anatomical Society, held last 

 May, have just been issued as a supplement^ to the Anatomischev Anzeiger, forming a 

 small volume of 224 pages. 



The Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society has established a " Yarmouth 

 Section " at Great Yarmouth, with the Rev. C. J. Lucas as Chairman, and Mr. 

 Arthur Patterson as Hon. Sec. 



The Haslemere Natural History Society is interesting itself in the lectures on 

 Technical Education provided by the Surrey County Council. It has organised a 

 " Teaching Committee " to supplement, by class work, the ordinary lectures. 



The ninth part of vol. i. of the Journal of the Trinidad Field Naturalists' Club has 

 been issued. Besides the reports of meetings, it contains papers on Composite 

 Plants, Mosquitoes, Ticks on an Iguana, etc. Mr. F. W. Urich's account of the 

 mosquito pest is of special interest, and the Club is doing wisely in restricting its 

 operations to local research. Several members are occupied in collecting the 

 mammals of Trinidad, in preparation for a forthcoming work on the subject by Mr. 

 O. Thomas, of the British Museum. 



Timehri, the journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of British Guiana, is 

 nearly always the most interesting of Colonial publications. The latest part 

 (vol. vii., pt. i.) is especially readable, and contains some valuable contributions. 

 Mr. James Rodway, the editor, discusses the seasons in Guiana; an account of the 

 Indians of Guiana is translated from an old Dutch woik, published in 1770; 

 Mr. H. I. Perkins contributes notes on ajourney to the Cuyuni Gold-Mining District ; 

 and Mr. H. C. Swan records his experiences of insect-collecting in British Guiana. 



The newly-issued part of the Proceedings of the Liverpool Geological Society 

 (vol. vii., pt. ii.) contains Mr. W. Hewitt's Presidential Address en the New Red 

 Sandstone with reference to its mode of formation, and several other papers of much 

 interest. Mr. Mellard Reade gives an elaborate and well-illustrated account of the 

 Glacial Deposits of North Wales, discussing their possible origin ; and Dr. C. 

 Ricketts treats of the conditions under which the older Carboniferous rocks of N.W. 

 England were formed. Messrs. P. Holland and E. Dickson discuss the formation of 

 clay, and there are some descriptive papers on local geology. 



