736 NATURAL SCIENCE. %l- 



topic of the meeting of the Biological Society of Washington on 

 October 22. Three papers were read and will no doubt soon appear 

 in the publication of the Society : — The present status of Botanical 

 Nomenclature, by F. C. Coville ; Report on the Jjotanical Congress at 

 Genoa, by George Vasey; and some Controversial Points in Botanical 

 Nomenclature, by George B. Sudworth. 



We are sorry to have to include our sparkling contemporary, 

 The Idler, among the curiosities of journalism incautiously handling 

 scientific subjects. In the November number (p. 381 ) the Huckleberry 

 Finn rattlesnake story is revived, the scene being laid in India. 

 Unfortunately, the author has either misunderstood his artist, or the 

 artist has been jesting at the author ; for while Mr. Jerome has used 

 a python as his murderous subject, the artist has carefully drawn a 

 cobra, which bites, but does not constrict. The confusion between 

 the picture and the text is most amusing to anyone acquainted with 

 the rudiments of natural history. 



We have had many of these sad examples of popular science 

 lately, but a recently-started boys' paper contains one which is 

 calculated to make one ask whether cheap Natural History be not 

 a failure, and popularising played out. For when " a lover of animals " 

 " saunters " round the Zoo, and in one short page hopelessly mixes 

 the hippopotamus and rhinoceros, and speaks in terms of warm 

 admiration of the " otter's " skill in felHng trees, one pities the unfortu- 

 nate boys who are expected to be elevated and instructed thereby. 

 A little more confusion of dentitions and they will think that that of 

 the Primates is calculated pre-eminently for attack, and settle their 

 differences with fangs instead of fisticuffs. 



Professor Valentine Ball, of the Science and Art Museum, 

 Dublin, is preparing for publication a map showing the distribution 

 of the fossil mammalia in Ireland. 



An excellent portrait of the Rev. Octavius Pickard Cambridge, 

 F.R.S., appears in the November number of the British Naturalist. 



There are at present to be seen in the Western Aviary at the 

 Zoological Gardens a pair of doves {Macropygia) which are interesting 

 from the point of view of mimicry. Tlieir brown-and-black-barred 

 plumage, long graduated tails, and short legs, with a tendency to 

 fulness of feather on the thigh, immediately suggest a cuckoo ; only 

 it is very difficult to see what could cause a cuckoo to mimic a dove, 

 or vice versa. 



