700 



an international colourscale in describing the colours of natural objets. — A 

 communication was read from Dr. W.Blasius, of Brunswick, containing 

 the description of a small collection of birds made by Dr. Platen in the 

 island of Ceram. The collection contained 49 specimens referable to 21 

 different species, one of which was new to the fauna of Ceram. — A com- 

 munication was read from Mr. E.P. Ramsay containing the description of 

 a new species of Monarcha from the Solomon Islands, proposed to be called 

 Monarcha [Piezorhynchus] Browiii. — Mr. W. Bancroft Es peut read a 

 paper on the acclimatization of the Indian Mungoos [Herpestes grisetis) in 

 Jamaica. The author explained that the object in introducing the Mungoos 

 into Jamaica was the destruction of the rats, which had committed serious 

 ravages among the sugar- and coffee-crops. The first Mungooses were intro- 

 duced in 1871, and so beneficial was the effect produced that the saving to 

 the sugar- and coffee-planters now was estimated at least at£ 100,000 a 

 year. ■ — Lieut. -Col. Godwin-Austen read a paper describing specimens 

 (male and female) of Phasianus Humiae, Hume, which had been obtained by 

 Mr. M. Ogle on the peak of Shiroifurar, in N. E. Munipur, upon the Naja 

 Hills. — A communication was read from Mr. A. Thomson containing 

 the results of some observations made by him during the rearing of a species 

 of Stick-insect {Bacillus patellifer] in the Society's Insect-House. — P.L. 

 S dater. Secretary. 



3. Linnean Society of London. 



7 December. — Besides exhibitions and botanical papers of interest 

 the two following zoological communications were made. — Mr. G. Brook 

 read Notes on some little known Collembola and the British species of the 

 genus Toniocerus. Tullberg refers to their occurence in Sweden, but the 

 four species in question viz.: Achorutes mannbrtalis , Xenylla maiitima^ 

 Triaena mirabilis., and Toniocerus vulgaris, have not hitherto been accorded a 

 British habitat. — There followed a paper, «Remarks on the genera of the 

 subfamily Chalcidinae with synonymic notes and descriptions of new species 

 of Leucospidinae and Chalcidinae«, by Mr. J. Kirby. The author remarks 

 that this subfamily is in a very unsatisfactory state and the tendency of recent 

 authors has been to class the majority of the species under the three genera 

 Smicra, Haliicella and Chalcis, ignoring the divisions which former writers 

 have prepared, partly on the ground that several genera run into each other, 

 and partly because it is usually considered that characters taken from one 

 sex only are not sufficient to establish a genus. B\it in the Order Hymeno- 

 ptera, where the females frequently far outnumber the males forming in 

 fact the bulk of the species, it seems that the latter objection will hardly hold 

 good. The author thereafter gives a revision of the groups in question and 

 defines several new genera. — J. Murie. 



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