478 NATURAL SCIENCE. JUNE, 1893. 
At the Soirée of the Royal Society of London on May to, there was little 
novelty in the Natural History Exhibits. Colonel Swinhoe showed a series of 
butterflies illustrating protective mimicry; Dr. G. H. Fowler exhibited a series of 
oyster shells, to illustrate the various modifications and rate of growth; the Zoo- 
logical Society of London contributed a collection of lepidopterous insects reared in 
the insect house, and the Marine Biological Station sent some marine invertebrata 
from Plymouth; Dr. D. Sharp illustrated the sound-producing apparatus of ants; 
Professor Williamson showed the microscopic structure of some Carboniferous 
plants, and Mr. E. Wethered the micro-organisms in limestone. Mr. H. O. Forbes 
exhibited bird-remains from New Zealand and the Chatham Islands, and Mr. E. T. 
Newton had some casts of the skulls of the extinct Triassic reptiles discovered near 
Elgin. 
At the Annual Meeting of the Linnean Society on May 24, the officers were re- 
elected, Professor Charles Stewart retaining the presidency for another year. The 
newly-issued part of the Fournal of the Society (Zoology, vol. xxiv., no. 154) con- 
tains a paper on the Buprestide of Japan, by G. Lewis; descriptions of Crinoids 
from the Sahul Bank, North Australia, by Professor Jeffrey Bell, and of Land-shells 
from Borneo, by Edgar A. Smith; a discussion of the affinities of the genus 
Madrepora, by George Brook ; and on two new species of Rhax, by H. M. Bernard. 
THE Quarterly Fournal of the Geological Society (vol. xlix., part 2), which appeared 
in the last few days of April, is noteworthy as containing a paper on bivalved 
mollusca—a subject comparatively neglected in these recent years. It is very 
encouraging to find, too, that the Society has not been niggardly in regard to illus- 
trations, for no less than four plates, containing 60 figures, are devoted to Dr. 
Wheelton Hind’s paper on Anthvacoptera and Anthracomya. Dr. G. J. Hinde con- 
tributes two short papers on Radiolarian rocks ; the Rev. P. B. Brodie records some 
Cestraciont remains from the Keuper of Shrewley; and Mr. Lydekker has a note on 
a Dinosaurian Vertebra from the Wealden. Mr. Wethered continues his work on 
the singular structure he refers to Girvanella, but we are not prepared yet to consider 
this under the head of palzeontology. Petrology is represented by Mr. Simmons, 
“On the Petrography of Capraja’’; by Miss Raisin, ‘‘On the Variolite of the 
Lleyn’’; while Professor Judd returns once more to the controversy, carried on 
between Sir A. Geikie and himself, over the succession of the rocks in Skye. Messrs. 
Fox and Teall describe ‘‘Some Coast-sections at the Lizard” ; and foreign geology is 
treated of by Lieut. Frederick, on the New Hebrides group, and Mr. Power, on the 
Pambula gold deposits, New South Wales. Inthe May number, too, as is the custom, 
the President’s Address is printed in extenso, together with the Annual Report, with 
obituary of deceased Fellows. Mr. Hudleston in his address has given a critical 
vyesumé of the ‘‘ Recent work of the Geological Society,’’ and also a readable account 
of the Quarterly Fournal for 1892, while at the same time briefly sketching British 
geology published elsewhere. 
Tue Trinidad Field Naturalists’ Club has issued pt. 7 of its first volume of 
Proceedings. Mr. Oldfield Thomas contributes a list of the known mammals of 
Trinidad, with valuable hints for collectors who can still add greatly to knowledge of 
the subject. Mr. J. H. Collens records some personal observations on the Trinidad 
manatee, which is now almost extinct; and Mr. W. M. Crowfoot furnishes a 
preliminary list of Trinidad butterflies. There are other minor communications, 
and the club appears to be in a very prosperous condition. 
