March 1SS4. 



PSYCHE. 



151 



ENTOMOLOGICAL ITEMS. 



Worcester. Mass, lias a new scientific 

 society, tlie Zoological club of Worcester, of 

 Avliicli Mr. F. G. Sanborn is president. 



Mr. D. W. CoqyiLLETT, of Anaheim, 

 California, lias in view the preparation of a 

 monograph of the dipterous family hihioiu'- 

 dae. 



Mr. William Buckler, who has descrilied 

 the early stages of a large number of British 

 lepidoptera, died 9 Jan. 1884, at Lumley 

 House, Emsworth, Hants, in his seventieth 

 year. 



It m.\y interest entomologists to learn 

 that the newly organized American ornithol- 

 ogists' union have a committee to consider 

 whether the English sparrow {Passer domes- 

 ficiis) is on the whole beneficial or injurious 

 to agriculture. The committee has issued a 

 circular asking answers to questions on tlie 

 subject. 



At \ meeting to which the entomologists 

 of Washington and Baltimore were invited, 

 held at the house of Dr. C: V. Riley, in 

 Washington, D. C, on the evening of 29 

 February 18S4, and presided over by Rev. 

 Dr. John G. Morris, of Baltimore, a resolu- 

 tion was adopted unanimously to establish an 

 entomological society in Washington and 

 vicinity, and a committee was appointed to 

 draw up the necessary regulations and to call 

 a future meeting for organization. 



B: PiCKMAN Mann, Secietaw. 



The Cornell university ofters to its stu- 

 dents "final honors" in entomology, as in 

 several other subjects, and under the follow- 

 ing conditions, which we extract from "The 

 Cornell university register 18S3-S4," p. iii : — 



Entomology. — The candidate must have 

 passed, with an honorable average, the regu- 

 lar examinations in the subjects of zoology 

 (vertebrate and invertebrate), microscopic 

 technology, botany (the elementary course, 

 including field-work), and entomology (the 

 general course, as laid down in the sopho- 

 more and junior vears in the course in au^ri- 



culture) ; and must also pass, with distin- 

 guislied excellence, a special examination 

 upon the results of an investigation of one or 

 more special subjects to which he has devoted 

 an amount of work equivalent to two hours a 

 term for two \'ears. 



The subject for 1SS4 is to be selected from 

 the following list : 



(«) The internal anatomy of the larva of 

 the Corvdalits coriiiitus Linn. 



(/') The insects injurious to woolen goods 

 in the United States. 



(r) The insects infesting apple trees at 

 Ithaca. 



((/) The insects injurious to wheat in the 

 north-eastern part of the United States. 



New scientific journals are springing up 

 with about the same prolificacy, and with 

 almost the same prospect of long life, as is 

 the case with French political newspapers. 

 We have before us the third numero o 

 "Random notes on natural liistorv" publish- 

 ed by Southwick and Jencks, of Providence, 

 R. I., from which we discover the existence 

 of a Rhode Island entomological society. 

 From the first (March) numero of "Prob- 

 lems of nature," to be published semi-month- 

 ly at New York, under the editorship of H. 

 P. Philbrook, we learn still less. We learn 

 that Mr. Winfrid A. Stearns, of Amherst, 

 Mass.. proposes to start a monthly journal, 

 to be devoted to the interests of Massachu- 

 setts natural history, and to be called the 

 "Bulletin of the natural history of the state 

 of Massachusetts." We can decide better 

 upon the merits of this bulletin with a long 

 name, after we see a copy of it. Its price is 

 one dollar a year, and it is approved and 

 aided by the officers of the State agricultural 

 college at Amherst. 



Many enthusiasts wish practically to pro- 

 mote the natural sciences by publications, 

 they can do better by increasing the effective- 

 ness of established journals than by wasting 

 their energies in overcoming the friction of 

 numerous new machines, for each separate 

 journal requires as much unproductive labor 

 in its merely mechanical working as all com- 

 bined would need, while the same energy 

 concentrated on one working machine would 

 all be utilized. 



