170 GLEANINGS. 



subject of Geology, during the year ending March :51st, 1881, have, by 

 a majority of four to one, recommended the award of the first Darwin 

 Medal to Edward Wilson, Esq., F.G-.S., of Nottingham, for his paper 

 on the " Permian Formation," now appearing in our pages. Further 

 particulars will be given in the Report of the Council, to be published 

 in our next number. 



Entomological Pbizb. — No paper having beeu sent in, in competition 

 for the prize offered by the President of the Union, Sir H. Wake, the 

 offer has been very kindly renewed for another year. The subject is 

 as before, " The Life History of any one Genus of Insects Indigenous 

 to the Midlands," and the author must be a Member of one of the 

 Societies in the Union. 



The British Association.-- -It is probable that at the York meeting 

 invitations for 1883 will be presented from Oxford, Birmingham, and 

 Leicester — the University town is considered to have the best chance. 



Science in Elementary Schools.— The Society of Arts has awarded 

 Mr. W.Jerome Harrison, F.G.S., a Bronze Medal and Certificate of 

 Merit on vellum for a paper by him describing the practical and 

 experimental teaching of Domestic Economy, as now carried on in 

 the Birmingham Board Schools. 



Mountain Meteorology. — The Editor of the meteorological depart- 

 ment of this magazine, Mr. C. L. Wragge, now climbs daily to the top 

 of Ben Nevis, (no slight undertaking,) while Mrs. Wragge observes at 

 the foot of the mountain. Mr. Wragge has placed his fine set of 

 instruments on the mountain-top, and has already made some re- 

 markable observations. It is hoped that before the winter a permanent 

 meteorological station will be erected on this, the highest point in the 

 British Isles. 



Button's Skua.— Mr. J. N. Dufty records in the Field, (for June 25th,) 

 the capture of this bird at Tuxford, Notts. 



A \ BB7. Old Bird.— The remains of a bird have lately been dis- 

 covered in the Upper Jurassic (= Oolitic) Rocks of Western-North 

 America; the oldest known bird of the Old World occurs in beds of 

 about the same age — the Solenhofen Stone of Germany. 



The Old: i Fossil Trigonia. — Dr. C. Barrois has discovered two 

 new species of the shell Trigonia, in the Lower Lias (angulatus zone,) 

 near Oviedo, in Spain. Previously this shell had not been found 

 lower than the Middle Lias. 



i of Great Coli> on Magnets. — It has long been known that 

 when a magnet is made red-hot it loses all its magnetic properties. 

 Recent inv< Btigations prove that intense cold has a similar effect. In 

 one case, a bar of steel, which had been magnetised at a temperature 

 of 20 C. was found to lose seven-tenths of its magnetic intensity 

 when placed in a freezing mixture which had a temperature of minus 

 (50° C. 



A i iCERAS Catenatum. — Under this name Dr. Wright figures and 

 describes in the new volume of the Paknoiitographical Society an 

 Ajnmonifc Led to him by Mr. W. J. Harrison, from the Lower 



Lias (angulatus zone) of Barrow-on-Soar. Although Barrow is at 

 present tin only British locality, we believe that this Ammonite is 

 reallj rare, but that it is usually mistaken for Ammonites angulatus, 

 which it much resembles. 



". Dr. Beddoes and Mr. Tuckett (see Proceedings 

 oj Bristol Naturalists' Society) believe that there is evidence to show 

 that the size of tho human head in this country has been gradually 



