11 
The former will appear, by kind permission of the Hon. Walter 
Rothschild, in the Novitates Zoolcgicae of the Zoological 
Museum at Tring. Nowthat so much work is done in Oxford 
it is to be hoped that the University will consider the advisa- 
bility of issuing a publication of its own. 
During the past year much work has been done upon the 
great Burchell Collection presented in 1866 by the sister of 
the illustrious naturalist. A careful study has been made of 
the three manuscript note-books—two relating to Brazil (1825- 
30) and one to South Africa (1810-15)—without which the 
collections would lose much of their value. These note-books 
contain the record of hundreds of unpublished original observa- 
tions made by a great and accurate observer. To give a single 
example, it was found that Burchell had noted on Dec. 3, 
1828, when at Porto Real (now Porto Nagional) on the 
Tocantins River, Brazil, that a scorpion denoted by the refer- 
ence number 1247 “ makes a noise between a hiss and a whistle 
with its pectiniform appendages.” Mr. R. I. Pocock, F.Z.S., 
the authority upon scorpions, who has made a special study of 
their sound-producing organs, was shown the note and ex- 
pressed the opinion that Burchell was mistaken; for (1) no 
American scorpion was known to produce a sound, (2) no 
scorpion of any kind was known to make use of its pectini- 
form appendages for this purpose. The collection was 
searched, and the scorpion bearing the number 1274 was 
found by Mr. Holland. It was submitted to Mr. Pocock, who 
identified it as Rhopalurus borellii, one of his own species, 
only described in 1902! Guided by Burchell’s note, Mr. Pocock 
then examined the pectines and the area beneath them, and 
at once found a new sound-producing organ which he has 
described and figured (Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 1904, p. 55, 
Plate IV). Burchell’s specimen and note-book also cleared up 
the existing uncertainty as to the precise locality of the 
species. 
This is but one example to show what a mine of wealth 
the University possesses in the note-books combined with the 
collection. The immense size of the latter exposes the note- 
