626 Bibliographical Notices. 



" Throughout the whole of the South American continent we 

 fiud only three species of Rhea ; AMca has only three species of 

 Struthio. 



" Throughont the whole of Australia there is only one species of 

 Emu. Six living species of Apteryx are recognized in the islands of 

 New Zealand, where there also exist the remains of at least twenty 

 species of Dinornis and closely allied genera. In Australia there is 

 one species of Cassowary : on the Papuan Islands to the north there 

 are no fewer than ten species, and of these one species may be con- 

 fined to one island .... or several may occur on the same island, 

 as in the case of New Guinea. 



" It is thus apparent that for some reason or another an insular 

 environment is associated with considerable variation amongst Ratite 

 birds." 



Their description of the first discovery of the wombat is inter- 

 esting. That the credit of this discovery belongs, as is generally 

 supposed, to Bass, is apparently based on a mistake. According to 

 the authors, the earliest known wombat was secured on Clarke 

 Island, in Bass Strait, and taken alive to Sydney in 1797. There is 

 no record of the name of its discoverer. After lingering in captivity 

 six weeks this animal was despatched by the then Governor of New 

 South Wales to the Newcastle Philosophical Society. Later, in 

 1800, it was figured in Bewick's ' History of Quadrupeds.' 



The ' subfossil remains here described differ in no important 

 degree from living species. 



Fourth Annual Report of the Committee of Control of the South 

 African Locust Bureau. 8vo. Cape Town, 1910. Pp. 59, with 

 2 Coloured Plates and 15 Maps. 



" The South African Locust Bureau was formed in 1906 through 

 the instrumentality of the Earl of Selborne, then His Majesty's 

 High Commissioner in South Africa." The present volume in- 

 cludes reports of the appearance of the two most important locusts of 

 South Africa, the Bed-winged and the Brown Locust (Cyrtacanthacris 

 scptemfasciata and Pachytylus sulcicollis) from Cape Colony, Natal, 

 Transvaal, Orange Biver Colony, Rhodesia, Basutoland, Bechuana- 

 land Protectorate, Swaziland, Mozambique, German South-west 

 Africa, and Nyasaland. Insects, whether injurious or not, are always 

 very uncertain in their abundance, and the Bed-winged Locust 

 has latterly almost disappeared from the British possessions. On the 

 other h and, large swarms of the Brown Locust from the Kalahari Desert 

 in March, 1909, spread over a considerable portion of the adjoining 

 territories; but, owing to the energetic measures taken against them, 

 were not able to effect permanent harm. The use of poison and other 

 means of combating these pests are applied systematically, with 

 the cooperation of the various governments, and the locust-pest in 

 South Africa seems now to be well under control. It is hoped that 

 South Africa will suffer comparatively little from locusts during 

 the next few years, at any rate. Various interesting matters 



