C)2() Bibliographical Notices, 



" Throughout tho -n-hole of the South American contiaont wo 

 liud only three species of lihea ; Africa has .only throe species of 

 Struthio. 



" Throughout tho whole of Australia there is only one species of 

 Emu. Six living species of Apterifx are recognized in tho islands of 

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

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

 ono 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 llutite 

 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 Xew 

 South Wales to the Newcastle Philosophical Society. Later, in 

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



The subfossil remains here described dift'er in no important 

 degree from living species. 



FourOi Annual Report of the Committee of Control of tJie South 

 Africfin 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 Red-winged and the Brown Jjocust {Ci/i'tacanthacris 

 septemfascintn and Pachytijlus sulcicollis) from Cape Colony, Natal, 

 Transvaal, Orange River 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 Red-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 

 tbe 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 suflfer comparatively little from locusts during 

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



