20 



NATURE 



[September 30, 19 15 



Germany remains to be seen. In agriculture, as in 

 art and most departments of human activity, the 

 French do things with singular brilliance and address. 

 Now that we are drawn so closely to France, our 

 agriculturists have excellent opportunities for study- 

 ing her methods in the various ramifications of their 

 calling. There is evidence to show that the fresh- 

 ness of food plays an important rdle in nutrition and 

 problems of health. Since certain vegetables and 

 fruits cannot be imported (even from the Continent) 

 in a thoroughly fresh state, it follows that they should 

 be raised at home. Apart from cost of car/iage, there 

 is no reason why we should not produce all our 

 kitchen-garden material, many fruits, eggs, and 

 butter and cheese as cheaply as any nation on the 

 Continent. It requires no argument to-day to 

 establish the contention that the health and physical 

 conditions of the workers in this field are immeasur- 

 ably better than in any sphere of activity afforded by 

 the city. The only suggestion we have to make 

 relating to the exhibition is that if a label bearing 

 the name of the particular variety of foodstuff were 

 attached to each exhibit, it would afford some valu- 

 able information to competitors and visitors. We 

 should now like to see a further exhibition in the 

 form of practical demonstrations of how the various 

 foodstuffs should be cooked. 



The destruction of housefly maggots in manure and 

 other food-stuffs is nowadays a pressing question with 

 sanitary officers. Some recent American experiments 

 are described in Bulletin 245 of the U.S. Department 

 of Agriculture, written by Messrs. F. C. Cook, R. H. 

 Hutchison, and F. M. Scales. Borax and powdered 

 hellebore are found to be the most effectual "larvi- 

 cides " of all the substances tested. 



The Trustees of the British Museum (Natural 

 History) have published a valuable little pamphlet 

 (Economic Series, No. 2), by Mr. Bruce F. Cummlngs, 

 on the louse and its relation to disease. The struc- 

 tural distinctions drawn between the head louse and 

 the clothes louse will be of interest to systematic 

 entomologists, while the practical importance of the 

 parasites as carriers of typhus and other diseases is 

 duly emphasised. 



The Food Plants of the Gipsy Moth (Porthetria 

 dispar) in America form the subject of Bulletin 250 of 

 the U.S. Department of Agriculture by Mr. F. H. 

 Mosher. From the careful experiments that he de- 

 scribes it has been established that the caterpillars 

 eat, and thrive on, forty or fifty different kinds of 

 trees. It is evident that such discursive feeding- 

 habits make attempts to destroy the insects more 

 difficult. 



The asparagus-beetle {Crioceris asparagi) is a well- 

 known pest in Europe and North America. The life- 

 history of its chalcid parasite, Tetrastichus asparagi, 

 as lately described by Mr. F. A. Johnston (Journ. 

 Agric. Research, Washington, vol. iv.. No. 4), is of 

 remarkable interest. The tiny fly lays usually from 

 five to seven eggs in an egg of the beetle. The 

 beetle's egg nevertheless hatches; the larva becomes 

 fully grown, and, entering the soil, forms a pupal 

 NO. 2396, VOL. 96] 



chamber. It never pupates, however, as the chalcid 

 grubs have been feeding and growing within it; they 

 crawl out of the dried cuticle and pupate in the 

 earthen chamber which the host-larva has made. 



An interesting account of the colony of grey seals 

 (Halichoerus grypus) of Skerry vore is given in the 

 Scottish Naturalist for September by Mr. R. Wilson, 

 of the Skerryvore Lighthouse. This colony, number- 

 ing from sixty to eighty, takes up its residence on the 

 outlying rocks every summer, the majority leaving 

 before the winter sets in. Among other things, he 

 refers to their pugnacity towards one another, at any 

 rate so far as the bulls are concerned, and of their 

 curiosity. 



The Zoologist for August contains several interest- 

 ing ornithological papers. Dr. J. M. Dewar discusses 

 the relation of oyster-catchers to their environment 

 from observations made along the Firth of Forth ; he 

 finds that the access of the birds to their feeding- 

 grounds in winter is largely dependent on the move- 

 ments and activities of the human population of the 

 district. The Rev. J. M. McWilliam describes the 

 habits of the tree sparrow in Co. Donegal, mention- 

 ing that a couple of males were observed feeding 

 young in one nest, while a lonely female "was 

 sitting on another nest not very far away." Mr. E. 

 Selous continues his "Diary of Ornithological 

 Observations" made in Iceland. 



Further notes on the colour sense in bees, from 

 the pen of Mr. C. B. Moffat, appear in the Irish 

 Naturalist for September. Mr. Moffat Is of opinion 

 that colour is a negligible factor as a means of 

 guiding bees In their search for nectar. They depend 

 rather, he believes, on some subtle sense, perhaps of 

 scent, which enables them to keep to plants of one 

 particular species during each separate journey to the 

 hive. On the return from the hive plants of another 

 species may be visited. Plants of the same species 

 bearing respectively, say, pink and white flowers are 

 visited in succession and at random, but neighbouring 

 plants of different species, bearing flowers of the same 

 hues, are avoided. 



Extensive areas of floating oil off the east coast of 

 Scotland have caused the death of enormous numbers 

 of guillemots, razorbills, and puffins, and a consider- 

 able number of eider-ducks. Details as to this extra- 

 ordinary occurrence appear in the Scottish Naturalist 

 for September. Lady Erskine reports that on June 22 

 at Kingsbarns the rocks were covered with a thick, 

 brown oil, some seven Inches deep in the crevices. 

 Dead birds were lying all along high-water mark, and 

 large numbers in a dazed condition, and, with their 

 feathers matted together with oil, were sitting about. 

 Some eiders were also found in a similar pitiable 

 plight. The keeper of the Isle of May lighthouse, on 

 June 16, found birds similarly coated on the rocks, and 

 unable either to fly or swim. Large sheets of oil 

 drifted to the island, and all the creeks on the east 

 side were full of it. The Misses Rintoul and Baxter 

 on June 29 found hundreds of dead guillemots, razor- 

 bills, and puffins, and some eiders, on the shore at 

 Cambo. They also report further victims from Largo. 



