254 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[No^"ElrBER, 1901. 



under the name of the scarlet grams of Poland. 



The 



females of this insect frequent in great numbers the 

 roots of a plant belonging to the genus Scleranthux, 

 and ai-e common in many parts of Poland and Germany, 

 as well as in other districts of Central Europe. Towards 

 tlie end of June the bodies of the females become greatly 

 distended with a purjjle fluid ; and it was at this 

 time of the year that they were formerly collected in 

 great numbers for the dyer. Now, however, they are 

 superseded in commerce by cochineal and lac, although 

 it is probable that then- product is still employed to 

 a certain extent locally. 



An animal dye that ha.s completely disappeared from 

 use is the celebrated Tyrian purple of the ancients. 

 Whether the dye, as originally manufactured, really 

 had the splendid tint accorded to it by tradition, 

 is unfoitnnatcly now impossible to determine. This 

 dye is yielded by the common dog-winkle {Purpura 

 hiliilliix). and may best be obtained by crushing the 

 shell carefully and extracting the fluid from a white 

 vein situated near the head. When first applied to linen 

 this fluid makes a green stain, which if exposed to sun- 

 shine gradually changes to deep puiple red. If the 

 linen be washed with soap in hot water a further change 

 to bright crimson will take place; this being permanent, 

 without the aid of any mordant. Owing to the mixture 

 of mucus with the pigment, linen dyed with it has al- 

 ways a blotched appearance ; but whether the ancients 

 had means of making the colour- spread uniformly is 

 not known. A purple dye may also be obtained fiom 

 the posthorn pond-snail {rianorhix corneux). 



The dark pigment sepia, -which consists of the dried 

 contents of the ink-bag of various cuttle-fish and squids, 

 is on the other hand, an article of considerable value. 

 It was' formerly used as a writing fluid, and appears 

 to have been employed in painting by the Chinese from 

 time immemorial. Some years ago it was stated that 

 the sepia of the water-colour artist was made of lamp- 

 black ; but although that substance may be employed 

 for cheap imitatioirs, the genuine article is still the pro- 

 duct of the cuttle-fish and squid. Large quantities of 

 the dried ink-bags of these molluscs are received by 

 artists' colourmen for manufacture into sepia. And 

 some firms regidarly send their agents among the fisher- 

 men on our southern coasts for the purpose of collect- 

 ing the ink-bags. These are saved by the fishermen 

 when cutting up squids aird cuttles for bait : and it 

 has been suggested that the Newfoundland fishermen. 

 who annually destroy a large number of these molluscs, 

 might make a considerable revenue by saving and selling 

 their iuk-baafs. 



Bvittsi) <!5tmttjoto(jical Notes. 



Conducted by Harry F. Witherby, f.z.b., m.b.o.u. 



Wryneck calling in Auou.st and September. — The 

 Wryneck arrives here in large numbers about the beginning 

 of April, and is heard constantly until the end of June or 

 the beginning of July, but seldom later, although it 

 remains with us until" September. The latest date on 

 which I beard one last year was July 3rd. This year I 

 heard one as late as July 10th, as I thought for the last 

 time this season, but a Wryneck was calling several times 

 at one spot on August 19th, and since th;i,t"date either a 

 friend or myself hcani the bird nearly every day up to 



September 10th, after which date it "ceased calling. 



Bash, T. Eowsell, Guernsey. 



Wood-Sarulpiper in Co. Dublin (Itish Naturalist, October, 1901, 

 p. 2t'o).— Mr. VV. J. Williams records that on August 19th he shot a 

 VVooil Samlpiper, in immature plumage, on a piece of marshy ground 

 uear .Sutton, Co Dublin. This is only the fifth specimen of this bird 

 recoided from Ireland 



The XesHiig of the Bedstart and Willow Wren in Shetland 

 in lyOl (Atrnalx of Scottish Xatfral Kiitory, October, 1901, pp. 

 194-19B). — Mr. Charles A. Sturrock gives an account of a pair of 

 Redstarts which he found nesting at Spiggie, in Shethind. He al.-o 

 found two incomplete nests of the Willow VVi-eu in the island. 

 Neither of the birds seem to liaTe been hitherto recognised as a 

 breeding species in Shetland. 



Lesspr Ttrn Nfsting at Barra (Annals of Scottish Natural 

 Sistory, October, 1901, p. 237).— Mr. W. L. MacGillivray writes that 

 five pairs of Lesser Terns appeared at a small island off liarra on 

 June 28th last, and eggs were found on July -Ith. These birds nest 

 on Tiree. but ha\e not before nested on Barra, which is a decided 

 westward extension of their uoriuil range. 



All contributions to the column, either in the way of notes 

 or photoffrnphs, should be forwarded to Harry F. Witherby, 

 at 10, St. (icrmiins Place, Blackheath, Kent. 



0,otict9 of Boofes. 



• 



"The St.vlk-kyed Ckusiacka of British Gri.vNA, West 

 Indies, and Beriicda." By Charles (1. Young, m.a., m.d., 

 Dublin, Member of the Royal Irish Academy, lately of the 

 British Guiana Medical f-^ervice. (London : .fohn M. Watkins, 

 53, St. Martin's Lane.) 1900. Price 12s. 6d. net. Illustrated.— 

 The plates, coloured from living specimens of tropical crabs, are 

 an attractive feature of this volume. They are pleasantly 

 suggestive of jiersonal intinuicy between the author and his 

 subject. The numerous little " thumbnail " sketches of carapaces 

 and other distinctive parts will be helpful to ijiany readers. Those 

 who avail themselves of Dr. Young's assistance for classifying 

 collections from West Indian and the neighbouring waters will 

 rejoice in the synoptic tables of families, genera, and species, 

 which his book supi)lies. One could wish, indeed, that the present 

 editilon might l)e sjjeedily bought up by those whom it is adapted 

 to ple;ise and benefit, tr) make room for another on a different 

 model. The book would have to be entirely re-east to satisfy the 

 requirements of the scientific student. In the first place, that 

 exacting person would wish to pay less and receive more, and he 

 could no doubt he gratified by a judicious treatment of the space 

 and expenditure that have been devoted to the existing production. 

 The luxurious printing of it is out of place in a manual. In a 

 work of imagination by Pierre Loti it may be reasonable to separate 

 one effort of genius from another by a large interval of blank 

 paper. But no one wants to t<vke a long breath between one 

 borrowed description of a species and the next, or to turn over 

 more pages than is absoluttily necessary in searching for purely 

 technical details. There are here no fanciful speculatifins, no 

 original discussions, no amusing accounts of grotesque forms, 

 queer habits, miscellaneous domiciles, to inveigle the general reader 

 into enthusi-a-sm for the study of these stalk-eyed creatures. Wliat 

 is offered is the dry liglit of science, and in this respect the 

 enterprise of the publisher and the author's object are so com- 

 mendable that fault-finding may seem ungracious. It is, however, 

 very necessary w^ith a view to anv- future im]irovement. From 

 the plan of his work it was inevitable that Dr. Y'oung should 

 become more or less acquainted with the wi-itings of many eminent 

 carcinologist,s, and from the list of literature which he gives, his 

 authorities can be traced as near to the present time as the year 

 1898. He might, therefore, be expected to adopt a fairly modern 

 system of cla.ssification. What he does do, is to retain a sub- 

 order '"Anomoura" in its old extension, although the Dromiidea 

 which he retains in it have for many years past been excluded 

 fiom it by a consensus of the most trusted authors. By a jiro- 

 cfdure still less venial he upholds an order '- Stomapoda " in what 

 might be called a prehistoric or antediluvian acceptation of the 

 term. If Latreille jumbled together the gentle Mvsis with the 

 piratical Sqiiilla. at that early date there might be plenty of 

 excuse. To Avind up the nineteenth century by re-uniting them, 

 when every possible sanction has been given to their separation, 

 is a strange piece of business. In place of the Stomapoda, science 

 has long acknowledged two very distinct orders, or sub-orders, 

 the iStomatopoda, with its single family of the Si|uillidse, in 

 which the branchiie are developed on ap|)endages of the abdomen, 

 and the Schizopoda, in which these organs of res]iiration (when 

 present) are connected with members of the head and thorax. Of 

 the second group, which is extremely interesting and diversified. 

 Dr. Y"^oung mentions not one single example, nor even alludes to 

 the fact that it is embraced in his definition of the sub order. 

 If, peradventure, his reading allowed him (wrongly) fo infer a total 



