572 



NATURE 



[October 9, 1890 



to be due to the bite of the insect rather than to the 

 emission by it of unpleasant matter. The Ocypus was 

 eaten by the Mynah. 



The red soldier-beetle was seized by one mouse, which, 

 however, left the abdomen. It was refused by another, 

 which was feeding rather poorly at the time ; though the 

 same animal, immediately afterwards, killed and partly 

 ate a house-fly. This beetle was eaten by the toads. We 

 did not offer it to the Mynah. 



The dung-beetle {Geotropes stercorarius) was offered 

 only to the toads. It was apparently too large and 

 strong for them. 



Among Hymenoptera, only one Bombus {terrestris) was 

 offered to the mice : they seemed afraid to touch it. We 

 were surprised at this, in the face of Darwin's fact of 

 field-mice attacking nests of Bombi. The Mynah ate 

 wasps greedily. The toads readily took wasps and bees 

 {Megachtle, Apis, Bombus), only occasionally refusing the 

 large queens of the Bombi. They were often stung, but 

 did not seem to suffer from this, since they would take 

 three or four of the insects in succession. 



We were not fortunate enough this year to take any of 

 the Chrysididce. Experiments should certainly be made 

 with these. 



Of Lepidoptera, the Mynah was offered Pieris rapce 

 and Vanessa urticce. It would eat both ; but greatly 

 preferred the latter. We gave the mice Pierides rai>ce 

 and napi, Vanessa urticce, Tryphcena promiba, some 

 other (dull-coloured) Nochice, and some GeometrcE. All 

 were eaten. Pieris rapes, Vanessa urticce, Bryophila 

 per la, Plusia gamma, and several other (dull- coloured) 

 moths, were offered to the toads. Two specimens of the 

 Bryophila were eaten ; but the other insects were almost 

 invariably unregarded. This appeared to us to require 

 explanation, as the other animals ate butterflies and moths 

 so readily. We kept our toads in an open enclosure ; 

 and were therefore obliged to mutilate the wings of the 

 insects given them. The consequence was that these 

 either fluttered violently or remained perfectly stationary ; 

 and toads do not seem to take food under either of these 

 conditions. 



The silkworm moth was taken by the mice ; to which 

 alone we offered it. 



The swallow-tail moth {Urapteryx sambucaria), of 

 which we only obtained one specimen, was eaten by a 

 mouse. 



Green and brown larvae were taken greedily by the 

 Mynah and toads. The latter also ate the bright-coloured 

 caterpillars of Pieris sp. {rapes ?), and any hairy cater- 

 pillars that were offered them. Among them was that of 

 Orgyia antiqua. In one case a hairy caterpillar was not 

 swallowed till two or three attempts had been made to 

 secure it. No hairy caterpillars were offered to the other 

 animals. 



Some bright orange-coloured larvae, with black heads — 

 found feeding, in a web, on hawthorn — were readily eaten 

 by the toads and by one mouse. Another mouse (feeding 

 poorly) refused them. 



A scarlet-and-black bug was eaten by the toads ; as 

 also was the lace-wing fly {Chrysopa per Id). Neither 

 insect was offered to the other animals. 



Three sword-tailed grasshoppers were readily eaten by 

 a mouse. 



Blatta orientalis was eaten by the toads. We did not 

 give it to the mice. The Mynah for a long time refused 

 it, and only took it finally in the dearth of other insects. 

 The same holds good, in its case, of Lwnbricus 

 terrestris. 



A few centipedes were given to the mice and the Mynah. 

 These were never eaten ; though the mice, in one case, 

 eagerly seized and killed a large specimen. We offered 

 small frogs to the Mynah, which seized, but did not eat 

 them ; leaving them apparently unhurt. The toads eat 



NO. 1093, VOL. 42] 



— though with some difiiculty— small newts ; which a 

 water tortoise {Emys sp.) will not take. 



E. B. TiTCHENER. 



F. Finn, 



A young heron (Ardea cinerea), which takes frogs 

 freely, killed, but did not eat, a common toad. 



A water-tortoise {Emys sp.), though it eats small frogs, 

 will not touch a toad, E. B. Titchener. 



Zeuzera cesculi was offered to a prairie owl at the 

 Zoological Gardens ; and though eagerly seized, left alive 

 after considerable examination. Queen ants were taken 

 by toads and by the common lizard {Lacerta vivipard). 



F. Finn, 



THE PROGRESS OF BIOLOGY IN CANADA. 

 ■\17E have before us the official account of the 



** formal opening of the new building of the 

 Biological Department of the University of Toronto, 

 on December 19 last. The building is a substantial 

 stone one in Scottish Norman style, replete with the 

 most modern fittings and accessories ; and the lecture 

 hall, which may be approached independently of the 

 main edifice, is benched to seat a minimum audience 

 of 250. The work of the institution is presided over by 

 Prof. R. Ramsay Wright. The classes in biology are said 

 to be among the largest in the University, and the ex- 

 cellence of the new arrangements and teaching appliances 

 elicited, at the opening ceremony (from Prof. Osier, an 

 old student of the parent college), the remark that " it is 

 possible for one to live through a renaissance, similar 

 perhaps in kind, less important in degree, than that" 

 directed against mediaeval thought. May this be justified ! 

 Certain it is that the biological work now in progress in 

 Toronto was begun under most auspicious circumstances. 

 Prof. Ramsay Wright is well-known and respected in 

 this country and, at the opening of his new building, 

 allegiance was sworn him by Minot and other biologists 

 of the New World whose published researches, like his 

 own, rank high in contemporary literature. Investigations 

 like those upon the spiracular cleft of Ganoids, the 

 nervous system of the tadpole's epiderma and of the 

 liver, which his school has given to the world, are not to 

 be easily matched as thoroughgoing and honest pieces of 

 work. They denote a high standard of attainment, and 

 one which, in face of the inanities of certain trans- 

 Atlantic workers of another type, must be maintained if 

 the biological brotherhood of the New World is to hold 

 its own. 



The Biological Department of the University of Toronto 

 exists in connection with a Medical School, and it is there- 

 fore not surprising to find signs of a leaning towards 

 bacteriology and those allied branches of study which, as 

 being furthered by Mentschnikoff and his pupils, by 

 Darier, Podwyssozki, Neisser, Ruffer, Macallum, and 

 others, are just now assuming a revolutionary phase. 

 Indeed, the key-note was struck by Prof. Wright in the 

 peroration to his opening address, in which he said that 

 " not only bacteria, but low forms of animal life furnish 

 important pathogenic organisms." We rejoice in this the 

 more, now that an outcry against the biological training 

 of the surgeon-student is being raised at home, by persons 

 who clamour for the restoration of an apprenticeship 

 system. From the utterances of distinguished medical 

 experts made at the Toronto ceremony, it is certain that 

 this proposal will meet with no response from the New 

 World. 



The Biological Institute of Toronto is detached from 

 the main University building. The latter was, on Feb- 

 ruary 14 last, almost wholly destroyed by fire. During 

 the preparations for the annual conversazione, a wooden 



