58 Bibliographical Notices. 



of the clockwork. Tiic tail (if the siinke was to a certain 

 extent fixed by my hohliiig the snake with my hand in the 

 rc_:ri<»n in front" of t lie anus. After mncii trouble I succeeded 

 in bringing the needle in a suitable nianiu'r into contact with 

 the strip of pajier, and in obtaining curves of vibration, from 

 which the number of the vibrations per minute (the rapidity of 

 the jirogression of the strip of paper being known) could be 

 calculated with a fair degree of accuracy. In this manner it 

 was found that the movements of the rattle are composed of 

 great vibrations of the entire tail itself and of smaller vibra- 

 tions of the actual rattle, in such a way that the tail makes 

 seventy-five and the rattle, on the other hand, one hundred 

 and ten vibrations per minute. These are a[)proximate 

 average numbers, since I was able to obtain only faulty 

 curves, because the rattle does not perform its vibrations 

 precisely in one plane. ^Movements kept up for hours with 

 rapidity like this are absolutely amazing. When observed 

 with the naked eye, only a blurred image is seen of the rattle 

 movinir at this rate *. 



BIBLIOGllAPHICAL NOTICES. 



Catalof/ue of Eastern and Australian Lepidoptera Heterocera in the 

 Collection of the Oxford Universitij Museum. — Part I. Sjjhim/cs 

 and Bonihijces. liy Col. C. Swinjioe, F.L.S. &c. Oxford : Claren- 

 don Press, 1892. 



Fou the production of this vohmie and the arrangement of the moths 

 in tlic Oxford Museum so that they have become available for useful 

 study we are indebted to the entomological zeal of Col. Swinhoe, 

 his many years of study of the moths of the Indian region having 

 rendered him well fitted for the work he has volunteered to do and 

 so ably begun, a fact evidently appreciated by the University of 

 Oxford, as testified by the honorary degree they have just conferred 

 on him. 



The volume includes all the Sphinges and Bomhyces from the 

 Oriental and Australian regions in the collection of the late W. W, 

 Saunders, which was acquired by Prof. AV'cstwood for the Oxford 



• The following authors have written upon the structure of the 

 rattle: — Lact-pedo, 'Ilistoiro des Serpens,' vol. ii. ])p. .'>90-4:20, pi. xvii., 

 17h!>; Leuckart, ' Anatom.-physiologische Uebersiclit des Thienoichos,' 

 lf>>j; C/.ermak, " I'eber deu scliallerzeugenden Ap])arat von i'rotalus^^ 

 Zeitschr. f. wiss. Zoologie, 15d. viii. pp. i!94 et seqq., IH.'jJ ; Wyniann, 

 "Tilt; Mode of Formation of the Itattlu of the l\attle,<nake," Proceedings 

 of tht; Boston Society of Natural History, vol. viii. p. I'll, 18(il-()2 ; 

 Garman, "The Rattle of the Kuttlesnake," Bulletin of the Museum of 

 Comparative Zoology at Harvard College, vol. xiii. No. 10, 1888. 



