NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 87 



Tower (102) recommends the use of hydrogen peroxide 

 instead of potash. 



Wheeler (103) discusses the British Ticks. Sorauer's 'Hand- 

 book of Plant Diseases,' now in a new edition, has reached the 

 Arthropoda ; the latest fascicule deals with noxious Crustacea 

 and Myriapods. 



Hart (105) states that the " Common Cockroach " is sup- 

 posed to feed on minute red perithecia of the Cacao Canker 

 Fungus in the interstices of the bark of Cacao trees. If this is 

 found to be so, the Cockroach will be regarded, when in 

 abundance, as a valued friend to the Cacao planter, as destin- 

 ing the means of reproduction of the fungus. 



NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS. 



Oxyptilus pilosellje in Hertfordshire. — In the collection of 

 Lepidoptera given to me by Mr. T. F. Furnival, and referred to on 

 page 36, I have found five specimens of Oxyptilus pilosellce, which were 

 taken by him on the canal-bank near Tring Station on August 13th, 

 1905. This species has not previously been recorded for Hertford- 

 shire, so that I have pleasure in adding the name to our county list. 

 Dr. T. A. Chapman has kindly confirmed the identification of the 

 specimens. Mr. T. H. Court, of Market Rasen, was with Mr. Furnival 

 at the time the capture was made, and also took some specimens. — 

 Philip J. Barraud ; Bushey Heath, Herts, March 4th, 1907. 



" Current Criticism." — My attention has been drawn to the article 

 " Current Criticism," by Mr. Kirkaldy, in the March number of your 

 Journal. Mr. Kirkaldy censures Mr. Distant for want of "accuracy 

 in dates," and gives citations from the volumes on the Rhynchota in 

 the "Fauna of British India" Series. I wish to say that, so far as 

 these examples are taken from vol. hi. of the work in question, I, as 

 editor, and not Mr. Distant, should be blamed for the errors in dates. 

 With regard to the date of the text of the ' Coquille,' I would point 

 out that the title-page of the ' Voyage Coquille Zool.,' vol. ii., bears the 

 date 1830, that this date was at first accepted by Messrs. Sherborn and 

 Woodward (Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 7, vol. vii., 1901, pp. 391-392), 

 and that the correction (torn, cit., ser. 7, vol. xvii., 1906, pp. 335-336) 

 was not published till after Mr. Distant's vol. iii. was in print. Further, 

 the errors in dates quoted by Mr. Kirkaldy, however reprehensible 

 in themselves, involved no question of priority. — C. T. Bingham ; 

 March 12th, 1907. 



Barrett's ' Lepidoptera of the British Islands.' — A good Book 

 spoiled by its Index. — Some fifteen years ago we were all delighted 

 at the announcement of a comprehensive work on the Lepidoptera of 

 the British Islands from the pen of that veteran entomologist, Charles 

 G. Barrett. The work has just come to an end, unfortunately after 

 the decease of the author. Whatever may be our views as to the 

 classification adopted, we shall value the book as affording a lasting 

 record of the author's vast personal knowledge in the life of so many 



