58 Bibliographical Notices. 



of tlie clockwork. The tail of the snake was to a certain 

 extent fixed bj my holding the snake with my hand in the 

 region in front of the anus. After much trouble I succeeded 

 in bringing the needle in a suitable manner into contact with 

 the strip of ))a])er, and in obtaining curves of vibration, from 

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

 the progression 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 ap})roximate 

 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 

 movino- at this rate *. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES. 



Catalogue of Eastern and Australian Lepidojytera Heterocera in the 

 Collection of the Oxford University Museum. — Part I. Sphinges 

 and Bomhijces. By Col. C. Swijsthoe, F.L.S. &c. Oxford : Claren- 

 don Press, 1892. 



For the production of this volume and the arrangement of the moths 

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

 study we arc indebted to the entomological zeal of Col. Swiuhoe, 

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

 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 Bombyces from the 

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

 Saunders, which was acquired by Prof. Westwood for the Oxford 



* The following authors have written upon the structure of the 

 rattle : — Lacepede, 'Ilistoire des Serpens,' vol. ii. pp. 390-4:20, pi. xvii., 

 1789; Leuckart, ' Auatom.-pbysiologisclie Uehersicht des Thierreiches,' 

 1855 ; Czermak, " Ueber den schallerzeugeudeu Apparat von Crotalus" 

 Zeitschr. f. wiss. Zoologie, Bd. viii. pp. 291 et seqq., 1857 ; AVymann, 

 "The Mode of Formation of the Rattle of the Rattlesnake," Proceedings 

 of the Boston Society of Natural History, vol. viii. p. 121, 1861-62 ; 

 Garmau, "The Rattle of the Rattlesnake," Bulletin of the Museum of 

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



