u8 



NATURE 



[December 4, 1902 



Entomological Society, ^November 5. — The Rev. Canon 

 Fowler, president, in the chair.— Mr. H. J. Elwes, F. P.S., 

 exhibited, on behalf of Mrs. Mary de la Beche Nicholl, 

 a collection of butterflies made by her in February, March 

 and April in Southern Algeria ; also a collection of 

 butterflies afterwards made by her in the Picos de Europa 

 in Spain ; the latter collection comprised about 85 species 

 and was made in 25 days. Mr. Elwes remarked that these 

 collections contained several interesting species of Erebia, 

 Lycrena and other genera, and included three species from 

 Algeria not at present represented in the British Museum 

 collection. — Dr. Chapman exhibited, and made remarks on, two 

 butterflies taken last July at Bejar, in West Central Spain, both 

 notable as being very decidedly larger than any forms of the 

 same species recorded from any other locality. He stated that 

 one of them belonged to a form of Lycaena argus (the L. acgon 

 of the British list). They were taken about one-and-a-half 

 miles east or south-east of Bejar on July 9 and following days. — 

 Mr. R. South exhibited four specimens of a large form of 

 Cupido minima {Lycaena minima) from Cumberland, sent to 

 the Natural History Museum by Mr. Mousley, of Buxton. He 

 also exhibited, on behalf of Mr. J. H. Fowler, of Ringwood, a 

 series of Lithosia dtplana, Esp., from the New Forest, showing 

 interesting variations in both sexes, but especially in the 

 females. It was stated that Mr. Eustace Bankes had recently 

 recorded somewhat similar aberrations of the species from the 

 Isle of Purbeck. — Mr. Hamilton Druce exhibited a specimen of 

 Limenilis popttii, L. , caught whilst being chased by a small 

 bird in July, 1 901, near Riga, Russia; also a specimen of 

 Sesamia nonagrioides, Lefeb. , bred from a larva found feeding 

 in the interior of a banana. — Mr. J. H. Carpenter exhibited a 

 gynandromorphous specimen of Lycaena teams, having the 

 coloration of the male on the left side and that of the female on 

 the right side, captured on Ranmore Common, Surrey, in June 

 last ; also several aberrations of this species from Ranmore 

 Common and the Isle of Wight. He also showed specimens ot 

 Vanessa antiopa, bred from German larvae, including a remark- 

 able aberration in which the usual blue spots on the upper wings 

 were entirely absent. — Mr. H. St. J. Donisthorpe exhibited a 

 foreign specimen of Qucdius suturalis, lent him by Mr. Keys, of 

 Plymouth, and a British specimen taken by himself at Gravesend 

 in 1891 : also for comparison a specimen of Quedius obliterates 

 taken at Plymouth, lie said that most of the specimens of, so- 

 called, Quedius suturalis in British collections were really Q. 

 obliteratus. — Mr. Pickett exhibited a remarkable series of 

 Angerona prunaria, the result of four years' inter-breeding 

 between dark males from Raindean Wood, near Folkestone, 

 and light-coloured females from Epping Forest ; also unicolorous 

 light orange-yellow males, light yellow females, dark orange 

 males sprinkled with black, and other unusual aberrations. — 

 Prof. E. B. Poulton, F. R.S., exhibited a series of lantern slides 

 prepared from negatives taken by his assistant, Mr. A. H. Hamm, 

 of the Hope Department, and Mr. Alfred Robinson, of the 

 Oxford University Museum. The slides represented a series of 

 the larva> and imagines of British moths photographed under 

 natural conditions. — Prof. Poulton also showed a representation 

 of the pupa of Limenilis populi prepared from Portschinski's 

 figure and description, and explained the highly ingenious 

 hypothesis by which the appearances are accounted for by the 

 Russian naturalist. — Mr. C. O. Waterhouse communicated a 

 paper by Mr. L. R. Crawshay entitled "On the Life-History 

 of Drilus flavescens, Rossi." 



Zoological Society, November iS. — Prof. G. B. Howes, 

 F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair. — Dr. Henry Woodward, 

 F.R.S., exhibited two phott 'graphs of the heads of stags of the 

 red deer {Ccrvus elaphus) bred in New Zealand, lent to him for 

 exhibition by Mr. Lewis Karslake. Dr. Woodward read an 

 extract from a letter from Mr. D. Russell, hon. sec. to the 

 Otago Acclimatisation Society, giving an account of the success- 

 ful naturalisation of the red deer in New Zealand. Two stags 

 and six hinds had been turned out in 1S6S, and their offspring 

 now numbered between 4000 and 5000 individuals. The 

 carcases of some of these deer weighed from 500 to 6oolb. — 

 Mr. J. L. Bonhote exhibited some hybrid ducks which he had 

 bred during the past summer, and pointed out in what manner 

 the crosses partook of their parent forms. Three of the 

 specimens exhibited were crosses between three species, viz. 

 the Indian spot-billed duck, the wild duck and the pintail, 

 both the parents being themselves hybrids, thus proving, with 

 regard to the species enumerated, that the hybrids were perfectly 



NO. I727, VOL. 67] 



fertile inter se. — Mr. Oldfield Thomas, F.R.S., exhibited and 

 made remarks upon a stuffed male and the skull of a female of 

 the East-African representative of the Bongo antelope, recently 

 described by him as Booeercus euryceros isaaci, which had been 

 obtained by Mr. F. W. Isaac in the Mau Forest and presented 

 by him to the national collection. — Mr. Thomas also exhibited, 

 on behalf of Mr. Lydekker, the mounted skin of an adult male 

 of the Peking deer (Ccrvus [Pseudaxis] hortulorum), recently 

 presented by the president and the Duchess of Bedford to the 

 British Museum. Mr. Lydekker believed that an adult specimen 

 of this fine stag had not hitherto been figured. The specimen 

 was in full summer dress. — Dr. A. Smith Woodward, F. R.S., 

 gave an account of excavations for the discovery of early Pliocene 

 mammalian remains which he had recently made near Concud, 

 in the province of Teruel, Spain. The bones had proved to be 

 very abundant in a bed of freshwater marl, but they were in a 

 much more fragmentary condition than those found at Pikermi, 

 in Greece. He had discovered evidenceof Hipparion, Rhinoceros, 

 Mastodon, and of several small antelopes, and exhibited some 

 jaws of the first of these genera. — Mr. F. E. Beddard, F.R.S., 

 exhibited the stuffed skin of an Indian elephant still-born in the 

 Society's menagerie in August last, and made some remarks 

 thereon. — A communication was read from Mr. R. Lydekker, 

 F.R.S., containing a description of the Cabul race of the 

 markhor (Capra falconeri megaceros). — Dr. Forsyth Major read 

 a paper on the specimens of the okapi that had recently arrived 

 in Brussels from the Congo Free State. The author stated that 

 these specimens, whilst presenting the same specific characters 

 as the specimens formerly received by the Congo State authorities, 

 showed conclusively that the male was alone provided with 

 horns, and that the mode of their development was the same as 

 in the giraffe. The okapi seemed to be a more generalised 

 member of the Giraffidie than the giraffe, sharing not a few 

 features of alliance with the Upper Miocene Palaeotragus 

 (Samotherium). In several characters, it was intermediate 

 between the giraffe and the fossil forms ; but, apart from these, 

 some features were pointed out in which it appeared to be even 

 more primitive than its fossil relatives. These last characters 

 went some way to support the assumption that Africa was the 

 original home of the Giraffidae. — A communication was read 

 from Mr. G. A. Boulenger, F. R.S., containing an account of a 

 second collection of fishes made by Dr. W. J. Ansorge in the 

 Niger Delta. The species — fifty-six in number — were enumerated , 

 four of them being described as new. — A communication from 

 Dr. A. Giinther, F.R.S., contained a final account of the fishes 

 collected by the late Mr. R. B. N. Walker, on the Gold 

 Coast. Several new species belonging to the families Chromidse, 

 Siluridae and Cyprinid.e were described. 



Anthropological Institute, November 25. — Dr. A. C. 

 Haddon, F.R.S., in the chair. — Dr. C. S. Myers read a paper 

 on anthropometric investigations among the native troops of the 

 Egyptian Army. The investigations were confined to the 

 privates and non-commissioned officers of the Egyptian Army. 

 By permission of the Sirdar, 1005 men in the Egyptian battalion 

 quartered at Cairo and 1S9 men in the Soudanese battalions at 

 Khartoum and Omdurman were examined. Photographs were 

 obtained of 176 Egyptians and thirty-one Soudanese soldiers 

 bare to the waist ; two photographs, one full-face, the other 

 profile, were taken of each individual. In both Egypt and 

 Soudan, the subjects measured had been drawn from a very wide 

 area, extending as far westward as Bornu and Baru, and south- 

 wards as far as Uganda. It now remained to determine whether 

 definite differences of type exist among the Egyptians from 

 various regions of the Nile valley and among the tribes of the 

 Soudan ; also whether the Coptic (pre-Mohammedan) people 

 noticeably differ from the general Moslem population of Egypt. 

 Before publishing the results of this inquiry, the permission of 

 the Sirdar has to be obtained. The material collected will 

 supply the necessary data to permit of the preparation of a 

 report on the physical efficiency of the Egyptian Army. — The 

 Hon., John Abercromby read a paper on the oldest Bronze-age 

 ceramic type in Britain ; its close analogies on the Rhine ; its 

 probable origin in Central Europe. The oldest type of pottery 

 in Britain is the "drinking cup," for which it, is proposed to 

 substitute the shorter term " beaker." Fifty-three of Thurman's 

 three types were shown. Twenty-five interments were described 

 in which the beaker was accompanied by ancient objects ; three 

 with large flint daggers, three with buttons with the V-shaped 

 perforation below and five with stone wrist-guards, all of 

 which objects belong to the later Neolithic, period on the con- 



