May 7, 1914] 
NATURE 
249 
at Avebury. The work has extended to the silting 
of the fosse on the east side, and against the solid 
chalk entrance causeway on the south of the great 
circle. A few antler picks and hammers and a finely 
worked flint implement have already been found in the 
chalk rubble, and in the Roman stratum nearer the 
surface a ring and part of a bracelet, both of bronze. 
In the cutting of the vallum have been decovered two 
red deer antlers and an interesting bone pin nicely 
worked and polished. The old surface line has been 
reached in places, and is clearly defined; on it have 
been found several small fragments of prehistoric 
pottery, a flint scraper, and two flint saws, as well 
as clear traces of charcoal. 
AccorpinG to the April number of the Museums 
Journal, the chief loan collections at the twenty-fifth 
conference of the Museum Association, to be held at 
Swansea in July, will comprise Welsh pottery and 
porcelain, paintings by old masters and modern Rouen 
artists, Rouen decorative metal-work, and old Welsh 
furniture and lacquer. 
AMONG questions discussed in Publication No. 2169 
(Opinions 52-56) of the International Commission on 
Zoological Nomenclature is the validity of the names, 
which were edited by Linnzeus, in Hasselquist’s ‘‘ Iter 
Palzestinum’’—published prior to 1757. It is ruled 
that these are invalid, despite the publication of a 
German translation of the volume in 1757, which, it 
had been urged, might justify their recognition. 
THE surface-swimming copepod crustaceans of the 
Gulf of Manaar form the subject of the longest article. 
by Captor. B. S. Sewell, an WNogigs (vol. ix.) of 
Spolia Zeylanica. The account is mainly based on 
two collections—one made between 1906 and 1909 in- 
clusive, and the other in 1913; these embrace a total 
of eighty-seven species and subspecies, of which five 
are described as new. This number also includes the 
second part of a paper by Dr. J. Pearson on the holo- 
thurians of the Indian Ocean, together with a revision, 
by the same writer, of the genera Muelleria and Holo- 
thuria. 
In the introduction to a long reply on certain criti- 
cisms of the theory of mimicry, the greater portion of 
which appears in the January issue of the Proceedings 
of the Academy of Philadelphia, Prof. Poulton remarks 
that more definite evidence than we at present possess 
with regard to the butterfly-eating habit in birds, and 
that some species of butterflies are nauseous to them, 
is urgently required. Such evidence is, however, 
steadily increasing, an important item coming from 
Uganda, where a wagtail, after eating butterflies 
belonging to two groups, rejected one representing a 
third. 
‘“ELVERS,” writes Mr. J. S. Elliott in an article 
on eels and eel-catching in Bedfordshire in the April 
number of the Zoologist, ascend the Ouse and its 
tributaries in swarms from the Wash. From the 
time of Domesday Book most Bedfordshire mills have 
been provided with eel-traps, which in early days 
furnished a considerable instalment of the rent. 
Although apparently less than formerly, the total 
average catch in the county is now about 3 tons 
18 cwt., representing something like 17,500 eels, with 
NGL 2323, VOI: 93} 
[a value, at the local price of 6d. a pound, of prac- 
tically 220l. 
To the March number of Naturen Mr. Orjan Olsen 
contributes an illustrated account of the whales of 
South Africa, and whaling as carried on at Durban 
and Saldanha Bay on the east, and at Port Alexandre, 
Benguela, on the west coast. A considerale amount 
ot space is devoted to Balaenoptera brydei, the new 
rorqual described by Mr. Olsen last year, of which 
169 individuals were taken in 1912. In the following 
year, up to July, 92 common fin-whales and 36 blue 
whales were captured at the Saldanha Bay station. 
The other species taken were the southern humpback 
(Megaptera bodps, or nodosa, lalandei), the southern 
right whale (Balaena australis), which is very rare, 
and the sperm-whale. 
PHotoGrapHs of two recently added animal groups 
appear in the report of the American Museum of 
Natural History, one representing the reptile life of 
the Californian cactus-desert tract, and the other 
showing portions of two piles grown over with mussels 
and sea-anemones from a group illustrating the fauna 
of submerged timber. An item in the report well 
worthy the attention of museum curators in this 
country is a photograph of fireproof cases recently 
installed for the storage of mammal skins. If this is 
worth doing in America, it is still more so in our 
our own Natural History Museum, with its priceless 
series of ‘‘type’’ specimens. Even if the new method 
of storage could not be applied to the whole study- 
collection, it might be employed for types. 
Dr. Enrico Festa has utilised the opportunity pre- 
sented by the Italian occupation of Rhodes to visit 
the island for the purpose of studying its fauna. An 
account of his observations, and reports on his collec- 
tions have recently been published (Bolletino dei Musei 
di Zoologia ed Anat. comp. della R. Universita di 
Torino, vols. xxviii.-xxix). Most of the animals re- 
corded belong to species already known from other 
parts of the Mediterranean region, but a few are new 
or of special interest. A hundred and thirteen species 
of birds were obtained, including a new species of jay 
(Garrulus) and a new species of redbreast (Erithacus). 
There are two new earthworms (Helodrilus), two new 
woodlice (Armadillidium), three new locustids, one of 
which is referred to a new genus, and a new variety 
of the river crab (Potamon edule) of southern Europe. 
The other groups reported upon are the hymenoptera, 
fleas, earwigs, scorpions, and the mosses and _liver- 
worts (these last in Annali di Botanica, vol. xii.). 
An account of work on the control of damping-off 
disease in plant beds has been recently published in 
bulletin form (No. 31, University of Wisconsin Agri- 
cultural Experiment Station). According to the ob- 
servations of the author, Mr. James Johnson, the two 
most common fungi giving rise to the disease are 
Pythium de Baryianum and Rhizoctonia, and these 
have been found on seedlings of a large number of 
different plants, including cress, tobacco, lettuce, 
tomato, etc. The effect of various cultural conditions, 
such as moisture, temperature, aeration on the growth 
and spread of the disease, is discussed, and the results 
of experiments as to preventive measures are given. 
