Notes, Reviews and Comments. 107 



Catalogue of the PJiytopJiagons and Parasitic Hyinenoptera of 

 Vancouver Island, B.C. By VV. Hague Harrington. 



The species enumerated in tliis list are i;i large proportion repre- 

 sented in the' valuable collections made by the Rev. G. W. Taylor 

 during his residence at Cedar Hill, near Victoria, and the list is offered 

 as a contribution toward a better knowledge of the rich fauna of the 

 Island. Much extensive and systematic collecting must be done, how- 

 ever, before anything approaching a satisfactory catalogue can be com- 

 piled. At present many of the families are almost, or entirely unrepre- 

 sented in collections from this region; the larger and showier insects 

 have naturally been first collected, while the much more numerous 

 minute and obscure forms have been neglected. 



Prof. E. E. Prince, Dominion Commission of Fisheries, 

 contributed a very interesting series of papers as follows — In 

 Section IV. : 



" Further Observations on Trophoclasts in Fishes' Eggs. By Sir 

 James Grant, M.D., K.C.M.G., etc., and Prof. Edward E. 

 Prince, B.A., F.L.S. 



In continuance of the paper presented at the Society's meeting in 

 1894, the authors now bring additional evidence to show that the Tropho- 

 clasts are not nuclei of the germ or of the yolk, but by difference in size 

 and details of structure they are demonstrated to be, like the osteo- 

 clasts, in an ossifying matrix, nuclei with special functions and character- 

 istics, and chiefly active in breaking down the crude yoke of the egg. 



"A Study of the Pelvic Girdle of the Pike (Esox) in its Bearing 

 on the True Interpretation of Paired Fins. By Prof Ed. E. 

 Prince. Communicated by Dr. G. M. Dawson. 



The author states his grounds for. regarding the so-called girdle as 

 not really a girdle at all. His former studies on the shoulder girdle in 

 fishes led him to the view that certain elements generally held to 

 belong to the shoulder, are really arm elements and belong to the free 

 limb. They originate in a horizontal plate of cartilage, which is drawn 

 in towards the clavicle, and becomes altered in position and relation. 

 The Pelvic Girdle is really composed wholly of free limb elements and 

 is not truly pelvic. 



This paper elicited a spirited discussion, Professor R. 

 Ramsay Wright, among others, criticizing the position taken by 

 Professor Prince. 



