June 27, 1901] 



NA TURE 



215 



^d., being vol. xvi. of the handbooks published under the 

 auspices of the " Homeland Association for the Encouragement 

 of Touring in Great Britain and Ireland." Apart from the 

 descriptions of places of historic interest, including many famous 

 old castles, it is interesting to find chapters on the geology of 

 the district and on the prehistoric people of Hastings, by Mr. 

 W. J. Lewis Abbott. The great physical changes recorded in 

 the rocks are briefly pictured, though with few local descrip- 

 tions, and then Mr Abbott (whose enthusiastic labours in this 

 field are well known) tells of the works of man in Plateaulithic, 

 Pal.<;olithic and later ages, concerning which abundant material 

 has been obtained in Sussex and other parts of the south-east of 

 England. A good account is also given of the various objects 

 of interest in the Hastings and St. Leonards Museum. 



From the Report of the Australian Museum for 1S99 we learn 

 that Mr. A. J. North's "Catalogue of the Nests and Eggs of 

 Birds found breeding in Australia " is making satisfactory pro- 

 gress. The work, which is to include thirty plates of eggs and 

 forty of nests, will be expensive, so that its cost is to be spread 

 over several years. Apart from a complaint as to lack of funds, 

 the general progress of the Museum seems to be satisfactory. 



Two interesting papers on wild life in Australia appear in the 

 May number of the Victorian Naturalist, the one, by Mr. D. 

 le Souef, being entitled "Among the Waterfowl in Riverina," 

 and the other, by Mr. C. French, " A Naturalist on the 

 Mallee." In the latter reference is made to the appearance of 

 a swarm of caterpillars of the "army worm," which caused 

 incalculable damage to the " wallaby grass." The caterpillars 

 were, however, attacked in turn by a fungus (Entroinophthora 

 aiislralis), which probably made a clean sweep of the entire 

 horde. 



The latest issue of the Zeiischrift fiir ■wisscnscliaftliche 

 Zoologie, which completes vol. ixix., is mainly devoted to 

 morphological subjects, although it includes a description of a 

 new genus (Ludwigia) of holothurian from New Zealand, repre- 

 sented by a species described in 1S97 as Colochiriis ocnoides. 

 The morphological subjects comprise the development of the 

 rook, the nature of the reproductive organs of the Ctenophora, 

 ihe development of the vertebral column of the rat, the structure 

 of the gills of fishes, and the difference between the female 

 reproductive organs in the gnats and mosquitoes of the genera 

 Culex and Anopheles. 



To the June number of the Zoologist Mr. W. \V. Fowler 

 communicates an interesting article on the winter singing of the 

 thrush. Owing to the mildness of last November thrushes 

 " were unusually numerous, and almost every individual seemed 

 to be uttering some kind of song, and continuing it more or less 

 from early morning, when the voicefulness was at its highest 

 point, till sunset, and even later." The author set himself the 

 task of determining whether this unusual outburst of song was 

 due merely to the birds being in good condition, or whether it 

 had any connection with the ensuing pairing-season. Despite a 

 complete cessation between January 3 and 21, he inclines to 

 think "that the great outbreak of song in the autumn was, in 

 the case of mature birds at least, a forecast of the coming 

 breeding-season." 



The most striking feature in the Report of the Field 

 Columbian Museum at Chicago for the year 1899-1900 is formed 

 by the full-page illustrations of groups of mammals mounted 

 amid their natural surroundings. By far the best of these repre- 

 sents a party of five Somali hartebeests in the Haud desert, 

 the attitudes of the animals being absolutely life-like. There is 

 nothing to approach this grouping in our own national museum. 

 The lectures delivered from time to time in the museum appear 

 to attract good audiences. Two courses, one of eight and the 

 NO. 1652, VOL. 64] 



other of nine lectures, were delivered during the period in ques- 

 tion. They comprised anthropological, zoological and economic 

 subjects. The total expenditure of the museum during the year 

 was a little more than 24,000/. 



We have received a pamphlet indicating the contents of a 

 bibliography and subject-index of the Schizomycetes (Bacteria) 

 now appearing in the " Scientific Roll." It is stated to show 

 the scope and extent of the work in January 1901, but is subject 

 to alteration. The method of cataloguing seems to be to divide 

 the subject into a number of groups — general, diseases, 

 micro-organisms, &c. — each of which is again subdivided, and 

 the subdivisions have appended to them the years in which 

 papers on their subject-matter have appeared. In the second 

 half of the work the matter is divided into years, and under each 

 year an alphabetical list of authors is given, with the titles of 

 their papers. The method of arrangement would have been 

 rendered far clearer had a few specimen pages been included. 

 The few references we have checked we have found to be 

 accurately given. Judging from the list of contents there are 

 overlappings and omissions. For example, " Bacillus of mouse 

 typhoid " and " Bacillus typhi murium," " Bacillus of Plague " 

 and " Bacillus pestis " are given as separate headings with 

 different references, while "Micrococcus Melitensis" and 

 " Bacillus pseudotuberculosis " seem to be omitted. The work 

 may be, and might be made, a very valuable one, but details 

 are wanting to enable a correct estimate as to its value being 

 formed. For example, there is no indication whatever as to the 

 journals, &c., that are to be indexed ; a list of these should be 

 given. 



Mr. Bernard Quaritch has issued a catalogue of the 

 valuable entomological library collected by the late Mr. J. H. 

 Leech, together with other important works on natural history 

 and botany offered for sale at his establishment in Piccadilly. 



Messrs. Dulau and Co. announce for publication in July a 

 "Flora of Guernsey and the Lesser Channel Islands," by Mr. 

 Ernest D. Marquand. The work will comprise classified Hsts, 

 with full details of local distribution, of the flowering plants, 

 ferns, fern-allies, characea;, mosses, hepaticce, fungi, lichens, 

 sea-weeds, freshwater alga;, and diatomacea; which have been 

 found in Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, Herm, Jethou, Lithou, 

 Crevichon and Burhou. Each island is treated as a separate 

 and independent botanical area, possessing its own peculiar 

 features. It is stated that upwards of 2500 diff'erent species are 

 recorded for Guernsey alone. 



The syndics of the Cambridge University Press have under- 

 taken the publication of the first part of the " Index Animalium," 

 to the preparation of which Mr. C. Davies Sherborn has devoted 

 so many years. The object of the index is to provide zoologists 

 with a complete list of all generic and specific names given by 

 authors to animals both recent and fossil since January i, 1758, 

 the date of the tenth edition of Linnjeus' " Systema Natura;." 

 With each name will be given an e.xact date and a reference 

 intelligible to the layman as well as to the specialist. The British 

 Association appointed a special committee to watch over the 

 inception and progress of the work, the preparation of which 

 was undertaken in 1S90. Financial support has been given by 

 the British -Association, the Royal Society and the Zoological 

 Society, while the authorities of the British Museum have 

 afforded continual assistance. The portion of the work already 

 completed and in the press covers the period from 1758-1S00 

 and consists of 61,600 entries. 



We have received from Messrs. Mliller, Orme and Co. a 

 specimen apparatus, designed by Mr. C. T. Tyrer, for use in 

 making the Marsh-Berzelius test for arsenic. Commonly the 

 flask in which the hydrogen or the arseniuretted hydrogen is 



