NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 39 



Republic has not dimmed but enhanced tbe lustre of his fame, is a 

 philosopher who has already celebrated his golden wedding to science : 

 spare and tall, eagle-eyed, fibrous, his whole frame bristling with intel- 

 lectual energy ; such is the courteous but independent autocrat, whose 

 figure stands out amongst the literati of South America, as did Saul's 

 amongst the Israelites." 



But we must tear ourselves away from Buenos Ayres, where 

 the President daily converses with his ministers by telephone ; 

 " and the time seems looming when man will hardly need bodily 

 presence and activity, but the subtlety of ethereal intercourse 

 banishing corporeality he will begin his immortality on this side 

 of the grave ; " a very consoling reflection for South American 

 Presidents, who, like Irish landlords, were evolved to be shot at, 

 and sometimes hit. And, glancing at the cemetery where " the 

 loved head which ought to have been tenderly laid in the family 

 vault at home, lies here expatriated till the last trump unites all 

 stragglers" — a sentence suggestive of dynamitic operations; we 

 follow our author to the railway which takes him to Campana, 

 on the river Parana, where the " Dipterous plagues are unusually 

 large and bloodthirsty," and one species of "the Culicides, a very 

 numerous family in this neotropical region," emits a delicious 

 flowery fragrance when crushed. Ascending the river to Rosario, 

 the railway is again taken to Cordova, and we are informed that 

 " on a late occasion a countrywoman of ours, an authoress of 

 repute, visiting the Republic for the first time, and crossing 

 these Pampas, actually preferred to ride on the cow-catcher in 

 the midst of a pitiless Pampero, her dress and locks streaming in 

 the wind, whilst the worthy engineer of the line, a victim to 

 gallantry, was obliged to share her company on that dangerous 

 and exposed seat." Who can this celebrity be ? 



From Cordova Mr. White made the excursion to Cosquin, 

 the narrative of which has already been published in this journal 

 (Zool. 1878, pp. 155-60) under the title of " Condor-hunting in 

 the Sierras," in which a great deal of lead was wasted, and one 

 Condor was secured — with a lazo. The nests were not then 

 visited, apparently from fear of the birds, for " woe betide the 

 daring plunderer, if the old birds should return during the 

 burglarious attempt;" but we are now told that "the nest 

 usually is composed of a few sticks merely, and contains two 

 eggs, each about four inches long;" whereas in the first account 



