Jnne 21, 1877] 



NA TURE 



155 



protection from its enemies, while he doubts its carnivorous pro- 

 pensities, regarding it as probably a vegetable feeder. He then 

 entered into the subject of systematic position, structure, distri- 

 bution, number of species, concluding with a detailed description 

 and zoological remarks on those forms of the Embidx now 

 known. He observed that the larva: of a species of Eiiibia has 

 been noticed in fossil amber. The living forms inhabit both 

 hemispheres at spots wide apart. None are known from Aus- 

 tralia. — Mr. G. Busk verbally explained the more important 

 points in the succeeding paper, viz., " Observations on British Poly- 

 zoa," by the worthy field naturalist, Mr. Charles Peach. The latter 

 has faithfully described and delineated a number of forms of this 

 marine family, some of which he regards as new to science, and 

 of other known genera and species he adds much information 

 regarding their habits and hiitory. For instance, Scnipoallaria 

 struposa he shows has tubulous wool-fibre-like roots armed 

 with spines, and by which it attaches itself to certain sponges, 

 &c., a fact previously unknown. — A notice of the Lichens of the 

 ChalUnger expedition, by the Rev. J. M. Crombie, and on Crus- 

 tacea inhabiting certain hollow sponges, by Mr. Edward J. Miers, 

 were two papers read in brief extract. 



Zoological Society, June 5.— Prof. W. H. Flower, F.R.S., 

 vice-president, in the chair. — A communication was read from 

 Dr. A. B. Meyer, inclosing a paper by the late Dr. Bowerbank, 

 describing five new species of sponges, discovered by Dr. Meyer 

 at the Philippine Islands and New Guinea during his recent 

 travels in the Eastern Archipelago. — A communication was read 

 from Mr. E. L. Layard, F.Z. .S., containing some remarks on 

 the exact localities of certain species of Birds of the Islands of 

 the South Pacific. — A second communication from Mr. Layard 

 contained remarks on a paper by Mr. R. B. Sharpe on the 

 Cuculida; of the Ethiopian Region. — A communication was read 

 from Mr. Arthur G. Butler containing an account of a collection of 

 Lepidoptera, madeat Cape York and on the south-east coast of New 

 Guinea by the Rev. J. S.MacFarlane. Of these five butterflies and 

 four moths were described as new to science. — Dr. A. Giinther, 

 P'. R.S., read a report on a collection of fishes made during the 

 late Arctic Expedrtion by Mr. Hart, Naturalist on board H.M.S. 

 Discovery. Among them was a new species of Charr, from a 

 lake near the winter-quarters of the Discovery, which was pro- 

 posed to be called Sah?io jiaresi. — A communication was read 

 from Mr. D. G. Elliot, F.Z S. , containing a review of the genera 

 and species of IbidinEe or sub-famrly of Ibises. — A communica- 

 tion was read from Mr. Martin Jacoby, containing the descrip- 

 tions of some new species of Phytophagous Coleoptera from 

 various pans of the world. — Messrs. P. L. Sclater and O. Salvin 

 read descriptions of six apparently new species of birds from col- 

 lections lately received from Ecuador and Peru. Amongst these 

 was a remarkable new duck of tire genus Fidigula from the 

 vicinity of Lima, Peru, proposed to be called Fuligula natioiti 

 after Prof. Nation, its discoverer. — Mr. A. H. Garrod read the 

 third part of his series of papers on the anatomy of Passerine 

 birds, and treated specially 01 some modifications of the Tracheo- 

 phonrne laryn.x which he had lately ascertained to occur in the 

 genera Pteroplochiis and Crallaria. —ftli. George French Angas 

 communicaed noies on a collection of land and fresh-water shells 

 from South-west Madagasc ar ; amongst these Mr. Angas pointed 

 out three new S|- ecies of Hrlix, one of BnUmus, and one of Pliysa 

 which he propo>ed to call J-Jeiix watcrsi, //. baistofti, H. ekon- 

 gocnsis, Bulwius bahtotii, and Physa nindagascariensis. — A second 

 communication from Mr. Angas contained the description of a 

 remarkable shell from Japan, which he named Tliatchera mira- 

 hdis, also the description of a new species of Leiodomus from 

 Kurrachi, Scinde, proposed to be called L. kurrachensis. 



EntoiBological Society, June 6. — J. W. Dunning, vice- 

 president, m the chair. — Mons. Rene Oberthiir, Rennes, France, 

 was elected a foreign member. — Mr. J. \V. Douglas exhibited 

 sixteen species oi Psyllid,^ (four of them being new to Britain), 

 which he had taken during the latter half of 1876. Mr. Douglas 

 took the opportunity of calling the attention of entomologists to 

 the wide field for investigation offered by these insects, the eco- 

 nomy of many of the species being still quite unknown.— Mr. 

 F. Grut exhibited a white downy nest from Jamaica supposed to 

 be the work of some insect. — Mr. H. Goss exhibited a dark 

 variety of Chora i^labraria. — Mr. C. O. Waterhouse exhibited a 

 magnificent dragon-fly from Borneo. This insect, which is new 

 to science, he has proposed to name Gfnacaiii/ia pla^iata. The 

 specimen, a female, measured more than six inches in expanse. 

 — The Secretary read a circular from Dr. Buchanan White, of 

 Perth, soUciting specimens of Hemiptera (especially exotic) from 



entomologists, as he was engaged in working out that order of 

 insects. — Dr. Sharp communicated a note on some species of 

 Rhyncophorous beetles from New Zealand, which had been 

 sent to Dr. Leconte for examination. — Mr. Pascoe made some 

 remarks upon the foregoing note. — Mr. J. W. Slater com- 

 municated a paper on the food of gaily-coloured caterpillars, 

 in which he attempted to show that brightly-coloured larvje 

 generally fed upon poisonous plants.— A discussion ensued, in 

 which Messrs. Dunning, McLachlan, Waterhouse, and Meldola 

 took part. Mr. Meldola called the attention of the Society to 

 the explanation of the subject given by Wallace in 1S67, and 

 exhibited some butterflies which were the sole survivors of an 

 old Indian collection, the greater part of which had been demo- 

 lished by mites. The surviving specimens all belonged to pro- 

 tected genera (Euplcca, Danais, and Papilio), proving that the 

 quality which rendered these insects] distasteful was, to a certain 

 extent, retained after death. 



Anthropological Institute, June 12.— Col. A. Lane Fox, 

 F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair. — Mr. W. J. Knowles, of 

 Ballycully, read a paper on some recent discoveries of flint im- 

 plements, worked bones, and other objects in a kitchen midden at 

 Ballintoy, co. Antrim. — The director then read some notes on 

 customs of the Caledonia women of Stuart's Lake and Eraser 

 Lake Indians, and two legends of the Langley Fort Indians, by 

 Mr. Gavin Hamilton, of the Hudson Bay Company (communi- 

 cated by Dr. John Rae,F.R.G.S.)— Staff-Surgeon Messer, R.N., 

 M.D., then made some interesting observations on the subject of 

 poisoned arrows, as used by the South Sea Islanders, and the 

 efi'ects, moral and physical, of them on Europeans and blacks. — 

 Mr. G. M. Atkinson exhibited for the Rev. J. C. Roger, 

 Rubbings from a Runic inscription found on a stone in Cunnings- 

 burgh churchyard, Shetland Isles, and of a stone with Oghams, 

 found five feet below the surface at Lunnasting, Shetland Isles. 



Victoria (Philosophical) Institute. —The Rev. Isaac Taylor 

 read a paper on the history of alphabets. De Rouge's great dis- 

 covery has proved that the alphabet is the oldest existing monu- 

 ment of human civilisation — ^older than the pyramids. T here were 

 three stages in its invention : — i. Ideograms — pictures of things. 

 2. Phonograms — symbols of words and syllables. 3. The letters 

 of the alphabet. Alter giving a brief account of the syllabic writing 

 which was developed by the Japanese out of the Chinese, and by 

 the C)prioles out of the Cuneiform, he went on to explain De 

 Rouge's discovery of the mode in which the Semites had se- 

 lected twent)-two letters out of the 400 Egyptian hieroglyphics, 

 and thus formed that first alphabet which had been the parent 

 of all alphabets in the world. He showed how all the alphabets 

 of the world were to be traced, by means of the Moabite stone, 

 to their source in the Egyptian hieroglyphics. He went on to 

 explain the causes of alphabetic change : — \. Those due to nature 

 of writing materials — clay, stone, papyrus, parchment, palm- 

 leaves, 2. Indolence in the writing. 3. Need of legibility. 

 Cambridge 



Philosophical Society, May 21. — Mr. Pearson read a paper 

 on one passage in Hesiod and three in Ovid's Fasti, which he 

 said he considered might be properly tested and illustrated from 

 modern astronomy. Admitting, as is often averred, that many 

 allusions of this nature in the classical authors are inaccurate or 

 wrong, some he thought might be still found to have the stamp 

 of truth about them. Hesiod says (Op. et Di. 564-67) that 

 sixty days after the winter solstice Arctuius rose during twilight 

 in the evening. Arcturus's position for January i, 1875, is 

 given in the Nautical Almanac as R.A I4h. gm. 55s., Dec. 19° 

 50' 224" N. If we convert these data into latitude and longitude, 

 reduce the star's longitude by about 36' 10', which, at the annual 

 rate of 5o"-i {ox pr^LCsswii will bring us to about 730 B.C., and 

 reconvert the star's new longiliide and latituuc into R.A. and 

 Dec, we shall find that the position of the star in the early part 

 of the eighth century B.C., which may be fairly taken to repre- 

 sent the era of Hesiod, was something about I2h. 6m. R.A. 

 ar"! 33° 30' north dec. On Feb. 20, at that time, in lat. 384° 

 N., about the situation of Ascra and Helicon, the sun would set 

 about 5.40 P.M., while Arcturus would rise above the horizon 

 atiout 5.53 P.M., a relative position of the two luminaries which 

 fairly answers to the words of the poet. And while investigating 

 the position of the star, Mr. Pearson said he found he had unin- 

 tentionally explained, as he believed, the epithet "late-setting,' 

 applied to Arcturus in Horn. Od. E' 272. Arcturus at that 

 epoch would first have been visible at the time of its morning 

 setting about May 24, and would set June I at 3.30 A. M., July I 

 at 1.32 A.M., Aug. I at 11.30 P.M. During the early summer, 



