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NA TURE 



[January 23, 1908 



■dealt chiefly with the present unsatisfactory state of nomen- 

 clature in entomological science. He also advocated the 

 establishment of a central " type " museum, on the lines 

 of an experimental collection now formed at South 

 Kensington, for the purpose of loaning specimens to 

 Institutions, whereby it was suggested that the existing 

 .confusion might be avoided, and the general work of 

 identification made easier. 



At a meeting of friends of the late John Samuel Budgett 

 held in Cambridge on February 8, 1904, it was decided to 

 perpetuate his memory by the publication of a memorial 

 •volume which should contain reprints of his various 

 zoological papers, together with descriptions of the more 

 important material brought back by him on his various 

 expeditions. The syndics of the Cambridge University 

 Press undertook the responsibilities of publication, the 

 necessarv expenses of illustration being met by a fund 

 subscribed by Budgett's friends. The volume has been 

 •edited by Prof. Graham Kerr, and Mr. A. E. Shipley, 

 honorary treasurer of the fund, has contributed a bio- 

 graphical sketch. The preparation of the volume has taken 

 a considerable time, particularly the working through of 

 the extensive embryological material of Gymnarchus and 

 Polvpterus so as to make it possible to give a fairly 

 complete sketch of the development of these forms. 



We regret to announce the death of Dr. H. G. Knaggs 

 in his seventy-sixth year. Though little known to the 

 present generation of entomologists, his name deserves to 

 "be honoured as that of one of the founders of the 

 Entomologists' Monthly Magazine in 1864. At that time 

 lie possessed one of the finest collections of British Lepido- 

 ptera in existence, but ten years later he found that his 

 professional engagements required all his attention, so he 

 «old his collection and withdrew from the staff of the 

 magazine, to which, however, he continued to contribute 

 occasionally up to July, 1906. He also published one or 

 two small books and pamphlets, especially " The Lepido- 

 pterist's Guide," one of the most useful publications on 

 the collection and preservation of these insects which we 

 possess. It originally appeared in separate papers in the 

 early volumes of the Entomologists' Monthly Magazine, 

 and was afterwards enlarged and published in book form, 

 and has gone through several editions. Dr. Knaggs was 

 born on March 21, 1832, in High Street, Camden Town, 

 and was educated at University College School, and 

 trained for the medical profession at University College 

 Hospital. He practised as a medical man in Kentish 

 Town and Camden Town until about ten years ago, when 

 he retired in consequence of ill-health, and settled at 

 Folkestone, where he died after a long and painful ill- 

 ness on January 16. His remains were interred in High- 

 gate Cemetery on January 20, in the presence of a small 

 •company of relatives and friends. 



Nos. s and 7 of vol. li. of the Bulletin of the Museum 

 of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College are devoted 

 to echinoderms. In the former, Messrs. A. Alexander and 

 H. L. Clark describe the echinuses collected during the 

 cruise of the Albatross in the North Pacific. In the 

 latter, Mr. Clark publishes a revision of the Cydaris group, 

 with a full account of the intricate questions connected 

 with nomenclature. 



The " waltzing instinct " in ostriches forms the subject 

 of an article by Dr. J. E. Ducrden in the Journal of the 

 South African Ornithologists' Union for December, 1907. 

 Ostriches, it appears, are in the habit of running off 

 •suddenly with a peculiar whirling movement, sometimes 

 ■one way, sometimes another, simultaneously spreading 



NO. 1995, VOL. "^y] 



their wings, which are alternately raised and depressed. 

 These movements, the author suggests, may be connected 

 with escape from the clutches of the large Carnivora. 

 " Indulged in instinctively as play while young, and even 

 when adult, the performance gives the bird expertness 

 in the rapid jerking movements which are those first 

 followed on alarm." 



The use of chrysanthemum powder as a means of 

 destroying mosquitoes in houses is strongly recommended 

 by Dr. A. L. Herrera, of Mexico City, in a paper published 

 in the Proceedings of the nineteenth annual meeting of 

 the Association of .American Economic Entomologists (U.S. 

 Department of Agriculture, Entomological Bulletin No. 

 67). Care has to be exercised in order to avoid the pro- 

 duction of throat-inflammation in the operator, and also 

 against ignition, but if proper precautions are taken in 

 these respects, the powder seems to produce most satis- 

 factory results. The consumption of the powder has 

 largely increased during the last year, while the sale of 

 tablets, which only paralyse the insects, and at the same 

 time give off noxious fumes, has shown a corresponding 

 decrease. 



.An interesting addition to the exhibition galleries of the 

 British Museum (Natural History) has been made in the 

 shape of a copy of a water-colour drawing made about 

 1585 by John White, containing the earliest known re- 

 presentation of the American king-crab, Limulus poly- 

 phcmus. John White, who was one of the first settlers 

 in Virginia, of which he was for some time Governor, 

 served as lieutenant to Sir Walter Raleigh. In three 

 volumes of drawings by him preserved in the department 

 of prints and drawings in the British Museum, many of 

 the delineations of natural objects are of great beauty, and 

 show a fidelity to nature rare at the period. The draw- 

 ing in which the king-crab is depicted was engraved, ■svith 

 some modifications, for de Bry's " America " (" Grands 

 Voyages," part i., pi. 13) in 1590. In the engraving 

 the king-crab is, however, shown in somewhat greater 

 detail, thus suggesting that the engraver had an actual 

 specimen or another drawing from w^hich to copy. 



It is encouraging to find Dr. Whitehead, Bishop of 

 Madras, giving an example to other missionaries of the 

 true method of dealing with the beliefs of those non-Aryan 

 tribes which offer the most promising field for Christian 

 work in India. He is, we believe, a comparative stranger 

 to the people of the south, and hence his essay lacks that 

 intimate familiarity with these strange cults which is 

 essential to one whose mission is to comprehend and refute 

 them. But in his pamphlet on " The Village Deities of 

 Southern India." recently published in Mr. Thurston's 

 valuable serie; of Bulletins of the Madras Museum, he has 

 collected much curious information hitherto inaccessible 

 to English students. Although most of his facts appear to 

 have been derived from Christian converts, his account 

 of these strange beliefs seems as complete as is possible in 

 the present state of our knowledge. He points out that 

 these deities are usually female, are almost universally 

 worshipped by animal sacrifice, and that their priests are 

 not Brahmans, but drawn from the lower castes. He 

 describes in detail the grosser modes of sacrifice, which 

 he regards as not in the nature of gift or propitiation, but 

 as methods of gaining communion with the deity. This 

 study of the seamy side of Hinduism shows that this com- 

 prehensive faith is not, as is too commonly believed, a 

 purely philosophical creed. His essay will be useful to 

 ethnologists as a study of the lower beliefs of a pagan 

 polytheism, which, crude and monstrous as some of its 



