July 24, 19 13] 



NATURE 



537 



The new Natural History Department of the 

 Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery was formally 

 opened on July 17 by Alderman W. H. Bo water 

 (Deputy Lord Mayor), in the absence of the Lord 

 Mayor through illness. The museum, which forms a 

 part of the Council House extension, is situated on the 

 upper floor of the building facing Congreve Street, 

 and comprises four galleries, one of which is not yet 

 opened, having been reserved for the Beale Memorial 

 collection, which is to consist of nesting groups of 

 British birds. The collections, which have been 

 arranged by Mr. W. H. Edwards, contain representa- 

 tives of most sections of natural history, and though 

 birds, shells, and insects predominate at the present 

 time, the committee hopes now the museum is started 

 that generous donors may be forthcoming to supply 

 some of the deficiencies. An interesting feature is a 

 large case arranged on somewhat original pictorial 

 lines, and illustrating a British marine topographical 

 group. Sea-birds, some with their eggs, are mounted 

 on a large rock, others are shown in flying positions, 

 whilst the low^er portion of the case represents a 

 depth of 18 in. of sea-water, in which various fishes, 

 an octopus, cuttle-fish, crabs, lobsters, &c, are shown 

 as in a state of nature amongst seaweeds or resting 

 on the sandy bottom. Special mention must be made 

 of an extremely fine collection of British birds, in- 

 cluding many very rare species, arranged in cases 

 with their natural environment, and in various states 

 of plumage. These have been lent by Mr. R. W. 

 Chase, and occupy the whole of one of the galleries. 



Aphides form the subject of the two chief artii les 

 in the July issue of The Journal of Economic Biology. 

 In the first Prof. F. V. Theobald reviews the British 

 representatives of the genus long known as Siphono- 

 phora, or Nectarophora, but for which the author 

 employs the earlier title, Macrosiphum. Inclusive of 

 twelve described as new, the British list comprises 

 fifty-five species. In the second article Mr. T. R. 

 Hewitt records the occurrence of a woolly aphis 

 (Schizoneura lanigera) in the core of an apple, and 

 suggests that such infestation may occasionally assist 

 the dissemination of the species. 



According to the July number of The Entomolo- 

 gist's Monthly Magazine, the greater part of the 

 magnificent collection of butterflies and moths (includ- 

 ing hundreds of type specimens) formed by the late 

 Mr. Herbert Druce has been acquired by Mr. J. J. 

 Joicey, of The Hill, Witley, Surrey. The representa- 

 tives of the Lycasnidse and Hesperiidae have, how- 

 ever, been retained by Mr. Hamilton Druce, and Mr. 

 Druce's first collection of butterflies is now in the 

 Natural History Museum. In communicating this 

 information Mr. Joicey states that his portion of the 

 collection is available for study to entomologists. 



In Spolia Zeylanica for June Mr. E. E. Green 

 describes, with coloured illustrations, a case of mimicry 

 by spiders of the genus Coenoptichus of the wing- 

 less forms of wasps of the family Mutilida?, including 

 those of the type genus. The general effect of the 

 resemblance is most striking, the cephalo-thorax of 

 the spiders having the red dorsal surface characteristic 

 of many of the wasps, while in both groups the 

 NO. 2282, VOL. 91] 



abdomen is conspicuously spotted with white or 

 yellow. The spiders belong to one species, but mimic 

 the whole group of wasps, and not any particular 

 kind, protection being doubtless the object of the 

 resemblance. Other Ceylon spiders belonging to the 

 same family (Attidae) mimic ants. 



In The Field of July 12 Mr. Boulenger direct-- atten- 

 tion to the description by Mr. P. A. Ouwens in the 

 Bulletin di< Jardin Botanique de Buitenzofg for 1912 

 of a gigantic monitor lizard from the Isle of Comodo, 

 between Flores and Sumbawa. The tvpe specimen, 

 described as Varanus komodensis, measured 7 ft. in 

 I length, but a second example is reported to have 

 reached 13 ft., and there are stories of others with a 

 length of from 10, ft. to 23 ft. The species appears 

 to be related to the North Australian V. giganteus, 

 which grows to 7 or S ft., but it has the muzzle less 

 pointed and brown in colour, while the tail is propor- 

 tionately shorter. That this giant of its tribe is dis- 

 tinct from all the other living representatives of its 

 genus is certain ; but Mr. Boulenger suggests that it 

 may prove to be inseparable from I'. priscus, of the 

 Pleistocene of Queensland, the vertebrae of which 

 appear to indicate a reptile .it leasl as large as the 

 biggest reported individuals of the Comodo monitor. 



The latest publications of the Fisheries Branch of 

 the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruc- 

 tion for Ireland include a paper by Messrs. E. W. L. 

 Holt and L. YV. Byrne, on the fishes of the Irish 

 Atlantic slope. Some species belonging to the fami- 

 lies Stomiatidae, Sternoptychidae, and Salmonidae are 

 described and figured. The same part of the report 

 also contains a paper by Mr. C. L. Boulenger on the 

 luminous organs of the stomiatid fish, Lamprotoxus 

 flagellibarba. Mr. R. Southern, in a further report, 

 describes a collection of Gephyrean worms from the 

 coasts of Ireland. Twenty-three species in all are 

 recorded, and six of these are described as new to 

 science. Five species are added to those previously 

 known to exist in the British area. The author 

 advances reasons for regarding Golfingia macintoshii 

 of Lankester as synonymous with Blainville's Phas- 

 colosoma vulgare, and Thalassema lankesteri of 

 Herdman as synonymous with Miiller's Thalassema 

 gigas. 



Prof. O. Schmeil's " Naturwissenschaftliches 

 L T nterrichtswerk " series has enjoyed an extraordinary 

 vogue in Germany, and when recently revising the 

 botanical portion of the series the author found it 

 necessary to omit certain branches of the subject in 

 order to avoid undue extension of the general botanical 

 volume, intending to write a special work on foreign 

 economic plants. This has now appeared as a 

 separate volume by L. Oberwalter, " Auslandische 

 Kultur- und Nutzpflanzen " (Quelle and Meyer, Leip- 

 zig, price 2.40 marks), with an introduction by Pro'f. 

 Schmeil. This book, uniform in plan with the other 

 volumes in Schmeil's well-known series of manuals, 

 is illustrated by fifty-nine figures, and forms an excel- 

 lent introduction to economic botany. 



One of the most important and difficult questions 

 in connection with the maintenance of railways in 

 India is the supply of suitable sleepers, and in a 



