180 
NORTHERN NEWS. 
Dr, J. Scott Keltie, who is 75 years of age, is resigning the post of 
Secretary of the Royal Geolographical Society, which he has held for 
twenty-three years. He is succeeded by Mr. A. R. Hicks. 
We regret to notice the death of Mr. W. M. Dobie at the age of eighty- 
Six, With Charles Kingsley he founded the Chester Society of Natural 
Science, Literature, and Art, and for two years was its President. 
The new Burton-on-Trent Public Museum and Art Gallery was recently 
opened by the Mayor, the collections being arranged in the upper story of 
the Old Police Station. It is the intention to keep the museum strictly 
local in its scope. 
We regret to record the death of John Shillito,,J.P., F.R°G:S. of 
Halifax, at the age of 83. He was a member of the Yorkshire Naturalists’ 
Union since 1890, and a member of the Halifax Scientific Society. He 
was interested in land and fresh-water mollusca. 
Messrs. Hutchinson & Co., are issuing a magnificently illustrated work 
entitled Belgium the Glorious, in fortnightly parts at 7d. each. It con- 
tains reproductions of art treasures of that delightful country as they 
appeared before the war. The part before us includes over 80 illustrations. 
Richard Lydekker, of the British Museum, and the author of an enor- 
mous number of popular and technical natural history works, has just 
died, at the age of 66. His best work had reference to the Mammalia, 
living and extinct. Few journals of any standing had not printed articles 
from his pen. 
From the Board of Agriculture we have received the Annual Report 
of the Horticulture Branch, proceedings under the Destructive Insects and 
Pest Acts, 1877 and-1907, and with the Board of Agriculture Act, 1889 
(Section 2, Sub-Section 3) for the year 1913-14. It contains 79 pages, and 
is sold at the low price of 43d. 
A heron shot near Hedon on February 13th had on its leg Aberdeen 
University ring No. 35764. This we understand was ringed in the nest 
by Mr. S. H. Smith at York, on May 3rd, 1913. Mr. Smith also informs 
us that a Lesser Tern which was ringed at Spurn last July was shot at 
Oporto, Portugal, in September. 
We take the following from the current number of The Museums 
Journal and make no comment. ‘He was a striking example of that 
combination of powerful intellect with a child-like, lovable nature and 
delight in the beautiful, which we have always been accustomed to look 
for in its full development in Germany.’ 
We notice that Mr. A. R. Horwood was recently lecturing to the 
Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society on ‘ Plant Life in the Past.’ 
We were surprised to learn from the circular however that I*zends were 
particularly invited (the italics are not ours). It was evidently expected 
that Mr. Horwood was going to give them a devil of a time. 
We see from the Hull Daily News that a certain local geologist recently 
delivered a lecture on ‘ The Lost Towns of the Yorkshire Coast,’ and that 
a discussion followed in which several local naturalists took part; which 
seems fairly matter of fact. The newspaper reporter evidently was so 
impressed, by the harmonious nature of the proceedings that he headed 
the report ‘ Geological Society Concert.’ 
Judging from the columns of the daily press, the war is having some 
effect on the names given to new arrivals of Homo sapiens. Itis not! often, 
however, that any thing of this kind influences scientific nomenclature. 
In a recent number of the ‘ Annals and Magazine of Natural History,’ 
we find the following three new names for Bats, in a paper by Mr. Old- 
field Thomas :—Nyctalus joffret, Pipistrellus kitchenert, and Ptpistrellus 
sturdeet. 
Naturalist. 
