io Notes and Comments. 



buried in this old land surface. The material which has since 

 covered the ancient ' floor ' may be regarded as a sludge, 

 formed largely of re-made boulder clay, and that its dis- 

 position was probably associated with a period of low tempera- 

 ture occurring in post-chalky boulder clay times It appears 

 then, that the human skeleton found is referable to a late 

 Palaeolithic epoch, and cannot claim a pre-chalky boulder 

 clay antiquity. I wish to take this opportunity to state that 

 those who opposed my contention as to the great age of these 

 remains were in the right, while the views held by me regarding 

 them have been shown to be erroneous." As The Naturalist r 

 from the first, opposed Mr. J. Reid Moir's contention, we can 

 fairly assert that, on his own showing, The Naturalist is right,, 

 and Mr. J. Reid Moir is wrong. 



GENITALIA OF ORNIX. 



At a recent meeting of the Lancashire and Cheshire En- 

 tomological Society, Mr. F. N. Pierce read ' Notes on the 

 Genus Ornix,' in which he reviewed the synonymy of the 

 genus and mentioned having recently examined the types 

 of the various species, with the assistance of Mr. Hartley 

 Durrant, at the British Museum. Mr. Pierce alluded to the 

 difficulty of identifying captured specimens by the wing- 

 markings, and told how a little practice enabled one to correctly 

 name any of the genus by an examination of the genitalia, 

 and described how this could be done with certainty, without 

 damaging the insect for cabinet purposes. The author ex- 

 hibited all the British species of Ornix, including the species, 

 which as the result of his investigation, he had introduced to 

 the British List, viz. — Ornix finitimella, already known to 

 occur on the Continent. 



A HALIFAX INDUSTRY. 



We learn from The Yorkshire Observer, that Halifax holds 

 two world ' records " — the largest carpet works in the world 

 and the largest building society. It is not so well known that 

 Halifax also holds a record at the other end of the scale of 

 business. This is in respect to the making of rings for canaries 

 and poultry. By his own efforts, Mr. S. Drake, of Haley 

 Hill, himself a keen fancier, makes as many as from five to 

 ten million rings in normal times, but since the war, the diffic- 

 ulty of obtaining aluminium has caused a reduction of output. 

 It is a one-man business, and that makes it the more notable. 

 Mr. Drake manufactures for the Bird Emigration Inquiry 

 Department of Aberdeen University, and one of their orders 

 was for rings to be used for the marking of golden eagles. 

 These were made of hard-drawn copper, which the birds were 

 unable to bite through. 



Naturalist, 



