144 



NEWS FROM THE MAGAZINES. 



The Museums Journal for February contains a report on Museum 

 Glassware, by Mr. E. E. Lowe. 



The Geological Magazine for February contains some papers of ex- 

 ceptional interest. Prof. Grenville A. J. Cole writes on ' Rhythmic 

 Deposition of Flint ' ; Dr. Aubrey Strachan on ' Geology at the Seat of 

 War ' and Dr. A. Smith Woodward on ' The Jaw of Plectrodus, a Silurian 

 Fish.' 



Wild Life for January contains well-illustrated articles on Finding a 

 Sheld-duck's nest ; Leaf-rolling Beetles ; Points in the Nightjar Sympos- 

 ium ; on Spotted Flycatchers ; Concerning the Picidaj ; among others.. 

 The illustrations accompanying the notes on Spotted Flycatchers are 

 especially fine. 



In The Lancashire and Cheshire Naturalist for January, Mrs. R. S. 

 Bagnall gives a list of Lancashire and Cheshire Midge-Galls ; Dr. W. E„ 

 Collinge describes three new varieties of British Woodlice (from Cheshire,. 

 Derbyshire, etc.), and Mr. G. A. Dunlop has a paper on Coleoptera col- 

 lected in 1915. 



British Birds for March is largely occupied by Mr. J. H. Gurney's 

 'Ornithological Notes from Norfolk for 1916,' this being his 23rd annual 

 report. These reports formerly appeared in The Zoologist. They are now 

 arranged under species and other headings, instead of in diary form as was 

 the case previously. 



The Irish Naturalist for March has an account of Some Irish 

 Ichneumonidse ; Measurements and Weights of Birds' Eggs ; and a report 

 of the Royal Zoological Society of Ireland, which contains details of the 

 difficulties the Society had to contend with during the outbreak in Dublin 

 in Easter week, 191 6. 



The South Eastern Naturalist for 1916, contains xciii. + 89 pages, 

 and is a valuable record of the work of the South Eastern Union of 

 Scientific Societies during the year. The papers read at Tunbridge 

 Wells Congress, including the President's address, are printed in extenso. 

 The frontispiece is a reproduction of the group taken at the Tunbridge 

 Wells. 



In The Scottish Naturalist for March, Dr. W. Eagle Clarke records 

 ' An overlooked occurrence of the Black Lark in Great Britain,' recorded 

 for Middlesex (Highgate}, about 1737, and described and figured in Albin's 

 Natural History of Birds, 1738. Thus the alleged 'first ' record on the 

 coast of Kent and Sussex, in 1907, is about 170 years too late. The 

 same journal reprints Dr. W. E. Collinge 's paper on ' The Economic 

 Status of Wild Birds, ' from the Journ. Roy. Hort. Soc. ; and Mr. Percy 

 H. Grimshaw concludes his notes on ' The British Lice (Anoplura) and 

 their hosts.' 



We quote the following two verses from a palseontological parable in, 

 Punch, entitled ' The Mammal-Saurian War ' : — 



' The Saurians, clad in coats of mail, 



Shone with a most attractive lustre ; 

 Strong claws, long limbs, a longer tail — 



They pinned their faith to bulk and bluster ; 

 They laid their eggs in every land 

 And hid them deftly in the sand 



The Mammals, small as yet, and few, 

 Relying less on scales and muscles, 

 Developed diaphragms, and grew 

 Non-nucleated red corpuscles ; 



They walked more nimbly on their legs, 

 And learnt the art of sucking eggs.' 



Naturalist, 



