385 

 NEWS FROM THE MAGAZINES 



An illustration of a hybrid between an Eider and a Wild Duck appears 

 in The Scottish Naturalist (No. 9). 



A new Lancashire Lichen, Stenocybe byssacea, is recorded by Mr. J. A. 

 Wheldon in The Lancashire Naturalist for October. It occurred on the 

 twigs and branches of Alniis glutinosa, near Caton, West Lancashire. 



We have received part I of a well-printed and curiously illustrated 

 magazine, The Technicalian, issued by the Hull Technical School. The 

 only ' natural history ' item we can find in it is ' Algy met a bear ; The 

 bear was bulgy ; The bulge was Algy.' 



Messrs. \\'. A. Parker and W. H. Sutcliffe do not like the views expressed 

 by Messrs. H. P. Kendall and H. Ling Roth in the pamphlet on ' Local 

 T'rehistoric Implements,' published by the Halifax Aluseum, and in the 

 September Lancashire Naturalist write to some length on the subject. 



In the Irish Naturalist for October, Professor C. J. Patten has a paper 

 on ' Spotted Flycatchers on Migration observed at the Tuskar Rock and 

 Lighthouse,' and in the November issue of the same journal he records 

 the Tree-pipit on the Tuskar Rock, this bird being an addition to the Irish 

 list. 



The Scottish Naturalist (No. 9) contains an interesting criticism of the 

 recently published List of British Birds, and also points out that ' in a 

 great number of instances the journal British Birds is quoted as if it were 

 the original source of publication of interesting records, which is not the 

 case.' 



From the \'iking Club we have received two parts of their Old Lore 

 Miscellany of Orkney, Shetland, Caithness and Sutherland, and a part of 

 Orkney and Shetland Records. These publications contain a valuable 

 record relating to the northernmost parts of our islands. There are also 

 reviews of books bearing on the district, and a Bibliography. 



In the Scottish Botanical Rei.iew, Mr. Arthur Bennett refers to Saxi- 

 fraga Hirculus L., and its distribution in the British Isles. In this he 

 refers to a record for Sedbergh, by J. Handley, in The Naturalist, for 

 1903 (pp. 408). Since then, however, Professor Oliver has informed Mr. 

 Bennett that he saw Mr. Handley's specimen, and it was not Hirculus^ 

 but aizoides. 



In The Entomologist' s Monthly Magazine for November, Mr. Porritt 

 gives a 'description of the larva of Luperi>ia gunneei,' from St. Anne's- 

 on-Sea. In the same journal Mr. Claude Morley identifies the much- 

 talked-of ' humming in the air ' on summer evenings, as due to small 

 flies, Tanypus varius, and Chironomus dorsalis, though what the evideiice 

 is that both the species make the sound, is not stated. 



It appears from Mr. C. D. Soar's notes in Knowledge, for November, 

 that the adult Harvest Mite has never been identified. It may be known ; 

 but as the six-legged larval stage is the one which causes the well-known 

 irritation when it burrows under the .skin of human beings, and its life 

 history has never been followed out, it is impossible to say what the eight- 

 legged creature into which it ultimately grows is like. 



Bedrock, the new quarterly, issued by Messrs. Constable and Company, 

 contains a paper by Dr. Keith, on ' Recent Discoveries of .\ncient Human 

 Remains and their bearing on the .\ntiquity of Man.' We observe that 

 Dr. Keith considers that further discoveries will shew that Mr. ]\Ioir is 

 right is stating that the Ipswich skeleton occurred beneath undi.sturbed 

 boulder clay, notwithstanding the opinions of well known geologists 

 the contrary. Dr. Gossage writes on ' Human Evidence of Evolution,' 

 and there are several other inportant papers. Bedrock is sold at hal£-a- 

 crown. 



1912 Dec. I. 



