NOTES AND NEWS. 



At the anniversary meeting of the Linnean Society this year two Yorkshire 

 botanists of eminence — Mr. J. Gilbert Baker, F.R.S.,and Robert Braithwaite, M.D., 

 — were elected into the Council, and Mr. W. Percy Sladen, F.G.S.,was re-elected 

 Zoological Secretary. 



Xxx 



Among the recent elections to the Fellowship of the Linnean Society we are 

 pleased to observe the names of Mr. Matthew B. Slater, of Malton, whose work 

 amongst the North Yorkshire mosses and hepatics is so well known, and 

 Mr. H. Bendelack Hewetson, F.Z. S., of Leeds, an ex-president of the Leeds 

 Naturalists' Club and Scientific Association. 



>«X- 



At a recent meeting of the Sheffield Naturalists' Club, the president (Mr. E. 

 Howarth, F. R. A.S.) in the chair, Dr. H. C. Sorby gave an account of some most 

 interesting and valuable researches made on board his yacht ' Glimpse ' on the 

 Essex and Suffolk coasts into the habits of certain marine mollusca belonging to 

 the genera Mya, Scrobicularta, Tellina, Cdrdium, and Pholas. 



XIX 



We have received irom our old friend Ur. Robert F. Scharff, whose Leeds and 

 Bradford friends are pleased to note his promotion last year to the important post 

 of curator of the natural history department of the Dublin Museum of Science and 

 Art — in which he succeeded to another gentleman of Leeds relationship (Mr. A. 

 G. More) — a copy of his recent paper on the occurrence of Pallas' Sand-Grouse 

 in Ireland, in which are collected together records of about a hundred specimens. 



>on< 



In a recent number of our spirited Liverpool contemporary ' Research,' we 

 notice an excellent portrait and an appreciative sketch of the scientific career of 

 Mr. J. \V. Davis, F.S.A., etc., a gentleman well known for the amount of work 

 he has accomplished for Yorkshire geology, not only as an original investigator, 

 but also as secretary of the Yorkshire Geological and Polytechnic Society and as 

 one of the authors of ' West Yorkshire.' 



At recent meetings of the Entomological Society of London, the Rev. C. F. 

 Thornewill, M.A., of Burton-on-Trent ; Mr. N. F. Dobree, of The New Walk, 

 Beverley, President of the Entomological Section of the Yorkshire Naturalists' 

 Union ; Mr. J. Harrison, of Gawber Road, Barnsley ; and Mr. S. L. Mosley, of 

 Beaumont Park, Huddersfield, were elected Fellows, thereby strengthening a 

 Society which, while ranking among the most useful of our learned bodies, has 

 hitherto been very inadequately supported by students of the branch of science 

 which it has done so much to promote. 



Mr. John H. Metcalfe, Leyburn, Wensleydale, a member of the Yorkshire 

 Naturalists' Union, has submitted to the respective Governments a plan for ridding 

 Australia and New Zealand of the rabbit pest. This is by means of ergot of rye, 

 a parasitical fungus peculiar to the rye grass and rye cereal, as well as to other 

 grasses. The consumption of this, it is said, will cause the does to abort, and 

 ultimately render them barren (?). It was originally intended to have spread the 

 fungus amongst the native grasses, but as this would be similarly injurious to 

 cattle and sheep partaking of it, the idea has been modified. The scheme now 

 proposed is the manufacture of cakes of sweet herbs (such as the rabbits like) 

 containing the ergot, and spreading them about the runs in corn-growing districts, 

 in the large tracts of unoccupied Government lands, and in such places not 

 occupied by cattle and sheep. The rabbit, it will be remembered, was first 

 introduced into the colonies about twenty years ago, and was then so much of a 

 novelty that it commanded fancy prices. Now it is swarming in countless 

 millions, and eating up whole areas ; in some districts there is scarcely a blade of 

 grass, or herbage of any kind, to be seen. The Governments have sanctioned the 

 introduction of stoats and weasels, which have already arrived in large quantities, 

 but this it is obvious will prove a remedy worse than the disease. Mr. Metcalfe 

 will be glad to have the opinion of naturalists respecting his plan. 



Naturalist, 



