COMPARATIVE ARCHEOLOGY. 183 
what analogous to the function assigned to the baton de com- 
mandement of the late Paleolithic period and the crozier of 
the subsequent Christian age—a survivalism which can be 
readily paralleled by other Pagan rites, which still linger in 
the ecclesiastical customs of to-day. 
I have purposely dwelt at some length on the function of 
these stone balls in Scottish culture, because the discussion so 
forcibly illustrates the principles of comparative archeology 
that further examples are unnecessary. There are many 
other archeological topics that could be utilised for the same 
purpose. Indeed, all antiquarian relics should be subjected 
to the same treatment before we can be sure that we are in 
possession of the full role they have played in the history of 
civilisation. Comparative archeology may. therefore, be 
defined as the ultimate phase of the inductive and analytical 
methods by which the dilettantism of earlier antiquaries has 
been converted into the science of pre-historic archeology— 
a science now so well equipped to prosecute its special sphere 
of research on truly scientific lines. 
Some Observations on the occurrence of Culex Pipiens 
in 1917. 
By Rev. JaAMEs AIKEN, M.A., F.R.S.A. 
Culex pipiens is generally recognised as the type of the 
genus Culex and the family Culicinae. In the tenth edition 
of Systema Naturae, p. 602, Linnzeus thus describes it :— 
‘“ 224 Culex. Os aculus sitaceis intra vaginam flexilem. 
(Mouth with bristly stings inside a flexible vagina or sheath.) 
pipiens 1. C. cinerus, abdomine cumulis fuscis octo.’’ 
He appears to have intended this name to cover the com- 
mon sort of mosquitoes, whose habitat he gives as Europe, 
in Lapland especially. numerous, furnishing in some places 
food for chickens, and refers to as also occurring in America 
and the Indies, but he excludes the type in which the female 
has long palpi, which in the same work he names bifurcatus, 
of which Europe is also the habitat. 
In modern times Linnzus’ pipiens is recognised as the 
