666 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. 46. 



is subject to the action of ttie next International 

 Congress, to be held in Great Britain in 1898. 



A large edition of the International Code has 

 been issued by the Soci^te Zoologique de France 

 for general distribution, and any working zo- 

 ologist may obtain a copy of it by addressing 

 the Secretary, Prof Raphael Blanchard, 32 rue 

 du Luxembourg, Paris, France. 



Should any American zoologist have any sug- 

 gestions to make in regard to additions, amend- 

 ments, etc. , to this Code I request him to com- 

 municate with me before September 1, 1896. 



There are a few points in this Code with 

 which perhaps the majority of American zo- 

 ologists are not in sympathy. 'The majority 

 of American zoologists,' however, does not mean 

 'the majority of the zoologists of the world,' 

 and while it is beyond question that a view ex- 

 pressed by the majority of workers in this 

 country will receive the utmost consideration, 

 we must not forget that the next International 

 Congress cannot be expected to repeal the 

 present International Code and adopt an Ameri- 

 can, French, German or English Code in its 

 place, but must stand by international decision 

 upon all questions in regard to which diifer- 

 ences of opinion exist. 



It is my intention to request the National 

 Academy, The Smithsonian Institution, the So- 

 ciety of American Naturalists, the American 

 Ornithologists' Union, the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science and the Eoyal 

 Society of Canada, each to appoint one of its 

 members as a representative upon an Advisory 

 Committee to which I may submit for approval 

 or disapproval all of the questions which I in- 

 tend to support in the meetings of the Interna- 

 tional Commission, and with which I may advise 

 regarding concessions to be made or requested 

 in those points upon which American opinion 

 differs from the views held in some of the 

 other countries. It is needless to add that my 

 vote in the International Commission will be 

 determined by the action of this Advisory Com- 

 mittee, should the occasion arise that my per- 

 sonal opinion upon any particular point differs 

 from the opinion of the gentlemen appointed 

 to advise me. Ch. Waedell Stiles, 



B. A. I., U. S. Dept. Argiculture. 

 Washington, D. C. 



KATYDID ORCHESTRATION. 



To THE Editor of Science : I am interested 

 in the notes lately published in Science on this 

 subject, and should be very glad to have the 

 insect described by Mr. Gould identified, for 

 my own information. This is because, during 

 two summers spent at Cranberry, in the moun- 

 tains of North Carolina, not far from Roan 

 Mountain, I continually heard the same music 

 Mr. Gould describes, and have no doubt that 

 my insect and his are the same. Supposing it 

 to be, of course, well known to entomologists, 

 I preserved no specimens, and only remember 

 being struck by the very small size of those I 

 handled. It is certainly not the common Katy- 

 did, Cyrtophyllum concavum. Aside from the 

 almost deafening noise which seemed, as it were, 

 to make the trees tremble, what struck me 

 most was the punctuality with which the or- 

 chestra tuned up at a particular time near sun- 

 set, the regularity with which the performance 

 continued through the night, and its conclusion 

 at a certain hour in the morning. The inhabi- 

 tants of the place also speak of the seasonal 

 periodicity of this insect, which is so perfect that 

 they draw certain weather prophecies from its 

 acceleration or retardation of two or three 



days. 



Elliott Coues. 

 Washington, 1726 Street. 



November 2, 1895. 



To THE Editor of Science : The antiphonal 

 rhythm of two ' orchestras ' of Katydids is so 

 very familiar to me that I was rather surprised 

 to read of it in Dr. Gould's letter of September 

 20, supposing, as I did, that what I regarded as 

 such an ordinary occurrence must, of course, 

 have been noted and explained by entomolo- 

 gists. But the letters of Prof. Smith and Mr. 

 Scudder in your issue of November 1st imply that 

 such is not the case. My testimony, therefore, 

 may be of some interest. Dr. Gould's descrip- 

 tion fits exactly the phenomena noticed evening 

 after evening at my home in Montclair, N. J. 

 The ' antiphony ' is often very regular for sev- 

 eral minutes, sometimes stopping short and 

 again becoming broken into irregular individ- 

 ual stridulatiou at the end. I have sometimes 

 thought that the exact unison of movement 



