656 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 408. 



the section. The rocks of Eocene age at- 

 tracted more attention from the members 

 in the field than in the section room. They 

 were dealt with at some length by Pro- 

 fessor Gr.enville Cole in his lecture on the 

 geology of the neighborhood of Belfast, and 

 Mr. Horace B. Woodward contributed a 

 valuable note, describing a section on the 

 new railway between Axminster and LjTne 

 Regis. The Pleistocene and recent periods 

 received a large share of the attention of 

 the section. Mr. Teall, director of the Geo- 

 logical Survey, exhibited a late proof of 

 a new drift map of the Dublin area, which 

 will be the first sheet of the Geological Sur- 

 vey map on the scale of one inch to the 

 mile, printed in colors, instead of, as has 

 hitherto been the custom, colored by hand. 

 It is to be hoped that more of these color- 

 printed sheets will be issued, as they are 

 both cheaper and clearer than the hand- 

 colored maps. The post-glacial deposits of 

 the Belfast districts were dealt with in an 

 interesting paper by Mr. Lloyd Praeger. 

 He described the 'peat bed,' an old land 

 surface now twenty feet below low-water 

 mark at Belfast, but between tide marks at 

 other places. In it the Irish elk has been 

 found. 



In Section D (Zoology), as in the other 

 sections, no startling or epoch-making dis- 

 coveries were brought to light ; but most of 

 the papers were quite equal to the average 

 of former years in interest and importance, 

 and were solid contributions to zoological 

 science. In his opening address the presi- 

 dent. Professor Howes, traced in a masterly 

 summary the marvelous advances made 

 since the last Belfast meeting in our Imowl- 

 edge of the animal kingdom and in the 

 precision given to our ideas of the inter- 

 relationships of its various groups, thanks 

 to the morphological method. Of great 

 practical importance were the papers by 

 Professor Mcintosh and Mr. Garstang on 

 the international scheme for the protection 



and increase of the North Sea fisheries. 

 Considerable divergence of opinion existed 

 as regards the over-fishing of certain parts 

 of the North Sea. Professor Mcintosh held 

 that it was practically impossible to over- 

 fish; but this is not the view of Mr. Gar- 

 stang nor of the majority of marine biolo- 

 gists. The committee which is investiga- 

 ting the migration of various British birds 

 this year presented an interesting summary, 

 by Mr. Eagle Clarke, of Edinburgh, of 

 observations on the migrations of the field- 

 fare and lapwing. This was drawn up in 

 the same masterly manner as his previous 

 reports on the migrations of the song- 

 thrush, white wagtail, skjdark and swallow. 

 It is certain that, if we are ever to fathom 

 the mystery of migration, it will be only 

 by the methods employed by Mr. Clarke. 

 The zoological collections obtained by Pro- 

 fessor Herdman among the pearl-oyster 

 beds in the Gulf of Manaar were described 

 by various specialists; and in this connec- 

 tion it must be remarked that to the ordi- 

 nary naturalist it does seem that some re- 

 straint is called for in the description of 

 new species, especially among some of our 

 amateur workers. Upon minute differences 

 in characters subject to great variation 

 numbers of unique specimens have been 

 added to an already overburdened litera- 

 ture, many of which can be only individual 

 variations. Professor Poulton's exhibition 

 of a series of the predaceous flies of the 

 family Asilidte, taken in Spain, was spe- 

 cially interesting. Each was shown with 

 its prey in its grasp. The prey consisted 

 mainly of bees and ants, but extended to 

 bugs and beetles, often several times the 

 size of the assailant. The females, which 

 are larger than the males, apparently also 

 prej^ upon the males of their own or a 

 nearly related species. Very interesting, 

 too, among several interesting contribiitions 

 on the subject of mimicry, Avere Professor 

 Poulton's slides, prepared by the three- 



