308 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 425. 



The American Naturalist for January con- 

 tains an article by Hubert L. Clark, on ' The 

 Water Snakes of Southern Michigan/ which 

 contains a detailed study of the species found 

 there and concludes that Natrix erythrogaster 

 is a well-defined species of recent production, 

 probably derived from some form of N. fas- 

 ciata, but not sipedon. Edward W. Berry de- 

 scribes some ' New or Hitherto Unknown 

 Ephemerid Nymphs of the Eastern United 

 States,' and R. W. Shufeldt has a paper ' On 

 the Classification of Certain Groups of Birds.' 

 This deals with the Saururse, the struthious 

 birds, and the Odontoholcse, but the writer 

 does not seem to have consulted Pycraft's im- 

 portant memoir on the Palseognathse. Charles 

 C. Willoughby discusses ' Hats from the Noot- 

 ka Sound Region,' and the number is com- 

 pleted by a number of important reviews. 



The National Geographic Magazine (Wash- 

 ington) for February publishes as a sup- 

 plement the North Atlantic Pilot Chart 

 for February. The chart, which is 2 by 4 

 feet and printed in four colors, illustrates an 

 article by Commander Southerland on the 

 work of the Naval Hydrographic Office. The 

 contents of the magazine for the month also 

 include an illustrated article by William E. 

 Curtis on Macedonia, Bulgaria and Servia, 

 an article by the U. S. Weather Bureau di- 

 rector at Salt Lake City, L. H. Murdock, dis- 

 cussing the fall in the level of Great Salt 

 Lake, an argument by Edwin S. Balch in favor 

 of American Claims in the Antarctic, and 

 miscellaneous geographic notes. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



The 365th meeting was held Saturday, Jan- 

 uary 24. 



A. D. Hopkins presented a paper on the 

 'Work of Forest Insects,' fully illustrated 

 with lantern slides, showing two phases of 

 the subject. The first set of pictures illus- 

 trated the economic phase, and was suggestive 

 of the destructive character of some of the 

 work, and its relation to public interests. 



The first of the principal insects mentioned 

 in this connection was the destructive pine 



bark beetle {Dend/roctonus frontalis Zim.), 

 which in 1890 to 1892 devastated the pine and 

 spruce forests of the Virginias, causing the 

 death of many millions of forest and shade 

 trees, over an area of some 75,000 square 

 miles. Evidence has been recently found in 

 Texas that the species committed similar dep- 

 redations in the long-leaf pine region of east- 

 ern Texas between 1882 and 1885. It was 

 evident to the speaker that a number of serious 

 devastations which have occurred in different 

 sections .of Southern pine forests within the 

 past century were due to this species. 



The pine-destroying beetle of the Black 

 Hills (Dendroctonus ponderosm Hopk.) was 

 also mentioned as one of the most destructive 

 enemies of Western forests. It is now at 

 work in the Black Hills forest reserve, and 

 has already killed some 600,000,000 feet of 

 timber. It is threatening a like fate to the 

 remainder of the timber of the reserve ; which 

 involves the destruction not only of the tim- 

 ber, but of the great mining and other in- 

 dustries which are dependent on the timber 

 supply. 



The slides also illustrated the work of other 

 species of Dendroctonus which had recently 

 been collected in the Priest River forest re- 

 serve, Idaho, in western Washington, Mon- 

 terey, Calif., and Williams, Ariz., where much 

 timber is being killed by different species 

 working in those localities. The destructive 

 work of several species of Agrilus, which kill 

 poplars, birches, oaks and chestnuts in differ- 

 ent parts of the country, and that of the 

 chestnut timber worm (Lymexylon sericeum 

 Harr.), were shown, with the statement that 

 the latter was exceedingly destructive to the 

 chestnut timber of the Appalachian region. 



The other set of pictures, illustrating the 

 pure science phase, suggested the importance 

 of biological material as a guide to the deter- 

 mination of true specific characters and char- 

 acteristics of habit, of the natural relations 

 between primary and minor divisions of bark 

 and wood inhabiting species, and of the rela- 

 tion of species and genera of insects to the 

 species and genera of plants on' which they 

 live. It also suggested the importance of 



