496 



SCIENTIFIC NEAVS. 



[May 25, iJ 



culty. As many insect forms are common to Northern 

 Asia, Europe, and North America, or, in more technical 

 language, to the Palsearctic and Nearctic regions, and 

 these, as it has been already intimated, may have found 

 the Andes a convenient way to the temperate portions 

 of South America, it may safely be said that, had the 

 whole of intertropical America been always a lowland 

 forest from sea to sea, no such species would have found 

 their way to Chile. 



A much more difficult point is the presence in Chile of 

 not a few characteristically Australian forms. The two 

 countries are well known to be separated by the vast 

 Pacific, which we can scarcely assume to have been 

 bridged over by any intervening continent or even 

 by chains of islands. Thus there are four genera 

 of Buprestidse common to South America and Aus- 

 tralia, and not existing elsewhere ; and the enormous 

 and characteristic Australian genus, Stigmodeva, is most 

 closely related to the South American genera, Conognatha, 

 Hyperantka, and Dadylozodes, the latter pre-eminently 

 Chilean. We need, however, the less enlarge upon these 

 subjects, as there is nothing in Professor Philippi's cata- 

 logue which at all militates against the views of Mr. A. R. 

 Wallace, in his " Geographical Distribution of Animals." 



The only discrepancy between the two authorities is 

 that the catalogue before us specifies no Cetoniadse as 

 occurring in Chile, whilst Mr. Wallace says that " only a 

 few species of the Neotropical genus, Gymnetis, reach 

 Patagonia." Possibly, however, he means that their 

 southward extension takes place on the eastern side of 

 the continent. 



A Manual of North American Birds. By Robert Ridg- 

 way. Philadelphia : J. B. Lippincott and Co. 



Broadly speaking, this work gives us the bird-fauna 

 of the great Nearctic region. The birds of Socorro 

 Island have indeed been included, and also the Mexican, 

 Cuban, and Bahaman species, which belong to, " charac- 

 teristically. North American genera." The term 

 " Mexican " is extended so as to include even the forms 

 belonging to Guatemala and Honduras, and falling, con- 

 sequently, within the Neotropical region. Concerning 

 this extension, some difference of opinion may prevail. 

 It might, we think, have been preferable to include in the 

 work only species which have actually been observed 

 within, or very close to, the limits of the Nearctic region. 

 Now, we find here a number of parrots belonging to the 

 genera Ara and Amazona, and occurring in Central 

 and South America. But these genera and the family 

 to which they belong are certainly not North American 

 (Nearctic). Very similar is the case as regards the 

 Trogons, of which six species are described, one only of 

 which {Trogon atnbiguus) has been found in Northern 

 Mexico, Texas, and Arizona. 



The arrangement of birds here adopted begins with 

 the divers, and ends with the passerine group, all, of 

 course, carinate. 



The descriptions of the genera and species are 

 necessarily brief, but they may claim the merit of great 

 clearness ; and the identification of the various forms will 

 ■ be much facilitated by the 464 outline drawings which 

 show the distinguishing characters of the genera. The 

 dimensions, we are happy to find, are given in English 

 inches and Hundredths of an inch, so as to be at once in- 

 telligible without the aid of tables. 



Colours are named in accordance with a work of the 

 .author's on the " Nomenclature of Colours," which 



deserves to be generally known to naturalists. There 

 are few subjects on which greater confusion prevails. 



The work was originally projected by Prof. Spencer F. 

 Baird, of whom we find a kindly and reverential obituary 

 notice. But it is not easy to speak too highly concern- 

 ing a man of whom it may be said that " every 

 naturalist of eminence in the United States owes much 

 of his success to a personal intimacy with Professor 

 Baird." In almost every respect we may pronounce 

 this book a model for regional fauna in any department, 

 and we feel confident that it will be highly appreciated 

 by all sound ornithologists. 



Journal of the Society of Telegraph Engineers and 

 Electricians. Vol. xvii. No. 72. 



The principal matter to be found in this issue is a 

 paper by M. Von Treuenfeld, on the " Present State of 

 Fire Telegraphy." The speaker showed that in towns 

 with a perfect fire-telegraph system the serious fires are 

 reduced to an average per centage of 4, with less perfect 

 systems the serious fires reach 17, and in the absence of 

 fire-telegraphs amount to 29. In London the per 

 centage of serious fires has fallen since 1866 from 25 to 

 7. The number of lives lost per 100 fires has, however, 

 not beeen appreciably reduced. In 1876 it was 2'i4 per 

 cent., and in 1886 it was 2^28 per cent. 



Neither the speaker nor any of the gentlemen who 

 took part in the subsequent discussion, seems to have 

 borne in mind that rapid communication with the fire- 

 brigade stations, however important, is of little avail so 

 long as the ceremony of finding and bringing the turn- 

 cock has to be gone through. With the constant 

 pressure system a fire has much less chance of gettin g a 

 firm hold. 



The Journal of the Franklin Institute. Third series. 



Vol. xcv. No. 4. April, 1888. 

 We find here a continuation of the memoir on " Early 

 Forms of Electric Furnaces," by Professor E. J. Houston. 

 The modifications here described are those of Johnson, 

 and of Watson and Prosser. The paper on M. Moissan's 

 " Isolation of Fluorine " is taken from Nature. 

 Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. 



February, 1888. 

 This issue, in addition to the important PresidentaJ 

 Address, contains a paper by Mr. John Richards, on 

 " Irrigating Machinery on the Pacific Coast of the United 

 States," and a summary by Mr. W. Geipel, of the 

 " Position and Prospects of Electricity as Applied to 

 Engineering," in which a great number of interesting 

 facts are brought forward. 



New Bronzing Process. — A correspondent has sent 

 us the following formula for depositing bronze by 

 electricity ; — Add to every 16 ozs. of a saturated 

 solution of nitrate of iron in pure water at 110° F. 

 I dim. of a saturated solution of chloride of ammonium 

 and 4 oz- 'oaf sugar. Stir the whole thoroughly, let it settle, 

 and after four hours decant the solution into the plating vat 

 or vessel in which are suspended the articles to be bronzed. 

 At first use a current of 4 volts, which will produce in less 

 than two minutes a spongy coarse-grained deposit of a rich 

 black; scratch-brush the articles and replace in bath, reducing 

 the current to li volts, when a rich steel bronze colour will 

 soon be produced. After from five to ten minutes the articles 

 are taken from the bath, passed through a hot solu- 

 tion of hypo-sulphite of soda, and then through clean nearly 

 boiling water into boxwood meal, when they are ready either 

 for scratch-brush, relieving, burnishing, or lacquering. 



