SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



The Cornish Chough. — The Home Secretary 

 has issued an order prohibiting any person from 

 taking or destroying the eggs of the Cornish chough. 

 This sub-family of the crows is represented with us 

 by the red-billed or Cornish chough, and the bird is 

 now restricted to certain localities in the south- 

 western counties of England, parts of Wales and 

 the Isle of Man. It is still by no means rare in 

 localities in Ireland. It also occurs in some of the 

 western islands of Scotland as far north as Skye. 

 In the mountains of Switzerland the Alpine chough 

 occurs, in Australia the sub-family is represented 

 by the white-winged chough, and there are some 

 curious desert choughs which inhabit central Asia. 



The Sallows in Yorkshire. — On Good Friday, 

 April 12th, I accompanied my friend, Mr. W. Hewitt, 

 ot York, to the sallows in bloom at Strensall. 

 While waiting for darkness we had the pleasure of 

 taking Lobophova carpinata (lobulata) in considerable 

 numbers at rest on the trees. At the sallow bushes 

 we found that Tamiocampa munda was fairly common 

 and variable, the var. immaculata being about as 

 numerous as the type. The commoner insects of 

 the same genus were out in force, and some nice 

 forms of T. incerta, T. stabilis, and T. gothica were 

 boxed, but only one T. popnleti. The usual 

 sprinkling of such things as Anticlea badiata and 

 Larentia multistrigaria was enlivened by the occur- 

 rence of four fine examples of Panolis piniperda, 

 while L. carpinata also came to the catkins. On the 

 Saturday the wind chopped round to north-east and 

 sallows were unproductive, still we added Xylo- 

 campa areola to the list. Unfortunately the cold 

 wind endured for the remainder of the holidays. — ■ 

 W. Mansbridgc, g, The Green, Stratford, E. 



Locusts in London. — The repeated involuntary 

 appearance of CEdipoda tartarica in London is cer- 

 tainly very interesting. The three other species of 

 locusts in our lists, viz. Pachylilus migratorius, P. 

 cinerascens, and Schistocerca peregrina are all true 

 migrants. The two first-named species appear at 

 intervals, occasionally in some numbers, as for 

 instance, P. migratorius at Cheddar, in 1S74, and the 

 last-named species having been taken in consider- 

 able numbers in 1869. All these instances are 

 clearly straggling portions of flights, no locust in 

 an immature state ever having been recorded in 

 Great Britain. There seems good reason to suppose 

 that this species, which is better known under the 

 name of Acridium cegyptium, and is the largest of the 

 European species, may be the locust of Holy Scrip- 

 ture, and its body is certainly large enough to 

 render such an idea probable ; possibly, however, the 

 scriptural locust included more than one species. 

 In addition to the three specimens recorded by Mr. 

 Sauze, one of which he has most kindly given to me, 

 I have heard of a fourth specimen taken last month 

 in Covent Garden market. It is certainly strange 

 how so large and active an insect can allow itself to 

 be packed up in a crate of cauliflowers, and not be 

 noticed by the packers. — C. A. Briggs, 55, Lincolns 

 Inn Fields ; April nth, 1895. 



Royal Meteorological Society. — At the 

 meeting of this Society on Wednesday evening, the 

 17th inst., which was held at the Surveyors' 

 Institution, Westminster, Messrs. F. C. Bayard 

 and W. Marriott communicated a paper on " The 

 Frost of January and February, 1895, over the 

 British Isles." The cold period which commenced 

 on December 30th and terminated on March 5th, 

 was broken by a week's mild weather from January 

 14th to 21st, otherwise there would have been 

 continuous frost for 66 days. Mr. Birt Acres also 

 read a paper on " Some Hints on Photographing 

 Clouds." 



Royal Institution, Albemarle Street, Lon- 

 don. — The following are the lecture arrangements 

 after Easter : — Professor George Forbes, three 

 lectures on " Alternating and Interrupted Electric 

 Currents " ; Professor E. Ray Lankester, four 

 lectures on " Thirty Years' Progress in Biological 

 Science"; Professor Dewar, four lectures on 

 "The Liquefaction of Gases"; Dr. William 

 Huggins, three lectures on "The Instruments and 

 Methods of Spectroscopic Astronomy " (The Tyn- 

 dall Lectures) ; Mr. Arnold Dolmetsch, three 

 lectures on " Music and Musical Instruments 

 of the Sixteenth, Seventeenth and Eighteenth 

 Centuries — (1) English, (2) French, (3) Italian — 

 with Illustrations upon Original Instruments"; 

 Mr. Seymour Lucas, two lectures on " Picture 

 Making " ; Professor Edward Dowden, two lec- 

 tures on " Elizabethan Literature : (1) The Pastoral, 

 (2) The Masque." The. Friday Evening Meetings 

 were resumed on April 26th, when a discourse 

 was given by Dr. John Hopkinson, on "The 

 Effects of Electric Currents in Iron on its Mag- 

 netisation " ; succeeding discourses will probably 

 be given by The Earl of Rosse, Veterinary Captain 

 Frederick Smith, The Hon. G. N. Curzon, M.P., 

 Professor Walter Raleigh, Mr. J. Viriamu Jones, 

 Professor Alfred Cornu, and other gentlemen. 



Norfolk and Norwich Naturalists' Society. 

 — The annual meeting was held on Tuesday 

 evening, March 25th, 1895, at the Castle Museum, 

 the president (Dr. Plowright) in the chair. The 

 following officers and committees were appointed 

 for the ensuing session : — President, Mr. H. D. 

 Geldart ; treasurer, Mr. W. H. Bidwell ; the vice- 

 presidents, hon. secretary, auditor, Journal and 

 Excursion committees, were re-elected. Messrs. 

 F. C. Hinde, A. Mayfield, and J. Reeve were 

 elected to serve on the general committee, in 

 place of those who retire, according to the law. 

 Alterations in the laws were made as follows : — 

 " That the meetings of the society take place on 

 the last Monday in the month, instead of on the 

 last Tuesday ; and that the composition fee for life 

 membership be raised from £3 to £4." The 

 treasurer's report was read and adopted. The 

 president (Dr. Plowright) then delivered his 

 address. After giving a resume of the papers and 

 communications which the society had received 

 during the past year, as well as accounts of the 



