4754 Notices of New Books. 



'On Perna quadrata of Sowerby.' By John Lycett, Esq. 



' Notes on the Ornithology of Madeira.' By Edward Vernon Har- 

 court, Esq. 



' On the Characters which distinguish the Vegetation of a Country.' 

 By M. Alphonse De Candolle. [Translated from the ' Bibliotheque 

 Universelle de Geneve' for December, 1854.] 



Proceedings of Learned Societies : — Zoological — Royal. 



Miscellaneous : — On Phcenicura Tithys ; by Dr. Jordan. On the 

 Transmission and Metamorphoses of the Intestinal Worms; by 

 MM. Milne Edwards and Valenciennes [translated from the * Comptes 

 Rendus' for April 30, 1855, p. 997.] Note on Trichomonas vaginalis 

 of Donne ; by MM. Scanzoni and Kolliker [translated from the 

 ' Comptes Rendus' for May 7, 1855, p. 1076.] On a Lunar Vapour- 

 bow: by Charles Clouston. 



This is an unusually valuable number, containing three papers of 

 interest to the zoologist ; but I cannot help regretting that so much 

 space should be occupied by extracts from other journals which 

 almost every naturalist in Britain has on his study-table : in the 

 present number 1 count twenty-seven pages of such extracts, besides 

 sixteen pages of Proceedings of Learned Societies, which the said 

 Societies themselves circulate amongst us. The papers to which I 

 wish particularly to invite attention are, Mr. Meade's ' Monograph of 

 the Phalangiidae,' Mr. Harcourt's ' On the Ornithology of Madeira,' 

 and Dr. Jordan's ' Note on Phcenicura Tithys.' Mr. Meade has done 

 us good service by the publication of his Monograph : it is careful, 

 lucid, and, I doubt not, conscientiously accurate : it describes five 

 species of Phalangium, of which one, Phalanguim minutum, is new ; 

 two of the new genus Megabunus of Meade, of which one, M. insignis, 

 is new; four of Opilio, of which one, O. agrestis, is new; one of 

 Leiobunus; two of Nemastoma; and one of Homalonotus. As a 

 friendly criticism I may add that the description of a new species, 

 Phalangium minutum, from two specimens, " one immature," and of 

 both of which the sex and habitat are unknown, is rather a dangerous 

 precedent. Dr. Jordan's paper recites the various instances of the 

 occurrence of the black redstart in the West of England, which have 

 already been made known to ornithologists in the earlier numbers of 

 the ' Zoologist.' The following notice of its habits is interesting : — 

 " It seems always active in search of Diptera, on which it evidently 

 feeds, and one reason for its preference for the cove by the Parson and 

 Clerk rocks is, that a collection of the larger olive-leaved sea-weeds is 

 generally heaped up there for manure ; on this heap flies abound in 



