238 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



almost anything. It is quite common to see one of them dining off 

 departed brother.'* 



We have received the Annual Report of the Millport Marine Biological 

 Station for 1898 : — " The Committee are now in a position to give an account 

 of the first year of the actual working of the Station. Under these 

 circumstances they consider the Report of 1898 to be of great importance, 

 seeing that it is the first which provides data from actual experience by 

 means of which a forecast of the future success of the Station may with 

 some degree of certainty be drawn. They feel that they have every reason 

 to be satisfied with the results of this crucial year. They can report good 

 progress, not only in regard to the numbers who visited the Robertson 

 Museum, and to the degree in which the facilities afforded by the Laboratory 

 were utilized by scientific workers, but also in regard to the measure of 

 public support accorded to the scheme. From the Curator's Report it will 

 be seen that there were over eight thousand visitors to the Robertson 

 Museum during the past year, and that tables in the Laboratory were 

 utilized for terms varying from a week to a month on thirty-eight different 

 occasions. During the past year many additions have been made to the 

 Station, especially in the Laboratory Department, where good sets of 

 reagents, dissecting-troughs, and vessels have been provided. A dark room 

 for photographic purposes has been constructed. A system of heating the 

 Laboratory and Museum by hot- water pipes has beeu carried out. Out- 

 buildings for work and store-rooms have been built, and the laying down of 

 a jetty near the Station will be carried out as soon as possible. An apparatus 

 for keeping up continuous motion in a number of vessels has been fitted up, 

 &c. The carrying out of an efficient system of heatingwas a work of very great 

 importance. During the previous winter, partly owing to the newness of 

 the building and to its situation near the shore, and partly also to the 

 method of heating then in use, a portion of the Robertson Collection, in 

 particular the Foraminifera and Ostracoda, suffered from damp. Mrs. 

 Robertson set herself to the arduous task of cleaning and remounting the 

 whole of these specimens. It is matter for congratulation that no such 

 injury can now happen to the collection, as it was matter for regret that it 

 ever did occur." 



Colchester has its Oyster feast, Greenwich its Whitebait dinner, and 

 now Great Yarmouth, on the 10th of last December, held its inaugural 

 " Sprat Banquet." From a " Souvenir " which has beeu published detailing 

 this function we find some facts relating to Clupea sprattus which are at 



* " Beetle " is evidently here alluded to. — Ed. 



