EDITORIAL GLEANINGS. 431 



is an acid derivative of chlorophyll, produced by the action of the digestive 



juices on the chlorophyll of the food." This may seem dry reading, but it 



is highly important to grasp some of these technical facts before launching 



one's boat on the pleasant waters of theoretical speculation on the problem 



of animal colouration. 



\ 



Invitations have been sent to the leadiug ornithologists of this country 

 to attend a meeting at Serajevo in Bosnia at the end of September. This 

 reunion of bird-lovers will take place under the auspices of the Austro- 

 Hungarian Government, and is promoted by Dr. Herman, of Budapest, 

 and Dr. Lorenz, the Custos of the ornithological collections in the Vienna 

 Museum. " The Hungarian Central Bureau," of which Dr. Herman is 

 president, occupies itself greatly with the study of the migration of birds, 

 and every year it publishes a detailed account of the observations from a small 

 army of ornithologists, who record the migration in the various districts of 

 the Austrian Empire. The excursions arranged in connection with the 

 congress are likely to be full of interest. The Second International Orni- 

 thological Congress, which was held in Budapest in 1891, was perhaps the 

 most successful gathering of naturalists that has yet taken place. 



At a meeting in Calcutta, of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, in June last, 

 Mr. F. Finn exhibited a living soft-shelled Tortoise (Emyda sp. ?), and read 

 the following remarks by Mr. W. K. Dods : — 



" I got the Turtle, exhibited, on the evening of April 1st, when out 

 after Eld's Deer, on one of the grassy plains near the mouth of the Sittang 

 River. Though dry and burnt up at the time of my visit, this ground is a 

 swamp during at least seven months of the year, after which, when the 

 water, even in the Buffalo-wallows, begins to disappear, the Turtles and 

 Water-snakes bury themselves in the mud, and lie off, till the first monsoon 

 rains soften the soil and release them for another season. This particular 

 individual was under about two inches of soil, so dry and heated by the sun 

 as to be most disagreeable to walk on even with the protection to one's feet 

 afforded by a heavy pair of shooting-boots. Originally the ground had been 

 covered by a thick growth of grass, but that had all been burnt off before 

 by a jungle fire, exposing the cracked soil to the full rays of the sun, and 

 the small round breathing hole to the sharp eyes of my Burman guide. It 

 was quite lively when dug out, and has never to my knowledge eaten any- 

 thing since. It seems equally indifferent whether its residence is in a bag, 

 a basket, an empty cartridge-box, or a pail of water. I saw the shells of 

 several others lying about, but whether they had met their end by jungle 

 fires or other causes I could not find out." 



