188 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



he proposes to offer the duplicates for sale by auction at Messrs. Stevens's, 

 38, King Street, Covent Garden, on May 22nd next. As a large number 

 of these were shot by Mr. Bond himself, and are all in fine condition, 

 collectors will have an opportunity afforded them of acquiring some very 

 uncommon and well-preserved British birds. 



INSECTS. 

 Do Humble Bees swarm ? — There seems to be in Humble Bees 

 something analogous to swarming, for several years ago I discovered, on 

 Oliver's Mount, Scarborough, a nest of, I think, Bombus terrestris, and on 

 attempting to take the nest, which was situated, as usual, underground, 

 T heard a buzzing proceeding a little distance below. On searching among 

 the grass from whence the sound proceeded, I found a comb with about 

 twenty or thirty bees of the same species as those above ; and when they 

 were disturbed some of them flew into the top nest, as though they were 

 quite familiar with it, and had proceeded from it as a swarm. If the nest 

 above had been previously dug up, I should have at once concluded that 

 a part of the comb had fallen amongst the grass below, whither, very 

 naturally, some of the bees had followed, of course knowing their way back 

 to their old quarters ; but the upper nest had not been disturbed in the 

 slightest before I found it, so that the nest in the grass must have been 

 made by a part of the other colony. The swarm (?) contained many perfect 

 females. It is curious also that they had not built below the ground, as is 

 usually the case with B. terrestris, but simply in a cavity amougst the grass, 

 as with B. muscorum. This I consider another proof that it was a swarm. 

 The bees were very fierce, and stung a child at some distance from the 

 spot. — G. W. Blythe (43, Woodchurch Boad, Oxton, near Birkenhead). 



SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 



Linnean Society of London. 



April 3. — Mr. W. Carrutheks, F.R.S., President, in the chair. 



Mr. John Lowe was admitted, and Rev. J. T. Scott elected a Fellow of 

 the Soeiety. 



Prof. P. Martin Duncan exhibited a transverse section of a coral 

 Carijophyllia clavus, showing septa and irregular theca between them. 



Mr. B. D. Jackson exhibited some seeds of Mystacidium filicornu, an 

 epiphytic orchid forwarded from South Africa by Mr. Henry Hutton, of 

 Kimberley. 



A paper by Prof. W. H. Parker on the morphology of the Gallinacea', 

 in the unavoidable absence of the author, was read by Mr. W. P. Sladen, 



