188 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



often allowed to be considered as the proper atmosphere in which zoological 

 scientific workers should be reared, and their investigations conducted. 

 Prof. Fritschs station consists of a movable building, which was presented 

 to the Committee by a friend, and cost £70. " With its internal fittings, 

 it now has a value of £300 ; yet everything is very humble, and the want 

 of better instruments strongly felt. The annual working expenses of three 

 investigators amount to £40, their work itself being given freely." Never- 

 theless they have just finished the examination of two lakes in the Bohraer- 

 wald, and the station has been transferred to Podiebrad, in the middle of 

 Bohemia, for the investigation of the river Elbe, 



It is to be hoped, as the Professor remarks, that it may soon be known 

 that our " wealthy country has done her duty for fresh-water biology." 



A series of bibliographies of representative American naturalists was 

 long ago commenced in the Bulletins of the United States National 

 Museum. The series was naturally limited to the work of naturalists living 

 and working in America, but one exception has been made in favour of 

 Dr. P. L. Sclater, " the Secretary of the Zoological Society of London, who 

 has confined his work for the most part to American ornithology, and whose 

 contributions to the systematic ornithology of the American Continent 

 have far exceeded iu extent those of anyone working in this country." 

 Thus writes Mr. G. Brown Goode in the introduction to "The Published 

 Writings of Philip Lutley Sclater, 1844-189G," issued at Washington, 

 189b*. This small volume contains a portrait, biographical sketch, and a 

 chronological catalogue of all papers and notes published. There are 1287 

 bibliographical references. 



We have received the Sixty-third Annual Report of the York School 

 Natural History, Literary, and Polytechnic Society for 1896. This insti- 

 tution seems to be in a fairly flourishing condition, and one of the most 

 interesting items in the Report is the following: — " Last spring a number 

 of boys kept fresh-water aquaria in the botanical room. In these the 

 habits of newts, snails, fishes, and minute crustaceans were studied, some 

 of the latter being drawn as viewed through the microscope." This is the 

 training for the naturalists of the next generation — to observe the habits of 

 live animals is as important as dissecting the bodies of dead ones ; both 

 studies are necessary, but there seems sometimes a danger of the first 

 being somewhat neglected. 



