94 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Slater on the egg-carrying habit of a water-hemipteron. It is a well-known 

 fact that certain bugs of the family Belostomatida carry their eggs on their 

 back until they are hatched. This has been frequently observed in the case 

 of Zaitha fluminea, common in the Atlantic States. It has been taken for 

 granted by all who have described this habit that it is the female that 

 carries the eggs, and it has been authoritatively stated that she places them 

 on her back by the aid of her ovipositor. Miss Slater, by dissection, has 

 found that all the egg-carrying specimens belonged to the male sex, and 

 from observations made by the aid of an aquarium found that the male was 

 frequently a most unwilling bearer of these burdens of reproduction. Her 

 observations " indicate that the female is obliged to capture the male in 

 order to deposit the eggs. Upon visiting the aquarium one afternoon a 

 male was found to have a few eggs upon the caudal end of the wings. 

 There was a marked difference in the colour of these, those nearest the head 

 being yellow, while those nearest the caudal end were dark grey. The 

 small number of the eggs indicated that the female had been interrupted in 

 her egg-laying, and the difference in colour of the eggs that the process 

 must be a slow one. For five hours I watched a silent unremitting 

 struggle between the male and the female. Her desire was evidently to 

 capture him uninjured. She crept quietly to within a few inches of him, 

 and there remained immovable for half an hour. Suddenly she sprang 

 towards him ; but he was on the look-out, and fought so vigorously that 

 she was obliged to retreat. After this repulse she swam about carelessly 

 for a time, as if searching for food was her only thought. But in ten or 

 fifteen minutes she was back in her first position in front of him. Again 

 there was the attack, and again the repulse. The same tactics were con- 

 tinued until midnight, when, despairing of her success, I left them. At 

 six o'clock the next morning the entire abdomen of the male and half of 

 the thorax were covered with eggs. Those nearest the head were quite 

 yellow, showing that the struggle had just ended." 



The Marquis of Lome has imported some Wild Turkeys from Canada, 

 and turned them loose in Argyllshire. They are doing well, and Turkey- 

 shooting may become an attraction of the Highlands. — Sun. 



The Secretary of State for the Home Department has made the follow- 

 ing Order uuder the Wild Birds Protection Acts, 1880-1896, for the 

 Protection of Wild Birds and Wild Birds' Eggs within the County of 

 London. 



