200 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Laboratory, Wood's Holl, Mass., U.S.A. Some most valuable and interesting 

 observations on the life-histories of Leeches [Clepsine) are detailed, though 

 the publication is mostly of a philosophical character. Special emphasis is 

 devoted to the view " that instincts are evolved, not improvised, and that 

 their genealogy may be as complex and far-reaching as the history of their 

 organic bases." 



We have received from our contributor, Prof. J. H. Salter, a " List of 

 the Birds of Aberystwyth and Neighbourhood,' published by the University 

 College of Wales Scientific Society. We need scarcely observe that such 

 lists are highly valued by ornithologists, especially when compiled by com- 

 petent authority, as is done in the present instance. 



Mr. L. Upcott Gill has again produced his annual ' Naturalists' 

 Directory.' The publication for 1900 is far in advance of its predecessors. 

 We no longer notice the absence of so many well-known names, though 

 we think a reference to our pages could increase the number of British 

 zoologists. The List of Societies, Field Clubs, and Museums is a welcome 

 feature of this inexpensive and very useful handbook. 



The death is announced, in his eighty-sixth year, of Canon Atkinson, the 

 well-known author of « Forty Years in a Moorland Parish,' a delightful 

 volume which was published some nine years ago. He had held the living 

 of Danby-in-Cleveland for nearly three years over the half-century, and 

 during his incumbency be calculated that he had walked 70,000 miles 

 whilst engaged in clerical work. He was a naturalist, an antiquarian, and 

 a sportsman. 



We also regret to record the death of Dr. St. George Mivart, which 

 occurred on April 1st, at the age of seventy-three. The deceased was a 

 zoologist who was best known as a polemical writer, his ' Genesis of Species,' 

 though anti-Darwinian, being recognized by Huxley as worthy of combat, 

 and who described Mivart as " less of a Darwinian than Mr. Wallace, for 

 he has less faith in the power of natural selection. But he is more of an 

 evolutionist than Mr. Wallace, because Mr. Wallace thinks it necessary to 

 call in an intelligent agent— a sort of supernatural Sir John Sebright — to 

 produce even the animal frame of man ; while Mr. Mivart requires no 

 Divine assistance till he comes to man's soul." Dr. Mivart, as before 

 mentioned, was an accomplished zoologist. To the " man in the street" he 

 will be remembered by his recently published differences with the Roman 

 Church, with which he had been long in communion. 



