•200 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Mr. J. C. Stevens sold, on April 15th, the library of natural hfstory 

 books formed bv the late Mr. Philip Crowley, of Waddon House, Croydon, 

 The following were the highest prices reached : — ' Transactions ' of the 

 Entomological Society, 46 vols, and 4 parts, £38. ' Catalogue of the 

 Birds in the British Museum,' 27 vols., £48. ' The Ibis,' 1859-1900, 

 £75. ' Proceedings ' of the Zoological Society, 1830-1900, £60. Lord 

 Lilford's ' Birds of the British Islands,' 7 vols., £63. 'Biologia Centrali- 

 Americana,' 35 vols., £90. ' Great Auks' Eggs,' 66 plates, £13 4s. 

 Dresser's ' Birds of Europe,' 9 vols., £56. Grandidier's ' Histoire 

 Physique de Madagascar,' 1875-95, £35 148. Sander's ' Reichenbachia ': 

 Orchids, both series, £14. Gould's ' Birds of Asia,' £51 : ' Birds of New 

 Guinea,' £45 ; ' Mammals of Australia,' £29 8s. ; ' Birds of Great Britain,' 

 £49 7s. D. G. Elliot's ' Monograph of the Cats,' £10 ; ' Monograph of the 

 Pheasants,' £53 lis, E. T, Booth's * Eough jSlotes on Birds,' £25 Is, 

 G. R. Gray's * Genera of Birds,' £17 178. — Athenceum. 



Mr. G. W. Kirkaldy, in the last number of the 'Journal' of the 

 Quekett Microscopical Club (April, 1901), contributes a paper on " The 

 Stridulating Organs of Waterbugs (Rhynchota), especially of CorixidcB." 

 The NepidcB, Notonectida, and NaucoridcB are very briefly dismissed, 

 as no stridulating organs have yet been discovered in these families, 

 the limse figured by Swinton some years ago being imaginary. In 

 the CorixidcB the anterior tarsi are highly modified, being thickened and 

 dilated — more or less knife- or spoon-shaped— in both sexes. In all the 

 species of Corixa, there are in the male sex a number of chitinous " pegs " 

 or •' teeth " on the inner surface of the flattened tarsi. It was formerly 

 supposed that the stridulation was occasioned by the rubbing of these pegs 

 across the strongly keeled face of the bug. Kirkaldy points out, however, 

 that the pegs exist only in the males, that the peculiar form of face is com- 

 mon to both sexes, and that it is protected by strong bristly hairs, and con- 

 siders that stridulation is actually caused by the drawing of the pegs on the 

 left (anterior) tarsus across a specially modified area (furnished with minute 

 closely set chitinous points) on the inner side of the opposite femur, or 

 vice versa. These pegs do not exist in the closely allied genera Micronecta 

 and Cymatia — being replaced by slender bristles — nor is there a specially 

 modified femoral area ; and Handlirsch, in a recent paper on the same 

 subject, suggests that the long curved claw of the male in these genera may 

 form part of the musical instrument. The remarkable " strigil " is sup- 

 posed by Handlirsch to be a stridulating organ, though the present author 

 is sceptical, pointing out that the " musical notes " have only been heard 

 while the bugs are under water, when the abdomen is completely covered by 

 the closely adpressed elytra and wings. It is thought possible that the 

 strigil may be employed while the bugs are on the wing, migrating for 

 mating purposes. 



