350 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



MOLLUSC A. 



The " Flying Squid " (Ommastrephes sp.)- — The Squids have 

 been often recorded as leaping from the water on board ships. 

 Bennett (1840), in his ' Narrative of a Whaling Voyage round the 

 Globe ' (vol. ii. p. 291), records an instance of one reaching the deck 

 in lat. 34° N. My son William Distant, when travelling to West 

 Africa on board the mail steamship 'Falaba' in the early part of 

 last month (August), when in lat. 27" 43' N. and long. 15" 19' W., 

 writes me that no fewer than about thirty specimens reached the 

 deck, which they covered " with a black fluid"; a photograph of four 

 examples which he sent me left no doubt as to their identity. They 

 are gregarious, and are pursued by many enemies, such as Dolphins, 

 Cachalots, Albacore, and the larger Petrels. But that thirty should 

 reach the deck of a mail steamer is somewhat of a record. — W. L. 

 Distant. 



NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



A Naturalist in Cannibal Land. By A. S. Meek. T. Fisher 



Unwin. 

 Mr. Meek has travelled widely in the Papuan regions as a 

 collector of natural history specimens, almost entirely for birds 

 and Lepidoptera. He is a true enthusiast in his work, dangers 

 are the spice of his adventures, he is a most modest narrator of 

 his own achievements and disclaims any scientific pretensions, 

 his success in his own work has been signal. The Tring Museum 

 is the storehouse of his collections and discoveries, as most 

 readers of the ' Novitates Zoologicae ' are aware, and in the 

 owner of that Museum, the Hon. Walter Bothschild, he has 

 found his Maecenas and inspiring patron — in fact, we can almost 

 trace cause and effect. 



The book is a most attractive one for the naturalist, and 

 especially for the lepidopterist. Mr. Meek has had great success 

 with those giant and beautiful eastern butterflies generally known 

 by the generic name of Omithoptera, and has discovered some 

 magnificent species and local races belonging to it. He has also 



