814 General Notes. [August, 
fish leave when they appear, but occasionally a shoal of bream 
will come and eat them up. 
Fishes—In the Proceedings of the National Museum Professor 
Jordan published a paper which includes notes by Mr. S. B. Meek 
on the types of North American freshwater fishes, found in the 
` museum of the Philadelphia Academy. The latter display some 
deficiency of due caution, to say nothing of amenity, in dealing 
with the subject. Confidence in some positive identifications, and 
also some discoveries of error, will be much weakened by a 
knowledge of the fact that some of the specimens bear unreliable 
labels. These were placed upon them by a person employed for 
the purpose by the “authorities” of the Academy, who was totally 
ignorant of ichthyology, and not very well acquainted with the 
English or classical languages. At the time of the taking charge 
of the collection by this person, many of the specimens had not 
been distributed into separate bottles, and numerous labels were 
contained in each bottle. Of course they could not be attached 
to the correct specimens by the curator in question. Mr. Meek 
finds that the characters of one of the species were derived from 
“the shrivelled condition” of the type specimen. It is difficult to 
imagine where Mr. Meek obtained this information, as the speci- 
men was in a perfectly fresh state when described several years 
before Mr. Meek was known as a student of the subject. 
Batrachians—Mr. G. A. Boulenger (Proc. Zodl. Soc., 1884) 
describes eight new species of Batrachia from the Solomon islands, 
including the new genus Ceratobrachus. 
e greater part of England is free from the croaking of the 
frog, but a croaking edible frog has for some time been found at 
several spots in Cambridgeshire and Norfolk. This form, usually 
thought to have been introduced from France and Belgium, has 
been shown by M", G. A. Boulenger to be the Italian form, Kava 
_ esculenta lessone. Forty years ago the typical R. esculenta was 
_ turned out in great numbers in Norfolk, and examples have re- 
cently been taken. Though, when the whole Palearctic range 1S 
considered, it is difficult to keep these forms apart, so far as re- 
gards England they are quite distinct. Indeed, if the genus 
Pyxicephalus of many authors is admitted, the form /esson@ 
would fall into it. There is no authentic record of the introduc- 
tion of the Italian variety, but it was possibly done by the monks. 
- Birds—Capt. G. E. Shelley (Proc. Zoöl. Soc., 1884) describes 
three new species of birds from the Kilimanjaro district, East 
Africa. These are Muscicapa johnstoni, Nectarinia kilimensis, and 
Pratincola axillaris. Nectarinia reichenowi (Drepanorhynchus reich- 
~ enour Fischer) is described and figured. The specimens came 
reported to have been seen in May, 1883, at Helmsley, in North- 
_ east Yorkshire, England, and the female was shot. 
