236 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
of the Jaschikul lake in the Alittschur Pamir, which lies 12,090 ft. above 
the sea-level, and to which they travel through Kashgar and Yarkand. 
Thence the expedition will cross over the difficult passes into the province 
of Bakhau, in the South Pamir, where photographs and plans will be taken 
of the ruins belonging to the period of the ‘Siaposcher.’ The explorers 
intend to spend the winter of 1898-9 in the province of Ischkaschin, in 
the territory of Bokhara, where a meteorological station will be erected, and 
researches made in botany, zoology, and ethnography. In the summer of 
1899 the expedition will journey along the Amu-Darya to Khiva, on the 
Sea of Aral, where the ruins of the flourishing period of the history of 
Khiva are to be photographed. The costs will be provided in part by the — 
Danish State, partly from the Carlsborg Fund, and pare by A. Nielsen, 
the Danish Consul in Rostow.”—Atheneum. 
TuHeE ornithology of the Philippine Islands has been much studied of 
late years in this country, and many papers thereon have been published 
by the late Marquis of Tweeddale, Dr. Bowdler Sharpe, W. R. Ogilvy- 
Grant, A. H. Everett, and others. In the Proc. U.S. Nat. Museum there 
has recently appeared “‘ A List of the Birds known to inhabit the Philippine 
and Palawan Islands, showing their distribution within the limits of the two 
Groups,” written by Dean C. Worcester and Frank 8. Bourns. Both these 
authors have collected on the spot, and they have studied the available 
literature on the subject, giving a bibliography of papers consulted. Differ- 
entiating the political and zoological areas, they have separated the Palawan 
group—of Bornean affinities—from the “ Philippines proper.” In a list of 
known species, excluding those which occur in the Palawan group, but have 
not yet been found in the Philippines, 526 species are enumerated. A map 
and six distribution charts add to the value of a valuable contribution to — 
zoo-geography. 
Mr. WALTER Faxon has published in the Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. Wash- 
ington some “ Observations on the dAstacida, &e.,” 
supplementary to his ‘“ Notes on American Orayfishes,” issued in 1890. 
The paper generally is naturally of a technical description, but many 
observations are recorded as to the habits of these interesting creatures. 
Cheraps bicarinatus, Gray, according to Eyre, as quoted by Gray, ‘is found 
in the alluvial flats of the river Murray, in South Australia, which are 
subject to a periodical flooding by the river. It burrows deep below the 
surface of the ground as the floods recede and are dried up, and remains 
dormant until the next flooding recalls it to the surface. At first it is in a 
thin and weakly state, but soon recovers and gets plump and fat, at which 
which may be taken as — 
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