EDITORIAL GLEANINGS. 28 
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Enormous flocks of Starlings have this year taken possession of and 
made their nests in the huge chimneys of Buckingham Palace, and these in ~ 
great numbers forage for their food in the private grounds of the palace.— 
Daily Chronicle, May 9th. rages 
THe announcement of the untimely death of Dr. C. Herbert Hurst, 
formerly on the staff of the Zoological Department of the Owens College, 
will be received with general regret. We take the following obituary notice 
from the columns of ‘ Nature ’:—‘ Dr. Hurst was an alumnus of the Man- 
chester Grammar School, and studied biology under Professor Huxley with 
conspicuous success. After some experience as a resident science master 
in a boys’ school he entered the Owens College as a studeut in 1881, and 
in January, 1883, was appointed to the post of Demonstrator and Assistant 
Lecturer in Zoology under the late Professor Milnes Marshall. For eleven 
years he filled this office with conspicuous diligence and success, and not 
only earned the grateful recollection of several generations of students 
of the College, but also laid under obligation a much wider circle of 
zoologists by his share in the production of the ‘ Text-book of Practical 
Zoology,’ which has made the names of Marshall and Hurst familiar in 
every biological laboratory, not only in this country but in the world. In 
1889 he took advantage of a prolonged leave of absence, granted by the 
College authorities, to pursue his studies at the University of Leipzig, 
where he carried out a valuable investigation into the life-history of the 
Gnat (Culex), for which he was awarded the degree of Ph.D. Latterly he 
had undertaken what he ‘termed ‘a systematic criticism of biological 
theory,’ in the course of which he published discussions on ‘ The Nature 
of Heredity,’ ‘ Evolution and Heredity,’ ‘The Recapitulation Theory,’ and 
other kindred topics. In these essays certain modern views were subjected 
to trenchant and unsparing criticism, for Dr. Hurst was a keen contro- 
versial writer, and never hesitated to express himself clearly and forcibly, 
even at the risk of obloquy and unpopularity. His last writings were, 
‘The Structure and Habits of Archeopteryx,’ and ‘A New Theory of 
Hearing.’ In 1895 Dr. Hurst left. the Owens College to fill a similar 
position in the Royal College of Science, Dublin. His premature death 
deprives Zoology of a zealous and upright worker who was most esteemed 
by those who knew him best.” 
To compass the death of an Elephant is no light matter. Sportsmen 
by the head-shot now no longer pursue the slow, costly, and painful 
method described by Gordon Cumming. Recently, an Elephant contained 
in “ Barnum and Bailey’s Show,” which had been visiting Liverpool, 
