Selected Extracts 



rule, the smaller fishes travel from the shallow water 4 nur- 

 series ' to the deeper waters during the earlier period of their 

 life." — (Mr. J. Johnstone in Nature, January n, 1906.) 



Two Insect Pests of the Cotton Plant have been 

 fully described in two reports recently issued by the United 

 States Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Entomology. 

 They are the " Cotton Boll-worm " and the Mexican Cotton 

 Boll Weevil. Twenty years ago the latter was a little known 

 species, to-day it is a terrible pest in the United States, 

 Mexico, Cuba, and Guatemala. It is said that the annual 

 progeny of a pair of these weevils amounts to 12,755,100. 



Giant Elephants. — According to evidence adduced by 

 Mr. G. E. Pilgrim in a recent issue of the Geological Sur- 

 vey of India, the great fossil elephant [Elephas namadicus) 

 from the Pleistocene of the Narbada Valley, India, is identical 

 with the straight-tusked elephant [Elephas antiquus) from the 

 Pleistocene deposits of Europe. From measurements of a 

 very large femur or thigh-bone, Mr. Pilgrim concludes that 

 Elephas namadicus must have occasionally reached as much as 

 16 feet in height at the shoulder. Commenting upon this in 

 the Field, " R. L." remarks: " Eleven feet is apparently 

 the maximum reported height of the Indian elephant as 

 recorded from specimens in the flesh." 



It may interest our readers to know that the skull of one 

 of the largest Indian elephants on record may be seen in our 

 Haslemere Museum. This animal was killed and measured 

 by the late Mr. Varian in Ceylon in 1882. Its height at the 

 arch of the back was 11 feet 9 inches; it was 8 inches less 

 at the withers. 



The Secretary for Agriculture in the United States of 

 America, in his Report for 1905, states that very important 

 results have been gained by the introduction of beneficial 

 insects which are known to prey upon injurious insects. 



