NOTES AND NEWS. 



183 



The annual meeting of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union at Doncaster, on the 

 3rd of March, bids fair to be very successfuL The Microscopical Conversazione, 

 with which the Doncaster Microscopical Society will entertain the Union, will be 

 an exceptionally brilHant one, and quite worthy of the repute which the Society 

 has gained for its organization of such gatherings. 



>co<, 



Our arrangements for the meteorological returns for 1885 are not quite com- 

 plete, and we have decided to publish the January and February returns together 

 m our next issue. We have arranged for observations upon barometrical pressure, 

 temperature in shade, with highest maximum and lowest ininimum, and rainfall, 

 from a number of additional stations in representative districts throughout the 

 northern counties, and Mr. George Paul, F.G.S., F.R.Met.S., of Moortown, 

 Leeds, has kindly undertaken the supervision of the observations for us. 



Many members of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union will be gratified to learn 

 that their esteemed and genial vice-president, the Rev. William Fowler, M.A., 

 has recently been presented with a handsome timepiece and other articles (to the 

 value of over a hundred pounds) by his parishioners, on the completion of the 

 twentieth year of his incumbency of the vicarage of Liversedge. 



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They will also be interested to note that their former secretary, Mr. George 

 Brook, ter., F.L. S., who has carried on biological investigations for some years 

 past by means of his well-equipped and large private aquarium at Huddersfield, 

 has been appointed Naturalist to the Fishery Board for Scotland, in which capacity 

 his duties will be to study the life history and development of the food fishes. 



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At the anniversary meeting of the Royal Society one of the two Royal Medals 

 which are given each year by the Crown was conferred upon Prof. Daniel Oliver, 

 F.R.S., of the Royal Gardens at Kew, in recognition of his services to botanical 

 science. This is the second instance of the honour falling to a Northumbrian, 

 the first being in the case of Mr. Albany Hancock. 



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The issue of a new 'Flora of Oxfordshire,' including the contiguous portion of 

 Berkshire, is announced by our old contributor, Mr. G. Claridge Druce, F.L.S., 

 118, High Street, Oxford. The subscription price is to be 10/-, and the Flora is 

 based upon something like 20 000 records. 



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Recent elections to the Fellowship of the Linnean Society include the 

 names of Mr. Geo. W. Oldfield, M.A., of Harrogate, and Mr. John Emmet, of 

 Boston Spa, Yorkshire. >oo< 



The twenty-fourth annual meeting of the Manchester Scientific Students' 

 Association was held on the 21st of January. The report stated that the total 

 number of members was 321, and that a proposal to federate the various scientific 

 societies of Manchester -was under consideration. On the election of officers, 

 Prof. W. C. Williamson, LL.D., F.R.S., was again chosen as president, while 

 Mr. Samuel Massey was appointed treasurer, Mr. Theodore Sington librarian, 

 and Mr. S. Okell secretary. >co< 



The publication of Mr. Ellis's list of the butterflies of Lancashire and Cheshire 

 led us to institute a comparison between it and Mr. Porritt's list of the butterflies 

 of the neighbouring county — Yorkshire. Having done this we were interested to 

 note the parallelism that exists between the two faunas. Each list contains forty- 

 eight species, forty-four of which are common to the two areas, thus leaving each 

 with four species not possessed by the other. Even here a kind of parallelism 

 holds. Thecla W-alinmi, which is not uncommon in one or two South Yorkshire 

 woods, is balanced by the Lancashire T. behtlce, and the Scarborough instance of 

 Argynnis lathonia by the Windermere one of A. iiiohe. Then the Grange 

 instances of the occurrence of Lycixna corydon may be set against the Yorkshire 

 records of Hesperia comma, and the former occurrence in Yorkshire of Papilio 

 machaon against the dubious record of Melitcea athalia in Cheshire. One species — 

 Melanargia galatea — appears to be now extinct in both districts. 



March 1885. 



