NOTES AND NEWS. 



It gives us pleasure to record the formation of a second naturalists' society in 

 Lincolnshire— this time at Alford. Mr. James Eardley Mason is the president, and 

 the society numbers about 26 members. The chief subjects taken up so far are 

 botany, lepidoptera, and hemiptera-heteroptera. The society was established on 

 the loth February, and on the 8th of May an inaugural meeting, to which the 

 public were admitted, was held. The Rev. Wm. Fowler, M.A., an ex-president 

 of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union, and himself an old Lincolnshire man, addressed 

 the meeting upon the aims and work of naturalists' societies, and the benefits 

 derivable from them. He had previously conducted a botanical party through Well 

 Vale and the adjacent woods. We heartily wish prosperity to the Society, and 

 hope to see the example of Louth and Alford followed in other parts of the county. 



XXX 



A meeting of naturalists was held at Liverpool on the 14th of March, to consider 

 a scheme for investigating the fauna and flora and the marine biology of Liverpool 

 Bay and the neighbouring seas. Professor Milnes Marshall and Mr. R. D. Darbi- 

 shire attended from Manchester. Professor Herdnian, who described the scheme, 

 said it would form, if carefully carried out, a contribution of permanent value to 

 the still unwritten fauna of the British Islands. It would be of importance in con- 

 nection with various questions of the geographical distribution of animals, and it 

 would result in the accumulation of a mass of observations in regard to the variations 

 of animals, the exact conditions under which they live, their life histories, and their 

 habits. The locality to be investigated might at first be limited by lines drawn 

 west from Southport and north from the Great Ormes Head, and that would include 

 the rich hunting ground of the marine zoologist, Hilbre Island, and ought to prove 

 peculiarly interesting on account of the mixture of fresh and salt water in the estuary, 

 and of the presence of semi-artificial conditions produced by the proximity of large 

 towns and the abundance of steamer traffic. The locality might later on be extended 

 so as to include the large area extending out to Anglesey and the Isle of Man ; and 

 if the Dublin naturalists would undertake to work up in a similar manner the sea 

 on the western side of the Isle of Man, then a complete series of investigations 

 would be established, stretching right across the Irish Sea from land to land — ^a 

 result of considerable scientific importance. It was decided to carry out the scheme, 

 the arrangement of the practical details being left in the hands of Professor Plerd- 

 man and a small committee of naturalists. 



>co< 



The Liverpool Marine Zoology Committee had its first considerable dredging 

 expedition during the last week in May. During a three days' excursion in the 

 gunboat Hyaena, the party made several hauls off Llandudno and the coast of 

 Anglesey, north of Puffin Island, in the Menai Straits — opposite Bangor, and in 

 Red Wharf Bay, and secured a large number of interesting specimens. The 

 committee, which in its practical operations is mainly directed by Professor 

 Herdman, of University College, Liverpool, hope to have a single-day expedition 

 shortly. The greater part of Liverpool Bay can be satisfactorily investigated by a 

 series of Saturday expeditions ; but for such outlying districts as the coast of North 

 Wales, the cruise must extend over two or more days, in order that a sufficient 

 time may be given to the dredging operations. 



>oo< ■ ■ . 



The month of June witnessed the completion oi the standard work in an 

 important section of the British fauna, the fourth edition of Yarrell's ' British 

 Birds.' Commenced in 1871 under the editorship of Professor Newton, who 

 revised it to the end of the second volume in 1882, it then passed into the hands of 

 Mr. Howard Saunders, who quickly brought it to a conclusion in two additional 

 volumes. Since the last edition (the third, issued in 1856), ornithology has made 

 wonderful progi-ess ; and the task of modernising the Yarrell of old has been 

 indeed no light one, and has practically necessitated the book being written 

 de novo. The two volumes produced by Professor Newton leave small room for 

 criticism, being, as they are, from the pen of one pre-eminently qualified to deal 

 with the subject, while Mr. Saunders on his part has not only amply sustained, 

 but has added to his own ornithological reputation by the able manner in which he 

 has brought the work to a completion. 



Aug. 1885. 



