228 



Northern News. 



Lord Rayleigh has been chosen Chancellor of Cambridge University^ 

 in succession to the late Duke of Devonsh'-re. 



In our note in reference to Sir John Evans, in the March ' Naturalist,' 

 it should have been stated that Sir John was in his eighty-fifth year. 



The Rev. Canon Fowler's note on ' Hydnnni aiiriscalpmm in Lines.' 

 (ante p. 157), should have been headed ' Hydnum auriscalpium in Notts.' 

 The specimen was from Creswell, near Wei beck Abbey, 



The York and District Field Naturalists' Society has been dissolved, 

 and reconstructed. The new society seems to be practically the same as 

 the old one, excepting that a prominent member in the old society is not on 

 the list of the new one. 



Those in search of cheap ' degrees ' will be glad to learn that the 

 B.E.N. A. subscription has been dispensed with, and the penny per annum 

 formerly required, need not now stand in the way of any who are ' quali- 

 fied,' though too poor, to B.E.N. A. 



How to warm boots : — Drop two or three hot cinders inside the boots 

 to be put on. A ' hint ' given in a ' natural history ' journal by a person 

 named ' Kyd.' The editor of the same journal, speaking of the sufferings 

 of animals, modestly writes : ' to me. who have studied the matter as deeply,. 

 I think, as any man of my age,' etc. 



Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins, F.R.S., who has held the Chair of Geology at 

 Manchester since 1874, has announced his intention of resigning at the end 

 of the present session. Prof. Dawkins first went to Manchester as the 

 Curator of the Museum in 1869. He will continue to take an interest in 

 the aftairs of the Manchester University and its Museum. 



Mr. W. Mansbridge gives the name ochrearia to a variety of Amphi- 

 dasys betularia from St. Anne's-on-Sea (' Entomologist ' for May). Of 

 course we presume there is sufficient grounds for this addition to our 

 nomenclature, or our contemporary would not have published the note. 

 It does, however, seem a little unsatisfactory to give a new name on 'the 

 strength of a single specimen, which may, or may not be ' likely at any 

 time to recur.' With a species such as Amphidasys betularia, it would be 

 quite an easy matter for a man ' with a microscopic eye ' to find a difference 

 in, and give a name to, almost every specimen. 



A Conference of Lancashire and Yorkshire Museum Curators was held 

 at the Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston, on April nth, and was 

 well attended. Dr. W. E. Hoyle (Manchester) read a paper on ' Children's 

 Museums,' in which he described some American Institutions ; and Mr. 

 W. E. Barton read some notes on ' The Equipment of an Art Gallery and 

 Museum.' Exhibits of interest to Curators were handed round by Messrs.. 

 Madeley (Warrington), Midgley (Bolton), and Mosley (Keighley). The 

 members were well pleased with the palatial building and its wealth of 

 charming art treasures. Those interested in natural history, however, 

 saw room for improvement, and the lack of the local element in the 

 collection was deplored. 



It is pleasing to find that ' The Graphic ' now regularly publishes ' a 

 Chronicle of Science,' and in other ways gives prominence to scientific 

 matters of general and real interest — not the rubbish of which we see so 

 very much now-a-days, under the head of ' Nature Study.' In the issue 

 before us the Chronicle refers to the British Association meeting at 

 Winnipeg, in 1909, the Perkin Medal, Mimicries in the Plant World, Lord 

 Kelvin's latest work. Lord Lister's eighty-first birthday, etc. The notes 

 are suitably illustrated. Elsewhere in the same publication is an illustrated 

 account of the removal o^ the world's greatest Meteorite, the ' Ahnighito ' 

 or Cape York Meteorite, now in New York ; a paragraph relating to the 

 new Chancellor of Cambridge University (with portrait), etc. 



Naturalist, 



