3^4 



XortJu rn N^civs. 



A ' B.E.X.A. Company, Limited ' is urged, in order to ' develop 

 things. 



* For exchange : — Marine shells of California for same.' — The Nautilus. 

 Then why exchange ? 



An excellent portrait of the late Sir John Evans appears in ' INIan ' for 

 July, together with some brief notes by Lord Avebury. 



\Miilst congratulating Dr. G. A. Auden, of York, upon his important 

 appointment at Birmingham, we cannot but regret that both York and 

 Yorkshire are losing so enthusiastic and painstaking an antiquary. 



The Lancashire and Cheshire Entomological Society has issued a 

 valuable list of ' The Coleoptera of Lancashire and Cheshire,' by W. E. 

 Sharp (76 pp.). The list includes 14S6 species, or about 45 per cent, of 

 the British list. 



^Messrs. R. Xewstead and T. A. Coward record an example of Schlegcl's 

 Petrel in Cheshire — a new European bird, in ' British Birds ' for June. 

 In the same publication ^Nlr. H. Xoble writes on the usefulness of the accom- 

 pam-ing down in connection with the identification of duck's eggs. 



' Is the Okapi identical with the " Thahash " of the Jev\-s ? ' is a ques- 

 tion discussed m the July ' Zoologist ' by S. jNL Perlmann. In the same 

 journal ^Ir. G. Meade-Waldo gives some notes made during a cruise on the 

 ' ^'alhalla ' ; and a Grey Seal, seven feet six inches in length, is recorded 

 in the ^lersey. It has been secured for the Warrington INIuseum. 



' The boldest sparrow yet ' is the title to the following paragraph from 

 a serio-comic journal : — ' A sparrow has been observed at the Temple 

 Station on the London Underground Railway, which hops about between 

 the rails looking for food, and when a train comes, it stops there, and 

 alloujs the train to pass over its head.' A country-side sparrow, surely ! 

 A town sparrow's head would have been reduced to pulp. 



We are sorr\- to find that ' Punch ' did not take the hint we gave in 

 our last issue. In a subsequent impression there are no fewer than four 

 natural history item.s, two of which we give : — ' " Peacock and hen for 

 sale, unrelated, perfect plumage, 1906 chicks." — The Countryside. Then 

 its quite time they n'ere related.' ' " Dr. Darwin just lived long enough 

 to receive the admiring tributes of the whale community." — Manchester 

 Evening Xews. Very slow these cetaceans to fall into line with others.' 



At the recent meeting of the ^Museums' Association at Ipswich, an 

 interesting address was delivered by ]Mrs. Roesler on the work of an in- 

 structor in the American ^Museum of Natural Histor^^ During her remarks 

 she gave a good story relating to one of the scholars who was gazing in 

 av\-e at a skeleton of a Brontosaurus, in the Museum, which is sixty feet 

 in length, and is mounted on large iron rods, one of which goes the length 

 of the skeleton. The boy was not able to realize that the skeleton was 

 really an animal denuded of flesh, but considered it to be in its 

 original form. At length he said : — ' Teacher, how does it eat ? ' The 

 reply was quickly forthcoming from another youth : — ' Hey, don't you see 

 the pipe ? ' 



' How to tell birds at sight ' is the title of a series of illuminating articles 

 noAv appearing weekly. ' Black with dark grey nape and pale eye ' ; 

 ' size of blackbird, blackish above, reddish hf-low ' ; ' size of skylark, but 

 darker back, more slender shape, more undulating flight,' are sample 

 descriptions. Possibly our readers may be able to identify the species 

 from the descriptions given. A reader, who has evidently read 

 these details, gives the author a poser : — ' The following is a description of a 

 beautiful bird seen in a town garden in Edinburgh on April 30th [query 

 April ist" : — ' About the size of a sparrow, pink coloured, pale green on 

 back, black patch on breast, black head and white line on top. Alights 

 d'l the soil and picks food ! I ' ' 



Naturalist, 



