SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
539 
rature, as ascertained by a thermometer placed between the coils of the female 
in the beginning of March, was as much as 20° above that of the male. The 
pythoness has abstained from food for the enormous period of thirty-six weeks. 
Bite of the Adder. — It is not often we hear of fatal effects resulting from 
the bite of our indigenous snakes. The British Medical J burned quotes a case 
from the Sussex Express, of a little boy, who, not being properly attended to, 
is said to have succumbed to the poison on the second day. 
Parthenogenesis of the Honey-bee. — Mr. T. W. Woodbury, of Mount Radford, 
Exeter, has confirmed the theory first propounded by Dzierzon of Karlsmarkt, 
that a Virgin Queen can breed drones. The Journal of Horticulture of 
October 22 contains an account of Ms experiments wMch appear to be perfectly 
conclusive. 
New Animals. — No division of the animal kingdom yields so many novel- 
ties as the classes of birds and insects. Mr. G. Lawrence describes six new 
species of birds from Panama, belonging to the families of thrushes and 
shrikes. Dr. Jerdon has met with several new species in Upper Burmali. 
Dr. G. Hartlaub has described several new species from Cape Colony ; and 
Mr. J. H. Gurney, M.P., from Natal, wMle the indefatigable Dr. Sclater, in 
whose “ Ibis ” * the above may be found, has not been idle. Mr. Arthur 
Adams continues his contributions to the Molluscan Fauna of the Sea of 
Japan. Mr. Bates, well known for Ms zeal in collecting insects, still enriches 
the list of longicorn beetles inhabiting the valley of the Amazons ; and Mr. 
T. V. Wollaston, of Madeiran fame, has extended his researches to the co- 
leoptera of the Canary Islands. Several new fishes have also been obtained 
from the Pacific coast of central America. 
New and rare British Animals. — The British fauna, far from being ex- 
hausted, continues to receive accessions in various departments. It is inter- 
esting to observe, that the most predacious of our quadrupeds is not yet 
extinct, the wild cat having been recently met with on the property of the 
Earl of Seaforth, in Inverness-sMre. The skull of a new species of Pilot- 
whale ( Globioccphalus ), dredged up at Bridport, Dorsetshire, has been 
described by Dr. Gray, and figured in the “ Annals of Natural History.” The 
rare and beautiful Crane ( Grus cinerea) has been recently met with (and, of 
course, hilled) near Hartlepool. Mr. 0. Pickard, Cambridge, the indefatigable 
spider-hunter, has added ten new species to the British list, and the veteran 
zoophytologist Joshua Alder has made large additions to the list of Hy- 
droid Zoophytes by Ms explorations on the coast of Northumberland. 
Mesozoic Forms of Life in Australia. — Under this title Professor Owen 
announces the very interestmg fact of the discovery by the dredge, in eight 
fathoms, of a living encrinite, of a rose-pink colour, fachng to white ; whose 
stem, attached to a stone, was six inches long, the arms one and a half inch. 
This remarkable arnmal was found by Mr. J. S. Poore in King George’s 
Soimd, Western Australia. 
The Zoological Collections in the British Museum, it has been decided, shall 
not be removed to South Kensington, according to the proposals of Professor 
Owen. Mr. Osborne placed the Professor’s plans in so obnoxious a light, that 
*We recommend the “Ibis,” an ormthological journal, edited by Dr. 
Sclater, to our naturalist readers. 
