208 
NATURE NOTES 
Chichester Cathedral, bathed in the feeble sunshine which peeps 
from the heavy rain-clouds. Beyond the spire is the dim outline 
of the Isle of Wight. Gradually turning towards the north we 
see down upon down stretched before us as far as the Hog's 
Back and Hindhead, in Surrey. In the middle distance is 
Chanctonbury Ring. Again, turning to the east we see Brighton, 
and then the long white line of cliffs which terminate at Beachy 
Head. I have not yet mentioned any birds or insects, but 
Nature was not asleep, for besides the sparrows and swifts which 
I spoke of before, I noticed several starlings and blackbirds, 
thrushes, and a corn-crake ( ? ) ; and as for insects there were one 
or two belated fritillaries, blues and meadow browns, and one or 
two early moths. It is now time to turn homeward, so having 
walked round the ramparts we slowly wend our way home to 
Broadwater. 
“ A Rugby Selbornian.” 
REVIEWS AND EXCHANGES. 
North American Fauva, No. 20. Revision of the Skunks of the gettus Chhicha. 
By Arthur H. Howell, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Division of 
Biological Survey. Washington, 1901. 
This is another of the thorough pieces of work for which we are indebted 
to the officers of the United Stales Department of Agriculture. It deals with 
the seventeen species of the exclusively North American genus Chincha, separated 
by Lesson in 1842 from Cuvier’s Mephitis to include the large striped skunks. 
new sub-genus, Leucomih a., a new species C. platyrhina, and two new sub-species, 
C. occiJentalis major and notata are described ; thirteen skins and eight skulls ate 
admirably figured, the new species, however, being regretably omitted ; and full 
synonymy, and distributional notes are given, with some measurements and a 
table of those of the skulls. As we have said on previous occasions, when 
noticing this series, we should have been glad of furthur details as to the general 
anatomy. These large skunks are wholly terrestrial, living mostly in caves 
and feeding largely on insects, such as grasshoppers, but also on birds’ eggs, and on 
small mammals, reptiles and batrachians. Between 1850 and 1890 the Hudson 
Bay Company shipped over 250,000 skunks skins to England ; but Mr. Howell 
states that “ skunk farms ” for breeding these animals have of late been started 
in several States. 
North American Fauna, No. 21. Natural History of the Queen Charlotte 
Islands, British Columbia, and of the Cook Inlet, Alaska. By Wilfred H. 
Osgood, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Division of Biological Survey. 
Washington, 1901. 
These memoirs are the results of reconnaissances by Mr. Osgood and his 
assistant Mr. Edmund Heller, made between June 13 and July 18, and between 
August 21 and September 28, 1900. The report is illustrated by a map of the 
Queen Charlotte group, eight landscape views, and figures of the skulls of Ursus 
carlottice and americanus, and Mustela caurina and nesophila, the former of these 
bears and the latter of the martens being here described for the first time. Some 
account is given of Mr. Seton-Thompson’s new species of caribou, Rangifer 
davjsoni, and a new species of mouse from Prevost Island, Peromyscus prevostensis, 
two new sub-species of Sorex longicauda, a new woodpecker, Dryobates picoidens, 
and several new sub-species of birds are among the results recorded from the Queen 
