1 877.] 
( 425 » 
SCIENTIFIC NOTES. 
The western states and territories of the American Union have suffered very 
seriously from the ravages of noxious inserts, among which the locust, or 
hopper, as it is familiarly called, holds a bad pre-eminence. Under these cir- 
cumstances it is very fortunate that the American Government and people do 
not, like so many nearer home, look upon entomology as a frivolous and 
useless pursuit, but have of late years given decided encouragement to its 
cultivation. A commission has been appointed to investigate and report on 
the best means of combatting the locust. The commissioners, Messrs. C. V. 
Riley, A. S. Packard, Jun., and C. Thomas, have all “ made their mark,” and 
the public may rest assured that their recommendations will be based upon an 
accurate knowledge of the habits of the destroyer. The United States Com- 
missioners propose, as the means of destroying the eggs and newly hatched 
young, ploughing, with subsequent harrowing and rolling. For the first 
eight or ten days after hatching, and in the mornings and evenings subse- 
quently, they are sluggish, huddle together, and may be easily driven into 
rows of burning straw, or into ditches about 2 feet wide by 2 feet deep, and 
with steep sides. Wider ditches permit their escape more readily, except the 
depth be increased likewise. Various kinds of drag-nets and bags, to be drawn 
by hand or horse-power, have also been used with great effect. With one of 
these, in Minnesota, from eight to twelve bushels of pups have been taken 
daily. The Commissioners finally insist strongly on the protection of all 
insectivorous birds — a very judicious recommendation. 
The records of the “United States Geological and Geographical Survey of 
the Territories ” always contain much valuable information. No. 4 of 
vol. ii. of the Bulletin comprises five important memoirs, namely, “ Notes on 
the Geology of North-eastern New Mexico,” by O. St. John ; “ Sexual, Indi- 
vidual, and Geographical Variation in LeucostiCle Tephrocotis,” by J. A. 
Allen ; “Geographical Variation among North American Mammals, especially 
in respeCt to Size,” by J. A. Allen ; “ Descriptions and Illustrations of Fossils 
from Vancouver’s and Sucia Islands, and other North-western Localities,” by 
F. B. Meek; and “ Note on the New Genus Uintacrinus,” by F. B. Meek. 
Mr. Allen after a careful examination of the series of skulls of the North 
American mammalia contained in the National Museum — a collection which 
he may well term “ magnificent,” amounting as it often does to 80 to 100 
specimens of a single species — has been greatly struck with the different 
degrees of variability exhibited by representatives of species and genera even 
of the same family. In the wolves and foxes the variation in size with 
latitude amounts to 25 per cent of the average size of the species, while in 
other species of the Ferce it is almost nil. The common supposition, how- 
ever, that the size of a species decreases with a decrease in the latitude cannot 
be admitted as a general law, since, in some forms, there is a well-marked 
increase as we proceed southward. He expresses the connection of size with 
geographical distribution in the following laws: — (1.) “The maximum 
physical development of the individual is attained where the conditions are 
most favourable to the life of the species.” (2.) “ The largest species of a group 
are found where the group to which they severally belong reaches its highest 
development, or where it has what may be termed its centre of distribution.” 
(3.) “ The most ‘ typical ’ or most generalised representatives of a group are 
found also near its centre of distribution, outlying forms being generally more 
or less ‘ aberrant ’ or specialised.” The first portion of vol. iii. is a description 
of new genera and species of dipterous insects from the region west of the 
