Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/72

46 our hands. This is No. 13, and is a "Revision of the North American Bats of the Family Vespertilionidæ," by Gerrit S. Miller, Jun. This publication has the good fortune to be founded on ample material. The collection of Bats, which consists of more than 3000 specimens, chiefly in alcohol, has been brought together during the past few years by the field naturalists of the Survey. In addition the writer has examined the Bats in the United States National Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, and several private collections, making a total of about 2,700 specimens of American Vespertilionidæ. With these animals, however, alcoholic preserved specimens are not the only thing needful, and Mr. Miller regrets that so few well-preserved skins are available for comparison. "Without good series of dry specimens it is impossible to determine the limits of individual variation in colour, as conclusions of the most general kind only can be based on specimens that have been subjected to the action of alcohol." Forty-six species and subspecies of Vespertilionidæ are recognized as occurring in America north of Panama and in the West Indies.

have received from the "Department of Agriculture" of the Province of British Columbia an excellent publication on "Insect Pests and Plant Diseases, containing remedies and suggestions recommended for adoption by farmers, fruit-growers, and gardeners of the Province." Mr. R.M. Palmer, Inspector of Fruit Pests, in his Report for the year ending 1896, speaking with reference to his work in visiting and inspecting orchards in the different section of the Province, says:—"The necessity of this work has been emphasized by the discovery of the most dangerous scale-insect enemy of fruit-trees known—the San Jose Scale (Aspidiotus perniciosus)—in two orchards on Vancouver Island, and although, so far as known, this pest has not spread, it is hardly possible that the infestation is limited to these cases.... It has cost the fruit-growers of California and Oregon hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight the San Jose Scale, and the war against it still continues.... The appearance of San Jose Scale in orchards and gardens in Ontario, and some of the Eastern and Southern States, has created widespread consternation amongst fruit-growers there, and a demand for legislative assistance from the respective governments in dealing with the pest, similar to that enacted in the Pacific Coast States and British Columbia, has sprung up."

who care for the by-paths of their Science will find a paper on "The Mythology of Wise Birds," by H. Colley March, in the 'Journal of the Anthropological Institute,' just published (vol. xxvii.