Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/73

Rh p. 209). "Literature abounds in poetical allusions to the wisdom of birds, to the warnings they desire to deliver, to the tidings they are ever ready to carry. 'We bear our civil swords and native fire,' says Prince John (2 Hen. IV. v. 5), 'as far as France, I heard a bird so sing.''Curse not the king,' says the Preacher, 'for a bird of the air will carry the matter' (Eccl. x. 20). Such allusions are poetical only; but the voices that primeval man heard, primeval whether in time or only in civilization, were as real to him as the visions he saw. The history of demonology conclusively declares them to have been neither romance nor make-believe." As the author further remarks, "It was natural that in different countries men should have been attracted by different orders of birds. The Grallatores, or Waders, whilst they were esteemed throughout the Old World, were chiefly venerated in Egypt; and the same may be said of the Accipitres, such as Eagles, Hawks, and Vultures. The Columbæ were much admired in the East; and of the Passeres, the suborder Conirostres found most favour in Europe." The subject is a most interesting one; we all recall the Bennu (Ardea bubulcus), sacred among the ancient Egyptians to Osiris, and the use of the Dove in early Christian art.

announces the death of the eminent entomologist, Dr. George H. Horn, at Philadelphia, on Nov. 25th last, at the age of fifty-eight. He has bequeathed his valuable entomological collections and books and an endowment of 200 dols. per annum to the American Entomological Society. From the residuary estate, after the death of his sister, further bequests will accrue to the Entomological and other scientific societies. Dr. Horn was a renowned coleopterist, and was a contributor to Godman and Salvin's 'Biologia Centrali-Americana.'

formerly Professor of Zoology at Cordoba University, in the Argentine Republic, and of late years director of the biological and fishery station on the Müggelsee, near Berlin, died on Oct. 21st, owing to an accident on the lake. Dr. Frenzel was only thirty-nine years old at the time of his death—Natural Science.

the advent of the rinderpest at Groote Schuur, Mr. Rhodes's well-known residence at the Cape, the following animals have died of the disease:—One Eland Bull, one Koodoo, one Hartebeeste, one Klipspringer, one Steinbuck, and one Antelope. One Eland Cow, which took rinderpest and was inoculated, has since recovered.