kings; and, since all the hartebeests can be readily domesticated when caught young, we conclude that in the days of the Pharoahs they actually broke in the hartebeests as beasts of draught. The Dutch name implies stag-ox, so that the old settlers may have done the same, unless the Zulus brought the Arabic name down with them, and it was then translated by the Boers into equivalent Dutch.

The Caama or true South African hartebeest is, as Cornwallis Harris remarks, made of triangles. The male stands five feet at the withers, and nine in extreme length. The crupper is drooping and the shoulder elevated; the head heavy, narrow, long. The horns are seated on the summit of a beetling ridge of bone on the forehead, almost touching at the base, thick, diverging and again approaching, turned forewards and then acutely backwards, with points directed horizontally to the rear. The surface of the horns is embossed with five or six prominent knots on the front only. The neck and throat are bare, with no mane. The coat is short and glossy; color, bright orange-sienna with a crimson cast. There is a black patch at the base of the horns above the forehead, continued behind, and terminating in front of the ear. A black streak down the nose, and a black stripe down the ridge of the neck. Chin black. A black line down the front of each leg, terminating in an angular band above the fetlock. Tail reaching to the hocks, with backwardly directed glossy black hair. Legs slender with taper hoofs. Ears whitish, long, pointed and flexible. A half-muzzle dividing the nostrils; nose flattened, moist. Eyes high in the head, wild, and of a fiery-red color. Female with more slender horns, and fainter in color. Two mamma. Young born singly in April and September.

The hartebeest is found in small flocks, headed by three or four stout males, the weaker being expelled and forced to establish a community of their own. In fighting they drop down on their knees, and, placing their forehead parallel with the ground by putting their nose between their legs, butt each other with intense fury, their gnarled and angular horns interlocking, and inflicting gaping, jagged wounds. A common habit is to rake their horns against the trees until they are covered with bark.

In running the caama has long, oily, and beautiful paces, which are of the most approved racing style. Moving at a smooth and swinging canter, throwing its hind quarters well under the body, brandishing the glossy tail, and carrying its great beamy head in the best possible manner, it cuts a very majestic appearance, notwithstanding its angular build. So swift of flight is it that the hunter is again and again disappointed when trying to chase it on horseback; but in and around

Vryburg, and near to the farms in Bechuanaland, it has become so used to the sight of man who protects it, that it no longer regards him as an enemy. Sir C. Harris, however, saw him in a more unsophisticated state, for, he says that, when followed, the caama frequently stops, and turning proudly towards the foe' with a most sapient look, sneezes with great violence, an act of overt folly, so much so, indeed, that it would appear to be playing a game of hide-and-seek with the hunter, ever peeping at him from behind the trees.

The flesh is dark and venison-like in appearance, but somewhat tasteless. The skin is in much request among the Bechuanas for karosses. The caama is very liable to a terrible scourge that affects most of the big game of South Africa. It originates in a kind of bots, probably the larvæ of an Oestrus, which force their way into the nostrils, and the head becomes literally crammed with maggots, numbers of which are expelled in the process of sneezing.

The bontebok and blesbok bear to each other the closest resemblance, being equally robust, with the same hump on the back just behind the neck, the same broad nose, characteristic indeed of the whole Alcelaphine division, and finding its greatest expression in the wildebeests; and, as Harris says, both have the same fine, venerable, old-goatish cast of countenance. The lyrated horns are placed vertically on the summit of the cranium, those of the bontebok being jet black, whereas they are light brown in the blesbok. They have in common the snowy white blase on the nose; the belly is white; and the back hoary and glazed, as though they wore saddles. They are equally addicted to the use of salt, which occurs abundantly in the form of an efflorescence in the Kalahari, and both scour against the wind with their square noses close to the ground, as though they were running scent. The bontebok now survives only on certain farms near Cape Agulhas, but the blesbok has a more northerly range, and formerly existed in great numbers in the Free State and Transvaal.

In the country of the Tamboukies, immediately beyond the eastern frontier of Albany, there exist boundless billowy successions of surgelike undulations, known appropriately as the Bontebok flats; whether the "painted-goat " ever existed there is problematical, but the blesbok used to be shot there in considerable numbers. These two bucks stand out from the rest of the hartebeests by their violet and chocolate coloring; their height is about 3 feet 8 inches, and length 6 feet 4 inches, but animals of this stature are seldom found now.

The sassayby, or, as Livingstone called it, the tsessebe, is found north of Lake Ngami. It stands 4 feet 6 inches at the withers, and some 8

feet 3 inches in length. Horns robust, turning outwards, forming a complete crescent when looked at from before; some 12 or 15 annuli on the lower half, upper half smooth; the characteristic hartebeest zigzag is only faintly reproduced. Selous has noted a hybrid between the tsessebe and the caama. Herr Matchie's Damalis jimeru is not clearly separated from the tsessebe. The most characteristic feature of this species is the slate-colored markings on the sides of the shoulders and flanks, while the general color is brown, fulvous or tawny.

Of the North African forms we can only mention here Hunter's hartebeest, which has a much shorter face than the typical caama. It stands some 4 feet at the withers, and is of a uniform chestnut brown, with white tail and belly. A white chevron stretches between the eyes. The horns are inclined outwards at the base, and then run vertically upwards, the greater part being quite smooth; length round curve, 26 inches. (The Scientific African, February, 1896.)

Zoological News.-The material obtained by deep-sea dredging in the gulf off the coast of Cape Breton includes many animals hitherto considered as exclusively Mediterranean as to habitat. In view of the importance of this discovery, M. De Folin (de Biarritz) has prepared a catalogue of the species found in the collections, the first installment of which is published in the Revue des Sciences Nat. de l'ouest, April, 1896.

ENTOMOLOGY.'

Fossil Cockroaches.—Mr. S. H. Scudder's studies of the American Fossil Cockroaches have recently been published by the U. S. Geological Survey (Bulletin 124). Most of the forms figured and described are from the paleozoic fauna. While, in 1879, only seventeen species of cockroaches belonging to this fauna were known, there are 132 species now described.

Dr. Packard's Monograph of Bombycine Moths.-In the important memoir recently published by the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. A. S. Packard embodies the results of many years work upon the Bomby ces. The volume contains about 300 quarto pages and 50 plates, many of the latter being beautifully colored. The scope 1 Edited by Clarence M. Weed, New Hampshire College, Durham, N. H.

of the memoir is shown by the following list of contents: Introduction; Evolution of bristles, spines and tubercles of caterpilars; External anatomy of caterpillars; Incongruence between larval and adult characters of Notodontians; Inheritance of characters acquired during the life-time of Lepidopterous larvæ; Geographical distribution; Phylogeny of the Lepidoptera; Classification of the Lepidoptera; Nomenclature of wing veins; Systematic revision of the Notodontidæ.

In classification Dr. Packard adheres to the lines of the paper he recently published in the NATURALIST. The discussion of acquired characters is one of the most interesting parts of the book and is well worth reading by biologists generally. The volume is an extremely notable contribution to the literature of American entomology.

Grape Insects.—Mr. C. L. Marlatt contributes to the recent Year Book of the Department of Agriculture a valuable discussion of the Insect Enemies of the Grape. In the introduction he says: Upward of 200 different insects have already been listed as occurring on the vine of this country, and the records of the Department alone refer to over 100 different insects. Few of these, however, are very serious enemies, being either of rare occurrence or seldom numerous, and for practical purposes the few species considered below include those of real importance. They are the grape phylloxera, the grapevine fidia, both chiefly destructive to the roots; the caneborer, destructive particularly to the young shoots; the leaf-hopper, the flea-beetle, rose-chafer with its allies, and leaf-folder, together with hawk moths and cutworms, damaging foliage, and the grapeberry moth, the principal fruit pest.

The extent of the loss that frequently results from these insects may be understood by reference to a few instances. The phylloxera, when at its worst, has destroyed in France some 2,500,000 acres of vineyards, representing an annual loss in wine products of the value of $150,000,000, and the French Government had expended, up to 1895 in phylloxera work over $4,500,000, and remitted taxes to the amount of $3,000,000 more. The grapevine fidia, on the authority of an Ohio correspondent, in a single season in one vineyard, killed 400 out of 500 strong five-year-old vines. The prominent leaf-defoliators, as the rosechafer and flea-beetle, frequently destroy or vastly injure the crop over large districts, and the little leaf-hopper, though rarely preventing a partial crop, is so uniformly present and widely distributed as to probably levy a heavier tribute on the grape in this country than any -other insect.

Flower-Haunting Diptera.-Mr. G. T. Scott Elliott has made numerous observations which go to show that flower-haunting Diptera are of much importance in pollination. He thinks that his evidence clearly proves the color-sense of the Diptera observed, and also that they "are, on the whole, more intelligent than the lower class Hymenoptera." "It is to these Diptera," he says, "that we probably owe all of the neatly made, small and bright colored forms of flowers." The author gives tables showing the visits of about sixteen Diptera to various types of flowers, and compares these with the visits paid by Hymenoptera. He suggests that the Diptera map out the ground as vultures do, and keep flying up and down over a chosen area. At the beginning of his paper, there is an interesting note on the part which insects play in isolation. Thus if flowers of the same species occur partly inside a sheltered wood, and partly outside, probably not more than five per cent of those outside will be fertilized by pollen from those inside the wood and vice-versa. This means for reproduction almost perfect isolation.-Journal Royal Micr. Society.

Larval Habits in Panorpa.-Dr. E. P. Feldt contributes to the tenth report of the State Entomologist of New York an important paper on Scorpion fleas from which we quote the following relating to Panorpa rufescens :

"Throughout their different stages, the larvæ usually harmonize with their surroundings so closely that it is difficult to detect them. Frequently a slight motion of the earth is the first indication of their presence. They burrow in the earth and remain underground much of the time. Many burrows ran less than one inch below the surface, although a few extended to a depth of three or four inches. The larvæ may be fed readily upon raw meat placed upon the surface of the ground. Some time after placing the meat in the cage, they may be found under it, frequently in a more or less cell-like depression. When in such a position they rarely try to escape, but trust to their protective resemblances, and remain motionless. Around the edge of the piece of meat and also under it, the mouths of burrows may be seen and in them the heads of larvæ; when in such positions they dodge back quickly at the least disturbance. Unless the meat is moved very cautiously the burrows will appear empty; but if quiet is maintained for a few moments, the heads will soon be seen. The burrows opening under the meat frequently come to the surface a little distance away, and it is quite easy to drive a larva out of its back door. Not infre2 Trans. Ent. Soc. London, 1896, pp. 117-118.