Mr. J.C. Stevens sold, on April 15th, the library of natural history books formed by the late Mr. Philip Crowley, of Waddon House, Croydon, The following were the highest prices reached:—'Transactions' of the Entomological Society, 46 vols, and 4 parts, £38. 'Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum,' 27 vols., £48. 'The Ibis,' 1859-1900, £75. 'Proceedings' of the Zoological Society, 1830-1900, £60. Lord Lilford's 'Birds of the British Islands,' 7 vols., £63. 'Biologia Centrali-Americana,' 35 vols., £90. 'Great Auks' Eggs,' 66 plates, £13 4s. Dresser's 'Birds of Europe,' 9 vols., £56. Grandidier's 'Histoire Physique de Madagascar,' 1875-95, £35 14s. Sander's 'Reichenbachia': Orchids, both series, £14. Gould's 'Birds of Asia,' £51. 'Birds of New Guinea,' £45; 'Mammals of Australia,' £29 8s.; 'Birds of Great Britain,' £49 7s. D.G. Elliot's 'Monograph of the Cats,' £10; 'Monograph of the Pheasants,' £53 11s, E.T. Booth's 'Rough Notes on Birds,' £25 4s, G.R. Gray's 'Genera of Birds,' £17 17s.—Athenæeum.
Mr. G.W. Kirkaldy, in the last number of the 'Journal' of the Quekett Microscopical Club (April, 1901), contributes a paper on "The Stridulating Organs of Waterbugs (Rhynchota), especially of Corixidæ."
The Nepidæ, Notonectidæ, and Naucoridæ are very briefly dismissed, as no stridulating organs have yet been discovered in these families, the limæ figured by Swinton some years ago being imaginary. In the Corixidæ the anterior tarsi are highly modified, being thickened and dilated—more or less knife- or spoon-shaped—in both sexes. In all the species of Corixa, there are in the male sex a number of chitinous "pegs" or "teeth" on the inner surface of the flattened tarsi. It was formerly supposed that the stridulation was occasioned by the rubbing of these pegs across the strongly keeled face of the bug. Kirkaldy points out, however, that the pegs exist only in the males, that the peculiar form of face is common to both sexes, and that it is protected by strong bristly hairs, and considers that stridulation is actually caused by the drawing of the pegs on the left (anterior) tarsus across a specially modified area (furnished with minute closely set chitinous points) on the inner side of the opposite femur, or vice versâ. These pegs do not exist in the closely allied genera Micronecta and Cymatia—being replaced by slender bristles—nor is there a specially modified femoral area; and Handlirsch, in a recent paper on the same subject, suggests that the long curved claw of the male in these genera may form part of the musical instrument. The remarkable "strigil" is supposed by Handlirsch to be a stridulating organ, though the present author is sceptical, pointing out that the "musical notes" have only been heard while the bugs are under water, when the abdomen is completely covered by the closely adpressed elytra and wings. It is thought possible that the strigil may be employed while the bugs are on the wing, migrating for mating purposes.
