EDITORIAL GLEANINGS.
Mr. W.L. Sclater, the Director of the South African Museum at Cape Town, has prepared, for the use of his friends and correspondents, a 'List of the Birds of South Africa' (Cape Town, 1899). This list comprises the species of birds found within the area over which his proposed 'Fauna of South Africa' will extend. This area is thus defined:—"The northern limits of South Africa, as treated of in this work, will be a line drawn from the Cunéné River on the West to the Zambesi at the Victoria Falls, and thence along that river to its mouth. Within it will therefore be enclosed the British Colonies of the Cape and Natal, the two Republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, the southern half of the Chartered Company's territory, German South-west Africa, and that portion of Portuguese East Africa which lies south of the Zambesi." The number of species enumerated in this list is 775, to which, however, considerable additions will doubtless have to be made. The first volume, by Arthur C. Stark, M.B., containing Part I. of the Birds, will shortly appear, and it is hoped that that relating to the Mammals, by Mr. Sclater, will be ready for publication during the course of the present year. This work will be a worthy companion to 'The Fauna of British India,' edited by W. T. Blanford. The London publisher is Mr. R.H. Porter.
The Natural History Department of the British Museum have issued a small pamphlet, 'How to collect Mosquitoes' (Culicidæ), and doubtless any traveller or resident abroad who is willing to assist the Museum by sending specimens can freely obtain this useful guide for collecting, preserving, and transmitting. It contains much accurate zoological teaching. Mosquitoes or Gnats (strictly speaking the terms are synonymous) are the names popularly applied to the family Culicidæ (Diptera). Culicidæ are by no means the only blood-sucking Diptera, for the order also comprises the blood-sucking Midges (genus Ceratopogon, belonging to the family Chironomidæ), the Simulidæ, Tabanidæ, and bloodsucking Muscidæ (Glossina, Stomoxys, Hæmatobia). The females of all of these suck blood in the perfect state, while the males are usually harmless, though in the Tsetse-fly the blood-sucking habit is stated to be common to both sexes,[1] as has
- ↑ Surgeon-Major David Bruce, A.M.S., 'Further Report on the Tsetse Fly Disease, or Nagana, in Zululand,' p. 3. London: Harrison & Sons. 1897.
