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Kansas University Weekly.
Science Notes.
Mr. Hunter is making a study of the mouthparts of insects.
Mr. Kahl is making a revision of the genus, Lespa which belongs to the family Asathomyidae.
Mr. Sterling having completed a special course in Micro-technique is now making a study of the physiological changes that leaves undergo through the year.
On Wednesday afternoon at Topeka, Prof. Dyche lectured before the State Horticultural Society. The subject of his paper was "Birds injurious to fruits and fowl."
At Hays City, Thursday night Chancellor Snow delivered a lecture entitled "Injurious Insects." Next Friday Prof. Dyche will deliver at Wichita his lecture on Alaska.
Mr. Gowell received from G.M.McDonald of Sabetha, Kansas an albino sparrow, Spizella monticola; so far as can be ascertained this is the first case on record of the albinism of the sparrow.
During the past summer the Botanical department distributed between five and six thousand boxes of infected chinch bugs, and perfected a new method for checking the progress of the chinch bug.
Mr. C. W. Johnson, an eminent dipterologist of Washington, D. C. has presented through Dr. Williston a number of specimens of Diptera which he has collected and named. Many of them are typical specimens, which form a valuable addition to our collection of Diptera.
The Botanical department will publish during the holidays a report of the experiments that have been made upon the chinch bug infection this past summer. The report will be profusely illustrated with half-tones, showing the various means that were employed in combating the pest.
One of the most interesting and instructive collections in Snow Hall, is that of the Entomological department. Because of the peculiar
nature and delicacy of the materials, special care had to be taken for its preservation. For this reason the collection was put into a room by itself, and perhaps it is on this account that so few students are not only uncertain of its location but are even unaware of its existence. The collection is at all times open to the inspection of visitors. and the department takes great pleasure in showing and explaining the various points of interest. The collection though not the largest in the world ranks high, and is perhaps in several respects unexcelled by any in the United States. The total number of named species of insects in the collection is two hundred thousand classified specimens, containing about fourteen thousand distinct species, besides twenty thousand specimens not yet named and a large collection for biological and economic study. This large number of insects has been collected chiefly by the University expeditions to New Mexico, Wyoming and Colorado, though many valuable additions have been made by exchange.
The department of Paleontology has recently received a lot of reptilian fossils from the Jurasic of northern Colorado. These represent the collections made by Mr. Riggs during a few weeks spent there this fall in investigating the fossil beds of that locality in connection with Mr. Reed of Wyoming University. The Kansas University geological expedition of '95, also secured several bones of these large dinosaurs, which with those just received will soon be placed in the museum.
The Jurasic fauna not only presents to the paleontologist one of the most fascinating fields of study, but including as it does the earliest known forms of mammalian life as well as the most striking development both in size and diversity of the reptilian forms, it becomes to the casual reader one of the most interesting chapters in natural history. The blue joint clays and sandstones forming in Jurasic times marshes and shore lines, but now heaved high on mountain sides as bluffs worthless for any industrial purpose, often reveal to the collector such treasures as seem almost like a glimpse