41 G ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 



by G. E. Dobson ; descriptions of new mammals collected by- 

 Professor Steere in the Philippine Islands ; and descriptions 

 of some new mammals from tropical America, by Dr. Giin- 

 ther, who also adverts to the presence of the genus Atherura 

 (A. africand) on the west coast of Africa. lie has before 

 drawn attention to the occurrence on the coast of West Af- 

 rica of fresh-water fishes previously considered to be exclu- 

 sively typical of the Indian region. Thus the reappearance 

 of the Atherura on the West African coast strongly confirms 

 Mr. Wallace's view that there is present among the mam- 

 mals and birds of West Africa a special Oriental or even 

 Malayan element. "Instances of this kind," adds Dr. Giin- 

 ther, " appear to me to be of infinitely greater weight in 

 solving the problem of the mode of dispersion of animals 

 over the globe (or their genesis) than deductions drawn 

 from lists of genera vaguely or artificially defined." He has 

 also discovered African reptilian types in the Indian region. 

 Dr. Coues's Field Notes on Birds observed in Dakota and 

 Montana along the Forty-ninth Parallel during the Seasons of 

 1873 and 1874 appear in Hayden's Bulletin of the United 

 States Qeological Survey. Dr. Cones found that the bird 

 fauna of the Red River region is decidedly Eastern in char- 

 acter ; but on crossing the Coteau into the Missouri region, or 

 the great water-shed of the Upper Missouri and Milk rivers, 

 the whole aspect of the country changes, and the assemblage 

 of birds is different, and few, if any, distinctively Eastern 

 birds extend across or even into this region. This extends 

 to the very base of the Rocky Mountains, rising gradually 

 to them. The Rocky Mountain region is strongly marked 

 not only by " Western " species, but by Alpine forms, by ex- 

 clusively arboreal species, and by the abrupt disappearance 

 of the prairie birds. 



The Hypothesis of Evolution. 



In an interesting address on the Development of the 

 Forms of Animal Life, delivered by Professor Allen Thom- 

 son, President of the Plymouth Meeting of the British Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science, he takes the most 

 advanced ground held by embryologists, and endorses the 

 conclusion that the phenomena of development in animals 

 show that all pass through in their simple forms similar 



