HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



43 



place, the evidence was absolutely conclusive that 

 they were not originally aquatic, but sprung from 

 land mammals of the placental division, animals with 

 a hairy covering, and with sense organs, especially 

 that of smell, adapted for living on land ; animals, 

 moreover, with four completely developed pairs of 

 limbs on the type of the higher vertebrates, and not 

 that of fishes. Their now simple homodont and 

 monophyodont teeth had evidently degraded from a 

 more perfect type. But the great difficulty was in 

 determining the particular group of mammals whence 

 the whale family (Cotacea) arose. One of the 

 methods by which a land mammal might have 

 changed into an aquatic one, was clearly shown in 

 still surviving stages among the Carnivores. The 

 seals were obviously modifications of the land Car- 

 nivores, the sea-lions and sea-bears being curiously 

 intermediate. Many naturalists had been tempted 

 to deem the whales a still further stage of a like 

 modification. But there was a fatal objection to this 

 view, as was shown. It was far more reasonable to 

 regard whales as derived from animals with large 

 tails, which were used in swimming, to such effect at 

 last that the hind limbs were no longer needed, and 

 so at length disappeared. The powerful tail with 

 side flanges of skin of the Ptcroncura Sandbacliii, an 

 American species of otter, or the beaver's tail, might 

 give some idea of a primitive Cetacean. As pointed 

 out long ago by Hunter, there are many points in 

 the structural organisation of the Cetacean viscera 

 far more like those of the Ungulates than the 

 Carnivores, such as the complex stomach, simple 

 liver, respiratory organs, and especially the repro- 

 ductive organs and structures relating to the develop- 

 ment of the young. Though there was, perhaps, 

 generally more error than truth in popular ideas in 

 natural history, the lecturer paid he could not help 

 thinking some insight had Ijeen shown in the common 

 names attached to the most familiar Cetaceans by 

 those enjoying the best opportunities of knowing its 

 nature. The names were the "Sea Hog," "Sea 

 Pig," or "Herring Hog," of our fishermen, the 

 equivalent " Meerschwein " of the Germans, cor- 

 rupted into the French " Marsouin," just as we had 

 shortened the French " Porcpoisson " into "por- 

 poise." The difficulty that might be suggested in 

 the derivation of the Cetaceans or whale family from 

 the Ungulates arising from the latter being mostly 

 vegetable feeders, was not great, as the earliest 

 Ungulates were most likely omnivorous, like their 

 progeny, the pigs, now, and the aquatic branch 

 might easily have gradually become more and more 

 piscivorous. The audience might picture to them- 

 selves some primitive, generalised, marsh-hunting 

 animals, with scant hair, like the modern hippopo- 

 tamus, but with broad swimming tails and short 

 limbs, omnivorous in their mode of feeding, probably 

 combining water-plants with mussels, worms, and 

 fresh-water crustaceans, gradually becoming more 



and more adapted to fill the void place ready for 

 them on the water side of the borderland on which 

 they dwelt, and so by degrees becoming modified 

 into dolphin-like creatures inhabiting lakes and 

 rivers, and at last finding their way into the ocean. 

 There the disappearance of the huge Enaliosaurians, 

 the Ichthyosaurians, and the Plesiosaurians, which 

 formerly played the part the Cetaceans did now, 

 had left them ample scope. Favoured by various 

 conditions of temperature and climate, wealth of 

 food supply, almost complete immunity from deadly 

 enemies, and wide watery fields to roam in, they had 

 undergone the various modifications traceable in the 

 evolution of the Cetacean species, existing and fossil, 

 and by slow degrees grew to that colossal size, 

 which, as they had seen, was not always an attribute 

 of the whale family. 



Strix Brachyotus. — An adult female specimen 

 of the short-eared owl {Strix brachyotus) was shot 

 near Norwich on January ist, 1884. It was a very 

 fine bird, and above the usual average ; tlie length 

 being from tip of beak to end of tail 15 J ins., and the 

 fully extended wings measured 42J ins. Upon dis- 

 secting it, I found it had taken a three-quarter grown 

 rat {I\Iiis dcciimantis), the skull of which was almost 

 entire, as also were the hind legs. I saw also the 

 remains of several mice. — E. W. Gtuin, jiui., 

 St. Giles Street, Norwich. 



Addenda to " The Mollusca of Margate."* 

 —Since writing the above list I have referred some 

 of my small and doubtful specimens to Dr. J. Gwyn 

 Jeffreys, who has kindly named them for me. I have 

 also made two additional excursions to Shellness. 

 The result is that the following species may be 

 added : (Conchifera) Nuciila nitida ; now and 

 then at Shellness, but not nearly so abundant as 

 N. lutclctis. Montacuta bidentata ; common in shell- 

 sand at Margate. Ve/ius ven'ucosa ; single valves 

 only, and much waterworn, at Shellness. Tcllina 

 doiiacina ; a single valve at Shellness. (Gasteropoda) 

 Capidus Huugaricits ; a broken specimen at Shell- 

 ness. Trochiis montaatti ; I found two of this 

 uncommon species at Shellness. Lacuna divaricata 

 and L. ptif coins ; frequently in shell-sand from Mar- 

 gate. Rissoa costata and R. sctnistriata ; ditto. 

 R. cancellata ; a single specimen from Shellness. 

 Aclis unica ; one only from Margate. Odostomia 

 acuta, O. iiiiidcntata, O. plicata, and O. indistiiicta ; 

 all from Margate. Eitliina polita ; Margate and 

 Shellness, somewhat frequently. Cerithiopsis tuber- 

 cidaris ; common all round the coast with Cerithiutit 

 rcversuni. Pleurotoma attomata and P. Iccvigata ; 

 Margate, both very scarce. Philinc catena; two 

 specimens of this pretty little shell from Margate. 

 (Cephalopoda) Loligo vulgaris; occasionally thrown 

 up at Margate after stormy weather. Sepia officinalis ; 



Science-Gossip, Sept. 1S83. 



