HAKDWICKE'S SCIENCB-QOSSIP. 



187 



even when dry, and when swollen with moisture 

 nearly twice as much." — B. W. 



" Grevillea."— Under this title has just 

 appeared the first number of a monthly magazine 

 devoted to cryptogaraic botany. When we state 

 that it is edited by Mr. M. C. Cooke, M.A., we 

 have given a sufficient indication of its able conduc- 

 torship. The present number has a most beautiful 

 coloured plate of American Pezizse, illustrating an 

 articlc'on that subject by Messrs. Cooke and Peck. 

 It also contains articles by Dr. Braithwaite and 

 the Rev. W. A. Leighton; besides additions to 

 British fungi, by Mr. Cooke, made since the publi- 

 cation of his " Handbook of British Pungi."J 



GEOLOGY. 



Fossil Birds.— It is especially the Middle 

 Tertiary deposits which have furnished me with a 

 rieh harvest. Thus, in the department of the 

 Allier I have recognized the presence of about 

 seventy species belonging to various groups, some 

 of which no longer belong to our fauna. Parrots 

 and trogons inhabited the woods : swallows built 

 in the fissures of the rocks nests, in all probability 

 like those now found in certain parts of Asia and 

 the Indian Archipelago. A secretary-bird, nearly 

 allied to that of the Cape of Good Hope, sought in 

 the plains the serpents and reptiles which at that 

 time, as now, must have furnished its nourishment. 

 Large adjutants, cranes , flamingoes, the Pahe- 

 lodi (birds of curious lorms, partaking at once of 

 the characters of the flamingoes and ordinary 

 grallffi), and ibises frequented the banks of the 

 •watercourses, where the larva; of insects and 

 mollusks abounded; pelicans floated in the midst of 

 the lakes; and lastly, sand-grouse and numerous 

 gallinaceous birds assisted in giving the ornitholo- 

 gical population a physiognomy with which it is 

 impossible not to be struck, and which recalls to 

 one's mind the descriptions which Livingstone has 

 given ns of certain lakes of Southern Africa. — 

 Milne-Edward's "Investigations on Fossil Birds." 



The Probable Existence of Coal-measukes 

 IN THE South-east of England.— This is the sub- 

 ject of a most elaborate article in the July number 

 of the Popular Science Review, from the pen of Mr, 

 Joseph Prestwick,P.R.S.j &c., late president of the 

 Geological Society of London, It is illustrated by 

 an excellent coloured map. We refer our readers 

 to the article itself, as an example of clear geological 

 reasoning. The same number also contains a 

 capital article by Professor John Morris, on the 

 " Newly-discovered Fossil Man," illustrated by a 

 lithograph plate. 



Collection of Flint Implements, &c. — As 

 some of your readers may at this time be visiting 



the metropolis, it may be useful to some to know 

 they can verify for themselves facts which before 

 were only presented to them in books. Those who 

 have not seen the interesting collection of ethnology 

 and prehistoric remains bequeathed by the late 

 Mr. Henry. Christie should do so at once: a visit 

 will amply repay the trouble. The museum is 

 situate at 103, Victoria Street, Westminster, ad- 

 mission to which is by ticket, available only on 

 Fridays, from ten to four. The tickets are obtained 

 at the British Museum itself on any of the open 

 days on application. The collection (in four rooms) 

 contains prehistoric remains of Europe, Asia, and 

 Africa. The flint implements from the drift are 

 here most beautifully and symmetrically arranged, 

 and you can observe, even from that period, the 

 advance from the rudely-chipped celt to its more 

 polislied successor. Daggers, spear-heads, saws, 

 arrow-heads, beside celts, chisels, and gouges, are 

 here all represented. Some from Santon Downham, 

 Norfolk, from Hoxne, Suffolk, the Yorkshire wolds, 

 the Irish celt, axe, and hammer-heads, &c., of their 

 own peculiar type. Most interesting, too, are the 

 remains from the caves of Dordogne, France, con- 

 sisting chiefly of the animal remains of the mammoth, 

 hyena, reindeer, and horse, some of the bones of the 

 former having the figure of the animal itself en- 

 graved on them ; of flint and worked bone imple- 

 ments, arrow-heads and scrapers, barbed spear-heads 

 for fishing, and ornaments of fossil shells, with 

 needles from the shank-bones of the horse. These 

 form the most valuable part of the collection. In 

 contrast with them is the ethnographical collection 

 (modern races), and notably in this are the Esqui- 

 maux, exhibiting, in the chipped arrow-heads and 

 scrapers of siliceous materials, harpoon-heads, and 

 bone needles, their identity with their prehistoric 

 prototypes. Of special interest are the objects from 

 ancient Mexico, — sculpture, pottery of different 

 kinds, arrow-heads, &c., the most remarkable among 

 which being a mask formed out of a human skull, 

 coated entirely with a mosaic-work of turquoise and 

 obsidian. The eyes are made of iron pyrites, very 

 highly polished, so as to resemble small convex 

 mirrors; the teeth of a white stone, the mouth 

 being made to open ; the mask is furnished with 

 straps, so as to be worn. Here are, also, ancient 

 earthen pipes in the form of animals, from the 

 mounds of Ohio, North America, which bring to 

 mind the buried cities of the northern continent, a 

 subject long the wonder of the historic student. In 

 these divisions the ethnologist may study the man- 

 ners, customs, and dress of the different races of 

 man, shown in their war implements, articles of 

 dress and domestic use, their musical instruments, 

 &c., through tribes from the north-west coast of 

 America, the Asiatic Islands, China, Japan, North 

 and Central Africa, the Polynesian group, all ex- 

 hibiting the characteristics of the various races. To 



