144 NATURAL SCIENCE [August 1898 



that the Museum was too costly would not be borne out by the facts. It was 

 an exceedingly popular institution, and was undergoing changes which would, 

 he trusted, make it even more popular. They were building up a magnificent 

 reference library, of which the city would be proud in years to come. 



The Association of Naturalists of Levallois-Perret has, during the past fourteen 

 years, gathered together the material for a museum, which is open free every 

 Sunday except when the Association is out on an excursion. The collections, 

 says La Feuille des jeunes Naturalistes, comprise 5264 species of animals, 4626 of 

 plants, and 4929 geological specimens. 



Prop. 0. C. Marsh has recently transmitted from New Haven to the Director 

 of the U.S. Geological Survey the fourth large instalment of Vertebrate Fossils 

 secured in the West, in 1882-92, under his direction, as Palaeontologist of the U.S. 

 Geological Survey in charge of Vertebrate Palaeontology. The collection is 

 packed in one hundred boxes, and weighs over thirteen tons. It includes twelve 

 skulls and other remains of the gigantic Ceratopsia from the Cretaceous ; various 

 Dinocerata fossils from the Eocene ; a series of rare specimens of Brontotherium, 

 Elotherium, Miohippus, and other genera, from the Miocene ; a very extensive 

 collection of Ehinoceros and other mammals from the Pliocene ; as well as various 

 interesting fossils from more recent deposits. These will all be deposited in the 

 National Museum of Washington. 



The Government has finally stated that it is unable under existing circum- 

 stances to embark upon an undertaking of such magnitude as an Antarctic Ex- 

 pedition. What the Government is unable to do the Royal Geographical Society 

 will attempt. Its Council has authorised the president to take steps to obtain 

 subscriptions to the amount of not less than £50,000, while the Society itself 

 will contribute £5000. 



Ladies attending the International Congress of Zoologists at Cambridge in 

 the company of a member may become Associates on payment of 10s. 



The Zoological Society of London has obtained, through Hagenbeck of 

 Hamburg, a male giraffe, aged one year, from French Senegambia. Though at 

 present only eight feet high he is in good condition, and will, it is hoped, ulti- 

 mately prove a fitting mate for the female giraffe that has been in the Gardens 

 for some years. 



The metric system of weights and measures is to be introduced officially into 

 Russia. The Russians are also considering how they may best abandon their Old 

 Style calendar for that now prevailing in the rest of the civilised world. 



At Rueschlikon, on the Lake of Zurich, the shore for a distance of two 

 hundred metres has sunk into the lake, together with some uninhabited buildings 

 standing upon it. The damage done is considerable. 



The company established at Lubec, Maine, to extract gold from sea-water, and 

 alluded to in our May number, is said by the Engineering unci Mining Journal 

 of New York to be " simply another attempt to impose on the credulous." 



We notice that a paragraph is going the round of the scientific press, quoting 

 ;m explanation given in the Zoologist by Mr F. R. Godfrey of Melbourne, con- 

 cerning the sheep-attacking habits of the Kea, Nestor notabilis of New Zealand. 

 We do not intend to copy this paragraph into our own pages, because, precisely 

 the same explanation will be found in Natural Science, vol. viii., p. 157, 

 March 1896. 



The Government of New South Wales has fitted out a deep-sea trawling ex- 

 pedition for experimental fishing off the coasts of the colony. Mr E. R. Waite 

 of the Australian Museum is attached as naturalist, and much valuable material, 

 including many new species, is finding its way to the museum. 



Sir E. Bkaddox, Premier of Tasmania, has issued a proclamation protecting 

 the White-capped Albatross for five years from April last. 



