602 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



ent line of development was followed in other regions, perhaps in Africa. 

 The progress of development in the skulls is traced, and five main 

 •changes are analysed. It is possible to recognise two phyla among the 

 Permian Pelycosauria ; one characterised hy the persistence of the two 

 Rhynchocephalian arches and the development of a weak articular 

 region, culminating in the high-spined Pelycosauria, and the other 

 ^characterised by the union of the arches and the development of a 

 mammalian temporal region culminating in Gompkognathus and Trity- 

 slodon, perhaps in the Promammalia. The last branch practically includes 

 all of the Theriodontia = Theriosuchia. 



How Birds make themselves understood by Man.* — H. Gadeau 

 de Kerville reports cases in regard to parrots, cockatoo (Cacatua lead- 

 Materi), Serinus hortulanus, raven, Buteo apivorus, condor, dorking 

 -cock, Euplocamus nycthemerus, gulls and Ankinga, which illustrate 

 various ways in which birds make or try to make themselves understood 

 "by man. The three modes employed are : — (1) by their natural 

 language which includes various distinct words or cries ; (2) by acquired 

 language, mimetic of man's ; and (8) by gestures of beak and wings, 

 .and so on. 



Bird and Man.f — W. Schuster has an interesting article on the 

 ■inter-relations between birds and men. He shows how cultivation, de- 

 foresting, planting, hunting, preservation, and so on have affected the 

 avi-fauna. The timidity of some birds and the fearlessness of others 

 in relation to man is discussed ; and the generalisation is suggested that 

 the rarer a species becomes the shyness of its members increases, since 

 the feeling of safety associated with gregarious life is lost. 



Tunicata. 



Arctic Variety of Ciona intestinalis.it — P. Hartmeyer notes that 

 Arctic forms of this common Ascidian are marked by a superficial pecu- 

 liarity : — the long cylindrical body narrows below the intestinal loop to 

 form a stalk which extends for one-third to one-half of the length of the 

 body and is terminally expanded into an attaching disc. All the speci- 

 mens from high latitudes show this feature, which occurs as an occasional 

 variation to a slight extent even in Mediterranean specimens. As there 

 as no internal structural variation, Hartmeyer is content to regard the 

 Arctic forms as local varieties : — C. mhstlnalls L. var longissima 

 Hartmr. 



New MolgulidJ — G. C. Bourne describes a single specimen of Oligo- 

 irema psammites g. et sp. n., a sack-shaped Molgulid, covered with grains 

 of sand like a Zoanthid, dredged by Willey from a depth of fifty fathoms 

 off Lifu, New Britain. Although undoubtedly one of the Molgulidse, 

 it has many peculiar features. These are : — the wide separation of the 

 branchial and atrial orifices ; the great reduction in size of the atrial 

 .siphon and the concomitant suppression of the atrial lobes ; the highly 



* Bull. Soc. Zool. France, xxviii. (1903) pp. 47-57. 



f Journ. f. Ornithol., 1903, pp. 1-40. 



% SB. Ges. Nalurf. Berlin, 1902, pp. 203-5. 



§ Quart. Journ. Micr. Sci., xlvii. (1903) pp. 233-72 (5 pis.). 



