644 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



Distribution of Secondary Sexual Characters amongst Birds, 

 with relation to their Liability to the Attack of Enemies." 



Roberts has been able to breed and rear the young of the 

 Tasmanian Devil (Sarcophilus harrisi) in captivity {ibid. 

 October 191 5). Eastman has traced the " Early Portrayals 

 of the Opossum" {Amer. Nat. October 191 5) and finds the 

 earliest reference as far back as 1 504. 



Thomas continues his output of papers on the smaller 

 mammals : Bats are dealt with in "A Special Genus for the 

 Himalayan Bat known as Murina grisea," " A new Genus of 

 Phyllostome Bats and a new Rhipidomys from Ecuador " 

 (both from Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. October 191 5) and " A 

 new Bat from Northern Nigeria" {ibid. November 191 5) I 

 Rats in " Further Notes on Asiatic Bamboo Rats " {ibid. 

 October 191 5). In continuation of his previous notes Dollman 

 writes " On the African Shrews belonging to the Genus Croci- 

 dura " {ibid. October 191 5). Notes " On some of the External 

 Characters of the Genus Linsang, with notes upon the Genera 

 Poiana and Eupheres " and " On some External Characters 

 of Galidia, Galidictis and related Genera " are given by Pocock 

 {Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. October 1915). 



In " On Specimens of Cuvier's Whale {Ziphius cavirostris) 

 from the Irish Coast " {Proc. Zool. Soc. October 191 5) Harmer 

 supplies evidence of two individuals of this species being 

 stranded in just over two years, so showing it may undoubtedly 

 be claimed as an inhabitant of British seas. Kloss describes 

 a collection of over 500 mammals he made on the coast and 

 islands of South-east Siam {ibid. November 1915)- 0ne 

 species and twenty-two sub-species were described as new. 

 " New Genera and Species of Mammals from the Miocene 

 Deposits of Beluchistan " are made the subject of a preliminary 

 notice by Forster-Cooper {Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. November 



1915). . 



General.— In the American Naturalist for the period under 

 review there are a number of papers dealing with various 

 experiments in breeding and inheritance. 



Pearl describes " Seventeen Years' Selection of a Character 

 showing Sex-linked Mendelian Inheritance " {Amer. Nat. 

 October 191 5) and concludes that selection can alter the com- 

 position of the population with respect to genetic determiners 

 by a process of sorting over what is already there and rejecting 



