556 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



Bones found during excavations on the site of the Roman 

 city of Corstopitum, near Newcastle-on-Tyne, in 1910, form the 

 subject of an article, by Messrs. A. Meek and R. H. A. Gray, 

 published in Archceologia ^Eliana, ser. 3, vol. vii. According to 

 the authors the bones and skulls of many of the oxen agree 

 closely with those of the white cattle of Chillingham and other 

 British parks ; a peculiarity said to characterise both being the 

 absence or early shedding of the antepenultimate lower pre- 

 molar tooth. On this ground Chillingham and Roman cattle 

 are declared to represent a new wild species, for which the 

 name Bos sylvestris is proposed ; the fact being ignored that park- 

 cattle already possess a scientific name — Urus scoticus of Hamilton 

 Smith — and likewise that the colour of these cattle is decisive 

 as to their domesticated origin. The alleged absence of the 

 anterior premolar is probably a feature due to domestication. 



Yet another paper dealing with Post-Tertiary formations is 

 one by Dr. J. A. Grieg, published in the Bergens Museum Aarbok 

 (191 1, No. 5), on the prehistoric fauna of Hardangervidden, 

 Norway. 



Very little has been known hitherto with regard to the Post- 

 Tertiary fauna of Portugal and it is therefore satisfactory to have 

 a summary of the present state of our information on the subject 

 by such a well-known specialist as Mr. E. Harle, whose com- 

 munication is published in Comm. Serv. Geol. Portugal (vol. v. 

 pp. 22-86). For the most part, at any rate, the birds and 

 mammals of these formations are the same as those from the 

 corresponding horizons of other parts of southern Europe. 

 Special interest attaches to the author's investigations with 

 regard to the alleged occurrence of mummified lemmings in a 

 Portuguese cavern. On the face of it, such alleged occurrence 

 was in the highest degree improbable and Mr. Harle considers 

 that it is based on error, no traces of these rodents having been 

 observed after a careful examination of cave debris. 



In an article on mammalian remains in the museum of 

 Troizhossawsk-Kiakhta, Transbaikalia, published by the Societe 

 Imperiale Russe de Geographic section du Pays d'Amour, 

 vol. xiii. pt. 1, Madame Pavlow records a number of well- 

 known Pleistocene and existing species, together with extinct 

 races of a few, such as the argali sheep (Ovis ammon) and 

 the markhor goat {Capra falconeri) which have not hitherto 

 been known in the fossil state. 



