582 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



works like a whistle or bag-pipe in producing the characteristic sounds. 

 From the Eustachian tube two other pouches can be inflated so that the 

 head-lappets stand out like forward directed ear-pinnae. Tornier shows 

 how the three sacs co-operate harmoniously when the chamaeleon is 

 excited by the approach of an enemy. 



Persistent Segmental Canals in Centrina.* — Joan Borcea notes 

 that, as Semper and Guitel have indicated, there are persistent segmental 

 funnels in Centrina. In an adult male he found 25 pairs of nephro- 

 stomes. 



Habits of the Sculpin.j — Theodore Gill gives an account of the 

 life and habits of Myoxocephalus scorpius, one of the most abundant 

 fishes in high northern seas. It is most frequently littoral ; it is un- 

 social, sluggish, and voracious ; it seems to feed chiefly on Crustaceans. 

 When taken in the hand it is apt to utter a gurgling sound — a voluntary 

 cry, according to Dufosse. 



Information as to fecundation is discrepant, but a legitimate inference 

 seems to be that when the sexual products are fully ripe the sexes may 

 come together, and the ova are fertilised just before or during protrusion, . 

 but sometimes there may be some arrest or retardation in passage of the 

 eggs, and then there may be internal fertilisation. 



The eggs are discharged about the beginning or middle of winter, 

 or, it may be, not before the beginning of spring. The egg-masses are 

 extruded in the sand or pools among the rocks, or attached to stones, 

 tangle roots, sea-weed, and the like. The males may make a nest of 

 sea-weeds and pebbles for the reception of the spawn, and the male may 

 brood over the mass, clasping it with his pectoral and ventral fins. Two 

 or three months may elapse before any eggs are hatched, but the time 

 required for development depends on the temperature. The sculpin has 

 little economic importance. 



Branchiostoma elongatum Sundevall.J — R. Goldschmidt finds that 

 this species described by Sundevall in 1852 is really distinct, and he 

 gives its diagnosis so far as the old type specimen at his disposal would 

 admit. The most characteristic features are the small size of the mouth, 

 the delicacy of the tentacular apparatus, and the reduction in the size of 

 the whole rostral region. It comes nearest to Branchiostoma calif orniense 

 Cooper. 



Zoogeographical Relations of South America.§ — G. Pfeffer dis- 

 cusses the reptiles, amphibians, and fishes of South America with especial 

 reference to the question of the former land connections of this continent 

 with Africa and Australia. We cannot do more than state his general 

 conclusion, that there is no need on zoogeographical grounds to assume 

 direct land connections between South America and Africa, or between 

 South America and Australia. In a criticism, || A. E. Ortmann maintains 

 that Pfeffer's survey is far too partial and too exclusively palaaontological 

 to justify his rejection of the theory. 



* Trav. Scient. Univ. Rennes, ii. (1904) pp. 178-80. 



t Smithsonian Misc. Collections, xlviii. (1905) pp. 348-59(11 figs.). 



X Zool. Jahrb. (1905) Supplement Bd. viii., pp. 407-42. 



§ Zool. Anzeig., xxix. (1905) pp. 132-3 (1 fig.). 



|| Amer. Naturalist, xxxix. (1905) pp. 413-16. 



