ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 449 



Ckaco. The nest is suspended from bushes overhanging a pool into 

 which the tadpoles drop when they are hatched. The lower ends of a 

 number of leaves are drawn together by a deposit of empty egg-capsules. 

 The nest is filled with a mixture, and there is a plug of empty cases at 

 the top. The empty cases serve as shields from sun and air, and they 

 provide an extra source of fluid ; the plug at the bottom keeps the nest 

 intact till the larvas are ready to fall out. In the less perfect nests the 

 mortality is greater. 



Abnormalities in Frog's Circulation.* — Chas. H. O'Donoghue 

 describes three cases in which there was a persistence of the posterior 

 cardinal vein or veins, and an absence of all but the inter-renal segment 

 of the post-caval. He notes a number of abnormalities in the renal 

 portals, and comments on the fact that eight out of nine specimens were 

 males. Woodland's theory of the non-portal nature of the kidney in 

 the frog is adversely criticised. Evidence from abnormalities and 

 experiments seems to show clearly that the kidney has a true portal 

 circulation. 



Kidney of Teleosteans.f — J. Audige has made a detailed study of 

 the macroscopic and microscopic structure of the kidney in numerous 

 Teleostean types, such as Barbusjiuviatilis, Lophius, AnguiUa, Ophidium, 

 Perca, Gasterosteus. He distinguishes three regions — anterior, abdominal, 

 and terminal — which differ distinctly, though by no means brusquely, in 

 their degree of differentiation. Embryologically, however, the various 

 parts are synchronous — the kidney of Teleosteans is a mononephros. 



Caudal Fin of Elopida? and some other Teleosteans. J — C. Tate Regan 

 points out that the homocercal fin should be defined not by the presence 

 of a urostyle formed by the fusion of up-turned vertebras, but by the 

 modification of posterior neural arches into " uroneurals," which 

 functionally replace and so lead to the suppression of the centra of the 

 upturned vertebra?. 



Tensor Muscle of Choroid in Teleosteans.§ — E. Grynfeldt finds that 

 what has hitherto been regarded as a ciliary ligament in the anterior 

 segment of the eye in Teleosteans, superficially in the middle tunic, is a 

 muscle for which he proposes the name " tensor of the choroid." 



Segmental Structure of Motor Nerve Plexus in Elasmobranchs.|| 

 E. S. Goodrich modifies to some extent his conclusion that the four 

 radial muscles of a segment are supplied only by the one spinal nerve 

 belonging to the myotome from which they arose. Mollier and Braus 

 are right in thinking that the adult radial muscles are to some extent 

 mixed, and that the bridges connecting the base of the muscle buds at 

 a certain stage in their development really represent a migration of 

 muscle-forming substance from one segment to another. But the mixing 

 in Raja is very slight. 



* Anat. Anzeig., xxxvi. (1910) pp. 355-69 (5 figs.). 

 t Arch. Zool. Exper., iv. (1910) pp. 275-624 (1 pi. and 104 figs.). 

 % Ann. Nat. Hist., v. (1910) p. 354-8 (2 figs.). 

 § Comptes Rendus, cl. (1910) pp. 420-1. 

 || Anat. Anzeig., xxxvi. (1910) pp. 109-12. 



Aug. 17th, 1910 2 n 



