'28 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



■conclusions.' * For concrete illustration, incomparably the best guide 

 is Heincke's ' Naturgeschicbte des Herings ' (1898), while the mathe- 

 matical basis must be sought for in the works of Gralton and Pearson, 

 to which references will be found in the bibliographies furnished by 

 Duncker, Davenport, and Kyle. 



Additional Carpalia.f — Hen* P. Eisler has investigated a number of 

 human subjects with a view to determining the frequency of carpal 

 variation. In about sixty extremities, two only showed additional 

 •carpals. Both belonged to the same subject — a young male. The 

 right carpus contained three completely separated additional bones — 

 ■an epipyramis, a trapezoides secundarium, and a styloideum ; the left 

 contained only a trapezoides secundarium. 



Selective Elimination of Sparrows.:}: — ■ Prof. H. C. Bumpus has 

 illustrated the elimination of the unfit in connection with the English 

 sparrow in the United States. After a severe storm a number of be- 

 numbed sparrows were brought to the laboratory. Seventy-two revived ; 

 sixty-four perished ; and a careful comparison (the results of which 

 are tabulated in detail) led to three conclusions : — (1) That the birds 

 which perished were eliminated not indiscriminatingly, but because of 

 observable deficiency in certain structural characters possessed by the 

 survivors ; (2) that the process of selective elimination is most severe 

 with extremely variable individuals, no matter in what direction the 

 variation may be ; and (3) that disregard of structural qualifications (as 

 in the introduced sparrow) finally produces a throng of degenerates, 

 whose destruction will follow the arrival of adversity. 



Variations of Hyla regilla.§ — Dr. F. C. Test reads a lesson to 

 impetuous species-makers. No fewer than seven names have been 

 applied by different persons at various times to tree-frogs from beyond 

 the Rockies. To clear up the matter, Dr. Test has examined the 512 

 specimens from 75 localities now preserved in the U.S. National 

 Museum. The conclusion is that the various species of Pacific hylas 

 described within the last forty-five years appear to have been established 

 on insufficient characters, and intergrade to such a degree as not to be 

 specifically or even subspecifically separable. All are referable to one 

 species, Hyla regilla of Baird and Girard. 



Respiration in Birds.|| — Prof. R. Dubois recalls Soum's thesis the 

 conclusion of which was that the air-sacs work not in antagonism but in 

 synergism with the lungs, and that the latter are dilatable. Dubois 

 has confirmed this by using the X-rays, whereby it was possible to prove 

 de visu the synergic movements of the air-sacs and the movements of 

 contraction and dilatation on the part of the lungs. 



P ^ Respiration in Chelonians.il — Prof. E. Couvreur has made observa- 

 tions on Cisiudo europsea. He notes the previous results of Charbonnel- 

 Salle that pauses occur in full inspiration and are due to occlusion of 

 the glottis, and that while in Testudo the respiratory movements are 



* Natural Science, xv. (1899) pp. 410-22. 



t Anat. Anzeig., xvi. (1899) pp. 4S7-9 (1 fig.). 



I Biol. Lectures Wood's Holl, 1898, Boston, 1899, pp. 209-26*. 



§ Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus , xxi. (1899) pp. 477-92 (1 pi.). 



1| Ann. Soc. Linn. Lyon, xlv. (1899) pp. 95-6. % Tom. cit., pp. 5-8 (4 figs.). , 



