538 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



parenchyma. These are distinguished by the width of the alveoli. 

 Atria in the sense of Miller were found in none of these Cetaceans' 

 lungs. 



Fossil Cetacean, Agorophius pygmaeus, Miiller.* — F. W. True 

 gives an interesting account of this fossil, based upon an excellent plate 

 prepared more than fifty years ago by the Smithsonian Institution, and 

 never published. The fossil itself, unfortunately, cannot now be traced. 

 It is of interest, first as representing a very distinct genus, and secondly 

 as representing a possible direct ancestor of the whalebone-whales. The 

 author does not think there is much probability in the latter sugges- 

 tion, which originated with Paul Gervais in 1871. It is a primitive 

 form, and its association with Squalodon has much to commend it. It 

 is not unlikely that some such form was the ancestor of typical 

 Squalodon and Squalodon ehrlichii, which latter species appears to be 

 intermediate between the two genera. 



Ancestry of Lemurs.f — E, Trouessart ascribes to the Lemurs two 

 distinct branches which are probably derived from a common stem : 

 (1) those of Madagascar and the majority of the fossils of the phos- 

 phorites of Quercy, which have dilated tympanic bullae ; (2) those of Asia 

 and Africa, together with the fossil Necrolemur, which have flattened 

 bullffi. The former group has undergone a very complete evolution, at 

 the same time preserving a very uniform organisation. It is quite 

 evident they have reached a final stage of development in Madagascar. 

 They are not to be reckoned as in the ancestral line of the Apes. 



Migration of Birds. J — Otto Herman has brought together a mass 

 of opinion on this subject from numerous sources and arranged it in a very 

 clear and convenient form. Its object is to promote the science of 

 ornithophffinology, to substitute for local detached observations, which are 

 for the most part confined to the palfearctic part of Europe, international 

 concerted observations. He proposes an international committee of 

 _ ornithosystematicians, ornithobiologists, ornithophsenologists, phytophse- 

 nologists, and meteorologists. These shall draw up a plan of observation 

 of migration, chiefly in respect of («) uniformity of data, {h) uniform 

 method of working up. The scheme originates with the Hungarian 

 central office of ornithology. 



Studies on Penguins.§ — W. P. Pycraft communicates some inter- 

 esting notes on the nestling and embryos of the Emperor and Ad^be 

 penguins collected by the naturalists of the ' Discovery.' The embryo- 

 - logical evidence points conclusively to what the pala3ontological 

 evidences hint at — that penguins are descended from birds which 

 possessed full powers of flight. It is suggested that the Steganopodes 

 represent a common ancestral stock, from which have descended the 

 Sphenisci, Colymbi, and Turbinares, on the one hand, and the Ciconise, 



* Smithsonian Institute Publications, No. 1694 (1907) 8 pp., 1 pi. 



t Bull. Soc. Zool. France, xxxii. (1907) pp. 13-14. See also C.R. Soc. Biol. 

 Paris, Ixi. (1906) p. 712. 



X Recensio Critica Automatica of the Doctrine of Bird Migration. Budapest, 

 1905, Royal Hungarian Ministry of Agriculture. 



§ National Antarctic Expedition, ii. (1907) 28 pp., 1 pi. and 8 figs. 



