668 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



To the Bulletin of the Royal Academy of Belgium^ Class des 

 Sciences, 1910, No. 5, Mr. A. Rutot contributes an article on the 

 occurrence in Belgian caverns of layers containing remains of 

 Arctic rodents. Similar layers have been identified in Swiss 

 and German caves in association with those containing the 

 mammoth-fauna, which indicates a moderately cold climate, and 

 includes the Aurignacien and Solutreen stages. One of the 

 rodent zones contains a fauna comparable to that of the modern 

 European and Asiatic steppes, while a second includes one of 

 the type of the Siberian tundra. Both belong to the reindeer 

 epoch, but the tundra-like fauna alone indicates Arctic con- 

 ditions, Dicrostonyx torquatits, Microtus grcgalis, and Lagomys 

 pusillus representing Arctic types of rodents. All this indicates 

 the former prevalence of very similar climatic conditions over a 

 large extent of Europe. 



In North America the late Tertiary rodent fauna of Virgin 

 Valley and Thousand Creek, Nevada, forms the subject of an 

 article in the Geological Bulletin of California University, vol. v. 

 pp. 411-37, by Miss Louise Kellogg. Some of the species — 

 among which several are new — belong to existing genera, such 

 as Arctomys, Peronyscus, and Lepus, but others are referable to 

 the extinct Mylagaulus, Entoptychus, etc. The new genus 

 Diprionomys is proposed for two species related to Perognathus 

 and Perodipiis. 



The voles and lemmings of the late Pleistocene of the 

 British Isles are discussed in the Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 8, 

 vol. vi. pp. 34-9, by Mr. M. A. C. Hinton, who describes new 

 species of Arvicola, Microtus, and Dicrostonyx from the Ightham 

 fissures, Kent. Of these, A. abbotti is allied to the Scandinavian 

 form of the water-rat, now termed by advanced systematists 

 A. terrestris, but displays still more specialisation for burrowing. 

 Microtus corneri is nearly related to the Orkney M. orcadensis, 

 while M. anglicus, displays affinity to an Asiatic group separated 

 by Mr. Kastchenko as Stenocranius. Finally, Dicrostonyx henseli, 

 which also occurs in caverns in Derbyshire and Clare, in place 

 of being related to the Old Word D. torquatus, is allied to the 

 American D. hudsonianus. 



An important contribution to the relationships and phylo- 

 geny of the families of rodents is made by Dr. W. D. Matthew 

 in an article on the osteology and relationships of Paramys and 

 the affinities of the extinct family Ischyromyidce, of which it is 



