i893. NOTES AND COMMENTS. 253 



are beginning to die out. Dr. Reichenow presented a specimen of 

 one of these birds, a very rare and costly Apteyjx hasselti, which, in- 

 habits the northern island of New Zealand, and while resembling an 

 ostrich, is very much larger." 



Dr. Nikitin has issued his seventh Record of the Geological 

 Literature of Russia (for 1891). This record contains 452 items, the 

 titles and a precis of the contents being given in Russian and French. 

 Dr. Nikitin must be congratulated on the issue of this most useful 

 work, and especially on the French translation, but for which, to the 

 ■ majority of foreigners, the rich geological literature of Russia would 

 be unavailable. The most gratifying features, perhaps, in the book 

 are the numerous and voluminous reports issued by the Governments 

 on the nature of the soil and its agricultural value, and other matters 

 of applied geology. This is the true aim and end of geology as far 

 as the public is concerned, and we would like to see some works of 

 this nature issue from our own Governmental office. 



We are glad to observe, in the " Report of the Committee on the 

 Present Condition of the Ordnance Survey," noticed under " Some 

 N :;w Books," that the Commissioners state (p. xxxii.) " that the 

 absence of a path on the Ordnance Survey Map is no proof that there 

 is not a right of way." This is a considerable improvement on the 

 legend which appears on some of the recent one-inch maps, which 

 reads thus : " The representation on this map of a road, track, or 

 footpatli is no evidence of the existence of a right of way," and we 

 hope the legend will promptly be altered in all cases to the revised 

 version. 



Mr. John H. Cooke has an interesting paper in the February 

 number of the Mediteryanean Naturalist on " Some evidences of the 

 occupation of the Maltese Islands by Prehistoric Man." He describes 

 the evidences obtained by previous observers, and then relates his 

 own results from the exploration of the Har Dalam Cave in 1892. Mr. 

 Cooke found a stone implement and a human metacarpal associated 

 with Ursus avctos, Cevvus, Elephas and Hippopotamus^ together with frag- 

 ments of pottery of prephoenician page. The main results have been 

 contributed to the Royal Society, and to the Geological Magazine 

 (December, 1892), but the collating together of all the observations 

 makes an interesting and useful article. 



The leech Hirudo brevis, described by Grube from Chili in 1871, 

 has been lately examined by Blanchard, who has given his opinion 

 to the Academy of Sciences, Paris {Compte Rendu, 27th February, 

 1893), that it should form the type of a new genus, which he calls 

 Mesohdella. After describing in detail the structure of the animal, 



