636 



Centrum gerichtet sind, während die andere noch verschiedenartige 

 Theilungsstadien aufweist. 



Die Entmcklung der Eier wie der Samenkörper von Spongilla 

 schließt sich somit in befriedigender Weise an die bei höheren Thieren 

 vielfach beobachteten Vorgänge an, wenn auch manche Besonderheiten 

 nicht zu verkennen sind. 



Zürich, den 28. October 1887. 



III. Mittheilungen aus Museen, Instituten etc. 



1. Linnean Society of London. 



3^ Nov. 1887. — The President commented on the loss the Society 

 had sustained by the deaths of Prof . Julius von Haast, N.Z., Dr. Spencer 

 Baird, U.S. and Prof. Caspary of Königsberg. — Mr. H. N. Ridley 

 gave an account of his Natural History Collection in Fernando Noronha. The 

 group of islands in question is in the S. Atlantic 194 miles East of Cape San. 

 Roque. The largest is about 5 miles long and 2 miles across at broadest part. 

 Although chiefly basaltic, phonolite rocks crop up here and there. The cliffs 

 are steep, but otherwise the soil is fertile ; there is an absence of sandy bays 

 on the south side. Generally speaking the specific animal forms differ on the 

 opposite sides of the main island. The indigenous fauna and flora seems to 

 have been much modified, and in some cases extirpated by human agency. 

 Of mammals the cat is reported to have become feral, and rats and mice 

 swarm ; Cetacea occasionally frequent the coast. The Land Birds comprise a 

 species of Dove, a Tyrant and a Greenlet [Virio). Sea Birds are numerous 

 but by no means so abundant as they were formerly when the island was first 

 discovered. Among the reptiles were found a species of Amphishaena, a Scink 

 [Euprepes punctatus) and a Gecko ; turtles are also frequently seen in the bays. 

 Batrachians and fresh water fish are entirely absent. One butterfly, a well 

 known Brazilian species was plentiful ; but insects though abundant were 

 poor in number of species. Two species of Trochi, called for remark as hav- 

 ing a southern distribution, the remainder of the marine shells and indeed 

 most of the marine fauna and flora show affinities to that of the West Indies. 

 — A paper was read viz. — Report on the Pennatulida of the Mergui 

 Archipelago by Prof. A. Milnes Marshall and Dr. J. Herbert Fowler. 

 The Collection made by Dr. John Anderson was from shallow water and 

 mud flats exposed to spring tides. Of 10 species, 2 are new and there are 

 several varieties not hitherto recorded. — J. Murie. 



IV. Personal -Notizen. 



Necrolog. 



Am 6. November starb in New Haven Professor Oscar H arger, Palae- 

 ontolog und Zoolog an der Yale Universität, besonders bekannt durch seine 

 Isopoden-Arbeiten. Er war in Oxford, Conn., am 12. Januar 1843 geboren 



Druck von Breitkopf & Härtel in Leipzig. 



