1893. NOTES SAND <C OMVEEING SS. 253 
are beginning to die out. Dr. Reichenow presented a specimen of 
one of these birds, a very rare and costly Aptevyx hasseltt, which in- 
habits the northern island of New Zealand, and whiie 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 précis 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 
footpath 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. Jonn H. Cooke has an interesting paper in the February 
number of the Mediterranean 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 arctos, Cervus, Elephas and Hippopotamus, together with frag- 
ments of pottery of prephcenician 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 Hivudo 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 
Mesobdella, After describing in detail the structure of the animal, 
