Miscellaneous. 297 



Diluvial ancestor of the African feunec (Fennecus, Gray) may come 

 under consideration. 



That our existing wild Canidae (wolf, jackal, and fox) may in the 

 lapse of time have been employed in crossing with true dogs, and 

 thus might have contributed to the formation of race-forms (e. g. 

 perhaps the sheepdog and wolfdog), I will not at present dispute ; 

 but the question whether and how far this may be the case, as well 

 as the question how far still living forms referred to the groups of 

 the wolf or the fox (such as Lupus pallipes, Gray, and Lupus japo- 

 nicus, jSTehring, and other wild Canidao of Asia and Africa) approach 

 or correspond with the remains of our Diluvial true dogs, and, 

 further, the question whether and how far the forms of Cuon, Gray, 

 occurring with us in the Diluvium, and which, by the peculiar 

 texture of their teeth approach rather to the true dogs than to 

 the wolves, may have taken part in the formation of the races of our 

 domestic dogs, will have to be shown by further detailed iavesti- 

 gations. 



This, however, appears to me to be certain, that the ancestors of 

 our European races of domestic dogs no longer exist (in Europe). 

 At the same time I regard it as very probable that the so-called 

 feral dogs of Syria are not "feral" domestic dogs at all, but the 

 remnant of a Diluvial true wdld dog, to be brought into union with 

 Canis familiaris pdlusti'is and laclogensis. Whether this is the case 

 also with the " feral " dogs of Africa I caimot at present assert. — 

 Anzeiger k.-k. Akad. Wiss. Wieii, January 21, 1S86, pp. 12-16. 



Pelagic Animah from Freshwater Basins in Alsace-Lorraine. 

 By Dr. 0. E. Imhof. 



I took the opportunity of my presence at the fifty-eighth meeting 

 of German naturalists and physicians at Strasburg to make an excur- 

 sion on 23rd September last for the investigation of the microscopic 

 fauna of the so-called " Weiher " between Saarburg and Dienze, 

 in the north-w^est part of Alsace-Lorraine. There are here a number 

 of larger and smaller accumulations of fresh water, which, with the 

 exception of two, namely the Mittersheimer- and Gunderchingen- 

 "Weiher (both the property of the State), are periodically for some 

 years laid dry and cidtivated over almost their whole extent. The 

 largest of them may be the Linden-Weiher, near Dienze, the bottom 

 of which is at present under cultivation. Some of these reservoirs 

 of water are of considerable extent ; thus the above-mentioned Mit- 

 tersheimer-^\^eiher measures about 4| kilometres in length. 



On the 23rd September, by means of the pelagic net, I collected 

 material in three of these pools, namely the Mittersheimer-, Nieder- 

 stein-, and Zemmingeu-Weiher. In the last I had a boat at my 

 command, while in the former two freshwater basins I attained my 

 object by throwing out the net from the sluice, where in general 

 the deepest part occurs. 



