174 



NATURE 



[Dec. 30, 1875 



Breadth of view is indeed essential, if anywhere, in such an 

 investigation as the present. A restricted insight and experience 

 would fail to detect and to demonstrate the sulistantial unity of 

 structure existing in the palate of Lizards and of Woodpeckers, 

 still more to establish the more minute relationships between 

 the Rhynchosaurian Hatteria and various members of the Wood- 

 pecker group. This is what has been done. The well-defined 

 group of the Woodpeckers, including the sub-family of Wry- 

 necks, is so connected by its embryonic and adult palatal struc- 

 tures with the Lizards, that the name *' Saurognathse " is to be 

 substituted for the morphologically-unexpressive term " Celeo- 

 morphse," applied to them by Prof. Huxley. Their palatal 

 region is arrested at a most simple and Lacertian stage, whilst 

 in other respects they are metamorphosed and specialised beyond 

 any other kind of birds. 



The characteristics of the Saurognathous type of palate may 

 be summarised as follows : — Retention and ossification of tra- 

 becular cornua ; great number and bilateral independence of the 

 vomerine series of bones, some of which are azygous (vomers, 

 septo-maxillaries, median septo-maxillary) ; absence of a distinct 

 mesopterygoid, represented, however, by a long process ; a 

 dagger-shaped basipalatine between the right and left bones ; 

 absence of a distinct transpalatine ; abortive development of 

 maxillo-palatine plates, and presence of a distinct palato- 

 maxillary on the left side only. 



One of the most instructive specimens figured is Picumnus 

 minutns, a woodpecker from Bahia, Brazil, of about the size of 

 the Golden-crested Wren. In it the vomers retain in the adult 

 the condition manifested in the young of the Green Woodpecker, 

 and much resembling the vomers of Hatteria, In other respects 

 it presents resemblances to various Passerines of its own zoologi- 

 cal area ; and from it the author's imagination is led down to 

 extinct types in which the characters of the Hemipod, the low 

 Passerine, and the Woodpecker were existent in one generalised 

 form — a form ^and a type only a step or two above the Ostrich 

 tribe. 



Numerous hints are given in this paper which lead us to look 

 with great interest for Prof. Parker's forthcoming paper on the 

 ^githognathae (Passerines) in the Zoological Transactions ; and we 

 may fitly close this notice with a pregnant passage referring to the 

 ^githognathous palate, showing to what problems of surpassing 

 import these researches are supplying an answer. " I have long 

 been familiar with its more marked peculiarities ; but its mor- 

 phological importance dawned upon me when I saw that the 

 parts of that complex face, so conjugated and so metamorphosed, 

 were really built up of elements which had their true counter- 

 parts or " symmorphs " in the Snake. But the Snake does but 

 repeat these parts from the Amphibia ; and the Amphibia 

 borrow them from the Cartilaginous Fishes, amongst the lowest 

 of which, namely the Lamprey, may be found the fullest deve- 

 lopment, both morphologically and functionally, of cartilages 

 that form the substratum of the most peculiar part of a sparrow's 

 face." 



NOTES 



At the meeting of the Zoological Society, on Tuesday next. 

 Prof. Huxley will read an important paper on the Anatomy of 

 Ceratodus and Chimcera, and on the Classification of Pishes. 



At the recent anniversary meeting of the -French Geographical 

 Society M. Maunoir, the General Secretary, gave a highly satis- 

 factory report. The receipts of the Society exceed 70,000 francs ; 

 ten years ago they were only 28,000. The number of members 

 admitted from the beginning of the year is about 350, and 

 about 1,400 are now registered. The receipts from money 

 taken at the doors of the Geographical Congress and from dona- 

 tions, amounted to 175,000 francs, and the expenses to 155,000; 

 a sum of 20,000 francs remaining in the hands of the Society 

 will be devoted to the publication of the congressional papers. 

 The place of meeting of the next congress has not yet been 

 decided upon ; it will probably be St. Petersburg. 



The Daily Telegraph publishes further details concerning 

 Lieut. Cameron's expedition obtained from the Madeira cor- 

 respondent of the paper. Cameron, it seems, intended to 

 remaia at Loando until an opportunity arrived lor sending his 

 men home round by the Cape to the East Coast. It is understood 

 that the traveller has accumulated some very valuable geogra- 



phical materials, besides a large amount of general scientific in- 

 formation. It appears that he followed a large river flowing out 

 of Lake Tanganyika in a south-westerly direction, tracing its 

 whole course till he came upon a new lake, which he named 

 "Livingstone," From this body of water a second large river 

 runs westward, which Cameron, having traced it for a con- 

 siderable part of its length, beHeves to be the Congo. It would 

 seem that he was unable to continue along the river on account 

 of meeting with a' tribe of hostile natives. He had to choose 

 between fighting his way through these unfriendly natives, with 

 the risk of losing all his journals and papers, or of taking a 

 different direction. The latter alternative seemed preferable, 

 and though it prevented the absolute verification of his im- 

 portant discovery he has personally no doubt that the stream 

 flowing out of the Livingstone Lake and the Congo are one and 

 the same. 



The Birmingham Gazette understands that Sir Josiah Mason 

 is about to make another very substantial gift to the new scientific 

 college which he is now building at Birmingham. When the foun- 

 dation-stone was laid in February last it was understood that the 

 mere building of the college would cost 100,000/., and Sir Josiah 

 also transferred to trustees, as an endowment for the college, the 

 piles of buildings in which his monster pen manufacture had so 

 long been conducted. Now Sir Josiah is also about to hand over 

 to the trustees the business itself, or rather the whole amount 

 which he is about to -receive for the concern, and which is 

 expected to be about 100,000/. The whole of this sum, it is 

 said, Sir Josiah intends to give to the college. The money will 

 probably be invested in the names of the local gentlemen who 

 have already been appointed trustees, and will form a permanent 

 endowment for the institution. 



A PRIVATE gentleman, being about to make a voyage to the 

 West Indies in pursuit of objects of interest in natural science, 

 has arranged to avail himself of the companionship and scientific 

 services of the Rev. H. H. Higgins, of Liverpool. He will 

 probably be away about four months cruising about the islands, 

 and he will take with him two gentlemen— one a draftsman, and 

 the other a collector, from the William Brown Street Museum, 

 Liverpool. The expedition is made expressly for observations 

 and collections in zoology and botany, and Mr. Higgins will 

 have an opportunity of carrying on dredging operation?. Very 

 advantageous terms have, we believe, been arranged as to the 

 division of the treasures which will be the result of the voyage. 

 Mr. Higgins will be glad to receive suggestions with regard to 

 the work he is about to undertake. 



The scientific public will be glad to learn that a movement 

 has been set on foot to enlarge the existing Wigan Mining and 

 Mechanical School, inaugurated eighteen years ago by Dr. Lyon 

 Playfair, and now numbering nearly 200 evening students. At 

 a public meeting held at Wigan on the 24th inst., attended by 

 nearly all the colliery proprietors _of the district, resolutions were 

 passed, resolving to establish a permanent building with museum, 

 laboratory, and all the appliances for giving a thorough technical 

 education in Mining, Mechanics, Geology, Machme Construc- 

 tion, Steam, and Chemistry, Large subscriptions have already 

 been promised, including 1,000/, from Lord Crawford and Bal- 

 carres, 500/, from Mr. Hewlett, the Managing Director of the 

 Wigan Coal and Iron Company, who promise 125/. a year. 



On Monday the Prince of Wales opened the new Zoological 

 Garden at Calcutta, recently formed under the auspices of the 

 Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal. 



The Municipal Council of Paris has voted a handsome sum 

 of money in support of the State Academies of Paris. The vote 

 was carried by twenty-three against nineteen. The minority 

 was composed of clericals who are opposed to the instruction 

 given by Government, and ultra-republicans, who are opposed to 

 the grant of any money for superior instruction. 



