December 8, 1910J 



NATURE 



177 



In the first part of the Journal of the Royal Anthropo- 

 logical Institute Mr. W. Crooke discusses the origin of 

 the Rajputs and Mahrattas, the warrior tribes of India. 

 He identifies among the former a considerable intermixture 

 of Central Asian blood derived from the Hun invasions, 

 and he holds that they. constitute a status group developed 

 from a stock of which the lower grades are now repre- 

 sented by the Jats and Gujars of the Punjab. The 

 Mahrattas he also considers to be a status group developed 

 from the Kunbi tribe, and now claiming affinity with the 

 Rajputs. He questions the validity of the suggestion that 

 the brachycephalic element in southern India is the result 

 of emigration of Huns or Scythians under pressure from 

 the Aryans. It may be more reasonably accounted for 

 by a prehistoric movement of races from the west either 

 by the land route or in the course of commerce which 

 existed with the Euphrates valley from a very early 

 period. 



Our note in Nature of November 24 (p. 114) upon the 

 suggested inversion of the expression " thunder and 

 lightning " leads another correspondent to point out that 

 the phrase "animals and birds," inadvertently used on 

 the same page, is open to the objection that it suggests 

 that birds are not animals. He proposes the term " beasts, 

 birds and fishes " as comprehensive and sufficiently 

 distinctive. 



Dr. R. Horst has favoured us with a copy of an 

 account of a new species of peripatus (Paraperipatiis 

 lorentzi) from Dutch New Guinea, published in vol. xxxii. 

 (pp. 217-8) of Notes from the Leyden Museum. The 

 species, which is fortunately represented by a male and a 

 female, is of interest as filling a gap in the distribution 

 of the group. The two specimens were discovered in 

 moss on Mount Wichmann, at a height of between 9000 

 and 10,000 feet. In colour the new spepies is dark 

 greenish-blue, becoming somewhat paler on the under side, 

 and with a median central row of small whitish spots. 



When Dr. J. Huber succeeded Prof. E. A. Goeldi as 



; director of the Museu Goeldi (Museu Paraense) in March, 



I 1907, the opportunity was taken of reorganising the staff 



I of that institution on a new and improved footing. These 



j changes, as well as the general progress of the museum, 



are recorded in the reports for 1907 and 1908, which 



form the first portion of vol. vi. of the Boletim do Museu 



Goeldi, which, although relating to the year 1909, has 



only just been published. The zoological gardens attached 



to the museum, which are largely devoted to the exhibition 



of the animals of the country, appear to be in a thriving 



condition, having received a large number of accessions 



during the period under review. 



The pharyngeal teeth of fishes form the subject of an 

 iclei, by Colonel C. E. Shepherd, in the November 

 number of the Zoologist. These organs, except in the 

 case of the wrasse and carp groups, have, according to the 

 author, received but scant attention at the hands of 

 naturalists. After referring to their different structural 

 types, Colonel Shepherd expresses the opinion that pharyn- 

 geal teeth are probably the chief masticating organs, as 

 they are undoubtedly in carp and wrasse. Fish-eating 

 species, which swallow their prey whole, would have the 

 action of the gastric juice facilitated if the bodies of the 

 fishes swallowed had the scaly coat broken by means of the 

 iDharyngeal teeth. These teeth also assist in working the 

 ood down into the oesophagus. 



The local pearl and pearl-shell fishery forms the sub- 

 t of an article by Mr. A. Scale in the July number 

 1. v., No. 2) of the Philippine Journal of Science. Two 

 NO. 2145, VOL. 85] 



species of pearl-oyster are found in Philippine waters, the 

 valuable gold-lip, Margaritifera maxima, and the less 

 precious black-lip, M. margaritifera. With the exception 

 of those used in a factory at Manila, which is capable of 

 turning out about 6000 gross of buttons per month, and 

 consumes about 300 tons per annum, all the shells are 

 exported to Singapore or Europe. Although almost the 

 whole area from Sibutu Passage to Basilan Strait and the 

 south shore of Mendanao is a potential pearl-bank ; most 

 of the banks have been over-fished, and it is now difficult 

 to find productive ones. One bank was recently found in 

 which all the shells were dead, and so corroded as to be 

 valueless. The fisheries afford a fair yield of pearls, 

 although much less than the Ceylon output, which comes 

 from a smaller species, with shells of little value. On 

 the other hand, some of the finest known pearls are the 

 product of the Sulu fishery. The Japanese are producing 

 pearls, although not of good shape, by introducing foreign 

 objects into the oysters, and the author states that within 

 the next few years it will be possible to produce perfectly 

 spherical pearls of good lustre. 



To tlie Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum, 

 No. 1778, Messrs. Everman and Latimer communicate the 

 first complete list of the fishes of the Lake of the W'oods 

 and neighbouring waters, so far as at present known. 

 Although the Lake of the Woods, which forms the re- 

 ceptacle for the waters of Rainy River, lies mainly in 

 Ontario, its southern border is situated on the northern 

 frontier of Minnesota, and therefore belongs to the United 

 States. On account of the recent treaty between Great 

 Britain and the United States, which provides for the 

 federal control of the fisheries in these waters, an account 

 of their fish-fauna is a matter of some importance at the 

 present time. The fisheries in the Lake of the Woods, 

 which are carried on by means of nets, are of very large 

 economical value, having yielded in 1909 a total sum of 

 42,193 dollars, of which 28,051 pertained to the United 

 States and 14,142 to Canada. In 1894 the total value was, 

 however, as much as 81,337 dollars. The most valuable 

 product is the great lakes sturgeon (Acipenser rubicundus), 

 which formerly swarmed in Lake of the W^oods, and in 

 1893 yielded no fewer than 26,000 dollars, although of 

 late, like that of the rest of the fishery, the yield has been 

 much less. During the last few years a slight increase in 

 the catch is, however, reported, but this may be due to 

 closer fishing. 



In connection with the preservation of localities where 

 rare plants or special plant associations are found, atten- 

 tion is directed to a paper, by Mr. A. R. Horwood, on 

 the extinction of cryptogamic plants, published in the 

 Transactions of the South-Eastern Union of Scientific 

 Societies (1910). The author discusses the numerous 

 factors that lead to the extinction of plants, and presents 

 the results of special inquiry with regard to Ireland, 

 where perhaps the most destructive factor is the collector, 

 who in the south-west counties raids the ferns Trichomanes 

 radicans and Osmunda regalis. 



In the Victorian Naturalist (vol. xxvii., No. 6) is pub- 

 lished a report by Mr. J. W. Audas on a botanical expedi- 

 tion in the Victorian Alps, and a list of plants recorded 

 from the district that has been compiled by Dr. A. J. 

 Ewart. Out of 334 species, one-third belong to the three 

 families Compositae, Leguminosae, and Myrtaceae, while 

 the families Saxifragaceae and Ericaceae are only repre- 

 sented by Bauera rubiginosa and Gaultheria hispida ; a 

 single gentian, Gentiana saxosa, is found. The one 

 endemic plant is a bushy labiate, Wesfringia senifolia. 



