December 29, 1910] 



NATURE 



279 



Mr. Lucas has enclosed a copy, the statement is " that 

 not more than 95 per cent, of the three-year-old male 

 seals be killed in any one year," which is, of course, a 

 very different matter. Mr. Lucas adds that all male fur- 

 •^eals over a certain size are not killed, but left to grow 

 up, and that under the rules in force for the last five 

 years the number of adult males has steadily increased, 

 while the females have as steadily decreased, and will 

 loubtless continue to do so if pelagic sealing be not 

 stopped. 



In a paper on animals in Glen Garry Forest, published 

 \\\ vol. vi., part iii., of the Transactions of the Edinburgh 

 I'ield Naturalists' and Microscopical Society, Mr. 

 Svmington Grieve states that whereas half a century ago 

 he sea-eagle was far more numerous in Scotland than 

 I he golden eagle, at the present time precisely the opposite 

 of this is the case. The golden eagle, owing to the pro- 

 tection afforded to it by landowners, is increasing in 

 numbers throughout the Highlands in suitable districts. 

 On the other hand the sea-eagle, which formerly abounded 

 'in the cliffs of the west coast, has nearly disappeared, 

 md in the author's opinion, in default of more efficient 

 protection than it at present receives, will cease to breed 

 in Britain within a few years. Mr. Grieve is also of 

 c^inion that the wild cat is oh the increase in Scotland, 

 \ owing to the instructions issued by proprietors and factors 

 for its preservation. 



In an article on the spawn and larva of the salamander 

 \mh\ystoma jeffersonianum, published in the American 

 J Naturalist for December, Prof. W, H. Piersol directs 

 attention to the low vitality of many of the eggs. 

 Although no accurate census has been taken, it is estimated 

 that under natural conditions three-fourths of the eggs 

 do not live to commence gastrulation, and the same pro- 

 portion of loss occurs in spawn kept in the laboratory. 

 The egg does not die as a whole, but while some cells 

 perish at an early period, others develop to a certain stage, 

 only to die later. These dead eggs imbibe water and 

 become larger than the rest, and in the natural condition 

 become infested with a fungus. Since, however, this 

 fungus does not make its appearance in spawn reared in 

 the laboratory, it is manifest that the mortality is due to 

 some other cause. On the other hand the spawn of the 

 allied .4. punctatum, both in the natural condition and in 

 the laboratory, suffers practically no loss. 



The Live Stock Journal Almanac for 191 1 contains the 



usual amount of valuable information regarding horses 



ind pedigree stock of all kinds for 1910, together with a 



lumber of articles on subjects of current interest by 



. arious specialists. Sir Walter Gilbey, for instance, dis- 



usses the effect of the rapid increase of motor vehicles 



■n the prices of horses, and finds that although fewer 



.lOrses are required in this country than was the case ten 



>ears ago, yet prices in all classes are fully up to their 



lid level. This affords evidence that the supply has fallen 



''art passu with the demand, and this, from a military 



.loint of view, is a serious matter. On the other hand, 



lie demand for shire horses is fully maintained. In 



mother article Lord William Cecil directs attention to the 



value of our mountain and moorland breeds of ponies, on 



;ccount of their stamina and hardiness, and advocates that 



' "Overnment should take into consideration the advisability 



of breeding a serviceable class of horse from pony mares. 



In an article on the connection between the various breeds 



■»f British cattle and the nature of the soil on which 



hey are reared, Mr. P. McConnell revives the theory that 



he red colour of Herefords is connected with the red 



NO. 2148, VOL. 85] 



rocks of their native county. He forgets, however, to 

 add that the Sussex breed is also red- Apparently he also 

 believes that white park cattle are an aboriginally wild 

 stock. 



Dr. Glido Sala (Mem. R. 1st. Lombardo Sc. e Lettere, 

 Classe Sc.y xxi., fasc. iv.) has published some interesting 

 observations on the cells of the ciliary ganglion. In the 

 human foetus of six or seven months the cells are com- 

 paratively simple ; they have few superficial prolongations 

 (each ending in a bulbous enlargement), and a pericellular 

 network is seldom present. At the time of birth the cells 

 and their processes are larger, and six or seven months 

 later loop-like outgrowths of the cell begin to appear, and 

 later become more numerous, larger, and more complex. 

 In adults there is a complex pericellular network of fine 

 deeply staining fibrils, which completely envelops the cell, 

 and there is often a spiral fibril round the axone. In old 

 persons the cells exhibit modifications and assume almost 

 the aspect of embryonic elements, and the protoplasmic 

 processes of the cell are, for the most part, short and 

 thick. In the same memoirs (fasc. iii.) Prof. Livini gives 

 some notes on the development of the trachea in the chick. 

 In embryos of about ninety-four hours' incubation the 

 lower end of the trachea and the origins of the bronchi 

 become narrowed and then occluded, but the lumen is 

 restored before the one hundred and eighteenth hour of 

 incubation. A little later the greater part of the trachea 

 becomes similarly narrowed and temporarily closed. 



Among thirty-one forms of lichen collected by Ir. M. 

 Shegolef in the Jugjur chain (Stanovoi), Umbilicaria 

 caroliniana and Usnea cavernosa are of special interest, as 

 the former has been previously reported only from America 

 and the latter only from America and India (Bulletin of 

 the Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg, No. 7, 

 19 10). U. cavernosa seems to be widely distributed in 

 eastern Siberia, for it is abundantly represented in 

 Shegolef's collection. 



Among ostracoda collected by D. Pedashenko in Issyk- 

 kul is Herpetocyprella mongolica, of a new genus which 

 resembles Candona and Eucandona in the absence of 

 swimming bristles to the second pair of antennae, but is 

 very different in many other respects (Travaux de la Soc. 

 Imp. des Naturalistes de St. Petersbourg, vol. xxix., 

 fasc. 2, part i^). Other new species are Cypricercus 

 mongolicus and Cytheridea pedaschenkoi. 



At the annual meeting of the Lancashire and Cheshire 

 Entomological Society, held in Liverpool on December 19, 

 Mr. R. Newstead, of the Liverpool School of Tropical 

 Medicine, delivered his vice-presidential address on " Some 

 Morphological Characters of the Genus Glossina. " He 

 stated that he has made a careful examination of the 

 armature of the males of all the hitherto described species 

 of the genus Glossina, and it has not only revealed some 

 very striking morphological characters, but has led to the 

 discovery of three hitherto undescribed species : — Glossina 

 submorsitans, Newst. ; G. brevipalpis, Newst. ; and G. 

 fuscipes, Newst. ; and the le-establishment of Bigot's 

 G. grossa. The scheme of classification adopted is based 

 entirely upon the taxonomic characters of the male arma- 

 ture, which are the true and almost only natural 

 anatomical elements that can at present be found in these 

 insects. Mr. Newstead has found that the species fall 

 into three striking and distinct groups, each being 

 separated by very trenchant characters. The groups 

 are : — (i) The fusca group, including the four largest 

 species of the genus : G. fusca, Walker ; G. grossa, Bigot, 

 which have a western distribution ; G. longipennis, Corti ; 



