Jan. 1 8, 1877] 



NATURE 



265 



Nest-Building Fish. — The habits of those few fishes 

 which build nests for their progeny are very curious, and 

 indicate a highly-developed instinct. One of these, the 

 Gourami (Asphronemus ol/ax), has lately been studied by M. 

 Carbcnnier in his private aquarium. The male animal con« 

 structs a nest of froth of considerable size, 15 to 18 centimetres 

 horizontal diameter and 10 to 12 centimetres height. He pre- 

 { ares the bubbles in the air (which he sucks in and then expels), 

 strengthening them with mucous matter from his moiith, and 

 brings them into the nest. Sometimes the buccal secretion will 

 fail him, whereupon he goes to the bottom in search of some 

 confervoe, which he sucks and bites for a little, in order to stimu- 

 late the act of secretion. The nest got ready, the female is 

 induced to enter. Not less curious is the way in which the male 

 brings the eggs from the bottom into the nest. He seems un- 

 able to bring them up in his mouth ; instead of this, he first 

 takes in an abundant supply of air, then descending, he places 

 himself under the eggs, and all at once, by a violent contraction 

 of the muscles in the interior of the mouth and pharynx, he 

 forces out the air he had accumulated, by his gills. This air, 

 finely divided or pulverised, in some sort, by the lamellae and 

 fringes of the gills, escapes in the form of two jets of veritable 

 gaseous powder, which envelops the eggs and raises them to the 

 surface. In this manoeuvre, M. Carbonnier says, the Gourami 

 quite disappeared in a kind of air-mist, and when this had dis- 

 sipated, he reappeared with a multitude of air-bubbles like little 

 pearls, c'inging all over his body. 



Beaver in Siberia. — The beaver which, some centuries ago, 

 was so numerous in Russia and Western Siberia, and which was 

 supposed to have totally disappeared from both countries, con- 

 tinues to exist on the rivulet Pelyin. M. Poliakoff has procured 

 from an ostyack on the Obi five skins of these animals killed 

 last year, and he has engaged a hunter to procure this winter 

 complete specimens for the Museum of the St. Petersburg 

 Academy. No farther back than a century ago the beaver was 

 common on one of the affluents of the Irtysh, Bobrof ka, but it 

 has now totally disappeared from the locality, the last colony 

 existing probably on the Pelyin. 



NOTES 

 The first volume of "China," by the well-known geologist 

 Baron von Richthofen, has just appeared. The Berlin Academy 

 of Sciences has granted a generous sum to defray the expense of 

 publishing this costly work. 



We have pleasure in announcing that a new Natural History 

 Journal is about to be started, which is intended to form a bond 

 of union among the various schools belonging to the Society of 

 Friends in this country, both those for boys and girls. Some of 

 the oldest societies of the kind in the country are in connection 

 with these schools, especially the one at York, to which refer- 

 ence has more than once been made in these columns. The 

 journal is intended to be specially devoted to young beginners ; 

 the main object being to awaken a personal interest in natural 

 history pursuits, and to induce tyros to make and record observa- 

 tions. By this means it is hoped to promote a genuine study in 

 place of the indiscriminate collecting now so much in vogue. 

 Other cognate subjects will also be taken up as space permits? 

 such as chemistry, carpentry, &c. It is intended' to publish the 

 first number on F'ibruary 15 ; communications, which are warmly 

 invited, should be addressed to J. E. Clark, B.Sc, 20, Bootham, 

 York. 



Under the title of the "Indian Miscellany," a work is an- 

 nounced by Mr. J. Munsell, of Albany, New York, on the history, 

 arts, inventions, languages, religions, traditions, and supersti- 

 tions of the American aborigines ; with descriptions of their 

 domestic life, manners, customs, traits, governments, wars, 



treaties, amusements, exploits, &c. ; together with sketches of 

 travel and exploration in the Indian country, incidents of border 

 warfare, journals of military expeditions, narratives of captivity, 

 anecdotes of pioneer adventure, missionary relations, &c. 



M. Ed. Becquerel has been elected president of the French 

 Physical Society, which seems, like its English sister society, to 

 be doing excellent work. 



The Council of the Geographical Society of Paris has ap- 

 pointed M. Levasseur president for 1877. MM. Daubree and 

 Quatrefages have been appointed vice-presidents, and M. 

 Maunoir has been continued general secretary. 



It is stated on good authority that the measurement of the 

 photographs taken by the French parties during the transit of 

 Venus is not progressing favourably. More than 1,000 plates 

 are to be investigated micrographically, and at the present 

 moment only forty-seven have been disposed of. Unforeseen 

 difficulties are said to have arisen. 



In 1828 M. Janson de Sailly, a French barrister who had 

 married a sister of the celebrated Berryer, left by will his 

 fortune to the French University, under the condition of creating 

 a high school in the Quartier des Champs Elysees, to be named 

 Janson College. The will was accepted by the Government, but 

 the heirs tried to get it cancelled, and a law-suit was instituted, 

 which was ended only in December, 1876. The Janson CoiIej;e 

 will be inaugurated in 1F78. The legacy is quite adequate to 

 carry out the purpose of the testator, who was proprietor of the 

 greatest part of a large estate. 



German educational statistics show that in Saxony one out of 

 1,194 of the total male population is in actual attendance upon a 

 university, while in Prussia the proportion is i io i, 328. 



The next annual meeting of the Deutsche geologische Gesell- 

 schaft takes place at Vienna, in September of this year. 



The Council of the Society of Arts have made arrangements 

 for the delivery of six lectures on various scientific subjects, which 

 will take the place of the usual papers and discussions, on six 

 Wednesday evenings during the se:sion. The following gentle- 

 men have each consented to deliver one of the lectures : — Sir 

 John Lubbock, Bart., F.R.S., Mr. E. J. Reed, C.B., M.P., 

 Prof. W. K. Clifford, M.A., F.R.S., Prof. Alexander Kennedy, 

 C.E., Dr. B. W. Richardson, F.R.S., Mr, James Baillie 

 Hamilton. 



The Bremen Geographical Society has received a report from 

 Capt. Wiggins dated Jenissei, November 25, in which he gives 

 more fully the resiilts of his late voyage to Siberia. The Poda- 

 ratta Bay was found to be exceedingly shallow, and the river itself 

 could not be ascended by craft drawing over two feet of water. 

 Special stress is laid upon the discovery of the channel for sea- 

 going vessels up the picturesque Jenissei as far as Kureika. Nu- 

 merous observations of the temperature of the air and water, 

 the specific gravity of the latter, &c., were taken during the pro- 

 gress of the voyage. These all tend to show that the Gulf 

 Stream and equatorial currents exert a decided influence much 

 farther to the east than was hitherto supposed, as they pass 

 through the straits of Jugor and Waigat into the Karian Sea. 



The adherence of air round a current of some fluid or liquid 

 when this is forced through the air, has been utilised in various 

 ways, as in water bellows, the blast pipe of locomotives, Sprengel's 

 air-pump, the Bunsen burner, &c. Prof. Teclu, of Vienna, has 

 recently described, in Poggendorff^ s Amtalen, a simple arrange- 

 ment, in which a jet of steam is used to do the work of an nir- 

 pump. A small steam boiler containing i '5 litres of water, and 

 tested to something over one atmosphere, is heated over a gas 

 furnace. It has a safety-valve, which also serves for admission 

 of water when necessary. From above rises a brass steam pipe 



