June 7, 1888] 



NATURE 



137 



BIOLOGICAL NOTES. 



'ossil Fish Remains from New Zealand. — Mr. Davis 

 recently described a number of fish remains from the 

 tiary and Cretaceo-Tertiary formations of New Zealand. The 

 noir forms a part of the Transactions of the Royal Dublin 

 iety, and is illustrated by seven well-executed plates of the 

 Bossils. Some short time ago Mr. Davis received the remains of 

 ome fossil Tertiary Elasmobranchs from Prof. F. W. Hutton, from 

 <Jew Zealand, which formed the subject of a short communication 

 othe Geological Society of London ; but a much larger collection 

 aving been in the meanwhile received, permission was granted 

 or the withdrawal of the paper, and now, based on several addi- 

 ional collections, we have the present memoir, which for the first 

 ime does justice to these interesting fossil forms by full descrip- 

 ions and excellent figures. The memoir opens with an account 

 f the Tertiary formations of New Zealand, based on the results 

 trained by the Geological Survey under Sir James Hector, 

 hile notice is taken also of the views of Prof. Hutton and Sir 

 , von Haast. In addition to the remains of fish, some .Saurian 

 eeth, as well as those of a Squalodon, have been found. Of 

 he thirty-five species of fish described, no le-s than twenty- 

 ight appear as new species ; of these thirty-five, twenty-eight 

 ire Sharks, four are Rays, two belong to the Chimerids, and one 

 o the Teleostei. A new species of toothed Whale, Sptalodon 

 erratus, is also described. — (Transactions of the Royal Dublin 

 society, vol. iv. (ser. 2), part i. pp. 1-50, plates i.-vii.) 



Mammals of Liberia. — Dr. F. A. Jentink continues his 

 iccount of the recent zoological researches in Liberia, which 

 lave been carried on for the last seven or eight years by 

 '. Buttikofer, C. F. Sala, and F. X. Stampfli. The amount of 

 nformation collected by the first-named investigator is very 

 jreat, and merits the high praise bestowed upon it by the 

 Director of the Leyden Museum. Of the ninety species of 

 Mammals sent home, thirteen belong to the Monkeys, eleven to 

 :he Carnivores, thirty-three to the Ruminants, five to the 

 'achyderms, twenty-five to the Rodents, one Sireniad, four 

 Insectivores, seventeen to the Bats, and three to the Edentates. 

 Among the more interesting species mentioned are the follow- 

 ing : Cenopithectis stampflii, n. sp., from Pessy Country ; Terpone 

 iongiceps, Gray ; Cephalophus doria, Ogilby, and Euryceros 

 euryccros, Ogilby ; Graphiurus nagtglasii, n. sp. ; Claviglis 

 trassicaudatus, n. g. et n. sp. ; Crocidura buttikoferi, n. sp., and 

 C. stampflii, n. sp. ; Pachyura megalura, n. sp. ; Epomophorus 

 vddkampii, n. sp. ; and Vesperugo stampflii, n. sp. This num- 

 ber also contains notes of 151 species of Birds, collected by J. 

 Buttikofer and F. X. Stampfli, during their last sojourn in 

 Liberia. The last-named is still collecting on the Farmington 

 River, a large confluent of the Junk. — (" Notes from the Leyden 

 Museum," vol. x. Nos. 1 and 2, January and April, 1888.) 



On New England Medusa. — In a list of certain Medusae, 

 found by Mr. J. Walter Fewkes, off the coast of Maine and 

 From Grand Manan, he redescribes and figures the interesting 

 ind beautiful Nanomia cava, A. Ag. This Physophore, described 

 some twenty-five years ago, though repeatedly referred to in 

 text-books and general works on zoology, seems to have since 

 escaped attention, but many specimens were found at Grand 

 Manan. It will be remembered that the form thought to be 

 dult by A. Agassiz, is not above six inches in length, but Mr. 

 Fewkes captured specimens measuring, when extended, over 

 four feet in length, and three feet when retracted ; while many 

 hundreds were seen of the size of the specimen he figures, which 

 is about sixteen inches long. When floating in the water they 

 were easily distinguished from the southern Physophore, Agalma 

 elegans ; the nectocalyces are biserial, the specimen figured has 

 thirteen pairs of well-developed bells, and many of the adults 

 had fifteen pairs. Among the most interesting and it would 

 seem exceptional structures in this form are the organs referred 

 to by A. Agassiz as the "third kind of polyps," now called 

 "hydrocysts" or "tasters"; these hang from the polyp stem 

 midway between the polypites, a single adult and many half- 

 developed tasters occurring between each pair of polypites. They 

 are small, slender, flask -shaped bodies, the distal end is closed, 

 and near the basal attachment there is a prominent red body of 

 spherical shape, known as the "oil globule " ; each taster has als > 

 a single long tentacle. Contrary to what A. Agassiz thought, 

 the adult Nanomia has male and female bells on one and the same 

 colony ; each female bell carries a single ovum, which, when 

 they escaped, could be easily seen by the unassisted virion. 



Uydrichthys mirus 1 is also described and figured as a new genus, 

 and species belonging to the Hydroida ; it was found attached 

 to the side of a small fish (Serio/a zonaia, Cuv.) which had been 

 taken in the dip-net at a time when the sea was quiet. The 

 patch had at first all the appearance of a Fungoid growth. The 

 fish and Hydroid parasite were kept alive for some time in an 

 aquarium, and from the latter many thousands of Medu>se were 

 raised. The Hydroid colony formed a cluster of reddish and 

 orange-coloured bodies ; the basal attachment is a flat thin 

 plate with ramifying tubes ; upon it are separate clusters of 

 gonosomes and (?) hydranths. Each gonosome is botryoidal ; 

 the free extremity of the gonosome is without tentacles, its rim 

 is entire, and it is destitute of Medusa buds. It seems possible 

 that no food is taken in by the gonosomes, but that the whole 

 structure is dependent upon the tubes of the basal plate for its 

 nutrition. The filiform structures (hydranths ?) are elongated 

 flask-shaped bodies of about uniform size, with terminal open- 

 ings. The Medusa is closely related to Sarsia, and so far shows 

 the new Hydroid to be allied to the Tubularians, but there are 

 not wanting certain features which hint at a kindred to the 

 Siphonophores. The rare and interesting CaUinema ornata, 

 Verrill, is redescribed, and for the first time figured. With a re- 

 mark of the author, ' ' that histological researches lose some of 

 their value if not preceded by an accurate identification or specific 

 description of the animal studied, if it be different from known 

 species," we heartily agree. — (" Studies from the Newport Marine 

 Laboratory," Bull. Mus. Comp. Anat. Harvard College, vol. xiii. 

 No. 7, February 1888.) 



THE BILL FOR THE PROMOTION OF 

 TECHNICAL INSTRUCTION. 



""THE following is the Bill for the promotion of technical 

 ■*■ instruction, introduced by the Government : — 



Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and 

 with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, 

 and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the 

 authority of the same, as follows : 



X, — (1) Any School Board in England may from time to time 

 supply or aid the supply of such manual or technical instruction, 

 or both, as may be required for supplementing the instruction 

 given in any public elementary school in its district, whether 

 under its own management or not. 



(2) Manual or technical instruction shall not be supplied or 

 aided under this section except for such scholars as — 



(a) are recognized by the Education Department as in attend- 

 ance at a public elementary school and receiving instruction in 

 the obligatory or standard subjects prescribed by the minutes of 

 the Education Department for the time being ; and 



(b) (in the case of technical instruction only) have obtained 

 from the Education Department certificates of having passed 

 the examination in reading, writing, and arithmetic, prescribed 

 by the standard set forth in the schedule to this Act, or an 

 examination equivalent thereto. 



(3) For the purpose of supplying or aiding the supply of 

 manual or technical instruction under this sretion, a School 

 Board shall have the same powers, but subject to the same con- 

 ditions, as it has for providing sufficient public school accommoda- 

 tion for its district, subject to this restriction that the amount of 

 the rate to be levied in any one year for the additional purposes 

 authorized by this section shall not exceed the sum of one penny 

 in the pound. 



2. — (1) If a School Board aids the supply of manual or 

 technical instruction in any school or schools under its own man- 

 agement, it shall, on the request of the managers of any other 

 public elementary school in its district fulfilling like conditions 

 as to the supply of manual or technical instruction in conformity 

 with the requirements of the Department of Science and Art, 

 and on proof of sufficient demand for such instruction in that 

 school, aid the supply of such instruction in that school in like 

 manner as it aids such supply in the school or schools under its 

 own management, subject to such terms as may be agreed on or 

 determined in pursuance of this Act. 



(2) If the managers of a public elementary school in the dis- 

 trict of a School Board object to the terms on which the School 

 Board proposes to aid the supply of technical instruction in that 

 school, the Department of Science and Art shall, on the appli- 



1 Vide Nature, vol. xxxvi. p. 604, wh.-re we beli:v.> this genu; and 

 species were first des:ribed by the author. 



