672 



NATURE 



[January 20, 192 1 



boat for some distance. It is described by the lif^ht- 

 house-keepers as bearing tusks about 15 in. long; it 

 was almost black on the top of its head, but lighter 

 about the rest of the head and back. This issue also 

 contains an account of the breeding of the brambling 

 in Perthshire, which makes the first authentic record 

 of the breeding of this finch in the British Isles. 



The curious discovery of a diurnal variation in the 

 size of human red-blood corpuscles is announced by 

 Dr. Price Jones (Journal of Pathology and Bacteria. 

 i^Sy- vol. xxiii., p. 371). They are smallest on first 

 waking in the morning, soon swell up when the sub- 

 ject becomes active, and reach a maximum about 

 noon, which is maintained until bedtime. Short, 

 violent exertion imposes a sudden rise on this daily^ 

 curve, followed by a rapid return to normal ; gentle 

 exercise of longer duration has no special effect. 

 Resting quietly in bed is evidently not the same as 

 sleeping soundly, since it does not abolish the diurnal 

 variation. Forced, violent breathing, whereby much 

 carbon dioxide is washed out of the blood, causes a 

 marked shrinkage, which disappears again in less 

 than half an hour. The obvious inference that the 

 size of the red cells varies inversely with the alkalinity 

 of the blood is confirmed by experiments in vitro ; 

 but whether the phenomenon is due to the cells behav- 

 ing like pieces of gelatin or to osmotic changes due 

 to the exchange of salts between the plasma and cells 

 is left undecided. It is possible that the increase of 

 size in venous blood is of use in delaying the passage 

 of the corpuscles along the pulmonary capillaries until 

 the excess of COj has been eliminated. 



In vol. v., part 8, of the Scientific Results of the 

 Australasian Antarctic Expedition several kinds of 

 insects from Macquarie Island are brought to light. 

 Hitherto only a single species of springtail and two 

 of shore-inhabiting flies were known from that desolate 

 place. The present report, hy Dr. R. J. Tillyard, is 

 accompanied by appendices by Prof. C. T. Brues and 

 Mr. A. M. Lea. Described therein are two new 

 species of springtails, a new genus of wingless 

 Diapriid Hymenoptera, and the larvae and adults of 

 a new Staphylinid beetle. It is noteworthy that the 

 island contains no trees and the hillsides are clothed 

 with dark green tussock grass, scattered among 

 which are patches of the more brightlv coloured 

 Maori cabbage (Stilhocarpa polaris). Penguin 

 "rookeries" are a striking feature of the island, and 

 wherever they are present the vegetation is destroyed. 

 The CoUembola and the wingless Hymenopteron 

 occurred under stones in these " rookeries," while 

 among the great masses of kelp cast ashore during 

 stormy weather various flies undergo their trans- 

 formations. A Pyralid caterpillar and the larva and 

 pupa of a Tipulid fly are also described in this report, 

 without definite names being assigned to them. The 

 occurrence of these few insects on this desolate island 

 affords an interesting problem to students of geo- 

 graphical distribution. 



.\ COMPLETE and up-to-date catalogue of all the 

 species and subspecies of birds of the Nearctic and 

 Neotropical regions from northern Greenland to Tierra 

 del Fuego, including the West Indies, the isles of the 



NO. 2673, VOL. 106] 



Caribbean Sea, and those of the South Atlantic 

 and Pacific Oceans the faunal relations of which are 

 American, is attempted in the " Catalogue of Birds 

 of the Americas," by Charles B. Cory (the Field 

 Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Zoological 

 Series, vol. xiii., 1918-19). The first instalments 

 issued form vol. ii., those of vol. i. being held over 

 in order that Mr. Cory may have the benefit of Prof. 

 Ridgway's latest investigations on the aquatic and 

 gallinaceous groups, which will appear in the con- 

 cluding volumes of that author's great work on the 

 birds of North and Middle America. The parts under 

 notice deal with the forms comprised in the orders 

 Strigiformes, Psittaciformes, Coraciformes, Trogones, 

 Coccyges, Scansores, and Piciformes. The geo- 

 graphical distribution of each species and its racial 

 forms, often numerous, is concisely given, also a 

 short and judiciously selected series of synonyms — a 

 very desirable adjunct in these days of never-ending 

 changes in nomenclature, resulting in the disappear- 

 ance of time-honoured names in favour of obscure dug- 

 outs. Another important feature is the author's foot- 

 notes, devoted mainlv to descriptions of the plumage 

 of the many new species and still more numerous sub- 

 species described since the publication of Prof. Ridg- 

 way's volumes, and of the American forms added to 

 the great "Catalogue of the Birds of the World" 

 published bv the Trustees of the British Museum. 

 Mr. Cory's work will be greatly appreciated by all 

 who are engaged in the study of birds generally, and 

 of their geographical distribution in particular. 



The inheritance of ten factors in the cow-pea (li^tia 

 sinensis) has been studied by Dr. S. C. Harland 

 (Journal of Genetics, vol. x., No. 3). The characters 

 investigated included the presence of anthocyanin 

 in stem and leaf-stalk, the colour of the seed-coat 

 pattern, and pod and flower colour. The presence of 

 anthocyanin is due to a dominant factor, while the 

 seed-coat colours, which are black, brown, buff, 

 maroon, red, and white, are believed to be due to 

 various combinations of four factors. Several other 

 relationships of factors are also made out. In 

 another paper by the same author the results of breed- 

 ing experiments with the castor-oil plant, Ricinus 

 comm-.inis, are given. The presence of bloom on 

 various parts of the plant is due to a single partly 

 dominant factor, while the spininess of the capsule 

 is also partially dominant to its absence. .As regards 

 stem colour, crosses between green and mahogany 

 brown indicated the presence of two factors which 

 show repulsion. Dr. Harland has also crossed certain 

 varieties of the tropical hyacinth bean, Dolichos 

 lablab. He finds the indeterminate habit of growth 

 dominant to the determinate. Two white-flowered 

 varieties gave a purple F,, due to the presence of the 

 factors C and R, the former producing a purplish seed- 

 coat and stipular hairs, the latter, in the presence of 

 C, converting white flower into purple, purplish seed- 

 coat into black, and causing pigmentation at the 

 nodes. 



The Oreodontidae from Upper Eocene to Pliocene 

 genera are reviewed by F. B. Loomis in a paper on 

 Ticholeptus (Merycochaerus) rusiicus (Amer. Journ. 

 Sci., vol. I., p. 281, 1920). The wealth and variety 



