792 



NA TURE 



[June 17, 1922 



Research Items. 



A Dog-tooth Breast Ornament. — The Australian 

 Museum Magazine (vol. i. No. 4) gives an account, 

 with a photograph, of a remarkable form of breast 

 ornament procured at Rabaul, New Britain, and 

 now on loan at the Museum. It consists mainly of 

 canine teeth of the island dog, the teeth having been 

 perforated and attached to a plaited fibre string 

 base, 22J by yf inches in size. At the angles and 

 upper centre are pendants made of teeth and shells. 

 As only four canine teeth occur in an individual, 

 at least 130 dogs contributed to the ornament. 

 When worn by the chief, it is suspended from the 

 neck b}^ the attached finely plaited cord. It was 

 considered of great value, and no doubt formed an 

 heirloom of much importance. 



The Chuchki Natives of North-eastern 

 Siberia. — In the Journal of the Washington Academy 

 of Sciences (vol. xii. No. 8, April, 1922), Mr. H. V. 

 Sverdrup gives an account of the Chuchki tribe, 

 collected on Capt. Amundsen's expedition, which left 

 Norway in 191 8 with the intention of following the 

 coast of Siberia eastward to the vicinity of Bering 

 Strait. At Ayon Island, about 700 miles west of 

 Bering Strait, the Chuchkis were found in possession 

 of herds of domesticated reindeer. The tents in 

 which they live, summer and winter, are well adapted 

 to their nomadic life and climatic conditions, and they 

 are heated by a fiat lamp of the Eskimo type. Rein- 

 deer supply practically all their food, the animals 

 being caught with lassoes which the young men 

 handle with wonderful skill. They do not count 

 years, so nobody knows his own age, but they count 

 thirteen full moons in the year by the twelve joints 

 on both arms from the finger tips to the shoulders, 

 including the head for the thirteenth month. They 

 kill old people, not through cruelty, but as an act of 

 mercy. His sledge, axe, knife, tobacco pipe, and tea- 

 cup are buried with a dead man. They are quite 

 contented with their mode of life, and have no desire 

 to change their habits or leave their country. They 

 do not care for the outer world, so long as it is willing 

 to exchange tea and tobacco for fox skins. " Civilisa- 

 tion would not bring them any good, so it would be 

 well if they might remain as primitive as they are." 



Health in the Tropics. — A paper on climate 

 and health in the South American tropics by Dr. 

 F. L. Hoffman was presented before the American 

 Meteorological Society at Toronto in December 

 1 92 1, and a summary is given in the U.S. Monthly 

 Weather Review of January last. The author 

 considers that false impressions prevail as to the 

 climate of the Amazonian basin, and much which 

 has been written is misleading and a deterrent to 

 the settlement of a vast region with enormous 

 economic possibilities. The climate is warm through- 

 out the larger portion of the year, but the warmth 

 is Hmited mostly to the daytime, while the nights are 

 often distressingly cool. The chief causes of ill-health 

 in northern South America are apparently not 

 tropical diseases but respiratory and rheumatic 

 affections. Chilly nights cause ill-health and result 

 in a high mortality. It is estimated that the night 

 temperatures are about 30° lower than the day 

 readings. With regard to humidity, it is stated 

 to be generally far from such a serious detriment 

 to health and comfort as is assumed, but when a high 

 humidity coincides with a high temperature there is 

 a considerable increase in infant mortality. 



Mosquito Investigation. — Of the three species 

 of Anopheles mosquitoes capable, under certain 

 conditions, of communicating malaria, two, i.e. 

 A. maculipennis and A. hifurcatus, stand convicted. 



NO. 2746, VOL. 109] 



The third group, A . plumbeus, or A . nigripes — a sylvan 

 species — has been less known, although strongly 

 suspected. Recent investigations by Blacklock and 

 Carter of Liverpool, however, tended to establish not 

 only the possibility of their capabilities as disease 

 carriers, but that they were more abundant in 

 England than had been supposed. Following up 

 this discovery, the Mosquito Investigation Committee 

 of the South-eastern Union of Scientific Societies 

 has for nearly two years been engaged in inquiring 

 into the habits, breeding places, and distribution of 

 the species in south-east England, at the instance of 

 the Ministry of Health. The three reports of the 

 Committee "have established that the larvse of the 

 species is extensively distributed in certain areas, 

 many breeding places having been located, and that 

 eggs, after becoming dry, hatch on re-immersion. 

 Thus drought will not destroy them. The final 

 report to the Ministry of Health is nearly due, 

 the Committee has issued a Circular (No. 6) with the 

 object of clearing up some points still in doubt. 

 The more important are : — (i) Whether the species 

 deposit their eggs [a) on water, [b) on floating or 

 stationary objects, or (c) on the wet margins of 

 water-holes. (2) The retention of vitality of the 

 eggs after desiccation. (3) Information as to the 

 possible hibernation in the egg stage. We may add 

 that the late Mr. A. W. Bacot, whose death in Egypt 

 last April, while engaged on typhus research for 

 the Egyptian Government, was so tragically sudden, 

 was the chairman of, and took great interest in, 

 the Committee's work. The present chairman is 

 Dr. Clarence Tierney, and thehon. secretary is the Rev. 

 T. W. Oswald-Hicks of Lesware, Linden Road, N.15, 

 who will be glad of replies to any of the queries. 



The Smallest Horned Dinosaur. — After skilful 

 work extending for over a year, Mr. Norman Boss 

 has completed and mounted for the U.S. National 

 Museum a restored skeleton of the smallest horned 

 dinosaur that has yet been discovered. This skeleton 

 of Brachyceratops montanensis is the subject of a 

 short description, with illustrations by Mr. C. W. 

 Gilmore (Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., vol. Ixi.). The 

 original remains from the Upper Cretaceous of 

 north-western Montana, first described in 191 7 

 (U.S. Geol. Surv. Prof. Paper 103), have been supple- 

 mented where necessary from other sources and result 

 in the building up of an individual, admittedly 

 immature, 5 ft. 4 in. long (the skull contributing 

 22 in.) or " about the length of the head alone 

 of Triceratops, as shown in the view of the two 

 skeletons juxtaposed. The height of Brachyceratops 

 at the hips is given as 30 in., but we cannot help 

 thinking that like other of these American reptiles 

 of olden days it has been mounted too upstanding. 

 In a model representing the animal in the flesh (also 

 here figured) an attempt has been made to depict 

 the character of the scaly skin. 



Fossil Birds from Porto Rico. — ^The " Bird 

 Remains from the Caves of Porto Rico " have been 

 investigated and described by Mr. A. Wetmore 

 (Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. xlvi.). The 

 specimens were obtained in 1916 by Mr. H. E. 

 Anthony in connection with a natural history 

 survey of the island of Porto Rico, undertaken by 

 the New York Academy of Sciences in co-operation 

 with the Insular Government of Porto Rico. The 

 number of species is 42, of which six were described 

 as new at intervals during 1918 to 1920, the diagnoses 

 being here repeated, while seven belong to extinct 

 forms. The great mass of bones appears to have 

 come from owl pellets ; those of birds larger than a 

 thrush or blackbird are comparatively few in number, 



