[anuary 27, 19 1 6] 



NATURE 



601 



however, she was chartered by the Board of Trade as 

 the most suitable vessel on which to carry out ice ob- 

 servation, meteorology, and oceanography in the North 

 Atlantic Ocean after the wreck of the Titanic. The 

 results obtained during this voyage in 19 13 have been 

 published by the Board of Trade in two volumes. 

 The Midlands earthquake of January 14 proves to 

 > ■ been felt much more widely than was at first 

 i)Osed. Though less strong than- several other 

 ;ish earthquakes of the last quarter of a century, 

 A as perceived by a large number of persons on the 

 1 and second floors of houses at a great distance 

 m the centre. The disturbed area includes all 

 England, with the exception of the counties of North- 

 umberland and Durham, the northern half of Cumber- 

 d, and the southern counties bounded by a line 

 An from Bridgwater in Somerset, by Salisbury, and 

 v.uildford, to the mouth of the Thames. It thus in- 

 cludes about 45,000 square miles. From a first rough 

 analysis of the accounts received by him, Dr. Davison 

 concludes that the centre of the innermost isoseismal 

 line was not far from Stone, in Staffordshire. The 

 western boundary of the disturbed area, howeverj is 

 somewhat uncertain, and Dr. Davison (whose address 

 is 16 Manor Road, Birmingham) would be very glad 

 to receive notices of the earthquake from any part of 

 Wales. He is also anxious to obtain many more 

 observations from the central area, especially from 

 the district within twenty or thirty miles of Stone, 

 and would send forms to anyone able and willing to 

 supply the information desired. We have also re- 

 ceived a request from Mr. J. J. Shaw (Sunnyside, 

 West Bromwich), secretary of the Seismological Com- 

 mittee of the British Association, for information with 

 reference to the time of occurrence and the nature and 

 intensity of the shock. 



Mr. L. Maclennan Mann has issued an interesting 

 pamphlet on archaic sculpturings, in which he pro- 

 poses a new explanation of the mysterious cup-mark- 

 ings. Plotting them on sheets, he believes that he 

 has discovered that they assume well-defined geo- 

 metrical forms. The north and south line often runs 

 through one centre, and through another centre runs 

 another north and south line diverging from the first 

 by two to four degrees. Up to the present 

 his survey seems to have been practically con- 

 fined to the districts of Dumfries and Galloway. 

 With this theory in the minds of inquirers, it is desir- 

 able that a wider examination of these sculpturings 

 in other localities should be prosecuted. 



The number of birds new to the British list is 

 steadily increasing, though it is probable that many 

 now recognised for the first time have frequently 

 occurred on our shores, but have escaped detection. 

 The vigilance of our ornithologists is greater than 

 it was, and their powers of discrimination are keener. 

 Hence it is now possible to distinguish not only be- 

 tween our own sedentary species and the Continental 

 races thereof, which more or less frequently visit us, 

 but also between different Continental races of specie.*: 

 which visit us, apparently, only on rare occasions. 

 No fewer than six species new to the British list are 

 described in the British Birds magazine for January. 

 NO. 2413, VOL. 96] 



The value of such records would surely be materially 

 increased if some attempt were made to discover the 

 prevailing weather conditions just before and during 

 each of these recorded visitations. 



For some time past a correspondence has been car- 

 ried on in the daily Press as to the fate of the house- 

 fly and the bluebottle, or blow-fly, in the autumn. 

 Do they die, leaving pupae to continue the race, or do 

 they hibernate, and, reappearing in the spring, produce 

 new generations of larvae? The latter view is advo- 

 cated by the non-experts, some of whom claim to have 

 found hibernating individuals of both the species in 

 question. It would seem, however, that but little 

 trust can be placed on their evidence, for though 

 numerous consignments of supposed hibernating indi- 

 viduals of these species have been sent to the British 

 Museum of Natural History, not one contained either 

 house-flies or bluebottles. In one case more than 200 

 supposed house-flies were sent, but on examination 

 about 80 per cent proved to be cluster-flies {Pollenia 

 rudis) ; there was not a* single house-fly among them. 

 The fact is not generally known that there are two 

 or three distinct species of fly which closely resemble 

 the house-fly, and these actually do hibernate, choos- 

 ing our houses for that purpose, hence the cortfusion 

 that has arisen. 



At the monthly general meeting of the Zoological 

 Society, held on January 19, Prof. Lucien Cu^not, Dr. 

 Clementi Onelli, and Count Mario Peracea were 

 elected corresponding members, and Prof. Eli Metchni- 

 koff a foreign member of the society. The additions 

 to the menagerie numbered 107, including three species 

 new to the collection : a Salt Desert cat {Felis salin- 

 arum), two sand hamsters {Cricetulus griseus), and an 

 Allemand's Grison {Grison allemandi). Though the 

 number of visitors for the year 19 15 showed an in- 

 crease of 3520 over the number admitted during 19 14, 

 the receipts for admission at the gates showed a 

 decrease of 1283^., as compared with the previous year. 

 The total number of visitors during 1915 amounted to 

 i>o58,728. In normal times this decrease in the re- 

 ceipts might well cause anxiety ; as it is, these figures 

 rather afford an occasion for congratulation. Far 

 otherwise is it with similar institutions among those 

 now at enmity with us. In Budapest we learn that 

 the lions are now fed on half rations, which are partly 

 furnished by the slaughter of the less valuable 

 examples of goats and sheep. The seals have had to 

 be killed for lack of fish, and a similar fate has over- 

 taken the polar bears, for the shooting of which the 

 director opened a competition, by way of raising a 

 little ready cash ! The herbivorous animals are in no 

 better case, for the shortage of hay is so great that 

 the deficit has to be made good by substituting wild 

 chestnuts. 



The Geological Survey of New Zealand is making 

 progress with well-illustrated descriptions of the fossils 

 of that colony, which have long been desired for com- 

 parison with the corresponding fossils of other regions 

 in the southern hemisphere. In Palaeontological 

 Bulletin No. 3, just received, Mr. H. Suter continues 

 his revision of Hutton's type specimens of Tertiary 

 Mollusca. 



