October 29, 19 14] 



NATURE 



237 



so-called "barrow circles," that is, small circles of 

 stones surrounding tumuli. Many of these have been 

 destroyed, and it is difficult to find those which survive 

 amid the heather of the moors. On the other hand, 

 Yorkshire possesses some very remarkable menhirs, or 

 standing stones, which may be said to form a class 

 by themselves. The longest standing stone in the 

 British Isles is that in the churchyard at Rudstone, 

 near Bridlington, which, so far as excavations have 

 been made, is 40 ft. in height. It faces the line of 

 May-day summer or thereabouts, and it is a mass of 

 coarse ragstone or millstone grit, the place of origin 

 of which is uncertain, 



Ix the Philippine Journal of Science for April Mr. 

 E. B. Christie discusses the question of irrigation in 

 IIocos Norte province. It is carried out by a system 

 of co-operative societies, and the procedure at the 

 digging of a canal is a curious blend of Christian and 

 pagan observances. Most of these societies are under 

 the patronage of a saint, and they hold an annual 

 festival at the conclusion of the harvest season. A 

 mass is sung before the ceremony, and food and drink 

 are laid out for the spirits. When the site for a new 

 canal is selected, a cross is erected. Means are then 

 taken to propitiate the local spirits, presumablj- be- 

 cause they are supposed to be offended by the disturb- 

 ance of the soil. Omens are taken to fix a lucky 

 time for the rite. Oflferings of a coconut, a chicken, 

 tobacco, and spirituous liquor are laid on an altar. 

 Then an animal, a pig, or an ox is sacrificed near the 

 trench, into which the blood is allowed to drip, with 

 the invocation : " Ditch, this blood is spurted into you 

 in order that the current may be as strong as the 

 current of this blood." The body of the victim is then 

 dragged along the bed of the canal as far as the plot 

 of ground which is to be irrigated. Sometimes a dog 

 is killed and its blood is sprinkled on a plot of ground 

 which is to be levelled to form a rice-field, the dog 

 being eaten afterwards. Animal victims are also said 

 to be buried in the masonry of the canal intakes or 

 ^ates — a good example of ihe foundation sacrifice 

 which has been described by Sir E. Tjior. 



At the end of the long systematic excavation work 

 conducted by Mr. W. Pengelly in Kent's Cavern, Tor- 

 quay, there were great quantities of the cave deposits 

 left undisturbed. A little similar work has since been 

 done there which has led to the discovery of other 

 chambers and passages, and the finding of many more 

 of the usual kind of cavern relics. Recentlv more per- 

 sistent excavation has been made by Mr. C. Cox, who 

 three years ago went to reside near the cavern. Becom- 

 ing greatly interested in it and its history-, he gives 

 all the time freely spared from his vocational needs to 

 excavating and acting as voluntary guide to the cavern. 

 He has worked out a new passage for some 60 ft., 

 and has obtained numerous fine examples of the cavern 

 products, including well-worked flint palaeoliths, jaws, 

 teeth, and other bones in great variety. A week or 

 two ago while moving the earth of the floor of the 

 sloping chamber near the entrance of a channel he 

 intends to excavate, he found a tooth of more than 

 usual interest, having an appearance which suggested 

 NO. 2348, VOL. 94] 



human origin. Local medical experience confirmed 

 his conclusion that it is a front tooth of a human 

 being. It is, however, imperfect, being split laterally ; 

 the inner portion with the extreme end of the root is 

 missing, so that the specimen is really only the larger 

 outer half of an incisor. Its length is 17 mm., width 

 across the crown, 9 mm., and depth of the enamel face 

 about the same measurement. The enamel edge pro- 

 jects beyond the inner surface, indicating a position in 

 the upper jaw, and permits it being determined as 

 a well-worn left upper human incisor. It mav be 

 noted in connection with this find that, occurring in 

 the floor some 3 or 4 in. below the present surface, 

 it would be recorded in the terms used by Pengelly as 

 lying in the fifth-foot level of the cave earth, beneath 

 some two or more feet of granular stalagmite that 

 formed the original floor of the Sloping Chamber. 



In the September-October number of Bird-Lore 

 Mr. L. A. Fuertes continues the record of his impres- 

 sions of the notes of tropical birds, dealing in this 

 instance with toucans (illustrated by a coloured plate), 

 cuckoos, trogons, motmots, etc. From their loud and 

 incessant cries, brilliant colouring, and large size, 

 most of the members of the first-named group would, 

 it might be thought, be extremely easy of detection. 

 As a matter of fact, this is far from the case, the 

 explanation, so far as coloration is concerned, being 

 that the brilliant tints of the birds, inclusive of their 

 great uncouth beaks, harmonise closely with those of 

 the tropical vegetation, and the intervening rays of 

 sunlight, amid which they perch. 



Nowadays much of the work on mammals by 

 American writers relates to races and so-called species 

 of little or no general interest. An exception occurs 

 in a paper on South American squirrels contributed 

 by Dr. J. A. Allen to the Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 

 vol. xxxiii., pp. 585-597, in which will be found the 

 description of a new generic type (Notiosciurus rhoadsi) 

 from the Andes of Ecuador, distinguished from other 

 tree-squirrels by the structure of the hind feet. In 

 those of other species the greater portion of the sole 

 is bare, with the toe-pads separate, and widely sun- 

 dered from the narrow heel-pad. In the new form, on 

 the other hand, the bare area is restricted to a small 

 patch immediately behind the toes, with the toe-pads 

 crowded together, and the heel-pad, which occupies 

 nearly the whole width of the foot, in close apposition. 



The ecology of local fresh-water, fishes forms the 

 subject of an interesting illustrated article by Dr. S. A. 

 Forbes, published as a pamphlet by the Illinois State 

 Laboratory of Natural History. Difference in habitat 

 and food forms a basis for grouping fresh-water 

 fishes, although, as the author acknowledges, no 

 hard-and-last lines of division can be drawn from 

 these. Very noteworthy Is tne fact that one of the 

 largest American species, the -poon-beaked sturgeon 

 (Polyodon spathula), is almost the onlv one which 

 feeds on plankton when adult, although this consti- 

 tutes the diet of practically all sp>ecies in their infan- 

 tile condition. Some kinds pass directly from this to 

 the permanent food-stage, but in the sheep's-head 

 {Hapiodinottts grunniens) there is an intermediate in- 



