November 15, 1900] 



NA TURE 



65 



^"" Wfi'Jearn from the U.S. Monthly Weather Review that the 

 ■ Russia^ Meteorological Office has published a comprehensive 

 Meteorological atlas, to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of 

 tlie foundation of the Central Physical Observatory by the 

 Emperoi Nicholas I. on April i, 1849. It contains eighty-nine 

 charts and fifteen graphical tables, and exhibits the prominent 

 features o' the climate of the Russian Empire from Warsaw on 

 the extreme west, to Bering Strait on the east, and from 

 Teheran on the south, to the Arctic Ocean. This range of 

 40° of latitude and 160° of longitude represents one of the most 

 extensive meteorological systems in the world. The mean 

 values of all the principal elements are exhibited in monthly 

 and annual charts, the rainfall being shown for seasons. One of 

 the charts shows the number of days during which snow lies on 

 the ground ; the region of the maximum number of days (190) 

 extends from Archangel east-south-eastward beyond the Ural. 

 From this region the number of days diminishes until we reach 

 sixty days on the northern shores of the Caspian Sea, *and 

 twenty days on the north-western shores of the Black Sea. 

 The paths of cyclones and types of weather in Russia, in so far 

 as the latter depjend on barometric conditions, are shown by five 

 charts. The whole work is pronounced by the U.S. Weather 

 Bureau to be a magnificent production, and illustrative of the 

 activity of this vast meteorological service. 



The American Museum Journal, of which we have received 

 the third part, appears to be a publication well worth the atten- 

 tion of museum authorities in other countries. It is issued 

 monthly, and is stated to be a popular record of the progress of 

 the American Museum of Natural History ; the present part, 

 which is well illustrated, containing fifteen pages of text. The 

 first article is an obituary notice of the late Mr. J. M. Constable, 

 the Vice-President of the museum. This is followed by a record 

 of recent donations to the library, and this again by a reference 

 to an exhibit displaying the fauna of New York, which has been 

 recently added to the museum and appears to have attracted 

 much attention from the public. Other articles describe the 

 development of the museum, the work and progress of the 

 Department of Public Instruction, and the work which has been 

 recently accomplished in the anthropology of the Pueblo and 

 Cave-dwelling Indians of New Mexico and the adjacent terri- 

 tories. 



The feature of the Entomologist for November is the con- 

 tinuatipn by Dr. Max Standfuss of the account of his experi- 

 ments in hybridisation among the Lepidoptera, and the effects of 

 temperature on those insects ; the paper being illustrated by a 

 plate of abnormally coloured butterflies. As regards these 

 abnormalities (several of which occur occasionally in nature) 

 produced by temperature variation, the author considers that 

 they are not atavistic. A large proportion of them are infertile, 

 and the majority of those which bred produced normal offspring, 

 only the most abnormal female transmitting more or less of its 

 newly acquired characters to its progeny. Although the experi- 

 ments, on account of disease, were incomplete, their result, so 

 far, seems to demonstrate that the possibility of perpetuating the 

 abnormalities depends on the degree to which these depart from 

 the ordinary form. 



The Transactions ot the New Zealand Institute for 1899 

 contains thirteen papers on zoology, seven on botany, an^ 

 five on geology, the great" majority relating to the colony itself. 

 Of especial interest is the record, by Prof. Benham, of the 

 occurrence of a species of Balanoglossus in New Zealand 

 waters, while a note on the freshwater crayfishes of the colony, 

 by Dr. C. Chilton, will attract the attention of students of the 

 Crustacea. The practical extermination of the great purple coot 

 {Notornis mantelli) is attributed by Mr. R. Henry very largely 

 NO. 1620, VOL. 63] 



to rats, which, by e$iting the. wild grain and seeds,. prevent )ch^ 

 bird from obtaining its proper nutriment. It will be news to 

 many ornithologists that, about twenty years ago^ the ship 

 Gleaner came into Greymouth with a strange bird on board 

 which turned out to be either the New Zealand or the Austra- 

 lian giant coot, and had reached the vessel at a distance of 400 

 miles from the shore. These birds were supposed to be prac- 

 tically incapable of flight. 



We have received from the U. S. Department of Agriculture, 

 No. 19 of the " North American Fauna," which describes the 

 results of a biological reconnaissance of the Yukon river region. 

 The memoir is divided into three sections, of which the first is 

 devoted to a general account of the region, while the second and 

 third respectively treat of the mammals and the birds. For the 

 latter Dr. L. B. Bishop is responsible, the two former sections 

 being the work of Mr. W. H. Osgood. Although the whole 

 area belongs to what American writers term the boreal zone, it 

 has been found possible to divide it into several formal districts, 

 the tundra being assigned to the Arctic province, while the 

 Yukon Valley itself comes mainly within the Hudsonian division, 

 but also contains a distinct Canadian element. In addition to 

 several which have been described a short time previously, the 

 memoir notices three birds and nine mammals which are regarded 

 as new. It seems, however, pushing refinements of distinction 

 a little too far to regard the two forms of reindeer met with in 

 Alaska, as well as the elk, as distinct species. 



Part ii. of vol. Ixviii. of the Zeitschrift fiir wissenschaftliehe 

 Zoologie, which has just reached us, contains two papers ; one, 

 by Herr Samter, an elaborate dissertation on the development of 

 the crustacean Leptodora hyalina, the other, by Herr S. Metal- 

 nikoff, an account of the anatomy and histology of the worm 

 Sipunculus nudus. Both communications are exquisitely 

 illustrated. 



To the August number of i\ie Journal oi the Bombay Medical 

 and Physical Society, Dr. N. F. Surveyor contributes an illus- 

 trated account of the parasitic invasions to which the eggs of 

 the cockroach are subject. These include two Hymenoptera, 

 several kinds of moulds, probably several beetles, possibly 

 another cockroach-like insect, and the parent itself. The 

 importance of the subject will be apparent when it is stated that 

 several of the parasites of the cockroach may pass a portion of 

 their existence within the body of man himself. 



It has been shown by Dr. C. L. Griesbach, the Director of 

 the Geological Survey of India, that the Trias of the Himalaya 

 contains several well-marked horizons of Cephalopods not only 

 in the Muschelkalk, but above and below it. The rich series 

 of specimens collected in recent years has been submitted to 

 Dr. Edmund Mojsisovics of Vienna, and he has written an 

 elaborate memoir on the Upper Triassic species (" Palseontologia 

 Indica," Ser. xv. Himalayan Fossils, vol. iii., part I., 1899). 

 This memoir has been translated into English for the Indian 

 Survey by Dr. and Mrs. A. Foord. The main portion of the 

 work is naturally devoted to a description of the species, which 

 are ranged under genera, whose characteristics can be under- 

 stood only by those palaeontologists who devote particular 

 attention to the subject. Among the genera familiar when 

 General Strachey first discovered Triassic fossils in the Himalaya, 

 Ceratites, Nautilus and Orthoceras alone appear, but a host, of 

 others, needful to express the results of modern discrimination, 

 find place in the volume. Of most interest to geologists are the 

 general results arrived at by Dr. Mojsisovics. He refers to the 

 local character of the Indian Upper Triassic fauna, but observes 

 that there can be no doubt of the former existence of an open 

 connection of the sea between the Indian and Mediterranean 

 provinces. The Indian Trias province forms an integral part of 



