200 



NATURE 



[June 30, i: 



of swallows, of which the " anatomy and general structure " 

 are very well known. In that paper he will also see that I have 

 attempted to compare the anatomy of all our swallows, with 

 the structure of the American swifts, and with Ainpelis, and a 

 great many other birds. This paper of over one hundred 

 pages, and numerous plates, is not found in Dr. Sharpe's 

 works upon the life-history and structure of swallows find no place 

 " Literature" of the Hirundinidce. Numerous other important 

 works upon the life-history and structure of swallows find no place 

 in Dr. Sharpe's bibliography of this group. In this connection, 

 then, it may be said that our author distinguishes but twelve 

 genera of swallows in the world's avifauna, and of these I have 

 carefully compared, illustrated and published full accounts of 

 the anatomy of no less than six genera, or in other words fifty per 

 cent, of those known at present to science. And, as Stelgidopteryx 

 was included among these, I very much question that any very 

 marked anatomical differences will be found to exist among the 

 unexamined types. 



Further, as has been the case with not a few other anatomists, 

 I have treated the subject of the systematic position of the 

 swallows in numerous places, but more particularly in my 

 "Contributions to the Comparative Osteology of the Families of 

 North American Passeres," in which the skeletons of all the 

 passerine birds in the United States were, in a comparative way, 

 passed in review, the swallows with the rest. This is another 

 formal work dealing with the Hirundinidce, overlooked by our 

 bibliographer of this family of birds. R. W. Shufeldt. 



2508 University Place, Washington, U.S.A., June ii. 



Rotifers in Lake Bassenthwaite. 



It may be of some interest to readers of Nature to call 

 attention to the fact that during the warm days of June 

 16-18, the beautiful Rotifer Asplanchna prindonta was to be 

 found in the surface waters of Lake Bassenthwaite, Cumberland, 

 in very great abundance. After dragging a small tow-net 

 through the water from a row-boat for twenty minutes, the 

 water collected in the bottle attached to the end of the 

 net was perfectly turbid with the multitude of these animals, 

 interfering very materially with the observation of the other 

 constituents of the plankton. Observations taken by Mr. 

 Ashworth in different parts of the lake in the early morning, 

 mid-day and the evening, proved that they were not present 

 merely in a localised cloud, but distributed in immense numbers 

 all over the lake, from the surface to a depth of ten feet or more. 



The observation is of interest, as the " Lakes" are not given 

 in the great work on Rotifers, by Hudson and Gosse, as a 

 locality for this genus, nor is there mention made of its 

 occurrence in such great numbers. Perhaps some of your 

 readers may be able to inform me if this phenomenon has pre- 

 viously been recorded in England. Sydney J. Hickson. 



The Owens College, Manchester. 



Lion-Tiger Hybrid. 



Some of the readers of Nature who have the opportunity 

 of visiting the exhibition at Earl's Court may be interested to 

 know that one of the members of the " Happy Family" now on 

 show there is evidently a hybrid between a lion and a tiger. 

 The animal appears to be about two years old. By artificial light 

 the ground colour closely resembles that of a lion, being tawny 

 rather than reddish yellow ; but the tiger-stripes, though faint, 

 are quite visible, especially on the tail. Such stripes might 

 perhaps be mistaken for unusually strong cub-markings of the 

 lion retained for an unusual length of time. But apart from the 

 stripes, the tiger-strain comes out strongly in the blackness of the 

 corners of the mouth, the hairs of the lips in this place being jet 

 black in the tiger, white in the lion. R. I. PococK. 



Natural History Museum, June 22. 



Transference of Heat in Cooled Metal. 



J'ai I'honneur de vous envoyer pour votre si interressant 

 journal, une remarque qui pourra interesser peut-etre quelques 

 lecteurs de Nature. 



II s'agit d'un phenomene certainement bien connu et qui n'a 

 peut-etre pas attire I'attention des physiciens, comme il semble le 

 meriter. Prenons dans la main I'extremite d'une barre de 

 metal et chauffons I'autre extremite aussi fortement que possible, 

 mais pourtant de maniere a pouvoir tenir la barre sans se 

 bruler par la premiere extremite. Cela etant, refroidissons 

 brusquement I'extremite chauffee, soit en la plongeant dans 

 I'eau, soit au moyen d'un jet d'eau. Nous constatons alors que 



la temperature de la partie non chauffee monte et que nous sommes 

 obligh de Idcher la barre, si nous ne voulons pas nous brdler. 

 C'est ce que savent tres bien, tous ceux qui ont travaille ^ la 

 forge ou qui ont fait des soudures de petites pieces 

 metalliques tenues a la main. Les ouvriers disent que la 

 chaleur est repoussSe par le froid vers la partie non chauffee. 

 Le phenomene a-t-il ete etudie scientifiquement et connait-on 

 sa cause? Henry Bourget. 



Astronome adjoint a I'observatoire de Toulouse, juin 14. 



Parker and Hasvsrell's " Text-book of Zoology." 



In reply to Prof. Ray Lankester's references to me in his 

 review of Parker and Haswell's "Text-book of Zoology" in 

 this journal for May 12th, I should like to state as follows : — 

 (i) That I had nothing to do with correcting the " final revise" 

 of this book. (2) That the new English edition of Prof. 

 Wiedersheim's " Comparative Anatomy of Vertebrates " is not 

 a translation, but an "adaptation." (3) That the assertion 

 with regard to the ossification of parts of the skeleton in 

 Elasmobranchs in the latter work is not the same as that to 

 which Prof. Lankester objects in the "Zoology," whether the 

 latter be right or wrong. (4) That Gotte in 1878 distinctly 

 stated that true bone is undeniably present in the vertebral 

 centra of several Elasmobranchs the histology of which he 

 describes, and that all kinds of intermediate stages between 

 calcified cartilage and true bone occur in these centra. (5) That 

 in the fourth edition of Marshall and Hurst's " Practical 

 Zoology " true bone is said to occur in the centra of Scyllium, 

 and that this statement does not appear in previous editions 

 of the book. (6) That in the fourth German edition of 

 Wiedersheim's "Grundriss der vergleichenden Anatomic," 

 which was published a week or two ago, the centra of 

 Elasmobranchs are described as being " kalkknorpelige resp. 

 knocherne." W. N. Parker. 



SOME RESULTS OF MY RESEARCHES ON 



OCEANOGRAPHY. 



By Albert, Prince of Monaco. 



THE devotion that has been quite lately given to the 

 new science called " oceanography," has decided 

 me to dedicate some of the strongest efforts of my life 

 to its advancement. I set about iny work in 1885 with a 

 small sailing schooner of 200 tons, the Hirondelle, and I 



NO. 1496, VOL. 58] 



Fig. I.— The Hirondelle. 



explored the Atlantic as far as the coast of Newfound- 

 land, and as deep as 1600 fathoms, without any power 

 greater than the arms of my fourteen sailors. Later on 

 I built a steam vessel of 560 tons, better fitted for such 

 rough work ; this was the first Princess Alice. Now I 



