March 2, 1893] 



NATURE 



423 



Wheat-fields and meadows abounded with these balls, and sug- 

 gested, at first sight, that a troop of school-boys had been having 

 a battle with the snow. Two fields, of thirty acres each, that 

 came under Mr. Ford's observation (one a new-sown wheat- 

 field and the other a meadow) were literally covered with these 

 " snow-rollers," there being at least 500 on the acre. Road- 

 sides and lots contained a few, and he noticed them on house- 

 tops and straw-ricks. On close investigation, he found the balls 

 to be uniformly light and fragile, so that to lift one and preserve 

 its form was impossible. Some were oblong, some almost 

 spherical, while others resembled a tea-cup or small bowl. 

 There were no tracks behind them, or, if these had been made, 

 the falling snow had obliterated them. The accompanying 

 weather conditions were as follows : — The ground had been 

 covered with snow for three weeks. A crust had formed on the 

 top, thick and firm enough in places to bear up a person. This 

 thawed a little during the afternoon of the 29th. The ensuing 

 night was warm, the mercury registering 40'= F. By ten o'clock 

 a brisk wind was blowing, which increased in velocity, and soon 

 the snow began to fall in large, moist flakes. The morning 

 showed that about a half-inch had fallen on the crust, and on 

 this lay the balls. The phenomenon was reported from several 

 places in the vicinity, chiefly in the Fayette County, and from 

 Clinton County, which adioins it on the west, but nowhere did 

 the rollers extend uninterruptedly over any great area. 



In November last, according to a writer in the Journal of the 

 Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, there was in Singa- 

 pore one of the largest specimens of the Mias or Orang-Utan 

 ever captured ; it was a male, and probably of the species known 

 as Simia satyrus, Linn., or the Mias Pappan of the Dyaks. 

 The animal was captured in Borneo, and nought by a native 

 dealer in Singapore, who eventually sold him to a German 

 ship's captain, by whom he has been, it is believed, taken to 

 Germany. As far as the writer could judge, his height must 

 have been close on 4 feet 5 inches. The cage in which he was 

 confined was 4 feet 2 inches or thereabouts in height, and he 

 could easily touch the top of it with his head without standing 

 erect. His face was immensely broad, the cheeks being flat- 

 tened out sideways into a sort of disc. The hair was long 

 (about 4 inches) and thick and of a bright red colour, and he 

 had a distinct short pointed beard. The eyes were dark brown. 



A WRITER who signs himself "Tutuila" contributes to the 

 current number of the Journal of the Polynesian Society some 

 interesting notes on the races known as the Tokelaus, or Line 

 Islanders, called by themselves the Kai-n-Abara, which means 

 "people of our land." The Kai-n-Abara inhabit all 

 the islands of the Gilbert Group, Nanumea, and Nanumanga 

 in the El lice Group, and Banapa or Ocean Island. They are 

 apparently of the Micronesian type, but although they have 

 long straight hair, and are more of a copper colour than brown, 

 they are not pure Micronesian. They are intelligent, can reason 

 inductively, are brave, having a very respectable share of 

 courage, and are extremely pugnacious, both sexes fighting like 

 fiends on the least provocation. In every township there is a 

 large house called " maneabau," in which the members of each 

 family of "aomata" or "gentry " have a certain space allotted 

 to them. All the social government is carried on in this house, 

 and everything of a public nature is discussed in it. Decision 

 is given by general vote, the majority carrying their point. 

 The older and wealthier landowners have most influence 

 where there are no nobles, but do not seem to have more votes 

 than any one else. A woman can vote and speak as well as a 

 man, and in general the women decide the question, unless it 

 is one of war against another island. 



Mr. a. J, Chitty records in the new number of the EntO' 

 mologist's Monthly Magazine that in the neighbourhood of Forres, 

 NO- I 2 18. VOL. 47] 



Morayshire, where he spent six weeks last autumn, he found 

 that Coleoptera were very abundant. He captured specimens 

 of a good many species new to the district, and one or two 

 which had not, he believes, been recorded before from Scot- 

 land. 



A LIST of the Batrachia in the Indian Museum, by W. L. 

 Sclater, has been issued by the trustees of the institution. The 

 arrangement and nomenclature are formed on Mr. Boulenger's 

 work in the British Museum catalogues, and" the Reptiles and 

 Batrachia in the "Fauna of British India" series. 



An interesting paper on the were-wolf in Latin literature, 

 by Kirby W. Smith, is printed in the new number of the 

 Johns Hopkins University Circulars. The were-wolf is a per- 

 son who, either from a gift inborn or from the proper use of 

 certain magic arts of which he has learned the secret, can 

 change himself into a wolf of unusual size and ferocity ; or, 

 furthermore, the transformation may be unavoidable, owing to 

 the curse or charm of some outside power, and not to be got rid 

 of until a fixed period has elapsed or various conditions, 

 more or less difficult, have been complied with. Such enchant- 

 ments are common in the folk-lore of all nations, but, on 

 Roman ground, they do not appear in connection with the were- 

 wolf story. Mr. Smith mentions the were-wolf story 

 told by Petronius, who describes how the companion of the 

 freedman Niceros took off^ his clothes, and, becoming a wolf, 

 began to howl and took to the woods. Niceros tried to pick up 

 the clothes, but found they had all turned to stone. The wolf 

 was wounded in the neck with a spear, and afterwards Niceros 

 found his comrade in bed, while his neck was being dressed by 

 a doctor. Here the transformation is attributed to a power born 

 in the person, and Mr. Smith thinks that this may be the 

 nearest approach to the original form of the superstition, be- 

 cause "among savages, these modern types of early humanity, 

 just such stories are more or less common." The other class of 

 Roman were-wolf stories — those in which the change is 

 effected by means of a charm— simply form one of a large num- 

 ber of different transformations, the theory and methods of all 

 being practically the same. 



We have received the first part of the new Contributions Jrom 

 the Botanical Laboratory of the University of Pennsylvania. 

 It contains papers by Dr. J. T. Rothrock on a monstrous speci-" 

 men of Rudbeckia hirta, and on a nascent variety of Brunella 

 vulgaris ; by Dr. J. M. Macfarlane, contributions to the history 

 of Dioncea muscipula ; by Mr. J. W. Harshberger on an 

 abnormal development of the inflorescence of Dionaea ; by Mr. 

 H. Trimble on Mangrove tannin ; by Dr. W. P. Wilson on 

 Epigcea repens, and on the movements of the leaves of Melilotus 

 alba. 



The paper by Dr. Macfarlane on Dionaea is of great interest 

 and confirms the statement previously made by him that, to 

 produce closure of the leaf, two distinct stimuli are required, 

 which may be communicated to the same hair, or to different 

 hairs on the same half, or to hairs on opposite halves of the leaf. 

 He regards the leaf, previous to secretion, as in a state of tetanic 

 contraction, resulting from a series of stimuli, which may either 

 be partially or entirely mechanical, thermal, luminous, chemical, 

 or electric. The so-called "hairs" are not true hairs, but em- 

 ergences, and their structure is described in detail. Each consists 

 of three distinct regions, the joint, the base, and the shaft. 

 While previous observations, such as tho.se of Darwin and Prof. 

 Burdon Sanderson, have been made on plants of Dionaea under 

 abnormal conditions of cultivation, Macfarlane's are especially 

 valuable as having been made on the plant in its native condition ; 

 and this is also the case with those of Mr. Bashford Dean, con- 

 tributed to the Transactions of the New York Academy of 



