6o8 



NA TURE 



[April 27, 189- 



and one female. Reared by terrier bitch, all died within a year. 

 They were exhibited to King George IV, at the Royal Cottage, 

 Windsor, on November i, 1824. 



Second Litter.— XSoxn April 22, 1825, at Clapham Common ; 

 there were three cubs, sexes not recorded. Reared by the 

 mother, as also were all the subsequent litters. They only lived 

 a short time. 



Third Litter. —Boxa December 31, 1826 or '27, at Edinburgh, 

 one male and two females. As stated in the previous paper, 

 the year is given as 1827 in the handbill of the menagerie 

 from which I quoted, and the other references seem to sup- 

 port that date ; but Mr. John Atkins says it is given as 1826 in 

 a printed catalogue in his possession. 



Fourth Litter. — Bjrn October 2, 1828, at Windsor, one 

 male and two females. 



Fifth Litter. — Born May, 1831, at Kensington, three cubs, 

 sexes not recorded. They were shown to the Queen, then Prin- 

 cess Victoria, and to the Duchess of Kent. The whole group per- 

 formed in a specially constructed cage at Astley's Amphitheatre, 

 and in 1832 were taken by Mr. Atkins for a lour in Ireland. To 

 a separate account of this tour reference has been made in my 

 previous paper. 



Sixth Litter.— -Bjrn July 19, 1833, at the Zoological Gardens, 

 Liverpool, one male and two females. One, the male, lived 

 for ten years in the gardens. The young male lion-tigers when 

 about three years old had a short mane something like that of 

 an Asiatic lion ; the stripes became very indistinct at that age. 



Mr. Atkins informs me that there is a badly stuffed specimen 

 of one cub which was about a year old in the Museum at Salis- 

 bury, and from Mr. Harmer's letter (see Nature, p. 413) there 

 is one also in Cambridge. 



From the account quoted by him it would seem improbable 

 that that particular specimen, had it survived, could have bred. 

 As a matter of fact I learn from Mr. Atkins that none of them 

 ever did breed, though he does not know of any reason why 

 they should not have done so. 



Mr. Atkins thinks that the cubs of the earlier litters died from 

 over-feeding ; when he adopted a different treatment he had no 

 difficulty in rearing them. 



In my previous paper, in the quotation from Griffiths, the 

 word "superfineness" should read "superficies." 



This record, it may be noted, while correcting some errors in 

 the previously published accounts, also extends over a period 

 subsequent to all of them, V. Ball.' 



Science and Art Museum, Dublin, April 15. 



Soot-figures on Ceilings. 

 As the subject of dust-images was recently considered in some 

 interesting letters in Nature, I wish to record an example of a 

 soot-image which was far more detailed and remarkable than 

 any I have yet seen. The example is to be found on the ceiling 

 of the billiard-room in the Golf Club House at Felixstowe. 

 Abundant soot has been deposited above the lamps by which the 

 table is lighted, and this is distributed so as to map out on the 

 ceiling not only the outline of the joists, but that of the laths and 

 even of the nails by which the ends of the latter are secured. 

 The mark corresponding to the nail-head is certainly much larger 



than the latter. I made rom memory a rough sketch of the 

 appearance, which is reproduced in the accompanying woodcut. 

 I may be mistaken in the position of some of the light and dark 

 shades. If the example is as new to others as it was to me it 

 would be interesting to have a photograph of the ceiling before 

 it is again whitewashed. E. B. Poulton. 



Oxford, April 17. ^^^j 



This phenomenon is often observed, though not often so 

 clearly as in the case noticed by Mr. Poulton. It is due to the 

 same cause as produces the dust-free space seen rising from hot 

 bodies in illuminated smoky air, viz. a peculiar Crookesian 

 (or rather Osborne Reynoldsian) bombardment of sufficiently 



NO, 1226, VOL. 47] 



small dust-particles, in the direction of decreasing temperature, 

 by the extra energy of the gas-molecules on one side See 

 papers by myself and the late Mr. Clark in Nature (especially 

 July 26, 1883, April 24, 1884, vol. xxix. p. 417, and January 

 22, 1885), and in Phil. Mag., 1884, Proc. R.I., &c. ; also by Mr. 

 Aitken, Trans. R.S. Edm., 1884. And see the remarkable 

 theoretical paper by Prof. Osborne Reynolds on "Dimensional 

 Properties of Gases," Phil. Trans., 1879. 



Dust gets bombarded out of hot air on to all colder surfaces. 

 The details of this effect are specially given by Mr. Aitken in 

 Nature, vol. xxix. p. 322. The badly-conducting plaster of a 

 ceiling is no doubt fully heated by contact with the air below 

 except in places where the conducting power of wood or iron 

 keeps it comparatively cool ; hence the picking-out of the pat- 

 tern. Solid deposit from warm air onto cool surfaces can occur 

 without any actual smoke ; e.g. it can be noticed ab jve incand- 

 escent lamps. Oliver Lodge. 



The Use of Ants to Aphides and Coccidae. 



I have just had an opportunity of seeing Dr. Rimanes' in- 

 teresting work, " Darwin, and after Darwin," and find therein 

 (p. 292) the production of honey-dew by Aphides adduced as a 

 difficulty in the way of the Darwinian theory. I have not paid 

 any particular attention t > Aphides, but have lately been much 

 interested in the allied Coccidse, which, since they produce a 

 similar fluid attracting ants, may be considered to off^r a 

 parallel instance. Both Coccidae and Aphides suffer from many 

 predaceous and parasitic enemies, and there seems to be no doubt 

 that the presence of numerous ants serves to ward these off, and is 

 consequently beneficial. There is an interesting Coccid, Icerya 

 roscB, which I find on Prosopi; here, and on more than one 

 occasion I have been unable to collect specimens without being 

 stung by the ants. At the present moment soma of these 

 Iceryse are enjoying life, which would certainly ha'/e perished at 

 my hands, but for the inconvenience presented by the numbers 

 of stinging ants. 



Belt and Forel have also written on the protection of Coccidse 

 by ants ("Naturalist in Nicaragua;" and Bull. Soc. Vaud., 

 1876). Maskell has given an account of the honey-dew organ 

 of Coccidae, from which it appears that it is something more 

 than a mere organ for the excretion of waste products. This 

 author also figures some of the fungi which grow on honey -dew, 

 and it may well be that these also serve to prevent the attacks of 

 enemies. When, as we sometimes see in Jamaica, the leaves 

 appear tobe coated with soot {Antennaria robbinsii is the fungus), 

 it cannot be so convenient for coccinellid larvae, Chrysopa larvae, 

 &c. , to crawl about on them in search of Coccidae. 



Jamaica, April 3. T. D. A. Cockerell. 



Blind Animals in Caves. 



In his last letter (p. 537) Mr. J. T. Cunninghan states that 

 the "early stages" of the European Proteus have not yet been 

 obtained. This assertion is incorrect. In 1888 and 1889 

 the oviposition and development have been described by 

 E. Zeller {Zool. Anz., 1888, No. 290, and Jakresh. Ver. 

 Naturk. Wiirtt., xlv., 18S9, p. 131, plate iii.), who gives a 

 coloured figure of the larva, and particularly refers to the 

 development of the eyes. As early as 183 1 (Oken's " Isis," 

 1831, p. 501) Michahelles remarked that the eyes in young 

 specimens are more distinct and somewhat larger than in the 



adult. G, A, BOULENGER, 



H 



OBSERVATIONS IN THE WEST INDIES.^ 

 ERE we are back at Nassau for the third time, and 

 thinking you might be interested to hear of my 

 cruises, I send you a short sketch of our trip. The first 

 time we left Nassau we entered the Bahama Bank at 

 Douglass Channel and crossed the bank to North Eleu- 

 thera, where we examined the " Glass Window " and the 

 northern extremity of Eleuthera, we then sailed along the 

 west shore of the island close enough to get a good view 

 of its characteristics as far as Rock Harbaur at the 



1 A letter from Alexander Agassiz to J. I>. Dana; dated Steam Yacht 

 Wild Duck, Nassau, March, 1893. Printed in the American Jonrnul of 

 Science for April, and communicated to Nature by the author. 



