346 



NATURE 



[May 19, 1 9 10 



In L'Anthropologie for March-April MM. E. Cartailac 

 :an(i I'Abb^ H. Breuil continue their survey of the paint- 

 ings and engravings found in the caves of the Pyrenees. 

 The caves described in this article are those of Gargas, 

 •not far from Montrejeau, and B^dailhac and Pradi^res, 

 near Tarascon. The first of these contains a remarkable 

 series of paintings and engravings, depicting hand-marks, 

 animals such as the elephant, bison, horse, and what 

 «eems to be a rude human figure, resembling other Euro- 

 pean specimens of Palaeolithic art, as well as that of the 

 natives of Australia and the South African Bushmen. A 

 similar collection of examples of primitive art from caves 

 ♦once occupied by Bushmen on Mt. Silozwana is described 

 by Messrs. Mennell and Chubb under the title of " Some 

 Aspects of the Matopos " in the first part of vol. viii. 

 (1908) of the Proceedings of the Rhodesia Scientific 

 Association, just received. The figures of the giraffe, 

 guinea-fowls, and flying ants are particularly realistic, and 

 ■supply excellent examples of primitive native art. 



The Choctaw of St. Tammany Parish, in Louisiana, 

 the now scanty remnants of a once famous tribe, are 

 -described by Mr. D. I. Bushnell, jun., in the forty-fifth 

 Bulletin of the Smithsonian Institution. They have now 

 ■forgotten most of their characteristic industries — pottery 

 and basket-making — and have lost the art of fishing, most 

 of their needs being supplied from the nearest store ; but 

 though they have been for a long period subjected to 

 Christian influences, they retain many of their primitive 

 beliefs. Thus a solar eclipse occurs when the sun is rest- 

 ing and cleaning himself from the accumulated smoke of 

 "his fires. Thunder and lightning are produced by two 

 great birds, and when the female is laying an egg in her 

 nest in the sky there is a thunderclap. The good spirit. 

 Aba, takes to his heaven the spirits of all tribesmen save 

 those dying by effusion of blood and murderers. The evil 

 spirit, Nanapolo, wanders in the recesses of the forest, and 

 though he is feared, he never succeeds in gaining possession 

 of the soul of a Choctaw. They have practically lost their 

 belief in witchcraft, and have never assimilated the prac- 

 tices of Voodooism, so popular among the negroes around 

 them. Mr. Bushnell has excavated a series of mounds 

 which throw some light upon their primitive culture. 



The great flights of crossbills which visited this country 

 and the Continent last summer and autumn have, in our 

 islands at any rate, remained in many places to breed. 

 In the May issue of Witherby's British Birds a large 

 •number of instances of such nesting are recorded, and it 

 is confidently expected that many more will follow. The 

 localities include the Southampton district, Wickham, the 

 New Forest, Kent, StafTordshire, Suffolk, Surrey, and 

 Sussex. The nests were mostly, or invariably, built in 

 Scots firs, those near Burley, in the New Forest, being 

 placed in the forks of horizontal boughs at a height of 

 some 30 feet from the ground and a dozen feet from the 

 stem. It i» suggested that an unusual abundance of Scots- 

 fir seeds may have led to the visitation. 



Dr. K. Deninger, in vol. xviii., part i., of the Berichte 

 ' d. Naiurfor. Gesellschaft zu Freiberg, has done good service 

 in demonstrating the marked distinction between the 

 'babirusa of Boru and its relative of Celebes. The original 

 Sus babirtissa of Linnaeus came, it appears, from Boru, 

 but the Babirussa alfurus of Lesson's " Mammalogie, " 

 which was supposed by its describer to come from the 

 same island, and to be identical with the Linnean species, 

 is based on Celebes specimens. For the Boru species Dr. 

 Deninger takes the name Babirusa babirusa, while for 

 •its Celebes representative he proposes the new title B. 

 NO. 2 1 16, VOL. 83] 



en J 



i 



celebensis, although in our opinion he ought to have re- 

 tained Lesson's B. alfurus. Until the author brought 

 home specimens, the Boru babirusa seems to have been 

 represented in European museums only by a few skulls 

 the distinctive peculiarities of which were not recognise 

 It is distinguished by its nearly smooth hide, of which thi 

 colour in adult males is greyish-brown above and light' 

 brown below, and also by the thick coat of short bristly 

 hairs, which becomes thickest at the root of the tail. The 

 general colour is whitish-grey, tinged, especially on the 

 head, with yellow. Females and young males are darker. 

 The Celebes species, on the other hand, has the well- 

 known rugged and furrowed hide almost naked, and 

 brownish-grey in colour. The skull of the Boru babirusa 

 is short and wide, with the extremities of the nasals not 

 narrowing to a sharp point between the sheaths of the 

 upper canines in the manner characteristic of its relative 

 in Celebes, and there are also differences between the tusks 

 of the two species. Dr. Deninger, who adopts Stehlin's 

 theory that the bunodont dentition of the Suidae is derived 

 by degeneration from a selenodont type, concludes bv 

 expressing the opinion that Babirusa is nearly related to 

 the Siwalik Merycopotamus, both genera agreeing in 

 the parallel direction of the two lines of cheek-teeth, the 

 general form and small size of the crowns of these teeth 

 the shape and directjon of the tusks, and certain other 

 features. 



The Board of Agriculture has taken advantage of the 

 powers conferred upon it by the Destructive Insects and 

 Pests Acts, and has issued an order affecting the follow^ 

 ing : — The vine louse (Phylloxera vastaUix, Planchon), th« 

 San Jos^ scale (Aspidiotus perniciosus, Coinstock), thi 

 Mediterranean fruit fly (Ceratitis capitata, Wiedemann), th« 

 Colorado beetle (Doryphora decemlineata, Say), the \arg{ 

 larch sawfly (Nematus erichsonii, Hartig), the potato moti 

 (Lila solanella, Boisduval), the gipsy moth (Lipari 

 [ocneria] dispar, Linn6), the brown tail moth (Euproctii 

 chrysorrhoea, Linn^), the nun moth (Liparis monacha, 

 Linn6), the cherry fly (Rhagoletis cerasi, Linn^), the nar 

 cissus fly [Merodon equestris, Fabricius), black knot (Plo-t 

 rightia morbosa, Saccardo), wart disease or black scab 1 

 potatoes (Synchitrium endobioticutti, Percival), tomato-lea: 

 spot (Septoria lycopersici, Spegazzini). melon or cucumbe 

 canker (Mycosphoerella citrullina, Grossenbacher), an« 

 •American pear blight (Micrococcus amylovorus, Burrell) 

 Under the provisions of the Act any person selling or plant 

 ing any seed, cutting, plant, &c., attacked by any of thest 

 pests is liable to a penalty of lol. A like penalty ii 

 incurred if anyone fails to notify the proper inspector 

 when any of the pests appear in his garden, or if he omit 

 to carry out the measures specified by the Board for th( 

 prevention of the spread of the pest. The inspector ma; 

 enter any premises where he has reason to suppose oni 

 of these pests occurs and examine any plants. He mai 

 go further, and order the destruction of the plants affecte< 

 if the local authority consents to pay compensation. Thi 

 is the part of the Act that has been most criticised, and i 

 still remains to be seen how much good is done when thi 

 most effective, if also the most drastic, method of treat 

 ment may be excluded. But the order shows that th< 

 Board is alive to the necessity for action, and it will n^ 

 doubt discover a way of getting over this particula 

 difficulty. If the order constitutes a new terror for amateui 

 gardeners and careless nurserymen it also emphasises the 

 necessity for horticultural instruction in the schools, and 

 justifies the evening classes held in many of the counties. 



A CURIOUS manna-like incrustation or wax collected on 

 twigs and leaves of Elaeodendron glaucum is described by 



at 



