500 



NA TURE 



[SErXEMBER 20, 1900 



branch, and applies for support to all interested in India. Of 

 the excellency of the object in view we are fully assured, but it 

 must be borne in mind that legislation of the nature proposed 

 entails many difficulties in India, and should not be introduced 

 without very mature consideration. 



We have received a Bulletin (vol. iii. No. 2) of the Madras 

 Government Museum containing an illustrated account by the 

 superintendent, Dr. E. Thurston, of the sea fisheries of Malabar 

 and South Canara. A considerable portion of the pamphlet is 

 , taken up with an account of the instructions which have been 

 recently drawn up by the author for the guidance of the officials 

 at the various fish-curing establishments in attaining statistics 

 of the life-history and migrations of the more abundant species 

 of fish. As an instance of the difficulties encountered in India 

 in obtaining statistics of this nature, it may be mentioned that 

 *'at the fish-census, 1889, the officer who was told off to make 

 the record of fishes brought ashore, was at first driven away by 

 the fishermen, who refused to give him the requisite information, 

 from fear that the census was being taken with a view to in- 

 creased taxation." The remainder of this valuable report is 

 taken up by a diary made by the author during a tour of inspec- 

 tion of the fish-curing yards of the districts in question during the 

 antumn of last year. Some of the most striking modes of fishing 

 are illustrated in the plates, and details given of the amount 

 and value of the catches at the different stations. Dr. Thurston 

 is of opinion that a much greater variety of fish might be intro- 

 duced with advantage at the dinner tables of Europeans residing 

 in Madras than is at present the case. 



As nest-building fishes are comparatively few, naturalists will 

 read with interest an account given in the August issue of the 

 American Naturalist, by Messrs. Young and Cole, of the manner 

 in which the brook-lamprey {Laiiipetra wilderi) makes a 

 structure of this nature. It is believed that the males precede 

 the females at spawning time and commence nest-building before 

 the arrival of the latter. The nest is made among pebbles, but 

 it does not seem that the lampreys follow any definite plan in its 

 construction. They affix themselves to such pebbles as require 

 removing from the nest, and then endeavour to swim straight 

 away with them. In the case of a heavy stone two lampreys 

 may join forces. The number of fish in a nest may vary from 

 one to thirty or forty ; but there are generally between three and 

 twenty- five. 



A PAIR of fenestrse covered with membrane have for some 

 time been known to occur in the head of the common cockroach, 

 and represent functional ocelli in other species of the same 

 group. In the American Naturalist for August, Mr. C. Kochi 

 records the existence of a pair of spots in the former insect, just 

 below the aforesaid fenestrae. These spots he believes also 

 represent the sites of another pair of ocelli which in other insects 

 have shifted their position and coalesced to form the unpaired 

 median ocellus. 



The Sunday Magazine, like many other popular journals, 

 publishes occasional articles on scientific subjects, the one in its 

 September issue being devoted to swimming crabs. Excellent 

 illustrations are given of several of the species to be met with on 

 the British coasts, while the letterpress describes their distinctive 

 features and the leading peculiarities in their habits. 



A PAPER on the life-histories of the mosquitoes of the United 

 States, by Dr. L. O. Howard, recently published in one of its 

 Bulletins by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, appears 

 opportunely. The writer gives concise but clear descriptions, 

 accompanied by enlarged illustrations, of all the members of the 

 group met with in the Slates, devoting special attention to those 

 of the malaria-producing genus, Anopheles. Dr. Howard calls 

 NO. t6t2, vol. 62] 



attention to the circumstance that he advocated the employment 

 of kerosene for the destruction of the larvae as far back as 1894, 

 and claims that this mode has proved more effectual, when used 

 on a sufficiently large scale, than any other yet suggested. In 

 certain cases, however, as in the instance of tanks containing 

 water intended for drinking purposes, the employment of kero- 

 sene may be undesirable, and the introduction of fish, where 

 none previously existed, is then advocated. The value of most 

 small fishes as destroyers of mosquito larvse is well illustrated by 

 a natural experiment which recently took place in Connecticut. 

 '• In this case a very high tide broke away a dyke and flooded 

 the salt meadows of Stratford, a small town a few miles away 

 from Bridgeport. The receding tide left two small lakes, nearly 

 side by side and of the same size. In one lake the tide left a 

 dozen or more small fishes, while the other was fishless. An 

 examination in the summer of 1891 showed that while the 

 fishless lake contained tens of thousands of mosquito larvae, that 

 containing the fish had no larvae. " 



We have received from the publishers two numbers of the 

 Zeitschrift fiir wis sense kaft lie he Zoologie — the last of vol. Ixvii. 

 and the first of Ixviii. The former contains an article, by Herr 

 E. Wasmann, describing a new genus (Termitoxenia) of wing- 

 less Dipterous insects parasitic in the nest of white ants or 

 termites. Four species of these remarkable insects are recog- 

 nised, of which one is Indian, while the other three are from 

 Africa. Another article in the same issue, which should be of 

 considerable interest to stock-beeders, treats of the histology of 

 certain infusians found in the stomachs of cattle and in the 

 coecum of the horse. The three articles forming the first part 

 of vol. Ixviii. are all devoted to invertebrate anatomy and 

 morphology. 



The August issue of the Journal of the Royal Horticultural 

 Society contains, in addition to numerous articles dealing with 

 fruits, vegetables and flowers, a paper treating of the scale and 

 mealybug, and a second discussing the black currant-mite and 

 its ravages. In the latter, which should be especially valuable 

 to horticulturists, it is stated that the origin of the pest in 

 question is unknown, but that its first recorded occurrence in 

 the British Isles is about fifty years ago, when it was found in 

 Scotland. 



The Natural History and Ethnographical Museum of Para, 

 Brazil, has commenced to issue a series of memoirs ; the first of 

 these is an account by Dr. Emilio A. Goeldi, the director of the 

 museum, of some archaeological excavations which he made in 

 1895 of some artificial burial caves of an extinct tribe of Indians 

 on the Rio Cunany (Goanany). Each cave consists of a circular 

 shaft, 8 feet 2^ inches deep and 3 feet 4^ inches in diameter, the 

 opening of which was closed by a large disc of granite. A 

 crescentic chamber had been cut in the soil at the base of the 

 shaft, in which were deposited a number of remarkable earthen 

 vessels of very varied form, most of which were painted in red 

 with peculiar designs and patterns. Some of the funeral vases 

 were conventionally modelled to represent the human form, and 

 others had on them various animals moulded in high relief. The 

 memoir is illustrated by capital plates. 



Messrs. G. W. Wilson, of Aberdeen, have just issued a 

 catalogue of more than seven hundred new lantern slides repre- 

 senting scenes and objects in Spain. The list should be of 

 particular interest to teachers of geography. 



We have received the Annual Reports of the Royal Botanic 

 Garden, Calcutta, from the superintendent. Major Prain, for 

 the years 1898-1899, 1899-1900. Close attention has been 

 given by the garden staff throughout the past year to the 

 propagation and distribution of plants of economic importance. 



