June, 1904.] 



KNOWLEDGE cS: SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



125 



the eaily Tertiary: the nowly-discovorcd tonus bciiii; 

 actually the inissinj; links. Hitherto, /cii-^hhiini itsrHhis horn 

 •jnuT.ilK los^.inifd as an aiicestr.il ty|H' of wlial.-, Iml lliis. 

 accorilins; to Dr. Kiaas, is incorrnt ; lliit criMtiirc, .illlioM^li 

 mariiu', liavinj; no sort of allinily willi the Ci lacci. It this 

 be fo, we have still other niissiiij; links to disiovi 1. iiaim ly. 

 the progenitors of the latter ponp. 



Fish Scales. 



We may now, it seems, ascertain the a.s^c- of the co<l and 

 haddock sent to ns by our fishmonger by the examination of 

 their scales. For it appears, aceordinii; to recent rese.irciics, 

 th.at the scales of these fishes, like those of carp, d<\< lop at 

 intervals certain well-marked rings, which appear to indicate 

 the limits of the annnal growths. 



An American Hedgehog. 



The discovery in the middle, or Oligocene, Tertiary deposits 

 of Dacota of the remains of an extinct specitsof hedgehog may 

 not appear to non zoological re.aders a matter of nmch ini 

 portance. In reality it is ,a fact of the v< ry greatest interest, 

 for hitherto the hedgehog tribe {liiiiuucidu) has been regarded 

 as an exclusively Old World group. The discov('ry of the 

 fossil .American species (which has been made the type of a 

 new genus, under the name of Pnttluiix, and is described in 

 the xixth volume of the HulUlin of the .American Museunii 

 serves to strengthen the view of those who maintain that thi' 

 northern coimtries of both the Western and ICasleni Henii 

 spheres form but a single zoological region ; .and th.at formeily 

 there was comparatively free conmiunication l)etwecn llicm in 

 the neighbourhood of Hehring Sea, under climatic conditions 

 which permitted of temperate forms passing from one conti- 

 nent to the other. When we know ninreof th<' Tertirny fauna 

 of Eastern Siberia, it is probable that the number of groups of 

 animals confined to one or the other JKniiisphere will be still 

 further diminished. 



Fish Destruction by Birds. 



At a recent meeting of the I'lella.-I Natural Ili-tnry and Philo- 

 sophical Society, Mr, J, l>rown gave reasons for concluding 

 that there are 2,000,000 gulls in the I'nited Kingdom, and that 

 duriog the herring season each bird destroyed 200 fry per dav, 

 or i2,(X)o during the two months of the sea.son. These, if they 

 had come to maturity, would h;i\(' been worth /"24,ooo,ooo. 

 He, therefore advocated the di^struction of the gulls, each of 

 which cost the nation /'12 in two months in consequence of 

 their protection by -Act of parliament. If we add to the dam- 

 age done to herrings by gulls tlu' loss inliicted on these and 

 other fishes by cormorants, shags, gannet:-', guilU-mots, Xc, 

 there can be no doubt that the supply of food fishes is enor- 

 mously (bminished ; and it seems little short of folly to be 

 spending vast sums of mone)' on the m.iiulen.ance of fish- 

 hatcheries at Piel and other places, and at the same time to 

 do all we can to ensure the destruction of valuable fishes 

 by encouraging the increase of their natur.il enemies. I->irds, 

 are, no doubt, charming adjuncts to scenery — both on tin; 

 coast and inland — but such ornaments may be bought too 

 dearly. 



■k * * 



The Destruction of Whales. 



In the course of a \ ery iuleresting |)a|)iT on whales and 

 whaling contributed to llie April number of the Annals oj 

 Siollisli Sdtiiral lUstorij, Mr. T. .S jutliwell tells us that whereas 

 between the years i.Si.( and 1.S2; no less than 12,907 Oeeu- 

 land whales were killed olf Greenland and in Davis Straits by 

 British vessels, only 127 were accounted for in the ten years 

 ending with 1902. Comment is superlluous. 



Papers Read. 



At the meeting of the /nological Society, heUl on April 19th, 

 Mr, O. Thomas exhibited the skull and skin of a h.artebeest 

 from Uganda, which were regarded as representing a new 



species; and .also skulls of the North .Australian rock-w.illabv, 

 a s^pecies rem.arkable for developing an unusually Large sc-rie-i 

 of molar teeth, whioli are eonliniiously slieil .uid renewed. 

 This s.une geulK-m.ui, in coll.d)oiMtion with Mr, Schu.iuii, 

 n-.ul .1 p.iper on trteutyoue species of mauini.als eollirteil 

 during the work ol the Hoinid.ir\' C'oiuniission between I'lrilish 

 and Ciermau l-^ast .Africa, of which three were reg.irded as new 

 to sci(Uice. Mr. liedd.ird contributed the second instaliu<'nl 

 of a series of papers on the anatomy of li/artls, dealing in this 

 inst.ince with the South .Anieric.in leguixin; Mr. ISonlenger g.ivc 

 addition.d information with regard to the skeleton of the ixtinct 

 Scots reptile I lU-ifclnin ; while Dr. Uroom described the sti uc 

 ttire and mode of articulation with tln' fkiill of the lower |.i\v 

 of some of the extinct mammal like reptile^ of South .Abica. 

 l'"in;dl\', Mr, Druce gave descriptions of three-aud-tvvcnty le-w 

 South American butterfiif s. At the meeting of the same bodv 

 on May 3rd the following four p.ipers were re.id, n.iimU' : Mr. 

 'I hom.is on the osteology .and systematic imsition of llu- 

 M.dagasy bat .Wvve/'di/i; iinrilii ; Mr. Beddard on c 11 l.iin 

 features in the vascular system of ch.amcli-ons and other 

 li/ards; Mr. .A. D. Iniins on the gill r.ikers of the sturgeons 

 of the genus Patyihlon \ .lud |)|. Kideudod on the skulls of 

 cert.ain bou\' fishes. .A sketch was exhibilcil ol a young 

 .African eleph.ant rem.irk.-ible for the .■unoinit ol h.iir on ils 

 body; and .1 |)liotogr;iph was shown of the last <)ii.igg.i living 

 in the menagerie. .At the Cicolo'^icd .Socii'ty on .April ^ytli. 

 a new species of fossil scorpion from thi' (d.diueasure-; of 

 L.auc.-ishire was described by Messrs. Baldwin .lud Siilc lille. 



Mr. W. Koyal-D.awson writes; — With reference to the Note 

 in last month's " Knowi.i-.dgi- " ip. ijfi) on the prior oiieuing of 

 the right eye, I may state that out of a litter of eight t;ime 

 whit(; rats born a short time ago no less th.in seven opened 

 the right eye first, while the eighth showed no lenden(;y to do 

 so. I think this will suffice to confirm the su]iposition that 

 the right eye is the first to be opened in the order Ro.tcnt'ui. 



%^^'i'i^ 



BOTANICAL. 



An ;disfr.icl of Mr. (i. Massee's interesting [iiper "On the 

 Origin of Parasitism in h'uugi," which has r('C(nitiy been pub- 

 lished in full in the I'/iilnsa/'Inial I rtinsntlinns of the Royal 

 Society, is given in the Society's Procccdini^s, ;ind also in the 

 Annuls 0/ lUiliin;/ for April. The author explains why it is 

 that a certain parasitic ftmgus is often only eap;ible of infect- 

 ing one particul.ir species of plant. Though the spores of 

 these fiingi germinate freely on the sutface of any pkint when 

 moist, inlection is confined to the particul.ir species of pl.iut 

 which is the usu.al host of the p.ar.asite. This sel'_cli\e power 

 is .atlriliuti d to chemolaxis. The presence of sacehajosi; in 

 the cell sap of the' host plant is found to induce iuleclion by 

 many sapioph)lic ;uul par;is tic fungi, unless Ihe inlbieuce of 

 this .itli active or posit i\ely chemotaclic substance is overcome 

 by the presericc of a more powerbil negatively cheniotactic or 

 repellent substance. Apples, though eout.iiuiug siceharosi, 

 are immune Irom the attacks of I'ntiytis luicri-ii, which pre_\ s 

 on a greater number of dilfi'reul pkmts lh;iu any olhi-r known 

 par.isitic s,,(;cies. This ininumity is due lo the presence of 

 malic acid, which is repellent or neg;itively cheniotactic lo 

 the germ lubes of this particular fungus, l^xperinieuts havc^ 

 shown that a fungus can be induced to attack the leaves of a 

 pl.int, on whic-h it is not ordinarily parasitic, by injecting into 

 them the subst.aiice which is known to be jiositivcly eheme- 

 faetic to its germ tubes. 



In the Annuls nj Ilaliiny for .April, Mr. J. P.ukiii c.ills ;itl<'U- 

 fion to the nectaries on the bud-scales of the Para Rubber 

 tree, llcvca hnisilicnsis, apparently the only plant that pos- 

 sesses them on these organs. The l'"uphoibi;ice;e, to which 

 llivi-a belongs, contain numerous species in which extra-fior.il 

 nectaries ;ire jireseut, usually on the stem or on thi^ l.iniin.a or 

 petiole of the leaf. Ilci'ca akso has them on the leaves, and 

 various n-ferenccs to these have been made by writers, but 

 the nectaries on the Inid-scales seemed to ha\e been over, 

 looked altogether. This is probably due, as the author 



