294 



KNOWLEDGE & SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Dec, 1904. 



would be that these snake-salamanders travelled from a 

 common northern home down the Eastern and Western 

 Hemispheres, but this seems almost incredible. 

 » • * 



The Anima.ls of Africa. 



The recent discoveries of wonderful new types of extinct 

 animals in the tertiary deposits of the Fay um Desert of Xorth- 

 Eastern Africa, and their bearing on the ori.^n of the modern 

 African fauna, are discussed by the present writer in the 

 October number of the Quarterly KcvicK-, in an article with the 

 above heading. The new evidence shows unmistakably that 

 the Proboscidea (elephants and mastodons) and the Hyra- 

 coidea (the '"coney" of Scripture and its relatives) were 

 developed in Africa itself; but it does not appear to invali- 

 date the long accepted theory that the bulk of the modern 

 African fauna is of northern origin. It might, however, have 

 been added that, in view of the discovery of certain antelope 

 and other remains in the later tertiaries of Africa, the migration 

 may have been somewhat earlier than commonly believed. 

 Probably, indeed, there have been several migrations of 

 African types to the north, and of European and Asiatic 

 types into Africa, 



In this connection it may be mentioned that Dr. C. W. 

 Andrews, the chief describer of the extinct Fayum fauna, has 

 brought to notice in the Xovember number of the Geological 

 iluf(ii:.iitc a remarkably fine shell of the giant land-tortoise, 

 Tistiiiio amino", of the Upper Eocene beds of the district in 

 question. This appears to be the earliest of the big land- 

 tortoises, and may have been the ancestral type from which 

 those of Madagascar, Mauritius, and the Mascarene Islands, 

 together with the extinct Indian species, were derived, 



* * * 



An Intelligent Chimpanzee. 



Berlin possesses a successor to the late lamented chimpanzee 

 " Consul " in the shape of Cor.sul II., of which the following 

 account has been published. Recently Consul II. appeared 

 before a meeting of the German Psychological Society, and 

 was the subject of a lecture by the eminent psychologist. 

 Professor Hirschlaff. The ape stood on the platform beside 

 the lecturer in a smoking jacket, top-hat, black trousers, boots, 

 and shirt. Professor Hirschlaft gave Consul an excellent 

 character. He has good manners, is of a friendly disposition, 

 and manifests symptoms of what would be called in human 

 beings a loving nature. He has no objection to the vicinity of 

 dogs, cats, or snakes, but is afraid of horses. No traces are 

 seen in Consul of any special liking for women and soldiers. 

 Like most apes he delights in children, but evinces an ab- 

 horrence of dolls, of w-hich he can make nothing, and retires 

 vanquished from their presence. If Consul is tickled he some- 

 times shrieks with laughter. When punished he acts like a 

 child, holding his hands before his face. If discovered at 

 anything he is forbidden to do he assumes hypocritically an 

 innocent demeanour, which is distinctly human. He is rest- 

 less, and cannot sit long in one position, \\'ith an excellent 

 memory, he is yet incapable of expressing his wants either 

 by gestures or sounds. He cannot be taught to whistle, nor 

 does he understand human speech. All he can comprehend 

 is the tone of a voice or the rhythm of words ; and he cannot 

 be taught to reckon. Although Professor Hirschlaft said that 

 the psychological abilities of Consul are separated from those 

 of human beings by a wide gulf, it is interesting to note how 

 many complicated actions he can comprehend with the intel- 

 lectual powers he possesses. 



* » ■( 



Papers read. 



At the first meeting for the session 1904-5 of the Geological 

 Society, held on November 9, the Kev. Osnmnd Fisher 

 read a paper on the remains of the extinct southern elephant 

 [F.lcphas Mcridionali.'.) found in a cleft in the chalk at Dewlish, 

 Dorsetshire. It was suggested that the cleft was the work ot 

 man, and was made for the purpose of entrapping the ele- 

 phants, which fell into it. At the first meeting of the Linnean 

 Society, held on November 3, Professor Herdman described 

 certain features in the gills of the Ceylon pearl-oyster. Mr, 

 A. W. Waters described some Bryozoa from Cape Colony, 

 several of which he regarded as indicating new species. At the 

 meeting of the Royal Microscopical Society on October 19, 



Mr. W. Colver directed attention to a peculiar laminated struc- 

 ture at the tip of the antenna of the common flea, which it was 

 suggested might be an organ of smell. The following papers 

 were read at the meeting of the Zoological Society on Novem- 

 ber 15: — On Mammals from Fernando Po, and on Hylo- 

 choerus, the Forest-Pig of Central Africa, by Mr. O. Thomas; 

 on the Species of Crow-ned Cranes, by Dr. P. C. Mitchell ; 

 and on the Mouse-Hares of the genus Ochotona. by Mr. J. L. 

 Bonhote, The alleged occurrence of Pere David's deer (Ela- 

 phitrus davidianus) in the island of Hainan was discussed at the 

 same meeting by Mr. Lydekker ; and various specimens were 

 exhibited, 



« * * 



A Ne\v Wild Sheep. 



Sportsmen will be interested m the description by Dr, J. A. 

 Allen of an apparently new species of wild sheep from North- 

 Western Kamchatka, belonging to the Algali group, as typified 

 by the magnificent Ovis amnion of the Altai. The only wild 

 sheep previously known from Kamchatka was O. canadensis 

 nivicola, a near relative of the northern races of the .-Xmerican 

 bighorn, Dr, .Allen, whose article appears in the Bulletin of 

 the U.S, National Museum, proposes to call the new sheep 

 (). storcki^ in honour of the collector of the type skull. 



The Na.ture of Grouse Disease. 



.'\mong some of those qualified to form a trustworthy opinion 

 the view seems to be gradually gaining ground that grouse 

 disease is due to the presence of parasites (Sporatozoa) in the 

 blood, and that, as in the case of malaria, the germs of these 

 parasites are introduced into the blood by the bites of insects, 

 the carriers in this instance being apparently midges, which 

 at certain seasons absolutely swarm on the moors. On the 

 other hand, in a fashionable weekly contemporary, a sports- 

 man expresses his dissent from the \iew that the infec- 

 tion is carried by means of the midge. He may be 

 pardoned for urging that the disease sometimes makes its 

 appearance at seasons when midges are scarce ; but when 

 he proceeds to state that " if the midge by biting the grouse, 

 a thing which has yet to be proved, infects him with virus so 

 deadly, it is strange that men and deer, whom he certainly 

 does bite, suffer nothing more than temporary irritation," he 

 displays ignorance of some of the first principles of the 

 subject. It may be added that there are still people who 

 refuse to believe that malaria is propagated by means of 

 mosquitoes. 



* * * 



Two More Extinct Anima-ls. 



.■\ writer in the I uld points out that two animals have com- 

 paratively recently become extinct without attracting notice on 

 the part of naturalists. The one is the great straight-horned 

 race of the Indian buffalo (Bos biihalis macrocerus), which used 

 to be met with, although rarely, in the Assam jungles as late as 

 the "forties." The second is the wolf of the Falkland Islands 

 (Cants antarcticiis), an interesting but perhaps introduced 

 species which appears to have been exterminated by strych- 

 nine during the " seventies." 



-.-f -^ ^ 



Jerboa-s atnd Birds. 



.\ curious structural resemblance has recently been pointed 

 out as existing between the skeleton of the hind-leg of that 

 pretty little Egyptian hopping rodent the jerboa and the same 

 part in birds. In both the mammal and the bird the lower 

 part of the leg is formed by a long, slender cannon-bone, or 

 metatarsus, terminating inferiorly in triple condyles for the 

 three long and sharply-clawed toes, the resemblance being 

 increased by the fact that in both cases the small bone of the 

 leg (fibula) is fused with the large one (tibia). It is further 

 pointed out that in mammals and birds which hop on two legs, 

 such asjerboas, kangaroos, thrushes and finches, the propor- 

 tionate length of the thigh-bone or femur to the tibia and foot 

 (metatarsus and toes) is constant, being 2 to 5 ; in animals, on 

 the other hand, such as hares, horses, and frogs, which use all 

 four feet the corresponding lengths are 4 to 7, It will, of 

 cours?, be obvious that the resemblance between the jerboa's and 

 the bird's skeleton is entirely owing to adaptation to a similar 

 mode of existence. An interesting point in connection with 

 the jerboa is that in the young the proportion of the femur to 

 the rest of the leg is the same as in ordinary running animals. 



