i6 



KNOWLEDGE & SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Jan., 1905. 



Although these birds have been suspected of breeding more 

 than once on the Norfolk Broads, and perhaps in Ireland, no 

 satisfactory proof thereof has ever been brought forward. 

 * * « 



Oyster-Catcher Swimming. 



In the Irish Xaturalist for December Mr. C. J. Patten 

 gives a long account of an Oyster-Catcher which, on finding 

 itself observed when feeding along the water's edge, raced 

 along the beach and, taking to the water, swam out to sea for 

 a distance of 200 yards. Later, on its return to land, he 

 succeeded in heading it off and running it down, when he 

 found that one wing had been injured, apparently some days 

 previously. The bird is now in the Dublin Zoo. 



ZOOLOGICAL. 



liy R LVDEKKER. 



BlaLck Foxes. 



AccoRDi.vG to the Norfolk IW-ekly Standard of October 22, 

 a litter of black foxes was bred last spring in the Bedale 

 country, on the estate formerly belonging to the late Duke of 

 Cleveland. If authentic, this event would appear to be unpre- 

 cedented, but. as has been recently pointed out by a writer in 

 the Field, young foxes are normally slate-coloured, and 

 the statement may be based on this fact. Be this as it 

 may, Mr. J. E. \lillais, in the first volume of his magui- 

 ficent new work on " British Mammals." after mentioning 

 that a tendency to melanism is by no means uncommon in the 

 species, records only two instances of completely black foxes. 

 The first of these occurred in the New Forest, and is referred 

 to in the /Zoologist for 1890, the second was reported from 

 Leicestershire in 1903. The old legend that to hunt a black 

 fox implied certain death to the pursuer indicates, however, 

 the occurrence of such instances in former years. In this 

 connection it may be noted that a writer in the November 

 number of the Zoologist states that both melanistic and albino 

 animals are generally inferior in size to their normally 

 coloured fellows. 



* •» * 



The Fallow Deer as a British Fossil. 



In the course of a paper on the contents of a Derbyshire 

 cavern read before the Geological Society on November 23, 

 the authors, Messrs. A. Bembrose and E. T. Newton, referred 

 to a large number of remains which they identified as belong- 

 ing to the fallow deer. These were stated to have been found 

 with those of undoubted Pleistocene mammals at all horizons 

 in the cavern strata. Now, fallow deer remains have hitherto 

 been unknown from any Pleistocene British cave ; and since 

 fallow deer are just the kind of animals whose carcases would 

 be carried into caves by hy<enas, it was argued in the discus- 

 sion which followed the reading of the paper that if their 

 remains are absent from all other cavern-fauna, they are 

 not likely to occur in this one. The argument is no doubt a 

 strong one, but if the remains are rightly identified (and this 

 was not disputed) it seems difficult to account for their occur- 

 rence among the Pleistocene remains, otherwise than accord- 

 ing to the views of the authors of the paper. It may be 

 added that numerous fallow deer remains have been described 

 from the peat of Denmark. 



» * ♦ 



The WhaLles of the N.W. Atla^ntic, 



Important whale-fisheries have been established of late 

 years on the coast of Newfoundland, and the enormous 

 amount of material thus made available to the naturalist has 

 been taken advantage of by Mr. 1'. W. True, an American 

 zoologist who has devoted special attention to the study of 

 this group of the cetacea. The results of his investigations 

 have recently been published at Washington by the Smith- 

 sonian Institution in a quarto voltnne, illustrated by no less 

 than 50 plates showing the carcasesof whales as they are landed 

 at the Newfoundland factories. Five or six different kinds of 

 whales are taken at the establishment, of which the great 



majority (both as regards species and individuals) are rorquals, 

 or finners, of the genus Bnlariiopti-ra, t\ia.t is to say, whales with 

 short whalebone, and of a long and slender shape, adapted 

 for swimming at a great pace. A certain number of hump- 

 backs (Megapti-ra) are, however, captured, v.hile occasionally 

 a sperm-whale {Physiter macrocephaliis), and. still more rarelv, 

 a Biscay right-whale is taken. All the species met with on the 

 American coast seem identical with those found on our own 

 side of the Atlantic. The most abundant is the common 

 rorqual, whose scientific title {Bahfuopttra Hi«sr»/»s) the author 

 seeks to transfer to the " sulphur-botlarn," generally known as 

 B. sibbaldi. Apart from the rights of the case, such a shifting 

 of well-established names can have no possible advantage, and 

 must inevitably lead to confusion. 



* * * 



Deaths from Snake-Bite and Wild Beasts. 



The mortality in India duo to the attacks of wild beasts and 

 snake-bite, according to the Government returns for 1903, 

 maintains its usual appalling magnitude, showing, indeed, an 

 actual increase in some items, although there is a decrease 

 under other headings. The total mortality among human 

 beings reported to have been caused by wild beasts during the 

 year was 2749, against 2536 in 1902 ; the increase being largest 

 in Madras (236) and the United Provinces (90). The destruc- 

 tion of life by tigers was, however, considerably less than 

 during the previous year, the number being 866, against 1046 ; 

 the greatest decrease in this item being in Bombay, while 

 Madras showed an increase. On the other hand, the deaths 

 from wolves rose from 338 in 1902 to 463 in 1903 ; the 

 great bulk of these being attributed to a few which have 

 taken to man-eating. The deaths from snake-bite fell from 

 23.167 in 1902 to 21,827 in 1903 ; Bengal alone accounting for 

 10,394. *^)f the remainder, 4964 deaths are credited to the 

 United Provinces, 201 1 to Madras, :oo8 to Bombay, 1031 to 

 Burma, and 1386 to the Central Provinces. 

 « * * 



The Old Rhinoceros a.t the "Zoo." 



At the time of writing these Notes, the Indian rhinoceros 

 presented to the Zoological Society by the late Mr. A. Grote, 

 on July 25, 1864, was reported to be in a moribund condition. 

 This animal affords a wonderful instance of longevity in 

 captivity. It has since died. 



* * * 



The First Fruits of the " Discovery's " 

 Voya.ge. 



The first description of a new animal " discovered during 

 the voyage of the Discovery " is apparently one in the December 

 number of the Aiuuils and Magasinc of Xatural History. In this 

 Mr. T. V. Hodgson gives a preliminary notice of a peculiar 

 type of " pycnogonid," or " sea-spider," distinguished from all 

 its relatives by the presence of an additional pair of legs, 

 which brings up the number to five. On this account, although 

 it is admittedly very close in other respects to the well-known 

 Nijmphon, the new form is made the type of a genus by itself, 

 under the title of Pentanyinphon antarcticns. 



* * * 



Papers Read. 



At the meeting of the Geological Society on November 23, 

 Messrs. Bembrose and Newton communicated a paper on the 

 contents of a Derbyshire cavern, to which fuller reference is 

 made in an earlier paragraph ; the Ammonites of the group 

 Lytoceratidcc formed the subject of a communication by Mr. S. 

 S. Buck man at the meeting of December 7. At the meeting 

 of the Linnean Society on November 13, Mr. G. B. Buckton 

 described certain hemipterous insects of the family .1/'(H;/im(ii/<j. 

 Captain Crawshay, at the meeting of the Zoological .Society on 

 November 29, communicated some notes on the liabits of the 

 lion ; and the sixth part of Sir C. Eliot's contributions to our 

 knowledge of the nudibranch molluscs of East Africa was also 

 taken. Mr. Lydekker, in addition to describing certain forms 

 of loris, or oriental lemurs, exhibited photographs of paintings 

 of animals in the pos.session of H. M. the King at Windsor 

 Castle. The other papers included one by Dr. Hagen on 

 certain crustaceans, one by Mr. Boulcnger and another by Mr. 

 Beddard on lizards, and a fourth by Mr. Gurney on South 

 African entomostracous crustaceans, 



