May, 1905 



KNOWLEDGE & SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



beneath. The head and throat were normal both as to colour 

 and the structure of the feathers. The bird was killed in 

 January last, and is described as immature. 



This makes the thirteenth recorded instance of this varia- 

 tion in the water-hen. So far, m really satisfactory explanation 

 has been given of this curious " sport." Microscopic e.xami- 

 nation of the feathers shows that they are always much 

 abraded, the tips of the shafts being broken off. The loose 

 character of the feathers is due to the absence of barbules. 



Partially '' hairy " varieties of this type have been recorded 

 in hawks and gulls, and in the case of a jacana and a grey 

 Brahma hen. 



Should any of our readers come across a similar variation 

 of ^this kind in a freshly-killed specimen, we would suggest 

 that a careful note should be taken of the colour of the eyes, 

 skin, and bones. 



* » » 



Arrival of Summer Birds, 



From the FiVW, April 15, we gather the following: — 



Ring Ousel .... Windermere, April 5. 



Blackcap .... Wellington College, Berks, .\pril g. 



„ .... Mitcham, Surrey. April 13. 



Wryneck Ray leigh, Essex, April i. 



Whitethroat . . Tooting Common, .-Vpril 11. 



Redstart „ „ April 12. 



Swallow Exeter, March 23. 



., Upwey, Dorset, April i. 



Kettering, April i. 



,, Eastbourne, April i. 



Martin Kettering, April i. 



Willow-wren . . . Tooting rommon, .'^pril i. 



,, ... Walsall, April i. 



i-JC'Cuckoo .... Horsham, April I. 



„ .... Beaminster, Dorset, .\pril i. 



Yellow wagtail . . Axminster, March 1 1. 



.;., Tree-pipit .... Wellington, April 4. 



Stone Curlew . . . Warminster, March 27. 



Common Sandpiper . Near Builth, April 4. 



ZOOLOGICAL. 



By R. Lydekker. 



The Subterracnean Texas Sala.ma.nder. 



Ele\'F.n years ago several specimens of a very curious blind 

 salamander were thrown up from a great depth by an artesian 

 well in Texas, and were subsequently described as repre- 

 senting a new genus and species under the name of Typliloinolgc 

 rathhuni. Hitherto they have been generally regarded as re- 

 lated to the blind proteus, or olm, of the subterranean waters 

 of Carniolo, whose habits were so well described years ago by 

 Sir Humphry Davy. A lady worker. Miss Emerson, writing in 

 the Proceedings of the Boston (U.S.A.) Natural History 

 Society, has, however, come to the conclusion that this is a 

 mistake, and that the creature (which she regards as a per- 

 sistent larval form like the axolotl) is really a cousin of the 

 common .American salamanders of the genus spelcrpes. So 

 much for external resemblances. 



* » * 



Miscellaneous Items. 



According to a French naturalist, Mr. H. G. de Kerville, an 

 Indian palm-civet {Paradoxunts hermapliroditus) recently lived 

 for a year and a half in a forest in Normandy. The creature 

 had in all probability escaped from a passing ship, but it is 

 certainly remarkable that such an essentially tropical animal 

 should have made itself so thoroughly at home in this part of 

 Europe. The new Orkney vole continues to attract much 

 interest on the part of naturalists, Messrs. Clarke and Bradley 

 discussing its affinities in the January number of the Annah 

 of Scottish Natural History; while Dr. Forsyth- Major gives his 

 views in the March issue of the Annals and Magazine of Natural 

 History. The two views do not, however, altogether agree, the 

 first paper suggesting that the creature is in some respects 

 intermediate between the water-vole and the field-vole ; while 

 in the second it is urged that its relationships are solely with 



the latter and its Continental representative. In the Zoologist 

 for .April the present writer describes two new species of 

 Oriental gorals, or goat-like antelopes, the one from the 

 Western Himalaya, and the other from Burma. 



* * * 



Skeleton of the Oka.pi. 



A recent issue of the Bulletin of the Malacological Society of 

 Belgium contains a figure and description of the skeleton of a 

 male okapi which has just been mounted for the museum at 

 Antwerp. The structure of this skeleton is said to indicate an 

 animal adapted to live in thick forest, and whose body can 

 pass between tree trunks separated only by a very narrow 

 space. .\11 this is perfectly in harmony with the description 

 which appeared not long ago in a German periodical of the 

 natural haunts of the oLnpi. 



* * * 



Papers Read. 



At the meeting of the Zoological Society on March 21st, 

 Mr. R. I. Pocock read a paper on the effects of certain 

 abnormal conditions on the horns of the .American prongbuck, 

 or prong-horned antelope, in captivity. On the same occasion 

 Sir H. H. Johnston discussed the mammals and birds of 

 Liberia, poinling out that although this district was closely 

 connected with Sierra Leone on the one hand and with the 

 Ivory Coast on the other, yet that it seemed to possess certain 

 peculiarities of its own with regard to fauna and flora. Mr. 

 M. A. C. Hinton, at the same meeting, described certain sub- 

 fossil red deer antlers ; while Dr. R. Brown contributed notes 

 on the affinities of the extinct South African reptile Procolophon. 

 At the meeting of the same Society on April iSth, the follow- 

 ing three papers were down for reading, viz., Mr. A. E. Shipley 

 on entoparasites from the Zoological Gardens and elsewhere. 

 Dr. E. Lijnnberg on hybrids between the common and the 

 mountain hare from Southern Sweden, and Mr. R. H. Burne 

 on the anatomy of the leathery turtle, or luth. 



REVIEWS OF BOOKS. 



Neolithic Dew-Ponds and Cattle-Ways, bv A. J. Hubbard. 

 M.D., and George Hubbard, F.S.A., F.K.LB.A. Pp. 71. 25 

 illustrations. (Longmans, Green, and Co.) Price 3s. 5d. 

 net. In this thin small-quarto the authors deal with the 

 evidence which we have of prehistoric man in England in 

 certain well-known dew-ponds, and in the cattle-wavs, some- 

 times made by human hands and sometimes probably by 

 wild cattle themselves, which lead to certain recognised 

 watering-places. The book deals more particularly with con- 

 siderations concerning Cissbury, Chanctonbury, and Maum- 

 bury Kings, Maiden Castle, near Dorchester, Ogbury Camp, 

 and Figsbury King. We are not sure the authors are alto- 

 gether justified in applying the term "neolithic" to all of 

 them, and we think the balance of probabilities goes to show 

 that Stonehenge is just as likely to be of neolithic workman- 

 ship as any of the great earth-embankments and trenches to 

 which the authors refer. We cannot agree in assigning so 

 recent a date to Stonehenge as iSoo b.c. The authors have 

 been at great patience in tracing out what remains of the 

 great Rings with which they deal, although they make no 

 claun to have treated the subject exhaustively. Olher well- 

 known Rings will perhaps be dealt with at some future date. 

 The book is fully illustrated, and many of the photographic 

 reproductions are full-plate, and admirably illustrate the text. 



The subject of the formation of dew- ponds is interesting, and 

 the authors are apparently correct in assigning a great age to 

 them. We are told that in this country there is at least one 

 wandering gang of men, who will construct for the modern 

 farmer a dew-pond, which will contain more water in the heat 

 of summer than during the winter rains. The space hollowed 

 out for the purpose is first thickly covered with a coating of 

 dry straw. The straw is in turn covered by well-chosen, finely- 

 puddled clay, and the upper surface of the clay is then closely 

 strewn with stones. The margin of the straw has to be effec- 

 tually protected by clay, since if it become wet it will cease to 

 attract the dew, as it ceases to act as a non-conductor of heat 

 and becomes o£ the same temperature as the surrounding 



