204 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[Septembeb, 1902. 



Tinchcs (such nn Amarlitin fanclala and Tceniojyygia cas- 

 tanotif) nre in full adult phimaKO, and ready to breed when 

 about pix to eight weeks old ; thus examples of the former, 

 which left the nest in September, were breeding in 

 October; and it is not uncommon for Zebra Finches 

 (T. ruftanolis) to build and lay when eight weeks old." 



Thk lUcKET-TAH.KD Parhot. — Tiic Field, July 12th, 

 contains some interesting observations on the Itacket-tailed 

 Parrot (Priotiiliinis plaiurus), recently purchased by the 

 Zoological Society. This is not only the first specimen 

 of its kind acquired by the Society, but appears to be 

 the first ever brought alive to Europe. ]f this bird 

 lives through the next moult it will be interesting to 

 watch whether the iieculiar racket-shaped middle tail 

 feathers, from which the bird takes its name, are natural 

 growths, or artificially produced like the similar tail 

 feathci's of the Motmot. 



White Stokk Nesting in Kew Gardens. — The Field, 

 August 2nd, contains a graphic description by Dr. Giinther 

 of the successful breeding of the White Stork, during the 

 spring of this year, in the Koyal Gardens at Kew. Twice 

 before the now triumphant pair have essayed to rear a 

 family, but their attempts proved abortive. This year, 

 however, they succeeded. A low platform of sticks was 

 erected Ijetween two elms, near the lake, and on this the 

 birds built a nest of dried twigs. On the 14th April the 

 first egg was laid, five days later a second was deposited, 

 and this was followed by three others on alternate day.s. 

 Of these five eggs, two were addled, and of the three 

 chicks hatched but one now remains. Dr. Giinther, in his 

 article, draws special attention to two extremely interesting 

 points. In the first place he writes that the young do not 

 appear to have been fed in the orthodox fashion, inasmuch 

 as according to the ornithological records the adults insert 

 the beak in that of the nestling, and passes from the 

 stomach a meal of half-digested food. According to the 

 observations of the keeper the food was deposited on the 

 edge of the nest, and taken by the young without the 

 assistance of the parents. Secondly, he remarks that the 

 rate of growth was at first very slow, at a month old the 

 nestling was not larger than a duckling of the same age, 

 and still downy ; after this time growth was rapid. 



White-fronted Goose Nesting in Captivity. — Mr. AV. H. St. 

 Quinton writes to the Field (July 19th) pointiDg out that Mr. 

 Froliawk's letter of July 5th, and referred to in our August issue, is 

 slightly incorrect, in so far as he states that the nesting of the White- 

 fi'onted Goose in confinement at Blackheath constitutes the only 

 authenticated instance. Jtr. St. Quinton has a pair of these bii'ds 

 ■which successfully hatched out four goslings in 1900, and this year 

 she again hatched four young. 



Intereslinr/ Arrivals at the Zoo. — Three young Secretary Birds 

 from Kordofan, presented by Col. Mahon, have just been placed in 

 the eastern aviary. At present they are but in indifferent plumage, 

 but it is to be hoped they will rapidly improve. 



Me. Haery Witheeby having now returned from 

 Persia, all communicatiotis with reference to this column 

 should he addressed to him at the Office of Knowledge, 

 326, High Holhorn, London. 



Botanical. — £t/bh's gigantea, a plant of considerable in- 

 terest from Western Australia, is figured in the July number 



of the Botanical Magazine. In Bentham & Hooker's Genera 

 Plantarum the genus is referred to the Droseracea;, from 

 which it differs in several important characters, including 

 the simple style and the two-celled ovary. The late Mr. 

 Bcntbam, in the Flora Auslraliensis, points out its resem- 

 blance to Cheiranthera, an Australian genus of Pittospo- 

 raceic ; and Mr. F. X. Lang, in a long paper published in 

 Flora for 190], states that Byhlis approaches most nearly 

 Poli/pompholy.r in Lentibulariaceie. He noten that its 

 glands do not agree in structure with tho.<eof Dro-seracea-, 

 but do closely with those of some Lentibulariaeea? ; also 

 that the corolla of Bi/blis is gamopetalous. He attaches 

 much importance to this character, but Sir J. D. Hooker 

 finds that the petals are obscurely coherent at the very 

 base, and even there only in a young state. The plant he 

 considers requires further investigation, and meanwhile 

 prefers to leave the question as to its order unsettled. 



Das Pjlanzenreich, the great work now appearing under 

 the editorship of Dr. Engler, of Berlin, has just reached 

 the eleventh part, which consists of a monograph of the 

 Marantacea? by Prof. K. Schumann. Among the other 

 orders already elaborated may be mentioned Aceracete, 

 Monimiacea', Symploeacere, Myrsinacese, and Tropaeolacese. 

 The monograph of the Myrsinace;e, by Prof. Mez, forms 

 a volume of 437 pages. The need for such a work as this 

 has been very pressing for many years, as the best 

 work of the kind now in use — De Candolle's Vrodromus — 

 is considerably behind the times. By Dr. Engler himself, 

 and under his direction, numerous important contributions 

 have been made during the last ten yf^ars to our knowledge 

 of the Flora of Tropical Africa. The Monographieen 

 Afrikanischen PJlanzen-FamiUen iind-Galtungen is a finely 

 illustrated quarto, of which five parts have appeared, the 

 last dealing with the Anonacese. If continued in its 

 present form this work will almost rival in magnitude the 

 Flora Brasiliensis. Engler's Botanische Jahrliicher con- 

 tains in nearly every part some important paper on African 

 botany. Belgian botanists are also devoting their atten- 

 tion to Tropical African plants, while in this country the 

 Flora of Tropical Africa, edited by Sir W. T. Thiselton- 

 Dyer, is making steady progress. — S. A. S. 



Zoological. — The Zoological Society's menagerie has 

 recently been enriched by the addition of a living example 

 of the proboscis-monkey of Borneo, the first of its kind 

 ever received in the gardens. Unfortunateh- the specimen, 

 which is a male, is immature, so that it does not show the 

 great development of the nose characteristic of the adults 

 of that sex. Should it survive and grow to maturity, it 

 will serve to correct the ordinary idea of the form of that 

 appendage. For it is a somewhat curious coincidence that 

 Dr. Jentink, in the Notes of the Leydeii Museum for Julv, 

 has just published a photograph taken from a living adult 

 male of this monkey, which shows that the nose, in place 

 of being narrow and projecting straight forwards, is 

 spatulate and bent downwards so as to conceal the mouth 

 in a full-face view. 



Certain structures in the brain of marsupials fonn the 

 subject of an important pajjer contributed by Prof. G. E. 

 Smith to the Proceedings of the Royal Society. These 

 serve to show that the " diprotodont " members of that 

 grou)), such as kangaroos, phalangers, and wombats, differ 

 markedly from their carnivorous " polyprotodont " relatives 

 in this respect. The author also concludes that the full 

 development of the so-called corpus callosum in the brain 

 of the placental mammals has given them an advantage 

 quite sulKcient to account for the dominant position they 

 have acquired in the world's fauna. 



