December 8, 1904] 



NA TURE 



131 



we cannot help facing — a question, in fact,' that ought to 

 arise — What is the good of it all? " From his long ex- 

 perience as an administrator in the East, Sir Richard 

 Temple drew, from facts that had come under his own 

 observation, examples of the desirability, one would like 

 to add the necessity, of a knowledge of ethnology for those 

 who are brought into contact with alien peoples, and he 

 dealt severally with merchants and planters, administrators 

 and magistrates, and missionaries. He also pointed out 

 that stay-at-home critics require training and information, 

 as by their ignorant criticism they are liable to do a great 

 deal of actual harm. " But mischievous as uninformed 

 criticism is, there is nothing of greater value and assistance 

 than the criticism of the well informed." He alluded to 

 the value of anthropological study to history, and after 

 dealing with the value of an early anthropological train- 

 ing to a man in his work, he pointed out the value it is 

 in his private life, even if it is pursued merely as a hobby. 

 " Not only will it enable the student to do the work of the 

 world and to deal with his neighbours and those with whom 

 he comes in contact, throughout all his active life, better 

 than can be otherwise possible, but it will serve to throw 

 a light upon what goes on around him, and to give an 

 insight into human affairs, past and present, that cannot 

 but be of benefit to him, and it will provide him with in- 

 tellectual occupation, interest and pleasure, as long as eye 

 can see, or the ear can hear, or the brain can think." The 

 address is printed in full in the Cambridge Reporter (vol. 

 xxvi.. No. 643). 



According to " Notes for Visitors to the Gezira 

 Aquarium," issued by the Public Works Department of 

 Cairo in November, the tanks at that establishment con- 

 tained specimens of no less than twenty-nine species of 

 native fishes, including the Nile perch, the electrical cat- 

 fish, and the elephant-fish (Mormyrus). 



We have received from the author, Dr. W. G. Ridewood, 

 two papers on the osteology of the skull in some of the more 

 generalised families of bony fishes, the one published in 

 the Proceedings of the Zoological Society, and the other 

 in the Journal of the Linnean Society. Some remarks on 

 the general morphology of the skull are appended to the 

 former paper. 



The Emu for October contains reproductions of two very 

 interesting photographs, the first showing the " run " or 

 " play-house " of the great bower-bird (Chlamydera 

 nuchalis), and the second a flight of bare-eyed cockatoos 

 {Cacatua gymnopis), estimated at between si.-ity and seventy 

 thousand in number. Considerable interest attaches to a 

 note on bird-sanctuaries in New Zealand, where, it appears, 

 all the surviving flightless species are now protected by 

 Government. The want of such sanctuaries, both for birds 

 and mammals, in Australia forms the subject of comment 

 in another paragraph. 



To vol. lx.xviii., part ii., of the Zeitschrift fiir wissen- 

 schaftliche Zoologie, Mr. A. Voss, of Dusseldorf, contributes 

 the first instalment of an essay on the comparative anatomy 

 and mechanics of insect structure, especially in relation to 

 flight, commencing with the thorax of the house-cricket 

 in relation to the attachment of the wings and their move- 

 ments. The other articles include one by Dr. P. Dugener 

 on the scent-organ of the butterfly Phassus schamyl and 

 the function of the same; a second, by Dr. H. Jordan, on 

 the digestive organs of the sea-mouse (Aphrodite aculeata) ; 

 a third, by Mr. L. von Graff, on the marine turbellarian 

 worms of Orotava and the coast of Europe ; and a fourth, 

 NO. 1832, VOL. 71] 



by Dr. S. Gross, on the perineal sac and its glands of the 

 guinea-pig. 



In the Zoologist for November Mr. O. V. Aplin announces 

 that the black-necked grebe (Podicipes nigricollis) should 

 be added to the list of birds nesting in the British Islands. 

 It appears that during the past summer several pairs of 

 these grebes successfully reared their young within our 

 islands, but for obvious reasons neither the locality where 

 this interesting event took place nor the name of the observer 

 by whom it was recorded are revealed to the public. 

 Pennant, it seems, stated that the black-necked grebe nested 

 in the Lincolnshire fens near Stamford in his time, and the 

 late Mr. E. T. Booth had a pair of nestlings brought to 

 him by a marshman ; but the observations of this year form 

 the first definite record of the nest having been actually seen. 

 A second article in the same journal is devoted to notes on 

 natural history made during the cruise round the world of 

 Lord Crawford's yacht Valhalla in 1902-3 by Mr. M. J. 

 Nicoll. Among new forms obtained during the voyage, the 

 author refers to Pyrodcrees crawjordi, belonging to the 

 Microlepidoptera, and the fish Corvina crawfordi. He also 

 records his own observations on the flight of flying fish, 

 and is one of those who believe that they move their 

 '* wings." 



The Danish Commission for the Study of the Sea, which 

 is charged with carrying out the Danish portion of the 

 cooperative international investigations, has issued the first 

 memoirs of its report, which is published under the title 

 " Meddelelser fra Kommissionen for Havundersdgelser." 

 The report, which is to be written in English or German, 

 and is issued in quarto form, uniform with the Bulletin of 

 the Central Bureau of the International Council, is divided 

 into three series, dealing respectively with fisheries, with 

 hydrography, and with plankton. Of the fisheries series 

 one memoir is now published, viz. C. G. Joh. Petersen, on 

 the larval and post-larval stages of the long rough dab 

 and the genus Pleuronectes (with two plates) ; of the hydro- 

 graphic series three memoirs, Martin Knudsen, on the 

 organisation of the Danish hydrographic researches, H. J. 

 Hansen, experimental determination of the relation between 

 the freezing point of sea-water and its specific gravity at 

 0° C, Niels Bjerrum, on the determination of chlorine in 

 sea-water and examination of the accuracy with which 

 Knudsen 's pipette measures a volume of sea-water; and 

 of the plankton series two memoirs, Ove Paulsen, plankton 

 investigations in the waters round Iceland, C. H. Osten- 

 feld, on two new marine species of Heliozoa occurring in 

 the plankton of the North Sea and the Skager Rak. The 

 memoirs are of interest as being amongst the first fruits 

 of the international scheme of cooperative research. They 

 are, however, all short memoirs, dealing with what may 

 be considered as side issues of the main investigations, the 

 reports upon which must be looked for at a later date. 

 The Danish Commission, which is appointed by the Danish 

 Board of Agriculture, consists of Prof. C. G. Joh. Petersen 

 (chairman), C. F. Drechsel, C. H. Ostenfeid, and Martin 

 Knudsen (secretary). 



The important preliminary results of the National 

 Antarctic E.xpedition have already been utilised by Mr. W. 

 Krebs in the communication of a useful paper to Das Weltall 

 (vol. iv.. Heft 24). By comparison of the yearly temperature 

 at the English, German, and Swedish stations during the 

 year 1902-3, he finds that the average decrease of tempera- 

 ture amounted to o°s C. for each degree of latitude ; and 

 by applying this value to the results obtained by the five 

 stations established round the .Antarctic Pole during the 



