NA TURE 



[May 1 6, 1901 



construction. The idea is that the essential requirement of a 

 building intended for laboratory work is a number of rooms 

 of uniform and moderate size, abundantly lighted and con- 

 veniently accessible. The size proposed is 23 x 30 feet, and a 

 room of these dimensions will provide working space of 3 feet 

 6 inches x 5 feet for each of twenty-four students, as well as 

 sufficient space for general use. The only exceptions to the 

 unit-rooms would be the lecture-rooms. It is evident that if an 

 architect has merely to- fit rooms of uniform size in a building 

 his designs need only be of a very simple character, and he 

 is, at the same time, given great freedom as to the exterior, 

 which, as Mr. Minot remarks, seems as important to him as the 

 interior is to the users of a building. Many advantages are 

 attached to the unit system of laboratory construction, among 

 them being adaptability and seclusion : and with regard to the 

 construction Mr. Minot states that the cost of a building on the 

 unit plan would be less than for one of equal capacity, but with 

 rooms of the customary irregularity of size. 



In the Irish Naturalist for May Dr. R. F. Scharff records from 

 Sligo a woodlouse (ArmadiUidiuin fitlchellwn) new to the 

 British fauna. It is typically a northern form, ranging from 

 Scandinavia to Belgium. 



Numbers i and 2 of the fifteenth volume of the Memorias 

 of the Society " Antonio Alzate " contain a continuation of the 

 ".alphabetical Cross-reference Catalogue"' of the works of the 

 late Prof. Cope. The disadvantage of the mode of quotation 

 adopted is that it is exceedingly difticult to find out which items 

 are the original titles of the papers mentioned. Misprints are 

 also noticeable. 



To the April number of the Johns Hopkins University 

 Circulars Dr. C. Grave communicates an important geological 

 and economical study of the oyster-reefs of North Carolina. 

 The author describes the manner in which the oyster-banks of 

 the district in question become, like coral-reefs, gradually con- 

 verted into islands ; and points out that some of the islands in 

 Newport River still display their foundation of oyster-.shells, 

 while others exhibit the gradual transformation of an oyster- 

 bank into an island. It is also shown that the history of these 

 reefs affords indications of the proper mode of establishing new 

 oyster-beds for economic purposes. Practical application of 

 these principles has been made, with the result that oyster- 

 culture is now successful in localities where previous attempts 

 to start it had resulted in failure. 



In the Revue Scientifique of May 4, M. H. Coupin continues 

 his essay on bird-song, dealing in this section chiefly with birds 

 that imitate sounds other than their own. Very remarkable is 

 the instance of a sparrow imitating the stridulation of the grass- 

 hopper. One spring a cage containing a sparrow was hung 

 side by side with another in which were grasshoppers. No notice 

 was taken by the sparrow of his neighbours, but next year, when 

 he was again in the same society, he essayed the grasshoppers' 

 chant. And for the rest of his life, when the grasshoppers had 

 long been dead, the sparrow was accustomed to utter a polyglot 

 song combining the notes of the insect with those of other birds. 

 The fact that young linnets will sometimes learn the song of the 

 nightingale instead of their own is mentioned. And it is also 

 stated that several kinds of birds in Thuringia sing much better 

 than the members of their own species dwelling in the Hartz 

 Mountains. 



The Zeitschrift of the Berlin Gesellschaft fiir Erdkunde 

 devotes the whole of the sixth number of the present volume to 

 a paper on theclimatology of Morocco, by Dr. Theobald Fischer. 

 In this paper, which is the completion of the work recently 

 published by the author in an Erganzungsheft of Petermami s 

 Alittcilungen, the meagre data available for the region are dis- 

 cussed with great skill and made the foundation of a quite 

 NO. 1646, VOL. 64] 



satisfactory outline of its climate. A rainfall map forms an 

 important feature. The seventh number of the same volume 

 contains a short paper, with some good illustrations, on the 

 Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, by Dr. Emil Deckert, 

 and Dr. S. Passarge contributes a valuable account, with maps, 

 of his geological work in British Bechuanaland. 



Prof. W. C. M'I.ntosh sends us a copy of his article on 

 the coloration of marine animals which appeared in the 

 Annals and Magazine of Natural History for March. While 

 admitting that in certain instances the coloration is for the 

 purpose of protection, the author shows that in many cases it 

 is very difficult to accept such an interpretation as the true 

 reason. In the case of pelagic organisms, for example, where 

 the transparency or faint coloration is assumed to be for pro- 

 tective purposes, he points out " that many of the surface- 

 animals are there only for a limited period during fine weather, 

 and disappear into the depths on the advent of storms and cold." 

 The dog-whelk and the cowry (especially when the soft parts 

 are extruded) are cited as creatures that are fairly conspicuous 

 between tide-marks, and it has yet to be proved that they 

 possess " warning colours." The fact that some cetaceans have 

 their flippers or areas on their bodies white, while others are 

 wholly black, seems to demonstrate that their coloration is not 

 protective, this being supported' by the conspicuous nature of 

 a black mass exposed above the surface of the sea. The whole 

 subject, in the author's opinion, demands careful revision. 



We have received vol. xxxii. of the Proceedings of the London 

 Mathematical Society, containing papers read at meetings during 

 the first half of last year. The publisher is Mr. Francis 

 Hodgson, Farringdon Street, E.C. 



The Priestley Club, Leeds, has published a list of papers 

 read at its meetings from November 1887 to April 23 of this 

 year. The Ust shows that many subjects of great scientific im- 

 portance have been brought before the Club, but we are not 

 able to find whether the papers have been published, and if so, 

 where they can be found. 



Messrs. Cassell and Co. have published a new edition (the 

 ninth) of "The North-West Passage by Land," by Viscount 

 Milton and Dr. W. B. Cheadle. The book contains the narra- 

 tive of an expedition across North America, through the Hud- 

 son's Bay Territories, into British Columbia, by one of the 

 northern passes in the Rocky Mountains. It originally appeared 

 in 1S65, and gives an interesting description of scenes and 

 adventures in the great country of the Canadian North-West 

 nearly forty years ago. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during 

 the past week include two Verreauxi's Guinea-fowl {Guttera 

 edouardi) from East Africa, presented by Mr. W. L. Sclater ; a 

 Polecat (Mustda futorius), British, presented by Mr. F. D. 

 Lea Smith ; a Slowworm (Anguis fragilis), British, presented 

 by Mr. H. J. M. von Lohr ; a Black-handed Spider Monkey 

 {Atcles geoffroyi) from Central America, a Kinkajou (Cercoleptes 

 cattdivolvulus) from South America, a Nylghaie (Boselaphus 

 iragocamelus, i ) from India, a White-browed Amazon (Chrysotis 

 albifrons) from Honduras, a Tuberculated Iguana (Iguana 

 tuberciilata) from Tropical America, twenty-nine Barbadian 

 Anolis [Anolis alligator) from the West Indies, four Hybrid 

 Macaws (between Ara iiiacao and A. militaris), bred in Italy, 

 two Dark Green Snakes (Zamenis getnoneusis), an Undulated 

 Lizard {Sceloporus undulalus), three Brown Newts [Spelerpcs 

 fuscus), two Spectacled Salamanders [Salaniandrina perspicil- 

 lata), European, deposited ; two Pintails (Bafila acuta), Euro- 

 pean, purchased ; a Japanese Deer {Cervus siia), born in the 

 Gardens. 



