6o4 



NA TURE 



[October 17, 1901 



is the one describing the nesting habits of the two species 

 of sand-plover which frequent the shore on False Bay 

 and in the neighbourhood of Port Elizabeth. The visitor 

 unaccustomed to the ways of these birds always fails at 

 first to discover their eggs, although he may be convinced 

 that they are in his immediate vicinity. 



.•\fter one or two attempts, says the author, you retire and 

 resolve to watch more carefully. " The bird soon returns to 

 the same spot, shuffles for a second or two very quickly 

 with its feet, and then sits down. This time you make 

 no mistake about the exact place, and you locate the 

 position of the bird with the aid of two little bits of herbage 

 growing near ; again you approach, the bird rises as 

 before, and repeats the same performance, standing a 

 little way off, and looking as though it would help you if 

 it could, and if you would only tell it what you were look- 

 ing for. The ground is quite undisturbed, and there is 

 no sign of a nest or eggs ; the little bits of driftwood and 

 bark, though, which lie between your feet are loose, and 



nomenclature, so that ornithologists may be satisfied that 

 the various birds alluded to are correctly identified. 



R. L. 



THE REPORT OB THE THOMPSON YATES 

 LABORATORIES. 

 'T'HE Thompson Yates Laboratories Report, lately 

 -•• published, edited by Profs. Ruben Boyce and 

 C. S. Sherrington, is a worthy successor to the preceding 

 volumes, which have previously been reviewed in these 

 columns. The distribution of B. coli com/iut/w is the 

 title of the first paper, by Miss Chick, who concludes that 

 this organism is not so generally distributed as has been 

 considered by some bacteriologists, and that its presence 

 may be looked upon as useful evidence of recent faecal 

 contamination. Her e.xperiments show the very low 

 resistance which the B. coli can offer to unfavourable 

 conditions, especially desiccation. 



the earth underneath them is loose also, and then you 

 feel beneath the loose earth and there are two eggs ! " 



.■\nd yet it is difficult to account for this strange habit, 

 since the eggs so closely resemble their surroundings 

 that they would be passed unnoticed when lying on the 

 bare ground. Often the nesling-site is in a locality much 

 frequented both by men and cattle, and it is a marvel 

 that all the eggs are not broken. On one occasion the 

 author actually found an ox lying down on a nest whose 

 situation was known to him ; strange to say, although 

 one egg w-as crushed, the other was intact. The pro- 

 ceedings of the parent bird while thus effectually prevented 

 from obtaining access to her nest are described with some 

 humour by the author. 



Many other anecdotes might be culled from Mr. 

 Harris's pages, but enough has been said to indicate 

 the interesting character of his work and the large amount 

 of information with regard to the habits of birds that it 

 contains. The author has been fortunate in obtaining 

 the' assistance of Mr. Howard Saunders in revising the 

 NO. 1668, VOL. 64] 



Mr. E. E. Glynn has investigated the relation between 

 the Bacillus eiilcritidis sporogcnes of Klein and diarrhoea. 

 He has isolated this micro-organism from normal dejecta, 

 dust, air, milk, and sugar, and has tested the effects of 

 cultures upon guinea-pigs and upon himself by ingestion 

 without evil result. He agrees with Dr. Hewlett that 

 the Bacillus cnteritiiii^ sporoi^oics is a ubiquitous 

 organism, and that there is at present no satisfactory 

 evidence that it is a cause of diarrhoea. 



Mr. A. T. MacConkey gives further details of his bile- 

 salt lactose .A.gar medium for the isolation of B. coli and 

 B. typhosus^ for which purpose it seems to be a valuable 

 addition to the methods hitherto in use. Mr. .MacConkey 

 also publishes a note on flagella staining, Mr. K. W. 

 Monsarrat describes a primary malignant growth of the 

 kidney, and Dr. Christophers discusses the prevention of 

 malaria in Tropical Africa. 



Enlargement of the spleen has been relied upon by 

 many as the test of the prevalence of malaria in a district, 

 but Dr. Daniels concludes that the spleen-test nay he 



