io6 



NA TURE 



[November 30, 1905 



The death is announced of Dr. James Monckman on 

 November iS, at the age of sixty-three. In 1879, after 

 .acting as honorary assistant to Prof. J. J. Thomson at 

 'Cambridge, Dr. Monckman received the degree of D.Sc. 

 of London University. At Bradford he acted occasionally 

 as consulting analytical chemist, and he carried out some 

 .researches in chemistry, as well as work in geology and 

 botany. He assisted in the formation of the Bradford 

 Scientific Society, and was thrice elected its president. 



A distinct earth tremor occurred in Manchester and 

 Salford about 3.45 a.m. on November 25. Many people 

 dwelling on the north-west side of the city and borough 

 -reported that they were disturbed from sleep by violent 

 shaking of their rooms and the ringing of bells. Some 

 persons reported that they heard a loud thud ; others that 

 there was nothing but one violent shock, followed by a 

 tremor lasting several minutes. In the Seedley district of 

 Salford some chimney stacks were displaced, but there was 

 no other damage. 



Dr. F. Ameghino seems to be impressed with the idea 

 that Argentina is the " centre of the universe," and that 

 .almost every group of mammals may be traced back to 

 .a South American ancestor. In the third of three papers 



• dealing with the presence of a perforation in the astragalus 

 of several groups of mammals, published in vol. xiii. of 

 the Anales of the National Museum of Buenos Aires, he 

 gives, for instance, a phylogeny in which both pangolins 

 (Manidaj) and aard-varks (Orycteropodida;) are placed as 

 being derived from armadillos (Dasypodidoe). A more 

 unsound pedigree it would be almost impossible to invent. 

 Dr. Ameghino has detected the above-mentioned foramen 

 not only in Orycteropus, but also in Canis, Typotherium, 



■ and certain mammals from the Middle Miocene of France. 



Among the contents of the November issue of the 

 Naturalist is a communication by Mr. A. Whitaker on the 



• breeding habits of British bats. Unfortunately, the author's 

 .attempts to rear bats in captivity have been only partially 



successful, in some degree owing to the circumstance that 

 it was not ascertained until too late that a female specimen 

 was pregnant. One noctule bat gave birth, however, to an 

 offspring almost immediately following its capture, and it 

 was noticed that the squeak of the " baby " was even more 

 high-pitched than that of its mother. When the young one 

 was eleven days old (and still blind and naked) the parent 



• escaped, but apparently returned and carried away her 

 offspring. Neolithic remains from the Durham caves form 



.the subject of a paper by Mr. C. T. Trechmann in the 

 same issue. 



According to Museum News, No. 4, the Brooklyn 

 Museum, which is in the van of progress, has been trying 

 the experiment of placing, for the use of visitors, books 

 relating to the subject of the specimens exhibited on 

 tables alongside the various cases. So far the experi- 

 ment seems to have been a decided success, but whether 

 it could be repeated in this country may be doubtful. 

 Apropos of descriptive labels in museums, it is staled in 

 the same periodical that if ninety-nine objects are labelled 

 and the hundredth is not so treated, visitors will pass over 

 all the former and inquire for the label for the latter. 

 Again, a visitor has been known to look at a label some 

 six feet long, inscribed in letters three inches high " Atlantic 

 Right Whale," and then turn round and ask the nearest 

 official " what that animal is called " ! 



No. 25 of the " North American Fauna," issued by the 

 U.S. Department of Agriculture, consists of an account of 

 the biological survey of Texas which has been recently 



NO. lSc>3, VOL. 73] 



carried out. This part, which is by Mr. V. Bailey, deals, 

 however, only with the determination of life-zones, and the 

 reptiles and mammals, the birds being reserved for a future 

 issue. The economical aspect of the subject has claimed 

 a large share of the attention of the workers, especially as 

 regards the suitability or otherwise of particular crops to 

 particular climatic zones. The mapping of these zones — 

 which are necessarily also life-zones — cannot fail to be of 

 advantage to agriculturists, for " as a crop becomes an 

 established success in one locality, a study of the zone- 

 map will show over what adjoining county it can be profit- 

 ably extended." Of the nine new mammals described, all 

 but one are subspecies, thus showing how thoroughly the 

 country has been worked. 



Dr. Forsyth Major has favoured us with a copy of an 

 interesting and important paper from the October and 

 November numbers of the Geological Magazine on certain 

 rodents from the Pleistocene of the western Mediterranean 

 countries. He first of all deals with the picas, or " mouse- 

 hares," of the extinct genus Prolagus, which, instead of 

 being confined to Sardinia and Corsica, is also continental, 

 and extends as far west as Spain. Next it is shown that 

 HcnscTs Mus orthodon, which has been supposed, appar- 

 ently owing to a misconception, to be akin to M. 

 sylvaticus, represents a genus — Rhagamys — by itself. It 

 has, for instance, tall-crowned molars with very thick 

 enamel, and nearly vertical tubercles, which when worn 

 present a characteristic pattern. Finally, the Pleistocene 

 Arvicola henseli is shown to form a kind of connecting 

 link between the Pliocene Mimomys, in which the molars 

 are rooted, and modern voles, the dentine surfaces of the 

 prisms of the latter being incompletely separated. 



Recent miscellaneous results of the work of the U.S. 

 Bureau of Entomology are summarised in Bulletin No. 54 

 of that section of the Agricultural Department. One article 

 is devoted to the sugar-cane beetle (Ligyrus rugiceps), on 

 which a special investigation was undertaken last year, 

 owing to the fact that the insect, and the best means of 

 checking its ravages, had received practically no attention 

 tor tin- last five-and-twenty years. It is hoped that the 

 remedies suggested will be found efficient by southern 

 planters. " Conchuella, " a Mexican cotton-pest, which it 

 is feared may spread to Texas, has also received attention 

 at the hands of the bureau's officers, while the demonstra- 

 tion of the efficiency of cold storage for " cow peas " (so 

 largely used as fodder and for the improvement of the soil 

 in the States) as a protection against the attacks of the 

 three species of weevils to which they are subject may be 

 regarded as a triumph for the bureau. 



We have received from the trustees a copy of " A Guide 

 to the Fossil Reptiles, Amphibians, and Fishes in the De- 

 partment of Geology and Palaeontology in the British 

 Museum (Natural History), Cromwell Road," issued at the 

 price of sixpence. Although on the title-page merelj stated 

 to be the "eighth edition," this excellent little handbook 

 has been entirely re-written by Dr. A. Smith Woodward, 

 the keeper of the department, whose name is a sufficient 

 guarantee that it is thoroughly up to date, and at the same 

 time lucidly and simply written. In its new form it 

 constitutes a brief, popular introduction to the study of the 

 extinct representatives of the groups to which it is devoted. 

 The most striking illustration is one of Mr. Carnegie's 

 dinosaur, Diplodocus, which from considerations of space 

 has been mounted in the gallery mainly devoted in recenl 

 reptiles, instead of among its fellow monsters. The plate 

 of the skulls of two of the wonderful extinct horned 

 tortoises — one from Queensland and the other from Pata- 

 gonia — likewise merits a word of commendation. 



