February 15, 1906] 



NA TURE 



373 



the idea of museums still entertained by many members 

 of committees, as store-houses of curiosities, and to under- 

 stand that museums must form part of the educational 

 machinery of the nation." 



We reproduce from an article on the Florida Keys, pub- 

 lished in the National Geographic Magazine for February, 

 an exceedingly interesting photograph of an alligator's 

 nest, showing a large number of eggs, from some of 

 which young alligators have been hatched. In common 



St, with newly-hatched alligato 



with the caimans of Central and South America, the 

 Mississippi alligator lays a number of eggs amid brush- 

 wood, which are carefully covered over with debris, and 

 guarded during the period of incubation by the parent. 

 In due course the young alligators are hatched, and soon 

 make their way to the water, the nest, at least in the 

 case of some of the Brazilian caimans, being opened by 

 the female parent in order to facilitate the escape of her 

 progeny. 



In an instructive article entitled " Saving California's 

 Fruit Crops," published in the Century Magazine for 

 February, the author. Mr. \Y. S. Harwood, dwells on the 

 important services Mr. Compere has rendered to fruit- 

 growers in America, and thus throughout the world, by 

 his efforts to discover insects which will hold in check 

 some of the most injurious insect fruit-pests. Mr. 

 Compere's idea is that every injurious insect has an 

 enemy in some part of the world, if only it can be found. 

 He discovered, for instance, in Spain, a region where the 

 codling-moth lives, but where the ravages of the worm 

 to which its eggs give birth were slight. Investigation 

 showed that this was due to an ichneumon-fly, by which 

 the pest was kept in check. Naturally it was assumed 

 that what held good for Spain would also be efficient in 

 California, and a number of ichneumon-pupae were accord- 

 ingly packed and dispatched to the States. When the 

 flies hatched they at once set to work on the codling- 

 moth caterpillars, with the result that a swarm of young 

 ichneumons has been produced, and it is hoped that in 

 course of time the codling-moth pest may become a thing 

 of the past. Another plan is to send a small tree of the 

 species affected by a particular pest to the country where 

 the enemy lives, whence it is returned to its native home 

 provided with a stock of destroyers. 



To the American Naturalist for January Lieut. -Colonel 

 C. D. Durnford contributes an article (also published 

 synchronously in this country in the Annals and Magazine 

 of Xatunil History) on the flight of flying-fishes. In this 

 it is maintained that the ordinary " aeroplane theory " of 

 the flight of these fishes is based on an absolute mechanical 



impossibility, and that the real explanation is to be found 

 in an intensely rapid vibration of the wing-like pectoral 

 fins — a vibration which is revealed to the eye when the 

 movement slows down as the fish touches the crest of a 

 wave. In another article in the same journal Messrs. 

 Dexler and Freund furnish some interesting information 

 with regard to the mode of life of the dugong, noting also 

 the various methods employed in the capture of these 

 animals in Queensland. It is confirmed that dugongs do 

 not voluntarily leave the water, while it is suggested that 

 they seldom enter brackish, and are incapable of living 

 in fresh water. Much interest attaches to the existence 

 of a slimy coating for the protection of the eye, a similar 

 coating also occurring in whales, although in the latter 

 instance it is of an oily nature, in order to prevent its 

 being too easily washed away by the sea-water. 



In Macmillan's Magazine for February, Mr. H. L. 

 Puxley describes the unhygienic conditions which largely 

 obtain in the production and distribution of milk, and 

 suggests the precautions which should be taken to ensure 

 a wholesome milk supply. 



Messrs. Sanders and Crowhurst, Shaftesbury Avenue, 

 YV., have submitted for our inspection a series of excel- 

 lent lantern slides, and an album, entitled " Wild Birds 

 at Home," of sixty beautiful reproductions of photographs 

 taken with the " Birdland " camera, which has been made 

 specially lor natural history photography. A comparison 

 of these life-like pictures — which are faithful represent- 

 ations of the actual environments of the birds depicted, 

 untouched in any w.u M engravers — with the woodcuts 

 which comparatively few years ago were the only illus- 

 trations available for mirks on natural history will demon- 

 sir, tte vividly the astonishing advances in pictorial illus- 



NO. 1894, VOL. 73] 



"Birdland" Ca: 



tration made possible by instruments like the " Birdland " 

 camera in the hands of patient observers. Photographs 

 of this high excellence both encourage and assist the study 

 of animal life. 



The Journal of Hygiene for January (vi., No. i) contains 

 papers by Prof. Muir and Mr. Browning on anti-immune 

 bodies and complementoids and on the action of comple- 



