446 



NA TURE 



[March 8, 1906 



cannot be determined. There is a specimen in the Edin- 

 burgh Museum of Science and Art, and another at Port 

 Louis. 



To the January number of Spolia Zeylanica Dr. O. 

 von Linstow contributes a paper on parasitic worms 

 (Helminthes) in the Colombo Museum, while Mr. N. 

 Annandale discusses certain lizards and stalked barnacles 

 in the same collection. Among the lizards, a curiously 

 striped skink, which had been described as Euprepes 

 hallianus, is made the type of the new genus Theconyx. 

 In reference to the recent discovery by Dr. Willey that the 

 lemurs of the genus Loris are almost peculiar among 

 Primates in having four, mammae, Mr. Annandale records 

 that the same condition obtains in their allies of the genus 

 Nycticebus. 



According to the annual report for 1905, the Royal 

 Zoological Society of Ireland enjoyed an unusually good 

 year, the gate-money having increased by one hundred 

 pounds, while the entrance-fees and subscriptions reached 

 a total which has only once been exceeded, and then only 

 by a few shillings. The balance-sheet has also benefited 

 to a considerable extent by the sale of superfluous animals. 

 Very wisely, the council has spent a considerable portion 

 of this increased income in improving the accommodation 

 provided for the denizens of the gardens, the most 

 important addition being an open-air aviary measuring 

 90 feet by 5 o feet, with a height of 20 feet. Experiments 

 have also been made, with most satisfactory results, in 

 placing tropical animals in the open air, a number of 

 parrots having been introduced into one of the smaller out- 

 door aviaries, while a party of Indian rhesus monkeys has 

 likewise been kept for some months without any shelter. 

 An excellent coloured plate, forming the frontispiece to 

 the report, shows these monkeys in the snow, apparently 

 in a high state of health and contentment. 



Important information with regard to the origin, rise, 

 and decline of British whaling, both in the icy north and 

 in the southern seas, is furnished by Mr. T. Southwell in 

 the February issue of the Zoologist at the conclusion of 

 an article on last season's catch of the Dundee whaling 

 fleet. Although Hull and Bristol had for a long time 

 previously been in the habit of sending vessels to New- 

 foundland and St. Lawrence Bay for seals and walrus, 

 Greenland whaling was initiated from London and Hull 

 in 1610 or 161 1. The Dutch opened the route to Davis 

 Strait in 1719, but were not allowed for long to enjoy the 

 whaling by themselves. Scotland commenced Greenland 

 whaling in 1750 from Leith ; Dundee, the only British port 

 from which whalers are now dispatched to the north, not 

 joining in until 1790. Sperm-whaling in the South Seas, 

 which appears to have been confined to the port of London! 

 commenced in 1775 and continued until 1853, "'hen it was 

 abandoned to the Americans. During last season more 

 whales were seen in Davis Strait than for some years 

 past, the total catch being twenty-three. 



We have to acknowledge the receipt of four parts (Nos. 

 '434-7) °f the Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum, 

 in the first of which Mr. E. A. Klages describes a collect 

 tion of moths belonging to a certain group from Venezuela. 

 A fossil raccoon from a cave in California, described by 

 Mr. J. W. Gidley, forms the subject of the second. We 

 regret to see that in describing, in the third, certain 

 macaque monkeys from the Malay countries, Mr. G. S. 

 Miller seeks to replace the well known and universally 

 accepted generic name Macacus by Macaca, on the ground 

 that the latter is the earliest form of the name to be 

 NO. 1897, VOL 73] 



found in scientific literature. We stand sorely in need of 

 a statute of limitation in regard to altering and replacing 

 names. In the fourth Dr. L. Stejneger describes a new 

 species of lizard belonging to the group of " horned 

 toads " from Mexico. Whether, however, this species is 

 entitled to be included under the latter title is almost 

 doubtful, seeing that it lacks the horns from which the 

 others take their name. It is also characterised by a 

 peculiar downward expansion of the lower jaw. 



From Dr. F. Ameghino, director of the Buenos Aires 

 Museum, we have received copies of two papers from the 

 Anales of that institution, one dealing with the remains 

 of fossil penguins from the Tertiary deposits of Seymour 

 Island, in the Antarctic, and the other with the Tertiary 

 edentate mammals of France and Germany. Judging 

 from their metatarsal bones, some of which indicate birds 

 of very large size, the Seymour Island penguins are re- 

 presented by a large number of species, these being referred 

 by the author to no less than eight generic types, all of 

 which are regarded as distinct. Of wider interest is the 

 paper on the Oligocene and Miocene edentates of Europe, 

 especially since the author's familiarity with American 

 representatives of the group renders him peculiarly well 

 qualified to test the determination of the European fossils. 

 It is satisfactory to learn that Dr. Ameghino is fully con- 

 vinced that among the latter are included armadillos, 

 aard-varks, and pangolins, some of the armadillos coming 

 very close to South American forms. This assemblage of 

 three groups of edentates in the countries fringing 

 northern Africa is suggestive that the latter continent may 

 have been the original home of the group, which reached 

 South America by direct land-connection. 



The Bausch and Lomb Optical Co., of Rochester, New 

 York, the makers of the Minot microtomes, has recently 

 issued a new catalogue of its instruments, in which 

 reference is made to certain improvements in the Minot 

 automatic rotary microtome. 



Under the title " Glycogene et Paraglycogene chez les 

 V^g^taux," some notes written by the late Prof. L. Errera 

 are published in the Recueil dc I'Institut botanique, 

 Brussels, vol. i., 1905. The notes refer to microchemical 

 experiments on certain low organisms to test for the 

 presence of these substances. 



The Trinidad Bulletin for January contains articles on 

 cocoa diseases observed in Ceylon and the West Indies, 

 and on the use of lime in agriculture. Two new instru- 

 ments for rubber-tapping are mentioned, the one a re- 

 volving pricking instrument, the other an improved 

 V-cutting knife. Reference is also made to the small fish, 

 species of Girardinus, found in Trinidad and Barbados, that 

 feed on the larva; of mosquitoes ; it is suggested that it 

 would be useful to place them in pools in malarial districts. 



The first stage in the inquiry as to the possibility of 

 establishing a beet-sugar industry in this country consists 

 in making cultivation trials in the districts where the 

 industry is likely to be located. Under the superintendence 

 of Mr. G. Clarke, of the County Technical Laboratories, 

 Chelmsford, sugar-beets were grown last year on experi- 

 mental plots on five different farms. The reports from the 

 growers giving cost and yield per acre are printed, together 

 with the chemical analyses, in a pamphlet published by 

 the Essex Education Committee. The cost of cultivation, 

 manures, and of raising the beets averaged rather more 

 than ten guineas per acre ; on a large scale probably 

 eighteen to twenty tons of roots could be grown for about 



