390 



NA TURE 



[August 21, 1884 



as European forms are concerned, a classification of the 

 genera and details of the species found at Naples. With 

 regard to a genus of De Blainvillc, Lobilabnun, which 

 was founded on a single specimen of the species L. 

 ostrearum, and which lias never been again met with, the 

 following instructive facts are recorded. This genus was 

 easily distinguished from all others by the possession of a 

 blunt snout with two horizontal lips at the extremity, both 

 oi ill. hi bilobed, and apparently with tentacles. The sin 

 between the lips was described as being a continuation 

 of the lateral fissures of both sides of the head. In other 

 respects the genus bore a strong resemblance to species of 

 Lineus or Cerebratulus living in the same localities. One 

 day at Naples Dr. Hubrecht was fortunate enough to 

 come across a second specimen of this rare worm, whii h, 

 like De Blainville's specimen, was dredged from a bottom 

 covered with bivalve shells. It was duly figured and pre- 

 served, and longitudinal sections were made of its curious 

 snout. Soon after he was struck by the extraordinary resem- 

 blance in habitat which existed between another Nemertean 

 (whose anterior extremity exactly answered to that of a 

 Lineus or Cerebratulus, and carried two well-proaouni ed 

 fissures), and this single specimen of Lobilabrum. Once the 

 doubt was raised, Dr. Hubrecht pursued the investigation 

 by purposely cutting off the tip of the snout in one of the 

 last-mentioned species, in a direction vertical to the body 

 axis. Immediately the curious arrangement of the lobed 

 and tentaculated lips which had hitherto been limited to 

 the genus Lobilabrum appeared, the animal operated on 

 lived for several weeks, and afterwards longitudinal sec- 

 tions showed that an epidermal covering had made its 

 appearance identical with what had been found in the 

 Lobilabrum specimen. Considering these results with the 

 fact of the habitat amongst bivalve shells, Dr. Hubrecht 

 concluded that the genus of De Blainville had been 

 founded on a specimen the tip of whose snout had been 

 Si v ei ed by an oyster into whose open shell it was stealth- 

 ily trying to penetrate. 



Amidst the many contributions to vol. ii. of especial 

 importance is a memoir by G. C. J. Vosmaer, on the 

 sponges belonging to the family of the Desmacidina- : 

 siliceous forms known by bow, anchor, and bihamate 

 spicules with some criticisms on the works of Bowerbank 

 and others. It is a well-known fact that the late Mr. 

 Bowerbank did " not sufficiently understand the German 

 language," and his remarks on Oscar Schmidt's important 

 works in the preface in vol. iii. of the " Monograph of the 

 British Spongidaj " were rendered still more negligent by 

 the many typ 1grapl1ic.il errors. Surely Vosmaer is wrong 

 in the assertion that " only one man in England, Sir 

 Wyville Thomson, has declared himself in favour of 

 Schmidt's views " on classification, and we would venture 

 to assert that of the classifications of the siliceous sponges 

 invented by Bowerbank, Gray, or Carter, none have re- 

 placed that of Oscar Schmidt as recently modified. While 

 promising to publish a more extensive memoir on the 

 Desmacidin.e, with the indispensable illustrations of the 

 new species, Vosmaer's pr_sent enumeration of the spe- 

 cies is of very great value. As most of Bawerbank's 

 type species are in existence, we trust that Vosmaer may 

 consult the e ere publishing his final memoir, as while we 

 acknowledge as a fact that Dr. Bowerbank was a most 

 accurate and painstaking observer, and a fairly good re- 

 corder of what he saw, experience has proved that he 

 often, from one cause or another, overlooked even quite 

 easily recognised characters. Vosmaer accepts 16 genera 

 and enumerates 162 species. Of these he naively re- 

 marks : — " As the result of my study of them, plenty of 

 synonyms have been described, but I have never felt the 

 necessity of making two species from one ! " F. E. 

 Schulze has given many examples in his splendid studies 

 on the Ceraospongia?, especially in his " Die Familie der 

 Spongidse." Both Schmidt and Schulze have demon- 

 strated that the word "species is to be used in a very j 



wide sense " as regards the sponges. The scientific zoolo- 

 gist will hardly mind how wide, provided the definition 

 thereof is such that, while it embraces all the forms it 

 excludes none ; and, despite their heteromorphism — their 

 plasticness, so to say — the sponges are, as a result of 

 good honest work, getting arranged into species and 

 genera that may satisfy the most fastidious critic. 



In the same volume of these " Notes" we find a paper 

 by Prof. K. Martin, on a revision of the fossil Echini 

 from the Tertiary strata of Java, which, working anew 

 over the species described some thirty years ago by J. A. 

 Ilerklots, quite reverses the conclusions of that author ; 

 and, instead of all or almost all of the species being different 

 from existing forms, as insisted on by Ilerklots, Martin 

 ii.is succeeded in " demonstrating that by far the majority 

 of all the well-preserved individuals could be identified 

 with species still living in the Indian Ocean;" and he 

 further mentions, citing the species found, and in addition 

 the Mollusca, Crustacea, and Corals, that these Tertiary 

 strata of Java contain no fossils which have also been 

 found in extra-tropical Tertiary deposits, so that even in 

 the Tertiary period the separation of the fauna of the 

 tropical oceans appears to have been quite as distinct as 

 we find it in the present day. 



Vol. iii. contains a very charming account of the habits 

 of the harvest mouse [Mus minulus) and of its winter 

 nest, by Prof. Schlegel. It is written — as indeed are very 

 many of the contributions to these " Notes " — in English, 

 but the lauguage of this little history is worthy of the 

 author's name. There are also by Prof. Schlegel some 

 interesting notes on the zoological researches in West 

 Africa, which were carried on under his directions ; and 

 an important contribution to our knowledge of the Coma- 

 tula- in a memoir on the species to be found in the Leyden 

 Museum, by P. Herbert Carpenter. The collection at 

 Leyden is one of considerable importance, owing to its 

 containing a large proportion of the types of the species 

 described l>\ Johannes Miiuer in his classical memoir, 

 " Ueber die Gattung Comatula, Lamk., und ihre Arten." 

 I* is noteworthy that the whole of the Leyden collection 

 of Comatulida:' were forwarded to Eton for study. For a 

 possible trifling loss that a public museum may now and 

 then sustain in a loan like this, there is sure to be an 

 immense preponderance of gain. 



A monograph of the African squirrels, with an enu- 

 meration of the specimens in the Leyden Museum by Dr. 

 F. A. Jentink, commences vol. iv. While fairly and 

 equitably reviewing the work on this group by Graj and 

 Temminck he admits but two genera — Sciurus and Xerus, 

 enumerating sixteen species of the former and three spe- 

 cies of the latter genus. The synonymic lists appear to 

 have been made out with the greatest care, of which care 

 a very interesting example will be found in tracing the 

 authority for the species Xerus capensis to Robert Kerr, 

 who published his " Animal Kingdom, or Zoological S \ -- 

 tern of the celebrated Sir Charles Linnsus" in 1792. 

 Another contribution of Dr. Jentink which we find space 

 to allude to is a revision of the Manida- in the Museum. 

 Seven species are described in detail. Under Mam's , vurita, 

 Hodg., we read that it is still questionable whether a 

 Minis occurs in Japan. Temminck mentions that Von 

 S11 I in Id sent over to the Leyden Museum two pieces of 

 the skin of a manis from Japan, but as these fragments 

 are not now to be found in the collection, it is of course im- 

 possible to say to what species thev may have belonged. 

 Mr. Serrurier, the director of the Ethnographical Museum 

 at Leyden, informs Dr. Jentink that in the Japanese books 

 at his disposal he finds nothing to justify the conclusion 

 that the anteaters arc inhabitants of Japan : but it would 

 appear that the Japanese do introduce them for medical 

 purposes from China. The Japanese also relate that the 

 anteaters catch ants in the following way : The manis 

 erects its scales and feigns to be dead ; the ants creep in 

 between the erected scales, after which the anteater 



