Jan. 14, 1 875 J 



NA TURE 



209 



them." [Il'ii/. ■p. 541.) Mr. Murphy's assertion that his view of 

 the case is " certainly supported by the very general fact of the 

 males fighting for the possession of the females," makes against 

 his argument if we consider another "very general fact," viz., 

 that there is a sort of inverse proportion between pugnacity and 

 coloration. For an answer to the next paragraph, compare 

 "Descent of Man," pp. 225 and 226. 



I do not know that I can quite agree even v/ith your corre- 

 spondent's closing paragraph. If we can imagine such a state 

 of things as a colony of women left entirely to themselves, I 

 think it is at least open to question whether their "love of dress 

 and ornament " would not begin to decline. 



A DiscirLE OF Darwin 



" Ring Blackbird " 



THK bird about which your correspondent C. ]\r. Ingleby 

 inquires is figured in most works ou Ornithology as the 

 Ring Ousel — is a local, not uncommon, but gener.ally exceed- 

 ingly shy bird. Through the late severe weather, however, 

 and for a few days after the thaw, a cock bird has been a daily 

 and very interesting visitor on my lawn. They are generally 

 found on commons and in the neighbourhood of retired copses, 

 and are only driven by stress of weather so near houses. 

 Bregner, Bournemouth, Jan. 9 IIervey Cecil 



[Another correspondent, F. B. Doveton, writes to the same 

 effect, but states his belief that the Ring Ousel is only a summer 

 visitant with us, its winter habitat being Southern Europe and 

 Africa. — Ed.] 



THE NEW WESTERN CHINA EXPEDITION 



WE are glad to learn that the Western China Expe- 

 dition which left Rangoon in the middle of last 

 month to reopen the old trade-route between Upper 

 Bunnah and Yunan, as we intimated a fortnight ago, has 

 an efficient scientific staff attached to it. Col. Horace 

 Browne is the commander of the expedition, and Mr. 

 Ney Elias, Gold Medallist of the Royal Geographical 

 Society and Assistant Political Resident at the Court of 

 Mandalay, is the topographer. Dr. John Anderson, 

 Director of the Imperial Museum at Calcutta, who was 

 recalled from leave in England for the purpose, has been 

 appointed medical, officer and naturalist, and takes with 

 him four collectors — two zoological and two botanical. 



The expedition was provided at Calcutta with an 

 efficient guard of lifteen Sikh soldiers, picked men from 

 the fort, and two native doctors. At Rangoon they were 

 to be joined by an Attache of the British Embassy at 

 Pekin, and a Chinese interpreter. Another of the Pekin 

 Attaches, with an interpreter and guard, is to be de- 

 spatched from Shanghai into the interior of China to meet 

 them. These Attaches will be of the greatest use in keep- 

 ing the expedition right as regards their intercourse with 

 the Chinese officials. Dr. Anderson takes with him a 

 fine photographic apparatus, which he will use himself. 

 A considerable sum has been laid out in presents for the 

 chiefs and other personages expected to be met with during 

 the route : for the Viceroy of Yunan, two fine horses and 

 a pair of kangaroo-hounds have been selected, and a large 

 number of other appropriate objects. 



The expedition is expected to be able to make its way 

 from the upper waters of the Irawaddy to those of the 

 Yangtse-Kiang in the course of a few months, and will 

 descend the latter river to the sea-coast of China. The 

 Chinese Government has given every facility in the way 

 of passports, so that there is every prospect of a success- 

 ful result. 



THE ACCLIMATISATION OF SALMON IN 

 OTAGO 



A RENEWED attempt is now being made to acch- 

 matise the British salmon {Saliiio salar) in New 

 Zealand. The preliminary stages of the necessary opera- 

 tions have been carried out in Scotland, under the per- 



sonal direction of Mr. Buckland, one of her Majesty's 

 inspectors of salmon fisheries, and the ship, the TiDiarii 

 containing the precious freight, has sailed from the River 

 Clyde, and is now, it is to be hoped, a far way on her 

 voyage. 



What has been done is as follows :— A quarter of a 

 million of eggs have been taken from large, living salmon 

 captured expressly for the purpose. These ova have been 

 treated on what may be called the " piscicultural plan," 

 that is, the eggs have been forcibly extruded from the 

 fish in a vessel filled with water, by means of gentle pres- 

 sure applied to the abdomen, from which they fall quite 

 easily ; after the ova are washed they are carefully impreg- 

 nated with the milt of the male fish, and are then ready 

 to be laid down on the hatching boxes. On the present 

 occasion the eggs were brought from Perthshire, where 

 they were obtained, chiefly from tributaries of the rivers 

 Forth and Tay, to Glasgow, in order to undergo the pro- 

 cess of packing for their long voyage. It is gratifying to 

 know that only a very small portion of the eggs were 

 spoiled while undergoing the process of being fecundated. 



The plan adopted on the present occasion was to pack 

 the ova on trays of perforated zinc, on which had been 

 placed a thin layer of well-washed moss. The trays con- 

 taining the precious ova were then arranged in a series of 

 boxes, each of them a foot cube ; these boxes will be 

 cirried to their destination in a cabin expressly built for 

 them, paved with ice to the depth of about two feet, and 

 having walls of ice three feet in thickness. A stratum 

 of the same material is inserted between each box, so that 

 the eggs during the passage of the Titnani, whicli may 

 take a hundred days, will be kept at a very low tempera- 

 ture. Great pains have been taken in the packing of the 

 eggs, and also as regards the disposition of the boxes in 

 the ice-house, which will be hermetically sealed, and 

 not be broken open till the ship is in port. It is an im- 

 portant circumstance in favour of this experiment that 

 the eggs selected were all taken from fish which, judg- 

 ing by their dimensions, would be of considerable weight; 

 not a few of them must have weighed over twenty-five 

 pounds. They were not in the least injured during the 

 process of compulsory deprivation of their eggs and milt, 

 but when restored to the water went off quite lively, and 

 as if they had enjoyed the process of artificial spawning. 



The ship is expected to reach her destination, Bluff 

 Harbour, New Zealand, about the end of March, at 

 which date all the salmon eggs which she carries would, 

 in the natural state, have become living fish, and, indeed, 

 be a week or two old. The Tiiiiani, as the time ap- 

 proaches for her arrival in New Zealand, will be anxiously 

 watched for, and it is to be hoped that all the future 

 stages of this important experiment will be as carefully 

 gone about and as successfully accomplished as the 

 initiatory operations. 



The development of the ova whilst the ship is on her 

 voyage will be largely prevented by the very low tem- 

 perature which must result from the enormous quantity 

 of ice that is in use. How far the rivers of New Zealand, 

 seeing that upon the arrival of the eggs they will be at 

 an autumnal temperature, may be suited for the ripening 

 of the fish, has yet to be determined. We sincerely hope 

 all the conditions will be favourable to the hatching and 

 growth of the salmon. It will prove a singularly interest- 

 ing task to trace the history of Sal/no sa/ar, so to say, 

 from its creation, and to watch its progress from one 

 stage of its life to another. We anticipate in the process 

 the correction of many errors which have crept into the 

 details of its natural history, so far as we know it at 

 present. 



The physical conditions of New Zealand have been 

 depicted as being very similar to those of the old 

 country ; the resemblance will appear still more striking 

 to emigrants when they see the finest fish of the old 

 country leaping in its rivers. 



