34 



NA TURE 



[November 14, 1907 



yvfc^TflXftg ju i a 



the most wonderful rapidity. All this we saw most 

 clearly in the blackest darkness, far more clearly, 

 indeed, than such objects are wont to be seen even 

 under the most favourable conditions, in the day- 

 light." 



Of course the memoir is not exactly full of sugar- 

 plums of this sort ; there are discussions of dental 

 formulae and plenty of other hard facts, but Dr. 

 Wilson is to be congratulated on bringing not a little 

 of the picturesqueness of reality into his scientific 

 discourse. 



In Dr. Wilson's report on the birds, we find abun- 

 dant details regarding the life and ways of penguins. 

 They are drawn or photographed in every conceivable 

 attitude and situation — walking, " toboganning," 

 feeding, sleeping, on the nest and " on the run," 

 crowing, piping, dirty and clean, moulting and 

 "ecstatic." The pictures are delightful, and reflect 

 great credit on artists and photographers, and the 

 whole story of the life of the penguins is full of in- 

 terest. Take the emperor penguin's egg-laying, for 



instance. The 



bird chooses the 



darkest months 



of the Antarctic 



winter in which 



to- incubate i t s 



egg ; it lays it 



upon sea-ice with 



no pretence at 



nesting, but re- 

 moves it at once to 



rest upon its feet. 



where it is held 



wedged in be- 

 tween the legs 



closely pressed to 



a patch of bare 



skin in the lower 



abdomen, and 



covered from ex- 

 posure by a loose- 

 falling lappet of 



abdominal skin 



and feathers. Of 



course there is no 



" pouch," only a 



fold. The incuba- 

 tion requires 



seven weeks, and 



one bird cannot 



undertake this 



task. A dozen or 



more stand patiently round waiting for a chance to 

 assist. 



" Every adult bird, both male and female, in 

 the whole rookery has a keen desire to ' sit ' on some- 

 thing. There is every reason to believe that when the 

 sitting bird feels hungry it hands over its treasure 

 to the nearest neighbour that will undertake the duty 

 of incubation." 



But we must not quote more, strong as the tempt- 

 ation is. Dr. Wilson deals with five species of pen- 

 guin, two skuas, Wilson's petrel, the .Antarctic petrel, 

 the giant petrel, and a score of other birds. 



Mr. W. P. Pvcraft has made out some very interest- 

 ing points in his study of nestlings and embryos 

 of the emperor and Ad^iie penguins. He shows that 

 penguins develop two successive down plumages 

 before assuming the normal definitive feathers. 

 Another remarkable fact is that the feathers are 

 moulted from large areas of the body at once. In 

 their pterylosis the penguins are the most primitive 

 of all CarinatEC. This accomplished osteologist also 

 shovt's that the embryological evidence confirms what 



NO. 1985, VOL. ']■]'] 



the palaeontological evidence hints at, that the pen- 

 guins are descended from birds which possessed full 

 powers of flight. He gives an interesting discussion' 

 of their relationships, and of detailed points of interest 

 such as the sealing up of the nares, which seems to 

 have been a common heritage of all the birds belong- 

 ing to the great Steganopod branch, except the 

 Colymbi. 



The collection of fishes, reported on by Mr. 

 Boulenger, was a very small one, consisting of repre- 

 sentatives of ten species, four of which are new. 



Dr. W. G. Rldewood deserves congratulation in 

 respect of his fine memoir on the two species of 

 Cephalodiscus obtained by the Discovery. He gives 

 a detailed account of C. hodgsoni, n.sp., and C. 

 uigrescens, Lankester, compares the six species now 

 known, discusses their relations with Rhabdopleura, 

 and clears up a number of obscure details. He pro- 

 poses to divide the genus into two subgenera — 

 Idiothecia, e.g. C. nigrescens, in which the polypides 

 live in separate tubular cavities, and Demiothecia, 



•- iir'frrfi-Yf' 'inr •jiriiiiMBiiiTiiimrTCf^T - 



Lion. From the "National Antarctic Expedii 



e.g. C. hodgsoni, in which the cavity of the tubarium 

 is continuous. In both the new species obtained by 

 the Discovery there are hermaphrodite individuals, 

 with one ovary and one testis, as well as males and 

 females with two ovaries and two testes respectively. 

 Some light is thrown on the development o' tlie buds 

 and of the tubarium, as also on Harmer's " problem- 

 atical body " (obliquely interlacing cross-striped 

 muscle fibres) and on the peculiar refractive beads in 

 the end bulbs of the plumes of C. hodgsoni (material 

 of the tubarium in process of secretion). The seven 

 plates illustrating this valuable memoir are of great 

 excellence. 



."Vs to brachiopods, Mr. Edgar A. Smith describes 

 two new species of Magellania, one of which, il/. 

 sulcata, is remarkable on account of the concentric 

 sulcations and the coarse perforations of the shell. 

 Its marked lines of growth have no analogue among 

 recent forms, but recall tlie surface ornamentation of 

 Terehratula sulcifcra from the Lower Chalk. 



Turning to molluscs, we find that the Discovery 

 obtained only one cephalopod — a larval Histioteuthid — 



