December 31, 1908 J 



NA TURE 



2.s: 



about to iiuiki- another 



\vc arc given to undiTslaiul, 

 L-xpedition lo East Africa. 



A BEAUTIFULLY colourc-d plalc, in addition to several 

 others in black and white, illustrates a further report, by 

 Mr. R. W. Sharpo, on the ostracods in the United States 

 National Museum, published as No. 1651 of the Proceed- 

 ings of the Museum. No. 1654 of the same publication 

 is devoted to amphipods collected off the west coast of 

 North America, which include a n<-\v f;imily. together with 

 several new genera and species. Mr. S. J. Holmes is the 

 author of this communication. 



.\ FURTHKR account of fishes of the Irish .Atlantic slope 

 forms the subject of Irish Fisheries, Scientific Investiga- 

 tions. 1906, p.irt V. (1908). The authors, Messrs. Holt and 

 Bvrne, commence in this issue an -illustrated account of 

 the more uncommon deep-water fishes of the .Atlantic 

 coast, with the object of rendering the species easily 

 identifiable by fishermen, and commence with the families 

 Scorpajnida; and Alepocophalida;, of which a number of 

 representatives are figured. This is followed by an account 

 of recent additions to the marine fish-fauna of the British 

 Isles, these including a new species of ray. 



The greater portion of vol. xii., part ii., of the Trans- 

 ■irtions of the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society 

 is devoted to an illustrated account, by Mr. A. B. Har- 

 wood, of the town museum, of the fossil flora of the 

 Leicestershire and South Derbyshire Coalfield, with 

 especial reference to the evidence it aft'ords with regard 

 to the age of the local Coal-measures. It is concluded 

 that the Coal-measures of the .Ashby, or central, district 

 arc lower in the series than those of the eastern and 

 western districts, which belong inainly or wholly to the 

 middle portion of the series. 



Tiik opening article in the November issue (vol. ii., 

 No. 8) of the Anatomical Record is devoted to the methods 

 of teaching anatomy in the medical schools of the United 

 States, more especially at Johns Hopkins University. The 

 importance of concentrating elementary teaching is strongly 

 in-,isied upon by the author of the paper, Mr. F. P. Mall, 

 this, as applied to anatomy, meaning that the elementary 

 work should be given during the student's first year, the 

 schedule being so arranged that the greater part of the 

 lime of each pupil is devoted lo this subject until the 

 elementary portion is completed. " It has been the aim 

 of American anatomists," concludes the author, "to 

 'levate the status of our profession, for it has been rest- 

 ing as a compressed buffer between surgery on the one 

 hand arid zoology on the other." 



Rp.GENERATio.N at the two extremities of the body in the 

 annelid Spirographis spallanzanii forms the subject of the 

 first article, by Mr. P. Ivanov, in vol. xci., part iv., of the 

 Zcilschrift fiir wissenschaftliche Zoologie. It is stated 

 that in this and allied poIycha;tous annelids, living a 

 sedentary life in tubes constructed by themselves, the pheno- 

 Mii:non of regeneration presents a special interest on 

 .iccount of the fact that the bodily structure of these 

 creatures shows several peculiarities, such, for instance, 

 .IS the abnormally large size of the nephridia in the 

 anterior segments. The regenerated extremities are de- 

 -(ribcd in detail in the text, and fully illustrated, both 

 from the external aspect and by means of sections, in the 

 plates. 



Like many other British birds, the scaup-duck seems to 

 be extending its breeding-range in our islands. According 

 lo an account relating to .Scotland, given by Mr. P. H. 



NO. 20^4, VOL. 7fj] 



Bahr in the December number of Witherby's British Birds. 

 the species was recorded as breeding near Loch Hope 

 in i8j4 ; in 1867 a clutch of ducks' eggs, believed to be 

 those of a scaup, were taken, while in the following year 

 a drake was shot in Sutherland in circumstances suggest- 

 ing that it was breeding. The first definitely authenticated 

 nest and eggs were obtained in Speyside in 1899, and in 

 1897, 1898, 1899, and 1900, as well as probably in the 

 two following years, the species bred in the islands south 

 of the Sound of Harris. In 1906 two other nests were 

 discovered in these islands, one of which is figured in Mr- 

 Bahr's paper. 



.Among a number of articles in vol. xxx.. No. 1, of 

 Notes from the Leyden Museum, we select for mention 

 one by Mr. E. Jacobson on the construction of the nests 

 of the Javanese ant Polyrhachis bicolor. In common with 

 a few other species, these ants spin nests in the leaves of 

 palms and other trees. The example described and figured 

 takes the form of a long and slender tube, slightly ex- 

 panded at the two extremities, and with a minute entrance 

 at the lower end, its total length being 25 cm. It was 

 constructed in a palm-leaf, and when examined was found 

 to contain one winged female, twenty-five males, twenty- 

 four workers, and a number of pupae and larvae in various 

 stages of development. The note concludes with a de- 

 scription of a somewhat more complicated spun nest con- 

 structed by the West .African Polyrhachis laboriosa. 



The embryology and anatomy of hyperdactylism in 

 Houdan domesticated fowls is discussed in great detail 

 by Marie Kaufmann-Wolff in vol. xxxviii., part iv., of 

 Gcgenbaur's Morphologisches Jahrbuch. The abnormality 

 usually takes the form of an extra digit on the inner 

 side of the hallux or great toe, but in some instances 

 assumes a more complicated type. In the plates and text- 

 figures the structure of the foot is displayed by means of 

 sciographs, dissections, and embryo specimens. Embry- 

 ology decisively shows that the additional digit or digits 

 arises as a bud from the metatarsal or phalangeals of the 

 hallux, which, in the course of its development, becomes 

 segmented, and eventually appears as a duplication or 

 triplication of the latter. The hyperphalangism is there- 

 fore essentially a neomorphic, and in no wise an atavistic, 

 condition, its evidence thus being altogether opposed to 

 the theory of the existence in vertebrates of a prepollex 

 or prehallux. 



No. 27 of the " North .American Fauna " (U.S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture) is devoted to an account of the 

 natural history of the .Athabasca-Mackenzie region, by 

 Mr. E. H. Preble, based on a recent biological survey of 

 that area. The region is of considerable importance from 

 a commercial point of view on account of the number of 

 valuable fur-bearing animals by which it is inhabited, 

 while it is of special interest to the naturalist as being 

 the one in which the last remnants of the American bison 

 survive in a truly wild state, and it is also the home of 

 the Canadian race of the musk-ox. In the spring, when 

 its springs and rivers are released from the icy grip of 

 the long Arctic winter, the region is likewise the resort 

 of countless flocks of birds of various kinds which breed 

 within its limits, these including representatives, and in 

 some cases the great majority, of most of the migratory 

 game-birds of North .America. The monograph, which 

 comprises 564 pages, deals chiefly with the vertebrates, 

 although it likewise contains a section on the trees and 

 shrubs of the district. The explorers were unable to 

 obtain any definite information with regard to the present 

 numbers of the bison, but the herds are stated to be much 



