!28 



NA rURE 



IFcb. 3, 1887 



tell whether an octopus is in a hole whose entrance is no larger 

 than a silver dollar, and, plunging their spears in, they invariably 

 draw one out. The larger kinds of octopus, which are always 

 found in deep water, are caught by men with cowries, generally 

 of the Mauritiana, but sometimes of the tiger species. An 

 octopus will not rise to a large-spotted or ugly cowry, so the 

 fishermen have to take care that the spots on the back of the 

 shell are very small and red, breaking through a reddish-brown 

 ground. Cowries with suitable spots, but objectionable other- 

 wise, are slightly steamed over a fire of sugar-cane husks, a pro- 

 cess which gives them the desired hue. The fisherman, having 

 arrived at his fishing-grounds, first chews and spits on the water 

 a mouthful of candle-nut meat, which renders the water glassy 

 and clear ; he then drops the shell with hook and line into the 

 wafer, and swings it over a place likely to be inhabited by an 

 octopus. The moment an octopus perceives a cowry, it shoots an 

 arm out and clasps the shell. If the shell is of the attractive kind, 

 onearm after the other comes out, and finally the whole body of 

 the octopus is withdrawn from the hole and attaches itself to the 

 cowry, which it closely hugs, curling itself all around it. The 

 creature remains very quiet while being rapidly drawn up through 

 the water. Just as it reaches the surface, the fisherman pulls the 

 string so as to bring its head against the edge of the canoe, and 

 it is killed by a blow from a club which is struck between the 

 eyes. This must be done rapidly, before the animal has time to 

 become alarmed ; for if it lets go the cowry, it becomes a dan- 

 gerous antagonist, and there is ri-k of the fisherman being 

 squeezed to death. The cutting off of one or more of its eight 

 arms does not affect the rest in the least. 



We have received Stitd'us in Microscopical Science, 

 vol. iv. No. 6, Sections 1-4. The text of the first three sections 

 relates to botanical, animal, and pathological histology; that 

 of the fourth to marine Algje. The plates are very delicately 

 executed. 



We have also received the seventh, eighth, and ninth parts of 

 the Transactions of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union. Among the 

 contents is an interesting presidential address on "The Fathers 

 of Yorkshire Botany," delivered, in 1884, by Mr. J. G. Baker, 

 F.R.S., President of the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union. 



The Selborne Society intend to issue letters, from time to 

 time, on its objects and work. They will be written by members 

 who have a special knowledge of the subjects discussed. The 

 first of the series, which has just been published, is on the feed- 

 ing and protection of wild birds in winter. The next will be 

 on the Wild Birds Protection Acts of 1880 and 1S81, and their 

 bearing on bird-catching and bird-nesting during the close 

 season. Other letters will follow on birds, trees, and plants, 

 and it may be hoped that the scheme will be of considerable 

 service in disseminating a knowledge of practical natural history. 



The French Government has purchased the hillock of Sansan 

 (Departement du Gers), which is famous for its richness in fossil 

 animal remains. M. E. Lartet was the first discoverer of this 

 palaeontological treasure. M. Filhol, the naturalist, has recently 

 examined the hillock ; he was commissioned by the Professor of 

 Paleontology at the Jardin des Plantes, Paris. This gentleman, 

 supported by M. Cavare, found fossil remains not only of Masto- 

 dons, Macrotheria, Chalicotheria, &c., but also of bears, stags, 

 dogs, and cats. Noteworthy are some stags' horns, with two 

 main branches, or so-called Dicroceri. All these fossils will be 

 deposited in a museum to be built at Sansan, and will be 

 described in a catalogue by M. Filhol. 



Prof. W. J. Tsinger, at Moscow, is busily engaged in pre- 

 paring his bulky work on the flora of Middle Russia, including 

 the floras of the fifteen central provinces. 



A LEARNED Society called the Societa Italiana Asiatica has 

 been formed in Italy for the investigation of Eastern languages 

 and archaeology. Prof. Amari has been elected Honorary 

 President. The Society has obtained the collaboration of the 

 best Italian Orientalists, and has nominated twenty-four foreign 

 honorary members, among whom are Profs. Bcihtlingk, Max 

 Mtiller, Roth, Fleischer, Renan, Weber, Whitney, Rawlinson, 

 Maspero, Legge, Brugsch, and Friedrich Midler. 



The Anthropological Society of Bombay, the establishment 

 of which less than a year ago has been noticed in these columns, 

 has already over 300 members, and has jiublished the first 

 number of its Transactions. Mr. Tyrrell Leith, the founder of 

 the Society, has a paper on divination by Hazirat among the 

 Indian Mussulmans ; Dr. Dymock writes on the hairy man 

 of Burmah, and Indian necromancy ; Dr. Weir, on sacrifice in 

 India as a means of preventing epidemics ; and Dr. Basu, on 

 embalming in Ancient India, and on Nisi, the night demon. 

 There are other papers, but this list is sufficient to show 

 the activity and utility of the new Society. 



The author of the paper on " Mexican Codices and Graven 

 Inscriptions " inadvertently referred to in a Note last week 

 as " Mr. Z. Nuttall," is " Mrs. Zelia Nuttall," one of two 

 American ladies elected to the honorary position of "Special 

 Assistant " of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology, Cam- 

 bridge, Mass. The paper in question was communicated to the 

 American Association for the Advancement of Science in August 

 last, when Mrs. Zelia Nuttall announced her discovery of "de- 

 terminative signs," forming a key to Aztec phonetic manuscript 

 records and graven inscriptions, and presented, in support of 

 her statements, comparative tables of phonetic signs for inspec- 

 tion to the Section of Anthropology. Mrs. Zelia Nuttall has 

 recently contributed to the American jfournal of Archaeology 

 an account of the terra-cotta heads of Teotihuacan. These little 

 clay heads, of most varied types, are frequently found in the 

 vicinity of the great pyramids at San Juan Teotihuacan, about 

 30 miles north-east of the city of Mexico. They had been gener- 

 ally considered the work of different races of people, inhabit- 

 ants of the valley of Mexico at successive periods, and were 

 therefore held to be of considerable antiquity. Mrs. Zelia 

 Nuttall's comparative researches prove them to be of Aztec 

 workmanship, and thus of more modern date. She found that 

 several of the most typical head-dresses modelled in clay were 

 identical with those worn by Aztecs of different social grades, 

 as depicted in Spanish chronicles at the time of the conquest 

 of Mexico. Mrs. Nuttall adduces satisfactory proofs that these 

 little clay heads were the portrait-models of dead persons 

 adorned with the insignia of their rank. Attached to bodies 

 of perishable materials, they served as effigies of the dead, and 

 were placed on the coffers or jars containing the cremated remains, 

 which were kept in the household dwellings of the relatives. 

 Food and wine were offered before them, incense was burnt, 

 and, at certain prescribed recurrent ceremonials, animals were 

 sacrified in their honour. 



We notice, in the last Bullclin of the St. Petersburg Academy 

 of Sciences, a valuable preliminary sketch of the avifauna 

 of the western spurs of the Pamir plateau and its northern 

 border-ridge, the Altai Mountains, by V. Blanchi. The birds 

 were collected by M. Grum-Grzimailo, and the collection in- 

 cludes 136 species, which probably represent about one-third 

 of the species inhabiting the region. With the exception 

 of nine species, the same were found by Dr. Severtzoff in 

 Bokhara, and described in the yotirnal of Ornithology, 1875 ; 

 and only five species are not yet known in Russian Turkestan. 

 It thus .appears that the avifauna of the Western Pamir is very 

 similar to that of the region situated on the other slope of the 

 Kashgar-daban Mountains. Nearly a hundred species out of the 



