AUGUST 5, 1915] 

Mr. Wilkinson speaks of wood-pigeons as forming 
a common article in the dietary of the kestrel. From 
the great size and weight of this bird, in relation to 
the kestrel, one cannot resist a suspicion that he is 
really referring to the turtle-dove. The wanton de- 
struction, both of the kestrel and the hobby, by game- 
keepers, gives one cause for rejoicing that at least 
occasionally they escape the varied and often brutal 
engines of destruction which, in spite of Preservation 
Acts, are still in common use. This persecution is 
the more reprehensible because these birds, like owls, 
destroy immense numbers of mice and rats, whereas 
the amount of game destroyed is negligible, as anyone 
can discover for himself who will take the trouble 
to examine the pellets thrown up according to the 
custom of raptorial birds: Not one pellet in ten 
thousand will be found to contain remains of partridge 
or pheasant. 
Tne annual report of the Scottish Marine Biological 
Association for 1914 contains a record of the work 
done at the Millport Marine Station during that year. 
The most important investigations to which reference 
is made in the superintendent’s report are those of 
Dr. J. F. Gemmill on the development of Astertas 
rubens, the detailed paper on which has appeared in 
the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. 
Other work of interest is the systematic investigation 
of a sandy shore undertaken by Mr. R. Elmhirst and 
Prof. L. A. L. King, and the study of the regeneration 
of legs in Crustacean Decapods by Mr. J. H. Paul. 
Two papers by Dr. C. G. Joh. Petersen make up 
the Report of the Danish Biological Station, No. xxiii, 
1915. The first is on the animal communities of the 
sea-bottom in the Skagerak, the Christiania fjord, 
and the Danish waters, and is a continuation of 
similar studies already published by the author dealing 
with the communities found in Danish waters. The 
investigations were made by means of the bottom- 
sampler designed by Dr. Petersen. The second paper 
is called, *‘A Preliminary Result of the Investigations 
on the Valuation of the Sea,’’ and in it an attempt 
is made to give numerical estimates of the annual 
production of various marine organisms, including 
fishes, in the Kattegat. Whilst undue importance is 
not intended to be given to the actual figures put 
forward, the method followed by Dr. Petersen is one 
which will doubtless be capable of great development 
in the future. 
Tue July number of the Quarterly Review contains 
an article by Mr. Stephen Reynolds dealing in a 
general way with the question of the inshore fisheries, 
but referring specially to the two Departmental Re- 
ports published in 1914. The author traces the various 
causes which have led to the decadence of sea-fishing 
by small boats on various parts.of the coasts of Eng- 
land and Wales. In his opinion the decentralisation 
of administration brought about by the creation of the 
District Fishery Committees has had a prejudicial effect. 
These bodies are not really representative of the fish- 
ing interests; and they are, with one or two excep- 
tions, unprovided with sufficient resources to enable 
them to carry on constructive work, scientific research, 
NO. 2388, VOL. 95 | 
NATURE 

625 
or the legal defence of existing fishing rights. Their 
work has been mainly that of the imposition of. re- 
strictions and prohibitions on methods of fishing. 
The committees are subject to the general control of 
the central authority (the Board of Agriculture and 
Fisheries), but the latter possesses no power to initiate 
legislation. The Inshore Fisheries Committee, which 
reported in 1914, recommended the practical abolition 
of the District Committees and the transfer of the 
actual power of regulation to the central authority. It 
also recommended various schemes of local organisa- 
tion and co-operation, and with the assistance of the 
Development Fund some of these have been begun. 
Mr. Reynolds describes very shortly the steps that 
are being taken in Devon and Cornwall to revive and 
stimulate the smaller fisheries, mainly by means of 
loans of money to the men. A grant from. the. De- 
velopment Fund has also been made to the Fisheries 
Organisation Society, so that this body has been able 
to provide a staff for the promotion of the industry. 
In the July number of the Journal of Anatomy and 
Physiology Prof. F. Wood Jones makes a welcome 
contribution to our knowledge of the external genital 
system of Chelonian reptiles. He regards the external 
genitalia of turtles and tortoises as representative of 
a very generalised and primitive type. The com- 
mencement of the Chelonian type of copulatory organ 
is to be seen amongst certain of the Amphibia; the 
same type occurs as an embryological stage in mam- 
mals. The author regards it as probable that ‘the 
mammalian stock arose early from some basal meet- 
ing point of the Amphibians and the sculate reptiles.” 
IN 1913 Sir Edward Schafer accepted an invitation 
from the Leland Stanford Junior University, Cali- 
fornia, to deliver the Laue medical lectures. He chose 
for his subject the endocrine glands—that is, the 
organs of the body which form internal secretions. 
His name is so closely associated with researches on 
these glands, especially the adrenal and pituitary 
bodies, that his choice was an almost obvious one, 
and those who did not have the opportunity of hear- 
ing Sir Edward are now able to read his lectures, as 
they have been’ published by the Stanford University 
in a pamphlet of ninety-four pages, which is simply 
packed with information expressed in lucid style, and 
admirably arranged. We can highly recommend the 
booklet to those who wish to obtain a brief history 
of our knowledge on this interesting subject, and an 
authoritative statement of the stage it has reached at 
present. We note that the author employs his new 
nomenclature for the substances usually grouped 
together as hormones; so far the new words have not 
“caught on,”’ but perhaps the present publication will 
stimulate other physiologists to adopt them. The 
same mail brings us another publication in the same 
series, ‘“‘The Hzmolymph Nodes of the Sheep,” by 
A. W. Meyer, from the anatomical department of the 
Stanford University. The subject is not altogether 
unrelated to the endocrine glands, though it is at pre- 
sent doubtful whether these nodes, or accessory 
spleens, as they may roughly be termed, form any 
internal secretion. Dr. Meyer, however, treats the 
subject mainly from the anatomical point of view, and 
