I04 



NA TURE 



[November 25, 1909 



In several cases the gear-box is secured rigidly to the 

 engine, thus securing correct alignment should warping 

 of the frame of the car occur. Many of the cars are fitted 

 with front-wheel brakes ; the AUen-Liversidge arrangement 

 consists of band brakes on drums secured to the steering 

 wheels on the steering bracket sides, and operated by 

 means of cables passing over pulleys mounted on the steer- 

 ing pivots. The risk of side-slip is much reduced by having 

 the brakes on the front wheels. Most of the cars are 

 petrol driven, steam and electric cars being represented 

 by a few examples only. Among the many accessories 

 shown, the Bowden speed indicator is worthy of notice. 

 In this indicator five steel balls move in radial slots in 

 a rotating disc, and as the speed increases they move out- 

 wards and also upwards, being guided by a cup-shaped 

 disc, on which they rest, .'\nother disc, resting on the 

 top of the balls, thus has an upward movement communi- 

 cated to it, and actuates a pointer through a rack and 

 pinion gearing. The indicator has great sensitiveness and 

 freedom from lag, and, owing to the absence of revolving 

 links, springs, &c., should be applicable to the indicating 

 of much higher speeds of rotation than most instruments 

 at present available are capable of dealing with. 



The subject of the prehistoric antiquities of Scandinavia 

 continues to receive attention in Naluren, Prof. A. W. 

 Br^gger contributing an article to the November number 

 in which objects of this nature are figured. Attention is 

 directed to the light thrown on Scandinavian antiquities 

 by those of other countries. Among the figures are copies 

 of two excellent prehistoric representations of reindeer and 

 another of a bear. 



The progress of the plan for marking young birds in 

 this country, initiated by the editors of WUherhy' s British 

 Birds, forms the subject of a note in the November issue 

 of that serial. Out of 4750 rings issued, only 2200 are 

 reported as having been used, this comparatively small 

 proportion being largely due to the late date on which 

 the distribution was made. Taking this fact into con- 

 sideration, the originators of the scheme consider that 

 the number of birds ringed is satisfactory, and lend to 

 expectation of interesting results, which it is hoped will 

 be exceeded next year, when the rings will be issued 

 sooner. 



In the report of the Museums of the Brooklyn Institute 

 of Arts and Sciences for 1908, Dr. F. A. Lucas is enabled 

 to record a marked improvement in the exhibition series 

 owing to the completion of the east wing of the main 

 building. Great stress is laid on the importance of dis- 

 playing the exhibits in a picturesque and attractive manner, 

 which can be done, if proper care be exercised, without 

 in any way impairing their scientific interest. It is in- 

 tended to add pictures of invertebrate life above the cases 

 devoted to the lower organisms, and a beginning has been 

 made in the shape of a sketch of a coral-reef. Other 

 paintings are to be devoted to the beach of a coral-island, 

 the purple jelly-fish, and the Portuguese man-of-war. 

 Attention is directed to a recently mounted group of 

 hoatzias, of which a photograph forms the frontispiece to 

 the report. 



In the September number of the Biological Bulletin of 

 the Woods Hole Laboratory Prof. Raymond Pearl and 

 Miss M. R. Curtis give an account of a partially herma- 

 phrodite Plymouth rock fowl hatched at the Maine Agri- 

 cultural Station in the spring of 1907, and killed in 

 August, 1908. As regards colour and bodily shape, this 

 bird resembled a normal female of the breed, but the head 

 and neck, especially in respect of the development of the 

 NO. 2091, VOL. 82] 



comb and wattle, recalled a young cock. In general 

 behaviour it resembled a hen rather than a cock, although 

 it occasionally made unsuccessful attempts to crow. 

 Internally a large lobulated gland on the left side occupied 

 the position of the normal ovary, while there was also 

 a complete and functional oviduct ; but on the opposite 

 side occurred a small organ representing a testicle, with 

 a normal efferent duct leading to the cloaca. The sexual 

 glands of each type were in a degenerate condition, and 

 apparently incapable of developing their proper sexual 

 elements. The authors of the paper cite another instance 

 of incomplete hermaphroditism in domesticated fowls, as 

 well as one in which the hermaphroditic character was fully 

 developed. 



After describing certain new forms of the remarkable: 

 fossils typified by those named Edestus, Prof. O. P. Hay, 

 in No. 1699 (vol. xxxvii., pp. 43-61) of the Proceedings 

 of the U.S. National Museum, discusses the nature of 

 these spiral serrated structures. It has been generally 

 considered that these structures represent the spines found 

 on the tails of rays like Trygon. Dr. Hay is, however, 

 of opinion that they should be associated with the dorsal 

 fin. Their structure may be most easily explained " by 

 supposing that some ancient elasmobranchs developed in 

 front of a median dorsal fin, or in place of it, not a single 

 spine, but a succession of them. The new compressed 

 spine, serrated in front and behind, arose in front of the 

 older ones. Nevertheless, the root of the new spine 

 became directed backward beneath and on each side of 

 the preceding one, so as partly to embrace it. At first 

 probably the older spines were shed, but in time they 

 began to cohere and thus form a compound spine. In 

 Edestus this was straight or slightly bent. All, or nearly 

 all, of it, except the serrated teeth, was buried in the 

 flesh. As more and more elements were added, the organ 

 became more curved, and finally in some species formed 

 a spiral, which was directed backward and the last turn 

 of the shaft of which was elevated enough to keep the 

 teeth from cutting into the skin. Such a weapon could 

 be brought into action if only its possessor had dived 

 under its victim and brought the spine across its abdomen, 

 thus disembowelling it. . . . It is in this way that Gastero- 

 steus attacks its victims." 



The abnormality known as vivipary, in which young 

 shoots are formed in place of flowers, is described by 

 Mr. G. N. Collins in Contributions from the United States 

 National Herbarium (vol. xii., part x.) for some varieties 

 of the maize plant imported from Mexico and Central 

 .America into the States. The shoots arise in the axil 

 of a glume in the position of staminate spikelets, and 

 roots are developed at the base ; plantlets placed in the 

 ground made some growth, but failed to mature. The 

 phenomenon is attributed to the excessive vegetative growth 

 shown by tropical varieties of corn when transported to a 

 temperate region. The title-page and index to the volume 

 have now been issued. 



An account of the pear thrips, Euthrips pyri, prepared 

 by Mr. D. Moulton, and pubUshed by the United States 

 Department of .'\griculture as Bulletin No. 68, part i., of 

 the Bureau of Entomology, is the outcome of the writer's 

 investigation of a pest which flourished for two years in 

 the San Francisco region. There is an instructive com- 

 parison of the light ravages on the early flowering almond, 

 with the destruction caused on the later blooming prunes, 

 cherries, and pears, that open their flower buds just as 

 the thrips reach their active feeding stage. During the 

 second larval stage the insect enters the ground, where it 

 pupates, and finally, emerges as an adult thrip in the spring. 



