NA TURE 



[December i6, 1909 



the Latin-American countries forms a fitting recognition of 

 tlie tweniy-fiftli anniversary of tfie inception of a time 

 system which has wrought all the advantages that its 

 originator. Sir San ford Fleming, foresaw. At the instance 

 of Prof. Todd's representations to these Governments, both 

 Peru and Panama had already adopted standard time 

 officially in 1908. 



The sixty-first meeting of the American Association for 

 the Advancement of Science is to be held in Boston, at 

 tlie invitation of Harvard University and the Massachusetts 

 Institute of Technology, from Monday, December 27, to 

 January i, 1910. The president of the meeting will be 

 Dr. David Starr Jordan, of the Leland Stanford Junior 

 University. Addresses of welcome will be delivered by 

 Dean W. C. Sabine for Harvard University and by Presi- 

 dent R. A. Maclaurin, of the Institute of Technology. 

 The retiring presidents of the sections, with the subjects 

 of their addresses, so far as announced, are as follows : — 

 mathematics and astronomy. Prof. C. J. Keyser, the thesis 

 of modern logistic ; social and economic science, Prof. 

 W. G. Sumner ; geology and geography, Mr. Willis : 

 zoology, Prof. C. Herrick, the evolution of intelligence and 

 its organs; physics. Prof. K. E. Guthe, some reforms 

 needed in the teaching of physics; botany. Prof. H. M. 

 Richards, the nature of response to chemical stimulation ; 

 chemistry. Prof. L. Kahlenberg, the past and future of the 

 study of solutions ; physiology and experimental medicine. 

 Prof. W. H. Howell ; mechanical science and engineering, 

 Prof. G. F. Swain, the profession of engineering and its 

 relation to the American Association for the Advancement 

 of Science ; education, Prof. Dewey, science as a method 

 of thinking and science as information in education ;' 

 anthropology and psychology, Prof. R. S. Woodworth, 

 racial differences in mental traits. The presidents of 

 sections for the meeting are as follows :— mathematics and 

 astronomy, Prof. E. W. Brown, Yale University; physics. 

 Dr. L. A. Bauer, Carnegie Institution ; chemistry, Prof. 

 \V. McPherson, Ohio State University; mechanical science 

 and engineering, Mr. J. F. Hayford, U.S. Coast and 

 Geodetic Survey ; geology and geography, Mr. R. W. Brock, 

 Canadian Geological Survey ; zoology. Prof. W. E. Ritter, 

 University of California ; botany, Prof. D. P. Penhallow, 

 McGill University, Montreal ; anthropology and psychology, 

 Dr. W. H. Holmes, Bureau of American Ethnology ; social 

 and economic science, Mr. B. W. Holt; phvsiology and 

 e.xperimental medicine. Prof. C. S. Minot, Harvard Medical 

 School ; education. Prof. J. E. Russell, Columbia Uni- 

 versity, New York. A popular lecture will be given during 

 the evening of December 28 by Dr. C. W. Stiles, of the 

 Boston Public Health and Marine Hospital Service, on the 

 hook-worm disease in the south. 



We have to acknowledge the receipt of a copy of an 

 article on Darwin, by Prof. A. A. VV. Hubrecht, published 

 in De Giis, No. 12 ; also of one by Dr. Angel Gallardo on 

 •' Las Investigaciones Modernas sobre la Hereneia en 

 Biologia," extracted from a volume published at Cordoba 

 to commemorate the retirement of Dr. R. Wernicke from 

 the faculty of medicine. The latter deals largely with the 

 main principles of the Mendelian theory. 



Crustaceans form the subject of two articles published 

 in part i. (London : Williams and Norgate) of a report 

 to the Government of Baroda on the marine zoology of 

 Okhamandal, in Kattiawar. In the first of these Messrs. 

 J. Hornell and T. Southwell describe a new species of 

 pea-crab of the genus Pinnoteres infesting window-oysters 

 (Placuna), and remarkable for the number and large size 

 of the males, while in the second Mr. Southwell discusses 

 the anomurous crustaceans of the same area. 

 NO. 2094, VOL. 82] 



The practical improvement of ethnological collections in 

 provincial museums forms the subject of the chief article 

 in the November number of the Museums Journal, the 

 article being an address read by Mr. F. W. Knocker at 

 the Museums' Conference at Maidstone last summer. It 

 is pointed out that valuable objects of this nature preserved 

 in local museums are frequently assigned to countries 

 wholly different from those from which they originally 

 came, and that urgent need exists fof intelligent geo- 

 graphical classification of such collections. 



To the Transactions of the Edinburgh Field Naturalists' 

 and Microscopical Society for 1908-9 (vol. vi., part ii.) the 

 Rev. D. W. Wilson contributes some interesting notes 

 on birds mentioned in early Scottish literature and docu- 

 ments, from which it is made evident that the crane was 

 formerly common in Scotland, thus adding strength to the 

 opinion of the late Mr. T. Southwell that it formerly bred 

 in East Anglia. In another paper in the same issue Mr. 

 J. C. Adam directs attention to the long nesting-period of 

 the more typical members of the crow-tribe, a fact to 

 which no allusion appears to be made in bird-books. Four- 

 teen days for incubation and another fourteen for the 

 nestlings to acquire their feathers is, for instance, the 

 length of the nesting-period in the case of the thrush. 

 In the case of the rook, on the other hand, the eggs are 

 brooded for seventeen days, and the young require another 

 twenty-seven or thirty days in the nest, making the whole 

 nesting-period nearly seven weeks. The carrion-crow re- 

 quires an additional week, while the raven seems to take 

 about a week more than that species. 



The need of a regular study of the sequence of plumages 

 in birds forms the subject of an editorial article in the 

 December number of Witherby's British Birds. It is 

 pointed out that when a bird first leaves the nest it is 

 either naked or clothed with a down-plumage. The latter 

 is succeeded by a juvenile plumage, acquired by a complete 

 moult. In a few instances this juvenile dress may perhaps 

 be indistinguishable from that of the adult, but in most 

 cases, at any rate, it is generally possible, and often easy, 

 to differentiate between the two. In some instances, when 

 the dress of the adults of the two sexes is different, the 

 juvenile plumage approximates more or less closely to that 

 of the female, but more commonly it is markedly different 

 from that of both adults. It may be spotted or streaked, 

 it may show light borders to the feathers, it may be duller 

 than that of the adult, or may be altogether distinct. It 

 is proposed to institute a careful study of these early 

 plumages of British species, and then of their successive 

 summer and winter liveries season by season. 



In a report on the progress of game-protection in the 

 United States during igoS, published in the Year-book of 

 the Department of Agriculture, Mr. T. S. Palmer states 

 that the year igo8 was not marked by any event of special 

 importance, but a number of factors, at least in certain 

 localities, affected the condition of game and the success 

 of the hunting season. On the whole, the game wintered 

 well, and conditions in the spring were better than normal. 

 During the summer a prolonged drought, accompanied by 

 forest-fires, occurred in several of the northern States, and 

 threatened serious injury to deer and grouse, but the loss 

 proved less than predicted. In the Carolinas and Georgia 

 floods in .'\ugust and September caused great destruction 

 of deer and wild turkeys. The difficulty of obtaining game- 

 birds for stocking coverts increased interest in the grey 

 partridge of Europe, and resulted in the importation of a 

 much larger number of these birds than in any previous 

 year. The rapidly increasing popularity of the automobile 

 and the motor-boat in the pursuit of game is apparently 



