132 



NA TURE 



[June 8, 1905 



education in the United States was discussed by Prof. H. 

 Eckfeldt, and in New Zealand by Prof. J. Park. Coal 

 mining in India was dealt with by Mr. T. Adamson. Mr. 

 J. Jeffries described the occurrence of underground fires 

 at the Greta colliery, New South Wales. Mr. W. C. 

 Blackett and Mr. R. G. Ware described a striking innova- 

 tion in mining practice, the use of electrically driven 

 mechanical conveyors for filling at the coal-face. Two 

 years' experience has shown a saving of 48 per cent, over 

 the ordinary pick and shovel method. Lastly, Mr. A. R. 

 Sawyer gave an account of the geology of Chunies Poort, 

 Zoutpansberg, Transvaal. Incidentally, he mentioned some 

 old copper workings where native copper occurs in some 

 abundance in dolomite. The proceedings terminated with 

 a vote of thanks, proposed by Mr. Bennett H. Brough, to 

 the Geological Society and to the Royal Astronomical 

 Society for the use of their rooms for the meeting. 



In the Biologisches Centralblatt of May 15 Dr. O. 

 Zacharias brings to a conclusion his article on the relations 

 of modern hydrobiology to fish culture and fisheries. Dr. 

 G. Schneider also discusses the origin of species among 

 cestode worms. He concludes that morphological variation 

 in union with biological isolation through parasitism are 

 insufficient to form species unless aided by physiological, 

 that is, se.xual, isolation. 



In the Nouveaux Mimoires of the Moscow Academy, 

 vol. xvi., parts ii. and iv., the well kgown Russian ornith- 

 ologist. Dr. P. Suschkin, commences an important work on 

 the osteology of the avian skeleton, the second part, which 

 is alone before us, dealing with the osteology and classifi- 

 cation of the diurnal birds of prey (Accipitres). This part 

 is illustrated with four plates of various parts of the 

 skeleton. 



During a recent visit to the Victoria Falls of the 

 Zambezi, Mr. W. L. Sclater, director of the South African 

 Museum, obtained three fishes from that river which 

 were sent to the British Museum for e.xamination. One of 

 these proved to be new, and is described by Mr. G. A. 

 Boulenger in vol. iii., part vii., of the Annals of the South 

 African Museum under the name of Paratilapia carlottae. 

 The genus is widely spread. 



We have received from the author, Mr. C. C. Hurst, a 

 copy of his paper on experimental studies on heredity' in 

 rabbits, published in vol. xxix. of the Journal of the 

 Linnean Society. The experiments were commenced in 

 1902, with the object of ascertaining whether the Men- 

 delian principles of heredity were applicable to animals as 

 well as plants, the animals selected being the white Angora 

 rabbit and the Belgian hare. The results confirm, ''and 

 extend to rabbits, those already obtained by Prof. Cu^not 

 in the case of mice, though it would appear that the 

 heredity of Dutch markings in rabbits differs in some 

 respects from that of the " panachure " in mice. 



In the Zoologist for May, Mr. J. H. Gurney records the 

 early history of a young cuckoo. On May 22 last year 

 a hedge-sparrow's nest was found containing three eggs 

 laid by the owner, and one egg deposited by a cuckoo. 

 The cuckoo's egg w^as of the ordinary brown type, present- 

 ing no resemblance to the hedge-sparrow's eggs. On 

 June 2 the young cuckoo and two hedge-sparrows 

 were hatched, the third young hedge-sparrow, which had 

 been hatched earlier, having previously disappeared. The 

 next day the two nestling hedge-sparrows were found lying 

 dead outside the nest. When one was replaced, no attempt 

 was made to eject it by the cuckoo. The same result 

 happened when a young wagtail was put into the nest ; 

 NO. 1858, VOL. 72] 



but when this was replaced by a young wren, the latter 

 was ejected under the eyes of the observer in the usual 

 manner. On June 22 the young cuckoo left the nest. 



In discussing certain habits of British bats in the eighth 

 article of vol. xlix. of the Memoirs of the Manchester 

 Literary and Philosophical Society, Mr. C. Oldham refers 

 in the first place to the winter sleep, and points out that, 

 from observations made in the disused copper mines of 

 Alderley Edge, in the case of the long-eared bat this 

 sleep is interrupted, the bats probably feeding at intervals 

 on the insects which abound in the tunnels in winter, even 

 if they do not venture forth into the open. The same is 

 probably true of Daubenton's bat, the whiskered bat, and 

 the lesser horse-shoe bat. There appears to be nothing to 

 show that the bats occasionally seen abroad on mild days 

 in winter are pipistrelles. Two popular fallacies are con- 

 tradicted, firstly, that bats cannot walk, or can only 

 shuffle awkwardly, along a flat surface, and secondly, that 

 they cannot take flight from such a ^virfacp. The different 



Horseshoe Eat in Repose. 



postures assumed by British bats in repose form the sub- 

 ject of the plate illustrating Mr. Oldham's paper. The 

 lesser horse-shoe bat, of which one of the figures is repro- 

 duced, recalls the posture assumed by the fo.x-bats, or 

 flying-foxes, when at rest. The posture of ordinary bats 

 is quite different, and it is a curious fact that while the 

 lesser horse-shoe alights from the air in an inverted posi- 

 tion, other bats, on first coming to rest, do so with the 

 head upwards, and then reverse their position. 



The foregoing paper is supplemented by the observations 

 of Mr. C. B. Moffat on the duration of flight among bats, 

 published in the May number of the Irish Naturalist. In 

 this communication it is shown that while the long-eared 

 bat and the pipistrelle are all-night fliers, the hairy-armed 

 bat only ventures forth for a short flight in the evening, 

 and again shortly before dawn. The hairy-armed bat thus 

 enjoys a daily rest of 215 hours, taking all its exercise and 

 its food in two periods (which in summer may be very 

 close together) of one and a quarter hours each. There 

 is a suggestion that the great bat, or noctule, indulges only 

 in an evening flight, but additional evidence is required 

 before this can be definitely accepted, and it appears to be 

 contradicted by certain observations which the author did 

 not see soon enough to incorporate in his text. 



