348 



NA TURE 



[August io, 1905 



The Joiiniiil of the Royal Microscopical Society for June 

 contains two papers by Mr. J. E. Stead, F.R.S., one 

 dealing with micro-metallography in general, and the 

 other with the special processes for detecting phosphorised 

 portions in iron and steel. 



The two articles in the July issue of the Irish Naturalist 

 are devoted to local subjects, the Rev. Canon Norman com- 

 pleting his list of Irish ostracod crustaceans, while Mr. 

 R. LI. Pr;cger discusses the distribution of fumitories in 

 Ireland. 



We have to acknowledge the receipt of a complete copy, 

 with the plates, of the first part of vol. Ivii. of the 

 Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy. Many of the 

 papers contained in this part have been alreadv noticed 

 in our columns, as they appeared in the monthly issues. 



\\"e have received a fasciculus of " Illustrations of the 

 Zoology of the Investigator," containing plates of 

 crustaceans {part .xi.) and fishes (part viii.). Special 

 interest attaches to the plate of the crab Lithodes agassizi 

 on account of the large size and peculiar form of this 

 species, and also to the plates of deep-sea fishes, a few 

 of which have only recently been described. 



Mr. J. E. RoHsoN continues his catalogue of the Lepi- 

 doptera of Northumberland and Durham in vol. xv., 

 part i., of the Natural Transactions of the aforesaid 

 counties, dealing in this instance with the groups Pyra- 

 lidina and Tortricina. Both these sections of the Micro- 

 lepidoptera are but little studied by collectors, and the 

 author confesses to considerable difficultv in dealing with 

 the second of the two. 



I.N No. 14 10 of the Proceedings of the VS. National 

 Museum Mr. E. Linton describes certain cysts of a 

 cestode worm from a bottle-nosed porpoise, which are 

 regarded as indicating a new species of Taenia. No. 1404 

 of the same publication contains the first part of a de- 

 scription, by Mr. C. B. Wilson, of the North American 

 parasitic copepod crustaceans of the family Caligidae. An 

 account of the Argulidae has already appeared in the same 

 journal ; the members of the present group are regarded 

 by the author as of the greatest possible ecological interest, 

 so that the study of their life-history cannot fail to yield 

 important results. 



Article 7 of vol. .\x. of the Journal of the College 

 of Science of Tokyo University contains an account by 

 Dr. I. Ijima of the larva of an apparently new cestode 

 worm which was recently found infesting a Japanese 

 woman in extraordinarily large numbers. This larva has 

 been provisionally described as a new generic and specific 

 type under the name of Pterocercoides prolifer. It is 

 believed to be a member of the Bothriocephalus group 

 characterised by the absence of " bothria," a feature 

 probably common to Ligula, with which the Japanese 

 cestode may prove to be nearly related. 



Ix a paper published in the fourth volume of series iii. 

 of the .inales of the National Museum of Buenos Aires, 

 Dr. F. Ameghino records the presence of a perforation in 

 the astragalus of the badger, the other living mammals 

 in which this feature is known to occur being the dasyure, 

 the giant armadillo, and the mole. The same volume 

 contains a paper by Mr. F. Lahille on a new type of 

 scombroid fish from Argentine waters, which has been 

 named (in a preliminary notice published a couple of years 

 NO. I ."^67, VOL. 72] 



ago) Chenogasler holnibcrgi. This fish, of which an excel- 

 lent coloured plate accompanies the memoir, is a member 

 of the same group as the New Zealand Lepidothynnus and 

 fiasterochisma, which inhabit the same latitude as Chubat. 

 From the New Zealand forms Chenogaster differs by the 

 united dorsal fins, while it is distinguished from Gastero- 

 chisma by the small ventral fins and from Lepidothynnus 

 by the presence of vomerine teeth. The three genera 

 indicate a circumpolar Antarctic group. 



Ox a previous occasion a special notice was given in 

 this Journal of Dr. Waite's account of the nesting habits 

 of the fighting fish (Betta ptigna.x), as observed in an 

 aquarium. In the Records of the .Instralian Museum 

 (vol. vi., part i.) Dr. Waite publishes a preliminary note 

 of these ' habits in the allied paradise, or rainbow, fish 

 {Polyacanthus opcrcularis), of which specimens have like- 

 wise been successfullv kept in captivity. After mention- 

 ing that at the commencement of the breeding season the 

 male assumes a gorgeous nuptial coloration, the author 

 goes on to say that the nest of this species is simpler 

 and flatter than that of the fighting fish, a difference 

 probably due to the habit of the former of nesting beneath 

 shelter. The first eggs are often laid in a small mass 

 of bubbles, others being added later ; in consequence of 

 ihis the eggs are raised quite out of the water, and thus 

 hatched. It may be added that, according to older views 

 of nomenclature, the name Polyacanthus renders void that 

 of Polacanthus, applied many years later to a British 

 dinosaur. 



The migrations and growth of plaice form (he subject 

 of a communication by Mr. A. Meek to vol. i., part ii., 

 of the new series of the Transactions of the Natural 

 History Society of Northumberland and Durham. 

 .After referring to previous experiments and observations, 

 the author states that during last year 483 plaice (inclusive 

 nf a few other flat-fishes) were caught, marked, and re- 

 turned to the sea on the Northumberland coast. Of these 

 fish 52 were recovered ; and among this number only 2 

 made conspicuous migrations, and only 7 may be said 

 to have left the bays w-here they were liberated. Appar- 

 ently, the small plaice on the Northumberland coast 

 gradually travel from the sandy pools to the adjacent 

 deeper water, where they spend the remainder of their 

 immature condition. When four or five years old they 

 migrate into the still deeper extra-territorial waters, and 

 apparently show a constant tendency to reach increasing 

 depths with advancing age. 



A RESTORATION of One of the huge Miocene .American 

 perissodactyles of the family Titanotheriid;c is attempted 

 by Prof. R. S. Lull in the July number of the American 

 Naturalist, the species in question being a member of 

 the genus or group Megacerops. The creature stands 

 about 7 feet 4 inches at the withers, and measures rather 

 more than 12 feet in length. The general proportions are 

 those of a rhinoceros, although the limbs, probably to 

 support the enormous weight of the body, are less angu- 

 lated, and primitive features are displayed by the short- 

 ness of the back and in the structure of the fore-foot. 

 Indeed, if we arc to accept Prof. Lull's description of 

 the latter, the definition of the group Perissodactyla 

 requires modification, for the fore-foot of this titanothere 

 is stated to be four-toed and symmetrical, with the main 

 axis lying between the third and fourth digits after the 

 artiodactyle fashion. As regards the nasal horns, which 

 are branched at the summit, the author is inclined to 

 believe, from the absence of groovings on the bone, that 



