oie NATURE 
[Juny 18, 1912 
After the deplorable attitude recently adopted in 
Parliament by Mr. Runciman, the Minister in charge 
of the Fishery Department, such a vigorous state- 
ment of the position cannot be too often repeated. 
In the daily Press of July 12 it was announced, 
on the authority of Reuter’s Agency, that Major H. 
Schomberg, a well-known German big-game hunter, 
has arrived in Europe from Liberia with five living 
specimens of the pigmy hippopotamus (Hippopotamus 
liberiensis), these being the first examples to reach 
Europe alive. Major Schomberg started in April, 
1911, on an expedition fitted out by Mr. Hagenbeck 
'4 search of these animals, but had to return without 
attaining his object. Startusg again in December, he 
proceeded from Momovia into tne hinterland, finally 
reaching Taguerna, a fortified town in the torest, 
where, in the course of two months, he appears to 
nave procured his specimens. Of these, two have 
been purchased by the American Zoological Society, 
while the remaining three are in Germany. 
In the July issue of Man, Major A. J. N. Tremearne 
describes the curious Hammock Dance performed at 
Sierra Leone. A grass hammock is suspended 
between two posts some 20 or 30 ft. in height. To 
the blatant music of a native orchestra the performer 
climbs into the hammock, and from it swings and 
balances himself in various remarkable ways. The 
show usually continues for hours, “until the per- 
formers and the audience are exhausted or overcome 
with drink.” 
Tur American Anthropological Association and Folk- 
lore Society have cooperated in starting an important 
quarterly review under the title of Current Anthropo- 
logical Literature. The first number contains reviews 
of the more important books issued during the 
quarter, notes on new publications, and a classified 
summary of the more valuabie articles and papers 
arranged according to the regions to which they 
relate. The publication promises to be of much 
importance to anthropologists, who are invited to send 
copies of papers in scientific publications to Dr. A. F. 
Chamberlain, Clark University, Massachusetts, 
U.S.A. 
Tue Corporation of Croydon, with the view of 
popularising the study of the collections in the Grange 
Wood Museum, has published at a nominal price two 
useful descriptive pamphlets, by Mr. E. A. Martin, on 
the pre-Roman and Roman exhibits. The former 
include eoliths from Titsey Hill and Botley Hill, 
palzoliths from the driver-drift, and remains from hut 
dwellings on Croham Hurst and Worms Heath. The 
most remarkable discovery made in the neighbour- 
hood was that at Waddon, where three arched sub- 
terranean chambers were found in 1902. They were 
apparently used for sepulchral purposes, and belong 
to the Neolithic age. Three hoards of bronze repre- 
sent primitive foundries. The Roman remains consist 
largely of coins. The pamphlets provide a useful 
account of man in the pre-Roman and Roman periods, 
and will add much to the educational value of the 
collections. 
NO. 2229, VoL. 89] 
The Journal of Genetics for June, 1912 (vol. ii, 
No. 2) contains two articles—one by Mr. L. Don- 
caster and the other by Mr. R. Staples-Browne—on 
the inheritance of colour in pigeons; but in neither 
case do the results obtained admit of being sum- 
marised within the limits of the space at our dis- 
posal. The second article is illustrated with a 
coloured plate showing the colour-effects produced by 
crossing turtle-doves, collared turtle-doves, and the 
so-called white Java doves. 
In the July number of Witherby’s British Birds, Mr. 
Meade-Waldo—who was largely instrumental in estab- 
lishing the species in the Midland counties—defends the 
little owl (Athene noctua) from the charge of killing 
young game-birds, stating that it is mainly insectivor- 
ous, although it kills a number of young passerine 
birds while its young are in the nest. On the other hand, 
two other correspondents in the same issue reiterate 
the charge of game-poaching. 
In his annual address to the South London Ento- 
mological and Natural History Society, as printed in 
the Proceedings for 1911-12, the president, Mr. W. J. 
Kaye, directed attention to the great abundance of 
butterflies during the hot summer of 1911, the fre- 
quent production of second and third broods, and 
likewise the prevalence of supposed phases. The 
species that particularly responded to the unusual 
conditions was the small copper (Rumicia phloeas), 
which multiplied exceedingly in places where it is 
usually rare, and visited suburban gardens in 
numbers. 
Unper the title ‘‘ Hortus Mortolensis ’ (West, New- 
man, price 4s.), A. Berger has published a catalogue, 
with interesting notes, of the plants growing in the 
famous garden at La Mortola, near Ventimiglia, 
Italy, founded in 1867 by the late Sir Thomas Han- 
bury. No efforts have been spared to develop La 
Mortola into an important subtropical botanic garden, 
from which seeds and plants are now distributed to 
almost every botanical establishment in the world, 
and which has been visited and described by many 
botanists; for instance, a long and interesting chapter 
is devoted to La Mortola in Prof. Strasburger’s 
“Rambles on the Riviera” (English translation, 
1906). 
From Prof. J. M. Coulter, University of Chicago, 
we have received reprints of two papers of general 
botanical interest, one dealing with the problems of 
plant-breeding and the other with the relations of 
palzobotany to botany. In the former the eminent 
Chicago botanist briefly recapitulates the remarkably 
rapid progress made in plant-breeding since the re- 
discovery of Mendel’s work and the publication of 
de Vries’s mutation theory; touches upon the more 
recent work of Johannsen, Winkler, Baur, Nilsson, 
Aaronsohn, and others; and emphasises the ‘‘inextric- 
able. entanglement” of biological science and agri- 
cultural practice, pointing out that any result of scien- 
tific plant-breeding, representing as it must additional 
knowledge of the processes of evolution and of 
heredity, may become of practical service, while any 
result of practical plant-breeding, involving as it does 
aiterins 
