io8 



NA TURE 



[May 30. 1907 



ri.l tank is 2200 lb. The motors, screws, and machinery 

 figh 1350 lb. In the tank will be carried 6800 lb. of 

 petrol, capable of running the motor for 150 hours at a 

 normal speed of 14 knots. The total radius of action is 

 believed to be 2500 miles, or double the distance from the 

 base to the Pole and back again. The balloon will not 

 ascend more than 300 feet to 500 feet, and a guide-rope 

 will trail over the surface of the earth. Instead of employ- 

 ing a steel line a leather tube has been made, 15 inches in 

 diameter and 130 feet long, and weighing about 1400 lb. 

 This is filled with reserve food weighing 1200 lb., and is 

 suspended from the airship by means of a steel rope. The 

 airship will carry 3000 lb. of food, or enough to enable the 

 crew to subsist on its own stores for a period of ten 

 months. 



To vol. iii., No. 11, of the zoological series of the Publi- 

 cations of the University of California, Messrs. E. C. 

 Starks and E. L. Morris contribute a descriptive list of 

 fishes taken off the coast of southern California. 



W'F. have to acknowledge the receipt of a copy of the 

 first of a series of " guides " to the Peabody Museum of 

 Natural History at Yale University. This deals with the 

 evolution of the horse family, a subject which has been 

 treated in a very satisfactory manner by Dr. R. S. Lull. 

 The " guide " has previously appeared in the form of an 

 article in the Anwrican Journal of Science. 



A VERY satisfactory result has attended bird protection 

 in a certain district of Norfolk, the black tern (Hydro- 

 chelidon nigra), which had ceased to breed in that county 

 for a period of something like seventy years, having this 

 season re-established itself in its old nesting haunts. 

 Several nests are recorded, and it is sincerely to be hoped 

 that the species will once more be entitled to a permanent 

 place on the British breeding list. 



A PAPER in the Annals of the Natal Government Museum 

 (vol. i., part ii.), by Messrs. E. Hill and L. G. Haydon, 

 on the characters of the larva in certain mosquitoes of 

 the group .\nophelina, is of importance in connection with 

 the endeavour to stamp out malaria,. All the fifteen 

 species described are referred to genera other than the 

 typical Anopheles. In a second article in the same issue 

 Dr. R. Broom records, for the first time, the occurrence 

 of remains of anomodont reptiles in the Karoo rocks of 

 Natal. They are referred to the genera Dicynodon, 

 l.ystrosaurus, and Scymnosaurus, the representatives of 

 I he first and third being regarded as new species. 



The evolution of the colour-pattern on the shells of 

 .South African land tortoises, more especially those included 

 in the genus Homopus, forms the subject of a paper by 

 Dr. J. E. Duerden in the Records of the Albany Museum 

 (vol. ii., part i.). Starting with species in which each 

 shield of the shell is of the normal horn-colour, the author 

 finds that the first stage is the development of a dark 

 border, followed later by a dark centre. Next the whole 

 shield becomes dark, e.xcepting light lines radiating from 

 the centre, after which the dark area may break up into 

 'pols or fl-cks. In a second paper the same author de- 

 bribes a giraffe head from British East Africa, provision- 

 ally identified with Giraffa camelopardalis tippelskirchi. 



In a paper on the geographical distribution of closely 

 related species, as exemplified by plants, Mr. R. G. 

 I.eavilt, in the April number of the American Naturalist, 

 lomes to the conclusion " that the study of specific dis- 

 tribution in the vegetable kingdom is not likely to be 

 unfavourable to mutation, regarded as a method, but 



NO iq6i vol. 76] 



perhaps not the sole method, of evolution." After putting 

 aside certain cases which may be ascribed, for want of a 

 better name, to " geographical effect," the indications 

 suggest that a good many instances favourable to muta- 

 tion will be forthcoming, and that those who seek to 

 discredit the mutation theory will find it difficult to procure 

 weapons to support their attack from plant evidence. 



We have received from the author, Mr. James 

 Drummond, a copy of a paper on foreign birds acclimatised 

 into New Zealand, published as a Bulletin of the Agri- 

 cultural Department, and likewise copies of the Lyttelton 

 Times of March 23 and 30 containing an account of the 

 bird-sanctuary at Little Barrier Island, near Cape Rodney. 

 As regards the introduction of small birds, which com- 

 menced, mainly for sentimental reasons, some sixty years 

 ago, it appears that, on the whole, this has been a 

 mistake, correspondents urging that no more kinds should 

 on any account be admitted. Although sparrows arc 

 admitted to have done good in the early days of the colony, 

 when insects were, literally, on the war-path, they are 

 now unmitigated pests, while greenfinches, blackbirds, and 

 even larks (which do enormous damage to young wheat) 

 and thrushes are included in the same category. Little 

 Barrier Island, we are told, comprises 10,000 acres, of 

 which all but about fifty are hilly or mountainous, with 

 abundant timber. It thus appears admirably suited for a 

 bird-sanctuary, and efforts are being made to introduce 

 from the mainland many species not naturally represented 

 on the island. 



Four parts have been received of the scientific results of 

 the voyage of the Belgica (Expedition .^ntarctlque Beige), 

 now in course of publication at Antwerp, in which Mr. 



E. H^rouard describes the holothurians. Prof. G. W. 

 Miiller the ostracods, and Mr. O. Maas the medusas, 

 while a number of writers deal with the comparatively 

 small collection of insects. Out of nine holothurians 

 obtained, no less than five are new, one being referable 

 to a new generic type. All the Antarctic members of this 

 group, belong to the family Elpidiidse, of which only a 

 single representative (Elpidia glacialis) occurs in Arctic 

 seas. The ostracods of the Antarctic plankton include 

 four species of Conchoecia, of which one is new. Jelly- 

 fish (medusas) are but poorly represented, although two 

 out of the small number of species collected by the Belgica 

 are regarded as new. As regards insects, the number of 

 species recorded from the neighbourhood of the Antarctic 

 circle is still infinitesimal as compared with those from 

 the opposite pole, the list comprising merely certain 

 colembollds taken near the Canal de Gerlarhe by the 

 Belgica expedition, a podurid and a pediculld collected by 

 the Southern Cross, and a dipterid (Belgica antarctica) and 

 a larva described in the fasciculus before us. That fasci- 

 culus includes, however, descriptions and figures of a 

 considerable number of insects from the lower part of 

 South .\merlca and the Falklands, several of which have 

 received new names. 



The Philippine Journal of Science for March (ii.. No. i) 

 contains a paper on filariasis in the Philippines, by Messrs. 

 P. M. .\shburn and C. F. Craig. They consider that the 

 filarla met with in these islands is a new species (named 



F. phitippincnsis), owing to its lack of periodicity and 

 certain morphological characters. It develops in Culex 

 fatigans. Dr. Musgrave contributes an exhaustive paper 

 on paragonimiasis (infection with the fluke, Paragonimus 

 westermanii) in the Philippines. The journal is illustrated 

 with a number of plates. 



II 



