!98 



NA TURE 



[July 25. 1907 



Bahr continues his account of the life of the osprey ; while 

 Messrs. WIthcrby and Ticehurst discuss additions made to 

 the British bird-list since 1899. 



Reports of papers and discussions on niuscuni-fittings 

 and the difficulties experienced by curators owing to reflec- 

 tion fioni the glass in exhibition galleries occupy a con- 

 siderable space in No. 12 of the .Wuscuini Journul for the 

 current vear. Reflection is considered to present an 

 insurmountable dilificulty, which might, how-ever, have been 

 mitigated in many museums had more attention been paid 

 to the needs of the exhibits when the buildings were 

 designed. The same issue contains reprints of two 

 addresses sent by the Trustees of the British Museum 

 (natural history) to Upsala on the occasion of the recent 

 celebrations in honour of Linnajus. 



We are indebted to the author, Mr. Henri Pi(5ron. of the 

 physiological laboratories at Sorbonne, for copies of several 

 papers from the Comptes rcndus de la Socicti' dc Biologic 

 dealing with experiments to determine the nature of the 

 factors which induce sleep. In the first of these the nature 

 of the experiments to be instituted on dogs for this purpose 

 is discussed, while in the later ones such results as have 

 at present been obtained arc noticed. From the same 

 author we have also received a paper from the Bulletins 

 of the Institut gen(''ral psychologique dealing with the 

 " psychophysiology " of the sea-anemone Actinia equina. 



CoNXHOLOGiSTS will be interested in two papers by Mr. 

 Burnett .Smith in the May issue of the Proceedings of the 

 Philadelphia Academy. In the first the author discusses 

 the genus Pyrula, which has existed since the late 

 Eocene, and is now^ distributed in nearly all shallow tropical 

 seas, a distribution suggesting that these seas had much 

 freer intercommunication than is at present the case. Some 

 of the Tertiary gastropods formerly included in Volutilithes, 

 but now separated by the author as .Mhleta, form the 

 subject of the .second paper, in which the early stages of 

 growth of these shells are discussed in detail. 



A PROSPEROUS* ^■ear in all branches is recorded in the 

 report of the Yorkshire Naturalists' I'nion for ii)06. An 

 iniportjmt piece of work undertaken by the geological 

 section is the zoning of the Carboniferous rocks, which was 

 inaugurated at the Ingleton meeting. The collection of 

 photographs of important local rock-sections also continues 

 to receive special attention. It is satisfactory to learn that 

 the pair of peregrine falcons has continued to breed on 

 Bempton Cliffs, although this is somewhat discounted by 

 th» driving away of a second pair which attempted to nest 

 at Ingleboro'. Fortunately, in both instances public opinion 

 is strongly in favour of protective legislation. 



At the close of an article in the American Natiiralisl for 

 June on the perception of colour by the eye, Mr. J. M. 

 Dane summarises the three chief theories which have been 

 proposed to explain the phenomenon. According to the 

 first of these, all colours mav be received by each cone of 

 the retina ; the second claims that not more than two 

 colours can be impressed on any one cone ; w'hile the third 

 admits the reaction of only one colour on a single cone, 

 so thai there are separate blue, red, yellow, and other 

 cones, and corresponding transmission-fibres in the optic 

 nerve, .\rcording to this third hypothesis the mixing of 

 sensations, which gives rise to shades and tints, must take 

 place in the brain. Evidence in favour of the same view 

 is afforded by the fact that no nerve is known to respond 

 to impulses of distinct kinds; but it should be borne in 

 mind that no cnrmlior.-ilive evidence is at present afforded 

 NO. 1969, VOL. 76] 



by anatomy. Attention may also be directed to a paper in 

 the same issue by Mr. .\. B. Wright on a graphic method 

 of correlating the environment and distribution of fishes. 



Desi>itf. a falling-off in the number of papers read, the 

 .South London Entomological and Natural History Society, 

 of which the report for 1906-7 is now before us, has to 

 record a succes.sful year's work. One of the features of 

 the year was an exhibition of natural history objects held 

 in the society's rooms in March last, which attracted a 

 large number of visitors. The report is illustrated by 

 several interesting photographs, from among which we are 

 enabled, by the courtesy of the editor, to reproduce one 

 illustrating a marvellous protective resemblance of a moth 

 to its surroundings. So closely, indeed, do the colouring 

 and contour accord with the bark upon which the insect 

 is resting that it requires somewhat minute examination to 

 detect the presence of the latter. .\ second, although 



A specimen of ihe moth .\y/i'..t <v/.'f ;.',.->,'.- reposiiiL; on oak- 



Forest. From Repoit of S. London Entomo'ogical and Nat. Hlsl. 

 Society, 1906-7. 



somewhat less striking, case of the resemblance of a moth 

 to its surroundings is shown in ancther photograph, where 

 a specimen of Aplccla nchiilosa is depicted on oak-bark at 

 Leith Hill. 



The second edition of the volume of the oflicial guide to 

 the museums of economic botany at Kew\ devoted to 

 dicotvledons and gymnosperms, has been out of print for 

 some vears, and is now replaced by a third edition, that 

 has been carefully revised and considerably augmented, from 

 which the gymnosperms have been excluded. Besides fur- 

 nishing a guide to the collections at Kew, the book pro- 

 vides a valuable authority on the popular and scientific 

 names of economic products and their sources. 



The floras of the small islands known as sand keys, 

 lying to the westward of Key \\'est off the coast of Florida,. 



