May 7, 1 8 74 J 



NATURE 



the petals in pieces and scattering them on the ground, 

 to enihle them to reach the nectary, which is situated 

 about on a level with the soil ; but of lace they have 

 altered their tactics and simply bruised the perianth tube suffi- 

 ciently to extract the nectar, leaving the bloom uninjured but 

 fallen over as though lulled by severe frost. The primroses liave 

 hitherto escaped, but this spring for the first time the sparrows 

 have attacked the blooms of a cherry-tree, bruising the nectary 

 between their mandibles, and generally detaching the blossom 

 irom the foot-stalk close to the calyx. That in both cases this is 

 the work of sparrows I have had ample opportunities of observ- 

 in;;. Some years ago a border of Virginian stock which was in 

 full bloom appeared mysteriously to be growing thinner every 

 day. I accidentally saw from a window tlie sparrows vigorously 

 engaged in pulling up the plants, wliich they could only do by 

 great exertion, and flying off with them to form theirnests. This 

 lasted till the whole were carried away. The fact of the sparrows 

 having altered their form of attack on tlie crocuses, going direct 

 to the nectary instead of pulling the flowers to pieces, would 

 seem to indicate that the habit is acquired, and not inherited ; it 

 also appears, so far as I can leam, to be an increasing habit with 

 them. 



Mr. A. F. Buxton, of Cambridge, has frequently ob- 

 served the same fact about primroses in a wood near 

 Ware. He says : — 



I could give no satisfactory explanation of the phenomenon, 

 if it were not that I have noticed the propensity of tame bull- 

 finches to act in the same way towards flowers, especially prim- 

 roses. In the wood I speak of, bullfinches are abundant ; but 

 whether or not they are the only birds which act thus I am of 

 course unable to decide. 



Mr. VV. E. Hart, of Kilderry, co. Donegal, states that 

 the primroses there suffer much every spring in the man- 

 ner described by Mr. Darwin. The cowslips and oxlips 

 are seldom, if ever, touched. Mr. Hart says : — 



The blame is commonly laid upon the chaffinch, though I 

 have only been able to gather circumstantial evidence against it. 

 I have frequently disturbed both chaffinches and greenfinches 

 from primrose-beds, and found the cut-ofl" flowers strewn about. 

 One lady tells me that she once saw a thrush deliberately cut off 

 a number of primrose flowers in her garden, turning each time 

 to stare defiantly at her. Another has frequently seen hedge- 

 sparrows do so. Thus it appears that several different species 

 of birds have acquired the same habit. 



J. M. M. has cultivated polyanthuses at Sidmouth, 

 South Devon, for seven or eight years, and each year 

 they have been more or less destroyed by birds, as de- 

 scribed by Mr. Darwin. She does not remember to have 

 noticed it till she came to Sidmouth. The wild prim- 

 roses suffer also, but not, she thinks, to any great extent, 

 though they aie abundant in the neighbourhood. 



Another correspondent, writing from Poplar, informs 

 us that many years ago he became aware of the 

 fact that flowers containing nectar are attacked by 

 some small animal ; having had a bed of ciocuses 

 in his garden, the flowers of which were morning 

 after morning destroyed by, he believes, the sharp 

 bills of the sparrows. He, however, suggests that mice 

 frequently might have been the depredators, " as last year," 

 he says, " they destroyed all the grapes in my greenhouse. 

 They are just able to reach such flowers as the crocus 

 and primrose, and they are very hard up at the early 

 season when these delights appear." 



M. T. M. mentions, " on the authority of a good ob- 

 server," that the flowers of the laburnum are sometimes 

 utilised in nest-building by suburban sparrows," whose de- 

 structive habits in the matter of crocuses," he says, "are 

 only too well known to suburban gardeners." 



Mr. C. H. Beasley, of Liverpool, writes, that he had a 

 canary some years ago which was particularly fond of prim- 

 roses, and always bit them in the manner described by 

 Mr. Darwin, usually leaving everything but the part con- 

 taining the honey untouched. As this pecuharity was 

 exhibited by a domesticated bird, he thinks it highly pro- 

 bable that it was inherited. 



THE LECTURES AT THE ZOOLOGICAL 

 SOCIETY'S GARDENS 

 III. 

 T\/r R. SCLATER commenced his fifth and concluding 

 •'-''-»• lecture on the geographical distribution of the 

 rriammalia, by impressing the importance of precise defi- 

 nition of the exact localities from which zoological speci- 

 mens are obtained. He showed that by further careful 

 collecting, new animals, even of considerable size, most 

 probably remain to be discovered, considering that a pre- 

 viously unknown rhinoceros and a fresh genus of deer 

 had been made known within the last three years. 



The importance of the geographical distribution of the 

 larger divisions of the mammalia is well illustrated in the 

 case of the Bassaris of Mexico, an animal supposed for a 

 long time to belong to the civet cats, which are peculiar 

 to the Ethiopian and Indian regions, but now known in 

 its internal structure to agree with the racoons, which are 

 typically American forms. So also the so-called musk 

 deer are often said to inhabit northern Asia, India, and 

 Africa, but there is only a single species of the true musk 

 deer, which is from northern Asia, whilst the Tragulidje 

 (with which it has been erroneously united) form quite an 

 independent group, found in India and Africa. 



The facts given in the preceding lectures suggest the 

 question as to how the world may be most naturally 

 divided according to the distribution of the animal life 

 upon it, which is part of the great problem of the distri- 

 bution of organic life generally ; and it is evident that all 

 great deductions made from any one group must in the 

 long run correspond with those from other groups. 



At the outset it is evident that the ordinary geographi- 

 cal divisions of the world do not hold. Europe must be 

 combined with the northern part of Asia, and also with 

 Africa north of the Atlas Mountains. In the same way 

 central America and part of Mexico have to be included 

 with South America. Taking the division of the mam- 

 malia into Monodelphs, Didelphs, and Ornithodelphs, the 

 peculiarities of their distribution are very instructive : 

 dividing the surface of the earth into four major divisions 

 — I. AiXtogcEa, or North Land ; 2. Dendrogcea, or Tree 

 Land ; 3. Antarctos,aa, or South Land ; and Ornithogira, 

 or Bird Land. 



Arctoga^a is divisible into four minor regions — (a) the 

 Palrearctic, (/3) the Ethiopian, with the Lemurian sub- 

 region of Madagascar, (y) the Indian, and (S) the Nearctic. 

 The Palasarctic region possesses few characteristic families 

 and genera. Its boundaries, as are those of all regions 

 except when sea-bound, are ill-defined ; Palestine, for 

 example, is doubtful. Quadrumana are alnrost entirely 

 absent ; RhinopitJiccus, a Thibetan form, belonging, 

 apparently, to the region. The genera .Elunis and 

 Cat)?-a are characteristic forms. Bears are mostly con- 

 fined to it, some being, however, found in North America 

 and one in .South America. Among the Ungulata, the genus 

 Eijuiis is more truly Palsarctic than otherwise, and Cervt 

 are abundant. 



The Ethiopian region embraces Africa south of the 

 Sahara. The genera Troglodytes, Colobus, Cercopithecus, 

 and Cynocephalus are characteristic, as are Hya;na, 

 Proteles, Lycaon, Hippopotamus, Camelopardus, and 

 others. Madagascar forms a well-marked sub-region, 

 containing no antelopes nor cats, but Lemur, Chiromys, 

 and Cryptoprocta. It is the true home of the lien. 



The Indian region extends along Southern Asia to 

 Wallace's line in the Malay Archipelago. The only 

 ruminant animal in the Indian Archipelago is the peculiar 

 A/ioa dcpressiconiis. 



The Nearctic region is very much like the Palaearctic. 

 Castor, Gulo, and Lynx are common to the two. Taxidea, 

 Procyon, and Antilocapra are characteristic, vi'hilst Di- 

 delphys has entered from the south. 



The Neotropical region {DcndrogiTo) possesses great 

 individuality, Cebus, Hepale, Icticyon, Nasua, and 



