September i6, 1909] 



NATURE 



)53 



paper before us Mr. D. E. Laiitz has given a very full 

 account of the morphology, distribution, migration, and 

 ethology of the rat, with suggestions, as to the best means 

 of hunting and trapping, and the elimination of conditions 

 conducive to its rapid increase. 



The Belfast Naturalists' Field Club, the oldest club of 

 the kind in Ireland, has always possessed a strong geo- 

 logical section. An interesting excursion was recently 

 undertaken to the eskers at Drumfane and near Brough- 

 shane. The accompanying illustration shows the fine 

 sections that occur in these glacial ridges in co. Antrim. 

 We learn from a report in the Northern Whig for 

 August 24 that determinations were made of the source 

 of the material, which proved to be mainly derived from 

 local rocks. The Cainozoic rhyolites of Cloughwater and 

 Ballycloughan were visited later in the day. Rhyolitic 

 lavas are not so limited in the British Isles as the report 

 before us would suggest, since the enormous outpourings 

 in the Snowdon area and in Borrowdale must be borne in 

 mind : but those of Antrim have a thoroughly modern 



Gravel Pit, Drumlane, near Ballymena, County Antrim. Pholographed by Mr. J. L. S. Jackson. 



aspect, and may be compared with types in Hungary or 

 in Mexico. Naturalists in the north of Ireland are 

 fortunate in having estabhshed a tradition for good observa- 

 tional work, in which amateurs have played a most 

 important part. 



A NICE little question in nomenclature is raised by Dr. 

 Ameghino in a paper published in the An. Mus. Nat. de 

 Buenos Aires, vol. xix., pp. 107—209, under the title of 

 " Le Diprothoiyio platensis, un pr&urseu.. de I'homme du 

 Pliocene inf^rieur de Buenos Aires." It appears that in 

 1884 the author proposed the generic term Diprothomo for 

 one of the hypothetical ancestors of Homo sapiens. 

 Recently Dr. Ameghino obtained from a superficial stratum 

 in Buenos Aires, regarded as of Lower Pliocene age, a 

 calvarium of apparently low type, which in his opinion 

 is generically distinct from Homo. For this supposed new 

 genus he proposes to adopt the name Diprotliomo with the 

 new affix platensis. .\s having no tangible type, " Diprot- 

 homo " will probably be regarded as a nonifii ntidiint, and 

 if this be so many naturalists will be likely to say that it 

 canfiot be employed in a new sense. After restoring the 

 NO. 2081, VOL. 81J 



skull to his own satisfaction. Dr. Ameghino concludes 

 that it affords further evidence of his view as to the South 

 .American origin of the human race. Additional testimony 

 in favour of this opinion is stated to be afforded by the 

 lower jaw of a child with the angle inflected in marsupial 

 fashion. The extinct South American genus Microbio- 

 therium is regarded as the fans et origo of most mammals, 

 and from this sprang Clenialites, the ancestor of the 

 Primates. 



The West Australian newspaper of July 7 contains the 

 report of an address, by Dr. J. B. Cleland, read before 

 the West Australian Natural History Society at its annual 

 meeting held at Perth. The subject was the Australian 

 fauna and flora, and especially the effects produced on 

 these by foreign invaders. After alluding to the rabbit- 

 pest, the author stated that the ine.xcusable introduction of 

 the fox for sporting purposes has led to its rapid multipli- 

 cation in parts of Victoria, South Australia, &c., and the 

 loss of many sheep. Cats have become wild, and near 

 Perth, for instance, fierce and powerful in build, feeding 

 on the native birds and smaller 

 I animals and rabbits where these are 

 present. The Norway rat and the 

 black rat seem not to have extended 

 beyond man's more immediate sur- 

 roundings. The dominant rat in Perth 

 is the sociable black rat, the larger 

 Norway rat being hitherto obtained 

 only from the neighbourhood of the 

 wharves at Fremantle and Perth. It 

 is otherwise in Sydney, where both are 

 found together in the town. These 

 rats have brought with them several 

 species of fleas, of which some will 

 bite man when their original host is 

 absent (.e.g. has died). By this means 

 plague, introduced by rats, is communi- 

 cated to man. The sparrow, the 

 starling, the goldfinch, the blackbird, 

 and the Indian minah have all come 

 to stay. .Some of these eat much grain 

 and fruit, while all tend to drive away 

 and usurp the place of the beautiful, 

 interesting, and useful native birds. 



Dr. E. Janczewski contributes to the 

 Bulletin international de I'Academie 

 des Sciences de Cracovie (No. 6) 

 a short supplement to his monograph on the genus Ribes. 

 In the same part Mr. C. Rouppert presents a revision of 

 the discomycetous fungus Sphajrosoma. This genus, of 

 which a new species was discovered by the author, has 

 been variously classed under the PezizaccEe, Helvellaceae, 

 and Tuberaceae. It is here referred to the Helvellaceae, 

 but is regarded as a connecting link with the other two 

 families. 



The latest issue of the Kew Bulletin (No. 7) opens with 

 a review of the known species of Impatiens from the 

 Philippine Islands, communicated by Sir J. D. Hooker, 

 which forms a continuation of the extensive survey of the 

 genus, based on collections from India, China, and the 

 Malayan region. Out of twenty-five species, collected 

 chiefly in the neighbourhood of Luzon, only two agree 

 with previously determined species. The author is of 

 opinion that further exploration will lead to the discovery 

 of many more species. In the saine number there is pub- 

 lished a decade of Diagnoses Africans; (No. xxx.), which 

 includes the type of a new liliaceous genus, Neodregea, 

 allied to Dipidax. 



