74 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IX. No. 211. 



support the iron fence for the Beaver Pond. 

 The Society is in urgent need of an antelope 

 house and a monkey house, and it is hoped that 

 these will come as gifts from individuals, as 

 the provision hitherto made is for the accommo- 

 dation of American quadrupeds and birds, and 

 this will exhaust the $106,000 at the disposal of 

 the Society. 



The most elaborate of the structures com- 

 menced is, by all odds, the Reptile House ; 

 this will have a length of 146 feet and a width 

 of 100. . It is being constructed of buff mottled 

 brick, combined with granite and terra-cotta. 

 It will be roofed with slate, heated by hot water, 

 and its cost, with cages, will be about $40,000. 

 It is beautifully situated on the edge of a forest 

 of great oaks, very near the geographical center 

 of the park. Close to the southeastern corner 

 of the building is a natural pool in a wide out- 

 crop of granite rock, which will speedily be 

 converted into a summer home for saurians. 



It is hoped that the Reptile House can be 

 completed by April, 1899, in time to receive its 

 cages and collections for the opening of the 

 park in May. 



The Director has found it necessary to give a 

 chapter ' concerning the purchase of wild ani- 

 mals,' which deserves to be widely read, since 

 with the proper changes it may be made to ap- 

 ply to collectors in various branches of history. 

 The gist of it is contained in the following 

 paragraphs : 



" Not unfrequently it happens that a hunter 

 who captures an animal that to him is strange 

 imagines that it is worth double its real value, 

 and feels indignant when a zoological garden 

 offers him what is really a fair price. In about 

 nineteen cases out of every twenty the man 

 who captures a wild animal thinks it is worth 

 far more than it really is. For example, if we 

 were to offer a farmer's boy $2.50 for a wild 

 goose that he had caught and cooped, the 

 chances are he would be highly indignant ; but 

 at this moment we know of thirty-two wild 

 geese for sale, property crated, at that price. 



If we were asked to name the greatest small 

 annoyance that comes in the daily mail of a 

 zoological park we would reply : The letters 

 which say, ' ' What will you give me for it ? " 

 Vei-y often not the slightest clue is given to the 



size, age, sex or condition of the captive ani- 

 mal. All these are left to be divined by the 

 man who is asked to submit an offer." 



F. A. L. 



THE STATISTICAL METHOD IN ZOOLOGY. 



The statistical method of biographical inves- 

 tigation has recently been used by Walter Gar- 

 stang, the naturalist in charge of the fishery 

 investigation of the Plymouth Laboratory, with 

 great success. He claims that it is possible to 

 identify the different schools of fish which ap- 

 proach the shore, even when these schools are 

 made up of individuals which appear to be 

 quite alike. He shows that the mackerel of 

 the American coast are really different from the 

 animals of the same name found along the 

 European coast, and he further shows that the 

 mackerel which frequent the shores of the Brit- 

 ish Isles may be sub-divided into two principal 

 races, an Irish race and a race frequenting the 

 English Channel and the North Sea. It thus 

 seems that a species heretofore supposed to be 

 widely distributed and given to migrating over 

 long distances of the ocean is really cut up into 

 a number of races, which probably do not in- 

 termingle and which may have very limited 

 ranges. If it can be proved — and it now ap- 

 pears to be proved — that the local representa- 

 tives of each species of animals are branded 

 with indices of consanguinity, which indices 

 may be detected through the plotting of curves 

 of frequency, a new and most fascinating line 

 of investigation is opened to the zoologist, the 

 comparative anatomist and the student of geo- 

 eranhical distribution. 



H. C. B. 



BOTANICAL NOTES. 

 A BOTANICAL ALMANAC. 



A HANDY little book, bearing the title of 

 ' Deutscher BotanikerKalender fiir 1899,' has 

 been prepared by Paul Sydow, of Berlin. It is 

 modeled after the well-known ' Chemiker Kal- 

 ender' of Dr. Biedermann, which for twenty 

 years has been well-nigh indispensable to the 

 chemists and physicists. This botanical alma- 

 nac includes a diary (in which notable events, 

 as the births and deaths of great botanists, are 

 recorded), a money table, tables of weights and 



