A.PEIL29, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



593 



In the gallery of reptilia an important 

 a,nd valuable acquisition has recently been 

 made in the shape of an unusually large 

 specimen and a skeleton of the Gangetic 

 crocodile or gavial of the Ganges, measur- 

 ing 16 feet in length. It is thought that 

 no other skeleton of this species is to be 

 seen in any museum or collection in Europe. 

 This powerful and truly formidable looking 

 animal feeds chiefly on iishes, for the cap- 

 ture of which its long and slender snout 

 and sharp teeth are well adapted, but it 

 occasionally devours human bodies. 



One of the most beautiful sections of the 

 Museum is the coral gallery, where many 

 decided improvements are noticeable. Thus 

 the sea-anemones in spirit, which do not 

 look very much like sea-anemones in the 

 sea, have had cleverly- executed water-color 

 drawings of living specimens put beside 

 them. The new whale room, for the ex- 

 hibition of life-sized models and skeletons 

 of whales on a scale never before ap- 

 proached, is making good progress under 

 the director's constant supervision, and 

 will probably be readj"^ for the admission of 

 the public early in the summer. 



In the department of geology the recent 

 accessions are many and varied. One which 

 is of special importance and interest is the 

 complete skeleton of cejiyornis, an extinct 

 wingless bird as large as an ostrich, 5 feet 

 2 inches in height. The specimen has been 

 reconstructed from the immense series of 

 remains collected in the neighborhood of 

 Sirabe by Dr. C. I. Forsyth Major during 

 his recent expedition to Madagascar. Close 

 to it has been placed for comparison a skele- 

 ton of the recent African ostrich. 



An interesting specimen presented by Dr. 

 John Murray, of the Challenger, has lately 

 been added to the collection of rocks in the 

 mineral gallerj^ It is a fragment of gneiss 

 or rock dredged up by the Challenger from 

 ■diatom ooze at a depth of 1,950 fathoms" in 

 the Antarctic Ocean, latitude 53° 55' S., 



longitude 108° 35' E., and is stated to be 

 indicative of Continental land, it having 

 been probably transported by the Antarc- 

 tic icebergs from land situated towards the 

 South Pole. 



Eecent additions to the botanical gallery 

 include a table case illustrating parasitic 

 flowering plants. The visitor will note not 

 only the familiar mistletoe, but the more 

 degenerate forms closely resembling fungi 

 in their outward appearance. On the op- 

 posite side of the gallery a similar case is 

 nearing completion in which the singular 

 adaptations of flowers to fertilization are 

 exhibited. The models of flowers by Miss 

 Emett are among the most successful this 

 lady has ever made. The exhibition of 

 British fungi is also now nearly complete 

 and the arrival of a new pedestal case is all 

 that is needed to set forth the continuation 

 of Mr. Worthington Smith's beautiful series 

 of drawings. Perhaps the addition which 

 will be first noted by the visitor is the 

 splendid cycad recently presented by Mr. 

 Horace Munn, of Jamaica. 



CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY. 

 RECENT STUDIES IN MAYA HIEE0GLYPHIC3. 



Dr. Foestemann has added another (the 

 7th) instalment to his series ' On the de- 

 cipherment of the Maya Manuscripts.' It 

 is devoted to the interjjretation of the upper 

 portions of pp. 53-58 and lower portions of 

 pp. 51-58 of the Dresden Codex. They are 

 shown to be occupied with an attempt to 

 obtain a common measure for the apparent 

 years of the planets and the periods of the 

 sun, moon and tonalainatl. 



The same writer has in Globus (Bd. 

 LXXIIL, 9 and 10) a very able analysis 

 of the Mayan calendar with reference to 

 the gods governing the days (Die Tagegot- 

 ter der Mayas). Most of the identifications 

 will be accepted by scholars, though some 

 still remain unknown or dubious. 



In the American Anthropologist for April 



