284 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVI. No. 661 



tte southern ■winter. INo nest is made, but 

 the egg is held between the thighs of the 

 parent, resting partly on the feet, enveloped 

 by a loose fold of the abdominal integument, 

 and pressed against a medial bare spot. The 

 body temperature of the bird exceeds 100° 

 Fahr., which is sufficient to incubate the egg 

 during its long period of sis or seven weeks. 



When the mother bird feels the need of food 

 she releases the egg, which is immediately 

 seized by one of her associates, who broods it 

 in the same manner. Thus a group of several 

 birds cares for a single egg during the intense 

 cold and darkness of the polar night. When 

 the young is hatched the nestling continues 

 to be brooded in the same way, and so eager 

 are the birds to possess themselves of a young 

 one that many of the chicks perish from the 

 injuries sustained from the competing nurses. 

 The young birds are fed by regurgitation. 

 Eggs of this species, of which only a single 

 specimen was previously known, are covered 

 with a rough chalky layer and are of a pale 

 green color, punctuated by numerous minute 

 pores. The species lives entirely on the floe 

 and pack ice. Their food appears to be 

 chiefly Crustacea, small fish and cuttlefishes, 

 whose beaks, together with more or less gravel, 

 are constantly found in the stomach. The 

 other most familiar bird of the expedition was 

 MacCormick's Skua, a bold and most per- 

 sistent thief, one of which followed the sledge 

 party to latitude 80° 20' south, the only bird 

 or beast met by the party during three months 

 of solitude on the Polar ice cap. This species 

 has the most southern range of any bird, and 

 to the northward of the pack is replaced by 

 the larger and darker-colored Antarctic Skua. 



The fishes comprise ten species, mostly 

 small, of which four are regarded as new. 



The mollusks comprise about sixty species, 

 about three fourths of which appear to be un- 

 described, the majority of which are small, 

 dull-colored, and of the groups characteristic 

 of Polar seas. Sir Charles Eliot finds two 

 new genera, Tritoniella and Galvinella, among 

 the Nudibranchs. Mr. Smith also reports two 

 new genera among the Gastropods, Neoconcha, 

 a pectdiar Taenioglossate form, and Tricho- 



concha, which very closely resembles the 

 Arctic Torellia. He also adds two new 

 Braehiopods to the species already known, both 

 belonging to the genus Magellania. 



We have already alluded to the extensive 

 memoir by Dr. Eidewood on Cephalodiscus, 

 a genus related to Rhahdopleura, in which 

 two new subgenera are instituted, and two 

 new species described. 



Two shrimps, both previously found by the 

 German Polar Commission at South Georgia, 

 and four species of Cumacea are added to the 

 list of Antarctic Crustacea. The collection of 

 amphipods numbers fifty-three species, of 

 forty-three genera, of which four genera and 

 eighteen species are new to science. As in 

 Arctic waters the Lysianassidse preponderate. 

 A single species of Nehalia is noted by Thiele 

 and nine species of Ostracoda are enumerated 

 by Brady, seven of which are new. 



Two species of sessile barnacles occur, both 

 previously known, and two new species of 

 Scalyellum. 



The bizarre animals belonging to the 

 Pycnogonida were represented by a large col- 

 lection, including three new genera and 

 twenty-eight species, including the anomalous 

 Decolopoda of Eights, described seventy years 

 ago, and which has five pairs of legs; a fact 

 of which naturalists were long incredulous. 

 Why Eights's generic name is not retained 

 Mr. Hodgson does not explain. 



Two specimens of Halacaridse were dredged 

 in Granite Harbor, which Trouessart believes 

 to be identical or only subspecifieally distinct 

 from Ealacarus aTberti of the Arctic. 



The Alcyonaria presented few remarkable 

 features. Several of the forms appeared like 

 connecting links between others formerly sepa- 

 rated, as Primnoisis and Ceratoisis, Prim- 

 noella and Caligorgia. A single specimen of 

 Pennatulid, TJrnbellula carpenteri, first made 

 known by the Challenger Expedition, was ob- 

 tained off the great ice barrier. The hydroid 

 zoophytes were well represented by twenty-five 

 species, most of which are of epizoic habit 

 and nearly all from McMurdo Sound. 



The species of sponges are distributed as 

 follows : Tetractinellid, four species ; Monaxi- 



