34 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 784 



On the whole, I am inclined to align them 

 with Giebel's long-known species Lipeurus 

 assessor. Giebel described the species from 

 specimens taken from the South American 

 condor, Sarcorhamphus gryphus. Piaget 

 found it again on the same host and Carriker 

 has taken it on the king vulture, Gypagus 

 papa, in Costa Eica. As the range of the 

 king vulture and the California condor al- 

 most overlap (the king vulture is said to 

 occur occasionally in Arizona) it is, at first 

 thought, not surprising that the single para- 

 site species is common to all three of these 

 great American vultures. 



Osborn has found a Lipeurus on the turkey 

 buzzard (Catharies aura) in Iowa, but de- 

 scribes is as distinct from assessor under the 

 name marginalis. His specimens (two) are 

 smaller by a third than assessor and have 

 their markings " confined to the narrow mar- 

 ginal lines." 



The single Menopon specimen, a female, 

 can also, I think, be ascribed to an already 

 known species, namely Menopon fasciatum, 

 collected by Endow from the South American 

 condor {Sarcorhamphus gryphus) and by 

 Carriker from the king vulture (Gypagus 

 papa). The exact determination of this Men- 

 opon species is made very difficult, if not im- 

 possible, by Kudow's incomplete description, 

 but Carriker's figure and what there is of the 

 original description correspond too well with 

 my specimen from the California condor to 

 make necessary the establishment of a new 

 species for it. 



It is highly interesting — at least it is to me 

 • — to find two parasitic species common to all 

 three of the great vultures of the American 

 Cordillera. But the range of these birds, al- 

 though extending north and south for several 

 thousand miles, is nearly continuous when the 

 three species are taken as one host type. 

 Looked at in this way the geographical range 

 of the parasites seems explicable. But when 

 we keep in mind the facts that the host type 

 is really a compound of three taxonomically 

 quite distinct units — they represent three sep- 

 arate genera to the ornithological systematist 

 — and that the individuals of each of these 

 host units are particularly non-gregarious, 



even solitary, birds, preventing, almost cer- 

 tainly, any actual bodily contact between in- 

 dividuals of the different species and, except 

 at mating and nesting time, any such contact 

 even among individuals of any one of the 

 species — ^when we face these facts the distri- 

 bution of these wingless parasite species 

 comes to assume the interest and importance 

 of a problem. What is its solution? 



I can simply reiterate my belief, already 

 several times previously declared, that such 

 cases can only be explained on the assumption 

 of the occurrence of the parasite type on the 

 common ancestor of all three of the related 

 (although generically distinct) host types, and 

 its persistence practically unchanged on each 

 of the diverging descent products from this 

 original ancestor-host. 



Vernon L. Kellogg 



SxANFOKp IJKrVEBSITY, CaL. 



FDR-SEALS DOMESTICATED 



Until a few months ago, no authentic in- 

 stance was on record of Alaska fur-seals 

 (Callorhinus alascanus) being fed in captivity 

 and living for any length of time in other 

 than their natural environment. Apocryphal 

 tales exist on the Pribilof Islands of fur-seals 

 having been tamed and living thereafter in 

 the habitations of human beings on the is- 

 lands. In the early seventies, the Alaska Com- 

 mercial Company placed two immature live 

 fur-seals, exact ages not definitely known, in 

 Woodward's Gardens in San Francisco, which 

 were confined within an enclosure, and which 

 died of starvation after several months' incar- 

 ceration, having eaten nothing during the 

 interval. 



This experiment at Woodward's Gardens 

 fixed the idea that fur-seals would not feed in 

 captivity. In view of this belief, it is specially 

 interesting to announce that Mr. Judson 

 Thurber, boatswain on the revenue cutter 

 Bear, has succeeded in inducing two fur- 

 seal pups to take food voluntarily and in 

 keeping them alive and well in captivity from 

 October 9, 1909, until the present time. A 

 brief account of this successful experiment is 

 given. 



The effort had its inception in the desire of 



