June 3, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



861 



graphicura has 155 entries (omitting 3 that 

 should be credited to 1902, and adding one 

 erroneously dated 1902). The Zoological 

 Record for 1901 contains 153 titles. Of these 

 1 (54)* is for 1899; 11 (36, 39, 42, 44, 78, 117, 

 124, 128, 134, 140, 141) for 1900; and 1 (92) 

 belongs to 1902, leaving 140 for 1901. The 

 volume for 1902 furnishes 5 for 1901. 



The ' International Catalogue ' for 1901 con- 

 tains 92- references, at least 3 of which belong 

 to 1902, leaving 89. 



There are in my own card catalogue for 1901 

 222 entries. Of these: 



Entriea. 

 The Concilium Bibliographioum published. .. .155 



The Zoological Record for 1901 adds 54 



The ' International Catalogue ' for 1901 adds . . 7 

 Collected by myself and not in any of the 



preceding 6 



222 



The Concilium Bibliographioum prociired 

 70 per cent, of the references ; the Zoological 

 Record for 1901t 63 per cent. ; and the ' In- 

 ternational Catalogue ' 40 per cent. 



Thus it will be seen that the ' International 

 Catalogue' contains less than half the refer- 

 ences on this subject, and that two other far 

 superior bibliographies are being published. 



It is scarcely necessary to cite specific omis- 

 sions. Works of importance published in 

 practically every country are left out, Eng- 

 land, Canada, Australia, the United States, 

 Eussia, Germany, etc. If other zoological 

 subjects can be judged by the Coelenterata, to 

 make the ' International Catalogue ' of any 

 special value the work must be done much 

 more thoroughly, and should appear with rea- 

 sonable promptness. 



T. Wayland Vaughan. 

 WashingtojSt, D. C, 

 May 13, 1904. 



NON-EDUCATION OP THE YOUNG BY PARENTS. 



Some of our new nature students appear to 

 think that it is necessary that the young of 



* These numbers in parentheses are those pre- 

 fixed to the papers in the list of titles of the 

 Zoological Record. 



fThe additions made in 1902 are not included 

 in calculating this percentage. 



animals should be taught to take care of them- 

 selves by their parents, or, at least, that they 

 shall learn by example. While glancing over 

 some of the controversial articles on the sub- 

 ject that have lately appeared, some cases that 

 bear directly on the question came up to 

 memory. 



There are a few ' annual ' fishes whose entire 

 cycle of life is performed within a year. Pro- 

 fessor Eobert Collett, of Christiania, in 1878, 

 recorded the biographies of a couple of those 

 which are quite common in Europe. They 

 belong to the family of gobies or gobiids and 

 are the Apliya pellucida and Crystallogohius 

 nilssonii. 



Although very distinct in their generic as 

 well as specific characters, they agree in their 

 physiological characteristics. From June to 

 August they are at the height of their sexual 

 maturity and males are trenchantly differ- 

 entiated from females.. After spawning they 

 ' seem always to keep together in enormously 

 large shoals ' and are the easy victims of 

 innumerable other fishes, large and small. 

 Before winter supervenes they are supposed to 

 have all died off; 'it is probable that no speci- 

 men lives more than one year and after the 

 close of the breeding-time [everyone] dies 

 without living through another spawning ; con- 

 sequently, these fishes are really annual ver- 

 tebrates.' The species as represented by adults 

 become extinct annually and are only repre- 

 sented by eggs. Where then are the teachers 

 or exemplars? 



A more familiar group of fishes furnishes 

 us with an analogous case of death after 

 spawning, though perhaps less striking than 

 that of the annual gobiids; that group is the 

 genus Oncorhynchus, including the hook- 

 nosed salmons of the west coast. All the 

 American species — five in number — have their 

 alimentary canal so shrunken and defune- 

 tionalized soon after their entrance into fresh 

 water that they can not assimilate food, and 

 besides they literally become worn out and 

 used up, so that soon after spawning and milt- 

 ing they die ; not one lives to go to salt water 

 and return to fresh again. Consequently the 

 young can not have the benefit either of 

 parental instruction or of learning through 



