Apeil 23, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



643 



in the ground, and is easily located by its 

 musky odor. 



The seven carnivora in the Kapuas re- 

 _gion, with the exception of one cat, one otter, 

 and the Malay bear belong to the civet cats 

 and the Ichneumons. Of the 13 rodents the 

 squirrels are the most numerous, and 

 among them are two verj'^ pretty species, 

 Saiurus melanotis and Sciui'us whiteheadi. In 

 the same locality we found the giant of 

 the squirrels, Eheithrosciurns macrotis, which 

 lives on the ground and is distinguished 

 by a large bushy tail, and which is univer- 

 sally distributed over Borneo, but is no- 

 where plentiful. We also found flying 

 squirrels and on the Kenepai a small species 

 of porcupine 



Of the artiodactyls, the deer family has 

 three specimens — the sembar ( Cervus 

 equinus), the muntjac (Cervuhts muntjac), 

 and the small musk deer ( Tragulus kanehil) ■ 

 all are common in the Kapuas region and 

 are caught by the natives. I have already 

 mentioned the Rhinoceros ; the remaining 

 animal is the bearded pig (Sus harbatus), 

 which lives on the shores of the Kapuas and 

 is very numerous. His food is preferably 

 earth worms, which are so plentiful that in 

 poling in the mud of the river one pulls out 

 more worms than earth. Because of his 

 light skin and scanty hair the wild pigs 

 appear white. In closing Herr Biittikofer 

 calls attention to the preponderance of the 

 arboreal animals, and states that of the 

 66 species found by him 52 are arboreal. 

 " This preponderence is not found else- 

 where in similar geographical conditions, 

 either in Celebes, Africa or America ; a pre- 

 ponderance which cannot be due to the pri- 

 ority of beasts of prey living upon the 

 ground, for, as has been shown, they play 

 no part in Borneo, and the tiger is unknown. 

 It must be due to the forest covering of the 

 island and to the yearly floods." 



This imperfect resume of Herr Biitti- 

 kofer's paper will, perhaps, sufiice to indi- 



cate its value to the zoologist and to suggest 

 to the layman its romantic interest. "We 

 shall anticipate the pleasure of reading the 

 forthcoming report which is to contain the 

 combined results of the Borneo expedition. 

 George R. Stetson. 

 "Washington, D. C. 



SEMON ON THE MONOTEEMES* 

 Among the contributions to zoological 

 literature which have appeared in the re- 

 ports of Dr. Richard Semon's expedition to 

 Australia and the Malay Archipelago, per- 

 haps none have more popular interest than 

 the papers by Dr. Semon himself on the 

 habits and development of the Monotremes. 

 Both Echidna and Ornithorhynchus were 

 studied. In neither of these animals is 

 maturity attained until the end of the 

 second year. The male Echidna is consid- 

 erably larger than the female. In both 

 genera the testes increase greatly in size 

 during the breeding season, and the female 

 Echidna develops a marsupium which dis- 

 appears when no longer required by the 

 young. The breeding season of Echidna 

 begins late in July, and Ornithorhynchus 

 commences to breed a little later, or about 

 the middle of August. A striking ornithic 

 character is that eggs from only the left 

 ovary are fertilized, although the right 

 ovary and oviduct appear to be well devel- 

 oped. The usual number of ova is one in 

 Echidna and two in Ornithorhynchus. The 

 egg is fertilized before or about the time of 

 its entrance into the oviduct, and is at this 

 time about fonr millimeters in diameter and 

 nearly spherical, but during its sojourn in 

 the genital passages a shell, composed of 

 keratin, is secreted, and the egg (in Echidna) 

 increases in diameter to about fifteen milli- 

 meters by absorption of uterine secretions. 

 Both animals are oviparous, and in Echidna 



* Zoologische Forschungsreisen in Australie und 

 dem Malay isch en Archipel. Von Dr. Eiehard Semon. 

 Zweiter Band, I. Liefemng. Jena, 1894. 



