22 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XI. No. 258 



However, birds and lizards are bad subjects for experimenting 

 upon with supposed poisons, and do not conclusively prove that 

 they might not be poisonous, or perhaps even fatal, to man. But 

 being very busy at the time, I had no opportunity to carry my ex- 

 periments further. 



The forked tongue continually playing in and out of the mouth 

 like a serpent's, the snake-like hiss, and the bright colors, together 

 with their aggressive disposition, are well calculated to excite the 

 suspicions of the Arizona Indians, who are reputed to greatly fear 

 and thoroughly believe in the extreme venomousness of this reptile. 



When intent on going anywhere in particular, their gait changes 

 from a dragging of the body along the ground to that which an 

 alligator assumes under similar circumstances ; i.e., the body is 

 carried high on the legs, clear from the ground, and the tail carried 

 rigid and in line with the body. 



They showed a peculiar fondness for water. When placed in a 

 large tank with sloping bottom, in one end of which was water, all 

 would spend most of their time lying where it was about an inch 

 deep. This appears strange when recalling the arid character of 

 the plains that they inhabit. 



Their rations consisted of raw hen's-eggs, one of which made a 

 full meal for a good-sized individual, which would not appear to 

 care to dine more than once in about four days. These were given 

 whole to the larger ones, which, having gotten the egg fairly in 

 their jaws, experienced no difficulty in breaking the shell. Their 

 mode of eating is by running the tongue into the mass of the egg, 

 drawing it into the mouth, repeating this in a very deliberate man- 

 ner, and spending from twenty minutes to a half-hour on an egg. 



Their ability to climb is considerable ; quite out of keeping with 

 their heavy, unwieldy appearance. A tolerably smooth stick, an 

 inch in diameter, standing at an angle of about sixty degrees, is 

 quite easily ascended. 



Several of them laid eggs during August and September. These 

 were 53 millimetres long by 26 millimetres in transverse diameter, 

 were perfect ellipsoids, having a finely granulated, soft, tough, 

 translucent skin or shell. HENRY L. Ward. 



Tambaya, D.F., Mex., Dec. 25. 



Sections of Fossils. 



In Science for Nov. 1 8, Prof. Joseph F. James, in speaking of the 

 production of sections of Btyozoa for microscopic examination, 

 says, " I can quote no higher authority than Mr. Archibald Geikie 

 {Te.ri-Book of Geology, pp. 85-88, where elaborate directions are 

 given for making rock sections ; Professor Prestwich also considers 

 it ' an expensive and tedious process,' Geology, i. p. 43) as to the 

 tediousness of the process." The pertinence of these references 

 immediately vanishes if a person take but the pains to look them 

 up. In both it will be found that the authors have been referring 

 to the making of slides of Plutonic and metamorphic rocks. Of 

 course, any one knows that a limestone in which Bryozoa are usu- 

 ally embedded cuts far more readily than crystalline rocks. Now, 

 with a little practice, a man can soon cut from six to ten slides of 

 crystalline rocks in a day ; and he can cut six times as many slides 

 of calcareous Bryozoa in the same time, as I have often seen done 

 by college students, not by lapidaries. An average of from forty 

 to sixty slides a day certainly cannot be complained of. Of course, 

 no one will deny that the use of the microscope in fine petrograph- 

 ical studies of crystalline rocks has become imperative. We are 

 here referring to Bryozoa. 



Feeling convinced, from my own study of the writings of these 

 authors, that they had never expressed an opinion of this subject, 

 least of all with special reference to the Bryozoa, I sought for 

 further information. Under date of Dec. 10, Prof. Joseph Prestwich 

 writes' me, " The question you ask about the Bryozoa is quite beyond 

 my knowledge. I have never studied the Bryozoa. In fact, there 

 are very few persons in England who have studied them. We lost 

 our great authority in my old friend Mr. George Busk." In a let- 

 ter dated Dec. 8, Prof. Archibald Geikie writes, " The question you 

 propose to me in your letter is really one to which I do not feel my- 

 self competent to give an answer. I haver never given special 

 study to the Bryozoa, and I have nowhere ventured to publish an 

 expression of opinion." 



The sentence quoted from Professor James's article concludes 



with the following words : " nor a better one than Dr. Nicholson as 

 to the uncertainty of the results." In my article of Nov. 4, I men- 

 tioned Prof. H. A. Nicholson as one of the leading men who first 

 took a decided stand in favor of the prominent use of internal 

 characters as a means of classification. Now, it would not be fair 

 to construe the above sentence as meaning that Professor Nichol- 

 son's writings are themselves a manifest example of the viciousness 

 of the methods pursued by the new school. It must mean, there- 

 fore, that Professor Nicholson does not believe in the use of these 

 microscopic sections. Since we interpret the spirit of Professor 

 Nicholson's 'Genus Monticulipora ' (i88l) and ' Tabulate Corals ' 

 (1879) so differently, it will certainly be fair to quote his later writ- 

 ings, since they at the same time must contain his more mature 

 views. Thus in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 

 February, 1884, he writes, "The earlier observers of these fossils, 

 as, for example, Mr. Lonsdale, necessarily founded their names 

 upon macroscopic characters principally, the method of investiga- 

 tion by means of thin sections being of recent origin ; and they also 

 gave, as a rule, extremely brief descriptions. Hence it is exceed- 

 ingly difficult, in many cases, among the monticuliporoids, to be cer- 

 tain as to the precise forms to which the older names should be 

 attached." Then he proceeds to an investigation of both external 

 and internal characteristics, accompanying the same with figures, of 

 which those illustrating internal features alone are of value. In the 

 number for December, 1885, he and Foord discuss the genus Fis- 

 tiilipora on the basis of the new light cast upon it by an investiga- 

 tion of the internal structure. Again in May, 1886, they make use 

 of this method when they say, " Having recently had the opportu- 

 nity of making a m icroscopical exam ination of a very extensive series 

 of these forms, we have satisfied ourselves that they cannot be re- 

 ferred to the genus Chceteies, Fisher." And they pi'opose the new 

 genus Rhaphidopora. The plates 15, i5, and 17, accompanying 

 this article, do not leave any doubt as to the position taken by these 

 authors. The same is true of an article published by Nicholson 

 and Etheridge in the same journal (March, 18S6), where indeed 

 they go so far as to separate Stenopora australis from 5. avata, 

 with which "the specimens in question agreed entirely in external 

 form and in macroscopic characters," solely on the basis of distinct 

 internal features. 



I cannot do better to express the opinions which actuate the new 

 school of students than to quote from a letter from Prof. Archibald 

 Geikie : " The common-sense view of such questions seems to me 

 to be this. In dealing with fossils we are precluded in a vast num- 

 ber of cases from appealing to the evidence of internal structure, 

 for it has not been preserved. Hence, if an organism can be satis- 

 factorily determined from external characters, that is the most 

 desirable means of identification, for it is the most generally appli- 

 cable. If external characters are proved to be insufficient, and even 

 misleading, we must fall back on internal structure when we can 

 get it." Now, the new school believe that external characters 

 often are misleading, where internal characters may more safely be 

 followed. Since any Bryozoa, to be determined even according to 

 the old method, must have the minute external structure well shown, 

 and since in these cases the minute internal structure is also usu- 

 ally well preserved, we believe that the new method is eminently 

 practicable. Nobody denies that external characters may be of 

 great additional assistance. AUG. F. FOERSTE. 



Cambridge, Mass., Dec. =9. 



■Weather-Predicting. 



It has become a well-worn adage that half of the disputes would 

 be avoided if the disputants had a thorough mutual understanding 

 of the terms used by each. In weather predictions and verifica- 

 tions a clear understanding of the meaning of the terms used cer- 

 tainly seems very necessary. If a weather-predictor concludes 

 that a satisfactory definition of a fair day is one on which less 

 than .oi of an inch of rain falls, and a foul day is one on which 

 more than .01 of an inch falls, and makes predictions accordingly, 

 his predictions, when verified by this rule, will give a certain suc- 

 cess in proportion to his skill. If, now, some one should object to 

 cloudy days without rain being called fair, and record all cloudy 

 days for which fair weather had been predicted as failures, he 

 would give the predictions a much lower percentage of success 



