380 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



EDITORIAL GLEANINGS.- 



We are glad to see by the ' Journal of the Anthropological Institute 

 that the endeavour to establish an Ethnographical Bureau for the British 

 Empire has not been abandoned. As the President observed: — "The 

 splendid precedent of the Bureau of Ethnology attached to the Smithsonian 

 Institute, confined as it practically is to the races which formerly existed on 

 the American Continent, shows what might be done on the much wider field 

 of enquiry that we possess, if only the public spirit of the nation and its 

 rulers could be awakened to the priceless value, not to say the absolute 

 necessity, of the enterprise." Prof. Macalister had previously remarked : — 

 " It is little short of a national disgrace that in the largest empire of the 

 world, within whose bounds there are nearly as many separate peoples and 

 tribes and kindreds and tongues as in all the other nations put together, 

 there is no Imperial Department having for its functions to collect and 

 classify the facts of the physical, psychical, and ethical history of our fellow 

 subjects." 



The Ethnographic Survey of the British Association has continued its 

 useful work. The collection of physical observations from various parts of 

 the United Kingdom is steadily growing, and at the same time collections 

 of folk-lore are being made. 



In travelling on the African Continent, or in reading the narratives of 

 other travellers, we meet with much difficulty in properly identifying the 

 various species of Zebras which still roam, often in sadly diminished num- 

 bers, that interesting region. Mr. R. J. Pocock, of the British Museum, 

 has recently (Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist.) thoroughly examined the problem, 

 and given us a revised list based on the studies he has made. He recog- 

 nizes four species — Equns zebra, Linn., E. quagga, Gmeliu, E. burcheUi, 

 Gray, and E. grevyi, Oustalet. To E. burcheUi he adds six subspecies, thus 

 making seven forms or local races— antiquarian, H. Smith, chapmanni, 

 Layard, waldbergi, nov., selousii, now, craivsJiayi, de Winton, and grantii, 

 de Winton. Of these E. zebra, though formerly abundant on the moun- 

 tainous districts of Cape Colony, " is now verging on extinction," while the 

 Quagga is generally admitted as extinct. 



Accoiiding to the Pretoria ' Press,' within the last two years the Hippo- 

 potamus has almost entirely disappeared from the Lower Shire River, and 



