EDITORIAL GLEANINGS. 317 



To come straight to the main point, it is the processes of reproduction 

 to which objection is made. It is even urged that zoology may be 

 taught if this part of the subject be left out. There is no more mis- 

 chievous suggestion. Are we to do all we can to encourage the study 

 of animal life, and then deny all information and guidance on pheno- 

 mena which are bound to come under observation, as though these 

 were something unholy and unclean ? Curiosity on these matters is 

 natural and inevitable, and it is far better — it is best — that this legiti- 

 mate curiosity should be satisfied and instructed in a clean, wholesome, 

 and scientific way than by any other means. It is only so that a 

 reverent respect for the whole body, whether of brute or man, can be 

 gained. Puris pura omnia." 



In the 'Annals of the Queensland Museum' (No. 7, 1907), Mr. 

 C. W. de Vis describes a Rat under the name of Uromys banfieldi, and 

 writes: — "For an introduction to this Eat we are indebted to the 

 observer by whose name it may fitly be honoured — Mr. E. J. Banfield, 

 Honorary Keeper of Dunk Island, an island lying a little to the north 

 of Cardwell, in lat. 15, long. 145. Some while ago that gentleman 

 aroused our curiosity by informing us that a Eat upon the island made 

 little or no nest for its young, but carried them about clinging to its 

 back or to the outer side of its thighs — a habit, to say the least, very 

 unusual among Eats and Mice of the genus Mus. The female first 

 sent to us by Mr. Banfield as an example of the species had no young 

 with her, nor were her mammas much in evidence ; consequently, the 

 advent of a specimen caught in the act of carrying young was awaited 

 with interest. Fortune at length favoured our correspondent with an 

 opportunity of placing the correctness of his observation beyond 

 question. Of the second example procured by him, he, writes : — ' The 

 other day my Dogs turned out a Eat, which made its escape from them 

 by climbing a shrub, and I was able to secure it. You will see that it 

 has a pair of infants attached to the teats. ... I chloroformed the 

 mother, and noticed that the young lived some time after her.' On 

 arrival the young were found detached. The conical corrugated 

 nipples are, compared with the size of the animal, very long — one 

 especially, 20 mm. in length, calls to mind a marsupial teat. Mr. 

 Banfield finds this Eat to be gentle in disposition, never attempting to 

 bite ; it is, therefore, fortunate for it that it is under the protection of 

 one who conserves the native life of the island so strictly that he will 

 not allow a gun to be fired on it." 



