394 General Notes. [April 
The taxidermist of the Victoria Museum at Jaffna, Ceylon, 
who died from the bite of a cobra which he presumed to be 
armless, since its poison-bag was extracted, was for a while 
esnaciared by artificial sos Seat and stated that while para- 
lyzed by the poison he cou , hear, and feel everything, 
though utterly incapable of nisk Inflammation of the lungs 
caused his aaa and death. 
Mr. G. enger has discriminated two forms of Bombi- 
nator in Cerak Europe. 
Aves.—Mr. Seebohm inclines to the ae that the rea- 
son that the eggs of birds breeding in holes are white is that 
nature spares useless color, and he points aa “that there are 
traces of spots on the eggs of petrels and puffins, which breed 
in holes, a fact which tends to prove that it is only recently that 
they discontinued breeding in open places, like their relatives, 
the auks and gulls, which lay highly-colored eggs. He also 
points out that the females of pheasants and humming-birds, 
which breed in the open, are soberly colored, while the female 
kingfisher, who incubates concealed, is as gay as her mate. 
Mammatia.—M. A. T. de Rochebrune has shown that the 
Colobi are platyrhinous, like the apes of the New World. 
C. W. de Vis has described as a probably new species of tree- 
kangaroo a specimen obtained in the Danitree River District. 
It is named Dendrolagus bennettianus, and is stated to be more 
nearly allied to D. dorianus than to D. lumholtzi. 
: EMBRYOLOGY.: 
The Development of the Carnivora.?—A. Fleischmann has 
lately carried out some interesting new investigations upon the 
development of the Carnivora, under the direction of Professor 
E. Selenka, in the Zoological Institute at Erlangen, on which he 
reports as follows: 
_ Material was hard to obtain, in spite of the fact that cats and 
dogs are to be found as pets in every family. From one hundred 
to one hundred and fifty cats ee examined weekly during the 
rutting periods in February and June. Later it was found pos- 
sible to obtain materials from animals kept in confinement. 
Besides Di useful material was obtained through sportsmen 
from i wild-cats. 
er series p’ stages of the domestic cat was obtained by the 
successive extirpation of the horns of the uterus. The preserv- 
ative fluid was picro-sulphuric acid, to which one-tenth per cent. 
of chromic acid had been added. 
Tr Edited -2 ee a A. RYDER, Biological Department, University of Penn- 
ate e ab, ati Centralbl., vii. eh ae 
