148 The American Naturalist, [March, 
Last March the French took possession of the Society 
islands, it is said, at the invitation of the inhabitants, but some 
of the natives of the island Raiatea attacked a French detach- 
ment. England has taken possession of the Fanning islands, 
south of the Sandwich group. England has also acquired the 
island of Rarotonga, which is advantageously placed between 
Panama and Australia, and which France considered as a nat- 
ural connection between Tahiti and New Caledonia. 
Germany has declared the neighboring Tonga group, which 
England intended to take possession of, to be neutral in accord- 
ance with the agreement signed by both powers April 6, 
1886. 
GEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY. 
Credner on Pal.eohatteria. The seventh part of Dr. 
H. Credner's account of the Stegocephali and Saurians found 
in the " Plauens'ch Grounds," near Dresden, is devoted to the 
above-named interesting genus of Reptilia. A single species 
is embraced in the genus, P. longicaudata Credner. This 
animal was of about the size of the Sphenodon pimctatiim of 
New Zealand, and presents so many points of affinity, that 
Dr. Credner places it in the same order, the Rhynchocephalia, 
and even in the same family, the Sphenodontidai. 
An examination of Professor Credner's description and the 
figures with which it is abundantly illustrated, shows that its 
describer has not overrated the importance to biology of its 
discovery. But its nearest ally is not, as Professor Credner 
supposes, the Sphenodon punctatum of New Zealand, but the 
fossil Stereosternum tiimidum from the probable carboniferous 
formation of Brazil. It differs widely from Sphenodon in the 
character of the pelvis, agreeing in this with Stereosternum, 
and with the Pelycosauria. It differs from the Pelycosauria in 
its two postorbital cranial arches, and in its single-headed ribs, 
agreeing in the latter point with both Stereosternum and Sphe- 
nodon ; and probably in the former point also, but the charac- 
ter of the cranial arches in Stereosternum remains unknown. 
It agrees also with the Brazilian genus in the characters of the 
tarsus, and differs more from the Pelycosauria and less from 
the Sphenodon. The humerus is also like that of Stereos- 
