eerat es 
980 
alized type of selachian from Japan recently 
announced by Garman under the name Chlamy- 
doselachus is but one of the many signs that 
our knowledge of pelagic and abyssal life is 
still very incomplete. 
Prof. D. J. Cunningham of the Royal col- 
lege of surgeons, Ireland, contributes an essay 
upon the anatomy of certain marsupials and - 
upon the mammalian pes (vol. v., 192 p., 18 
pl.). The first part of this paper is descrip- 
tive, and devoted to Thylacine, Cuscus, and 
Phascogale; but its preparation led to a 
general investigation of the foot of mammals, 
involving the dissection of forty-five species 
distributed through all the orders. Professor 
Cunningham’s conclusions as to the relations 
of the intrinsic muscles and nerves of the pes 
in different genera are of great interest, but, 
being merely incidental to the work of the 
Challenger, must be passed by with simple 
mention. 
Vol. il. is chiefly devoted to the report on 
birds, which is the eighth in the zodlogical 
series. This is a compound paper in thir- 
teen parts, prepared by the standard British 
authorities, Sclater, Salvin, Saunders, Forbes, 
Tweeddale, and Garrod; one paper being also 
supplied by Salvadori of Turin, and one by 
Finsch of Bremen. The report on the anatomy 
of the petrels (Tubinares), by the late W. A. 
Forbes (vol. iv., 64 p., 7 pl.), is important as 
throwing much new light on the classification 
of these remarkable birds. It is based upon 
collections from the stores of the zodlogical 
society and the U.S. national museum as well 
as of the Challenger. The affinities of the 
petrels are shown to be with the Steganopoda 
and the storks and herons, rather than with 
the gulls. The most extensive anatomical 
monograph is that of the penguins, by Professor 
Morrison Watson of Owens college, Manches- 
ter, of which the first part has been printed 
(vol. vii., 244 p., 19 pl.). The publication of 
the second part will complete the ornithological 
work of the expedition. This essay is full of 
interest to the general reader as well as to 
the ornithotomist; since, although structural 
minutiae are fully discussed, each detail is 
brightened by some allusion to function, 
origin, or habit. The conclusions of Professor 
Watson, concerning the affinities of the 
Spheniscidae to each other and to other birds, 
are worthy of much fuller discussion. Many 
and appreciative alJlusions are made to Dr. 
Elliott Coues’ monograph of the Spheniscidae, 
which is frequently quoted. 
Professor W. Kitchen Parker’s report on the 
development of the green turtle (vol. i., 58 p., 
SCIENCE. 
13 pl.) is an exceedingly weighty contribution 
to morphology, and concludes with a page of 
most suggestive generalizations upon the phy- 
logeny of the Chelonia and Reptilia. This 
investigation was based upon aseries of embryos 
obtained at Ascension Island, in compliance 
with Professor Parker’s particular request, and 
is one of the most important of the side issues 
of the expedition. 
Dr. Albert Gunther’s report on the shore 
fishes (vol. i., 82 p., 32 pl.) contains the iden- 
tifications of fourteen hundred specimens, rep- 
resenting five hundred and twenty species, of 
which ninety-four were new. It consists of a 
series of faunal and regional lists, some of 
which, particularly those for remote oceanic 
islands, cover fields hitherto unexplored by 
ichthyologists ; such as St. Paul’s Rocks, As- 
cension, Kerguelen Island, and Juan Fernan- 
dez, and also Magellan Straits and the Arafura 
Sea. The systematic arrangement is all that 
can be desired: it is to be regretted, however, 
that the author has been satisfied to publish such 
brief and cursory diagnoses, and that he gives 
no tables of proportional measurements, thus 
causing serious embarrassment to students 
who have no access to his types. The report 
upon deep-sea fishes by the same author, at 
one time announced for vol. lii., is now so far 
down upon the official list of ‘ memoirs to fol- 
low in subsequent years,’ that it is not likely 
to come to view for a long time. ‘This is all 
the more to be regretted, since the fishes of 
the abyssal region are more peculiar, and more 
generally instructive, than perhaps the members 
of any other group. Much unstudied material 
in Italy, France, Austria, and America, is being 
held until these collections, now eight years in 
the author’s hands, can be made known to the 
public. The preliminary descriptions pub- 
lished in 1878 are so meagre as to be nearly 
useless to any one except their author ; and the 
type specimens themselves will, of course, be 
inaccessible for comparison until the final re- 
port is in type. Dr. Giinther’s: success in 
re-organizing the natural history section of the 
British museum has been very great, yet it 
seems unfortunate that administrative work 
should so entirely monopolize the time of so 
eminent an ichthyologist. 
RAIN IN BELGIUM. 
La pluie en Belgique. Par A. LANCASTER. 
elles, Hayez, 1884. [Extract from the Annuaire 
de l’Observatoire royal de Bruxelles.] 113 p. 16°. — 
Tue completion of a fifty-years series of un- — 
interrupted observations of rainfall at Brussels — 
Brux-. 
so 
