792 



SCIENCE. 



[X. S. Vol. XXI. No. 542. 



Cherry County, an area of about 126,000 acres. 

 It is the intention to plant pines upon the hills 

 and deciduous trees in the valleys, hoping 

 thus to prove the possibility of foresting the 

 sandhills and to induce private parties follow- 

 ing its lead to aid the government in the work 

 of reclaiming this region. The writer believes 

 that here is a unique opportunity to study 

 the development of a forest fauna from the 

 beginning. These planted forests are by far 

 greater in area than any forests ever planted 

 before, and in them will be seen the gradual 

 evolution of forest conditions, and, it may be 

 assumed, the gradual development of a forest 

 fauna, where absolutely no trace of such a 

 fauna is to be found at the present time. The 

 question suggests itself at once as to the pos- 

 sible origin of this fauna. Will it be derived 

 from the pine-clad canyons of the north and 

 west or will it come from the deciduous timber 

 of the south and east? Will the pine growth 

 receive its fauna from one direction and the 

 deciduous forest in the valleys its from the 

 other? If so, what will be the ultimate re- 

 sult? What will be the order of appearance 

 of these forms and what will be the possible 

 succession of dominant types which may exist 

 one after the other in the evolution of this 

 fauna from year to year? These are only a 

 part of the problems that present themselves, 

 the working out of which will be the 

 labor of many years. During the past three 

 years the author has been studying all of the 

 conditions as they now exist in order to thor- 

 oughly familiarize himself with the ground, 

 that the investigation may be followed through 

 intelligently from the very beginning. How 

 soon results may be attained and how impor- 

 tant they will be the future must disclose. 



Bound up in the study of the sandhill re- 

 gion and its fauna, though not directly con- 

 nected with the investigation above outlined, 

 is another problem which the author is also 

 studying at the same time. In this region 

 are many bodies of water differing in size, 

 from mere pools to lakes even four or five miles 

 in length, most of them fed from subterranean 

 streams and with no outlet, lying in pockets 

 between the hills. These vary from those con- 

 taining the most beautifully clear, limpid, 



sweet water, full of animal and vegetable life, 

 to those so strongly alkaline as to be incapable 

 of supporting more than a limited faima and 

 flora and that made up of a very few species. 

 The study of the distribution of life in lakes 

 so widely different in chemical composition 

 of the water, but in every other respect abso- 

 lutely similar, promises extremely interesting 

 results, not the least important of which will 

 be the possible variation of the same species 

 under these varying degrees of alkalinity. 



It is three years since these investigations 

 were begun. The first of these years was 

 spent in a general survey of the region and in 

 mapping the largest group of lakes, the second 

 and third in a more critical study of lake 

 conditions, the collecting of material, and the 

 securing of a series of photographs. The 

 work is to be continued during the present 

 summer by the taking of water samples from 

 as many lakes as possible for chemical an- 

 alysis, by further study of the conditions in 

 the lakes themselves and of the biological con- 

 ditions in the region as a whole, and in the 

 securing of additional photographs to illus- 

 trate them. The investigation is being carried 

 on very largely at private exi^ense, since there 

 is no fund available in the state for the pur- 

 pose; but the intention is to spend as much 

 time as possible each year in the field, results 

 being published from time to time as they 

 may become complete so far as any given 

 problem is concerned, or whenever the progress 

 of investigation makes it possible to present 

 definite results. 



Robert H. Wolcott. 

 Zoological Laboratory, 

 The UNn'ERsiTY of Nebraska. 



THE MAILED CATFISHES OF SOUTH AMERICA. 



In, the Transactions of the Zoological So- 

 ciety of London, Volume XVII., Part III., 

 October, 1904, C. Tate Regan publishes a 

 ' Monograph of the Fishes of the Family Lori- 

 cariidse.' The Loricariidse are one of the 

 families of Ostariophysi. They are found 

 only in the rivers of South America, ranging 

 from Panama to Montevideo. As understood 

 by Regan the Loricariidte are equivalent to 

 the Loricariidffi and Argiidse of Eigenmann. 



