116 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
Salmon in Japan . — The u Society of Arts Journal ” says that Mr. Troup, 
acting-consul at Niagata, in a report this year to Sir II. Parkes, states that 
great quantities of salmon are caught in all the rivers of that province. 
Besides in the Shinano-gawa, it is found in the Aga-no-kawa/the Arakawa, 
and the Miomote-gawa, or Murakami rivers to the north-east. Might it 
not he possible to introduce the spawn into Tasmania and New Zealand 
from Japan more successfully than has yet been done from England ? 
Collection of Venezuelan Birds . — On November 15 a paper was read before 
the Zoological Society by Messrs. Sclater and Salvin on the recent collec- 
tions of Venezuelan birds made by Mr. A. Goering in the vicinity of Merida. 
The present collection was stated to embrace examples of 105 species, nine 
of which were considered to be new to science. Amongst the latter were 
two new parrots, proposed to be called Vrochroma dilcctissima and Conurns 
rhodocephalus. 
The Relations of Brachiopods and Worms . — It seems unlikely that the 
Brachiopods should be classed with the Annulosa, yet they have been ; and 
we are glad to see that an American naturalist, Mr. Dali, places the 
Brachiopods once more among the Mollusca. In doing so he referred to 
several special points of structure, especially the peduncle of Lingula, de- 
monstrating its construction to be analogous to that of the siphons of bivalve 
mollusks, such as the common clam, My a arenaria. He then described the 
bristles of Lingula, showing that they were quite different in construction 
from those of the worms, and also that the Chitons were (in some genera) 
provided with true follicular setae, proceeding from the mantle. Hence 
these characters cannot be held to afford satisfactory evidences of affinities 
with Annelids. Mr. Dali then proceeded to discuss the theory of Mr. 
Morse, that the Brachiopods were a subdivision of the Annelids. Mr. Dali 
took the opposite view, and, says the u American Naturalist,” while ad- 
mitting all the facts brought forward by Mr. Morse, and fully appreciating 
the careful and thorough nature of his researches, contended on the other 
hand that these facts were susceptible of quite another interpretation. Mr. 
Dali then went on to take up, one by one, the circulatory, nervous, muscular, 
and digestive systems of the Brachiopods, and to compare each with the 
same organs in the Annelids and the Mollusks, and came to the conclusion 
that the weight of structural characters was essentially of a Molluscan 
nature. The Mollusks were an individualised type, while the Annelids, and 
even most of the Articulates, were typified by their repetition of similar 
organs. No such repetition obtains among the Brachiopods. Mr. Dali was 
of the opinion that the Molluscoidea should rank as one of two great primary 
divisions of the Mollusca — one, the true Mollusks, typified by the Gastero- 
poda, and second the Molluscoidea, typified by the Brachiopoda. The second 
division would include the Polyzoa, Tunicata, and Brachiqpoda ; and Mr. 
Dali was of the opinion that these groups were essentially related to one 
another, and cannot be separated without violence to their affinities. 
The Cranium in Reptiles, Batrachia , and Fishes . — Professor E. D. Cope 
read a long paper before the American Association on this subject. It is 
reproduced, with the woodcuts, in the u American Naturalist ” for October. 
It is a lengthy and important paper, and we do not do more than refer to it 
here, for it would be impossible to give any abstract of it whatsoever. 
