The Zoologist/4th series, vol 1 (1897)/Issue 669/Editorial Gleanings
EDITORIAL GLEANINGS.
At a recent meeting of the Bradford Scientific Society, as reported in the 'Yorkshire Weekly Post,' Mr. W.E. Preston read a paper dealing with the prehistoric remains to be found on Rombald's Moor. After describing generally the various classes of antiquities of prehistoric date to be found on the moors, Mr. Preston alluded to a nearly obliterated circle which he noticed in 1892 on Rivvock Edge, overlooking Keighley. The diameter was about sixty yards, and the wall of the circle was composed of loose stones and earth. In the centre was a large rock covered with peat and heather. On examination of a small portion which was exposed, this rock proved to be inscribed with a number of small and rather indistinct cup and ring marks. This aroused curiosity, and on removing the peat the whole surface of the rock proved to be covered with such markings. This was perhaps the only case in which an inscribed rock had been found enclosed within a circle on the Yorkshire moors. Of this rock Mr. Preston exhibited photographs; and speaking of flint implements, he described the places on the moors in which the searcher after these antiquities was most likely to meet with reward, and showed a very large and valuable collection which had been the result of his own researches.
During a recent scientific excursion made by the 'Princesse-Alice' in the neighbourhood of the Azores, a Sperm Whale was captured, which has proved material for a communication to the 'Bulletin du Museum d'histoire naturelle,' by S.A.S. Le Prince Albert de Monaco, entitled "Notes sur un Cachalot." This animal, which attained a length of "13 m. 70," afforded considerable information as to the parasites which infest Cetaceans. The author describes its stomach as containing a considerable number of worms resembling Nematoids, in the "tube digestif" many "Helminthes"; in the blubber were found some Cysticerci, whilst Cyamidæ were scattered on the epidermis.
In vol. iii. of 'Novitates Zoologicæ,' recently completed, Mr. C.W. Andrews, F.G.S., has contributed two parts of a memoir "On the Extinct Birds of the Chatham Islands."[1] This is the result of the examination, in the Rothschild Museum at Tring, of "an immense collection of bird remains from the Chatham Islands," consisting of many thousands of bones, mostly in good condition, and including numerous skulls and other portions of the skeleton of Diaphorapteryx. In addition to the isolated bones, there are one or two more or less complete skeletons which are of great value for purposes of determination. The great bulk of the collection consists of remains of recent sea-birds, such as Albatrosses, Cormorants, and Penguins; but, in addition to Diaphorapteryx, there are many other extinct forms, including some large species of Fulicia?, Cabalus dieffenbachii, Palæocorax moriorum, and also a few seal-bones, some human metapodials and phalanges, remains of rats and mice, and of fish; but Mr. Andrews has "not found any reptilian bones whatever."
We are glad to see from the 'Bulawayo Chronicle' that the inhabitants of Rhodesia are taking steps to mitigate the Locust scourge in their country. "The Civil Commissioner has made application to the Agricultural Department of the Cape Colony for a supply of the Locust-disease fungus which is supposed to be very effective in destroying the pest. The Principal of the Bacteriological Institute of Grahamstown has been instructed to forward a few tubes when supply is available. On arrival the Civil Commissioner proposes to hand them over to some enterprising farmers for experimenting with." Some time ago a lady in Natal recorded in 'Natural Science' the destructive effect on Locusts of this fungoid growth in her locality. The present Editor also bore witness in the same journal to similar observations made in Pretoria.
In the Transvaal, however, members of the Raad have enunciated the opinion that it is impious to seek to destroy Locusts, which are a scourge sent by the Almighty.
The disease-fungus is not the only natural enemy to the Locust. A correspondent has been recently writing about these insects in 'South Africa.' He describes their most formidable enemies in the Orange Free State as those well-known birds the Black-winged Pratincole, Glareola melanoptera, the White Stork, Ciconia alba, the Wattled Starling, Dilophus carunculatus, and the Lesser Kestrel, Cerchneis tinnunculoides. Among parasitic insects which attack the Locusts two have been recorded by Mrs. Barber. One has been described by Mr. Trimen as "a two-winged insect of the genus Tachina, which is of the same family (Muscidæ) as the common house fly, and not unlike it in appearance."
This correspondent adds:—"It has been discovered lately that salted Locusts form a wholesome and nutritious diet for horses, horned cattle, pigs, poultry, &c."
In last month's 'Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist.,' Mr. E.E. Austen has given a translation of Prof. F.O. Guldberg's lecture before the Biological Society of Christiania, "On movement in a circle as the fundamental form of movement in animals: its cause, manifestation, and significance."
"The majority of those who are accustomed to walk in the fields and woods with open eyes for the observation of animal life have surely been struck by the readiness with which animals belonging to the same family or community find each other again, after having separated voluntarily or under compulsion. Indeed, even newly-hatched or new-born young, which one surely cannot easily suspect of having a fully developed memory for places or any acquaintance with the locality, and as to which it is quite impossible to imagine that they are already in possession of the full use of their senses, nevertheless again discover, apparently with the greatest ease, their parents, brothers and sisters, or companions, even when they have been separated from them for so long a time or by so great a distance that their sensory powers are inadequate to bring them into direct communication one with another."
The lecturer then alluded to what he provisionally termed biological circles or circular wanderings, which he traced among vertebrates, including mankind, and among insects, by which they return to the spot where they were separated. This, he remarks, must be of fundamental importance for the maintenance of life and the development of the individuals affected; it is, he remarks, "universally distributed—it is one of the general laws."
It must be emphasised that Prof. Guldberg distinctly repudiates any connection of his circular movement with the manège-movement known in physiology in the case of brain-lesion.
At the Conference of Delegates of the Corresponding Societies of the British Association, Liverpool, 1896, perhaps the most original paper read was one by Mr. W.M. Flinders Petrie, "On a Federal Staff for Local Museums."
The author advocated the formation of "a federal staff to circulate for all purposes requiring skilled knowledge, leaving the permanent attention to each place to devolve on a mere caretaker." By this arrangement "each museum would have a week of attention in the year from a geologist, and the same from a zoologist and an archæologist."
The duties of such a staff would be to arrange and label the new specimens acquired in the past year, taking sometimes a day, or perhaps a fortnight, at one place; to advise on alterations and improvements; to recommend purchases required to fill up gaps; to note duplicates and promote exchanges between museums; and to deliver a lecture on the principal novelties of their own subject in the past year.
"The effect at the country museums would be that three times in the year a visitant would arrive for one of the three sections, would work everything up to date, stir the local interest by advice and a lecture, stimulate the caretaker, and arrange routine work that could be carried out before the next year's visit, and yet would not cost more than having down three lecturers for the local institution or society, apart from this work."
Mr. J.E.S. Moore, of the Royal College of Science, London, has recently been investigating the African Lake Fauna. In a recent number of 'Nature' it was announced that he had made the apparent discovery of dimorphism in the Tanganyika medusa, with active budding in both forms. Further interesting particulars have been extracted from the ' Central African Gazette,' published at Zomba.
"Mr. Moore verified the report, which travellers on Tanganyika have heard from time to time, that there is a large fish in the lake which rushes at the paddles of a canoe passing through the water. He actually saw this take place. He also discovered a large electric fish which gives a severe shock on being touched. Tanganyika, indeed, appears to be full of fish. By trailing a line with an artificial minnow behind the boat, Mr. Moore caught enormous numbers of fish, some of them up to sixty pounds in weight—bright clean fish with silvery scales. The heaviest fish which was seen in the lake weighed over ninety pounds; this was a sort of mud-fish. Sponges were also discovered in Tanganyika, which though of no great size were undoubtedly real sponges. On the east side of the lake, in a bay where the striped leech was very common, Mr. Moore found a small fish about the size of a small minnow, whose back was striped in imitation of the leech, and this seemed to protect it against the raids of the kingfishers, which, while constantly picking up other small fish, avoided this particular one."
At a January meeting of the "Caradoc and Severn Valley Field Club," as reported in the 'Shrewsbury Chronicle,' Mr. H.E. Forrest exhibited, on behalf of Mr. Harold Peake, of Ellesmere, three young Vipers, which were taken out of the parent, and remarkable for each having two small legs, These were believed to be unique, and as probably an instance of "reversion to an ancestral type." We are indebted to Mr. R.H. Ramsbotham for the above cutting, and that gentleman writes that he had an opportunity of examining the three young Vipers referred to preserved in spirit—"said to be part of seven taken from a female Viper before birth, and which distinctly exhibited two small feet protruding from the lower portion of the belly."
- ↑ See: OCLC:1051539742all editions (Wikisource-ed.)