Engineers, but it turned out that this result, so different from all other experience, arose from a settlement in the wood-work supporting the electric lens, causing the lens to be out of its proper position. Since the alterations made at Dungeness the light there has worked with great regularity and efficiency; and the Elder Brethren have proposed to place similar lights at the South Foreland, Lowestoft, and Souter Point. The Board of Trade approve of the extension of this mode of illumination to the South Foreland and Lowestoft, but at present suspend their decision respecting Souter Point. The Committee of Elder Brethren who attended at the Paris Exhibition say-As far as the eye is a test, the power of the English fixed light was considerably in excess of the French, and when both machines were in use, and there was a good current, the fixed beam of the English light did not contrast unfavourably with the revolving one of the French, the flash of which is of great power. The contrast of the electric fixed light with the French first-order oil dioptric revolving light was very marked: indeed, the one may be said to put the other out. But the most beautiful feature of the electric was the extraordinary beam it gave. It shone night after night, large, steady, and lustrous as a planet, and you could see in the darkness a beam passing as far as the eye could see. From the tower, with the light at our back, it was very marked, and quite lit the hills round Paris. The whole horizon in the plane of the light showed the white beam, and at the distance of four miles it shone upon the windows of some houses, making them appear to be lit up. By extinguishing, and relighting quickly several times, this was very plain. Altogether the light was very remarkable, and the committee are glad to be able to report such an advance as the powers of the light show over that at Dungeness; indeed, the latter gives to the observer no conception of what the present one is, and it is satisfactory to know that the result of five years' work and observation, with imperfect and ill-arranged apparatus, has now borne such good fruit, and that as England was the first to test and adopt this adjunct to the sources of lighthouse illumination, so she still retains her superiority. It is due, however, to Mr. Holmes to say, that great as are the improvements already effected, he states that he is confident he can yet greatly increase the illuminating power before the present apparatus is re-erected at a permanent station.

The following telegraphic feat, the particulars of which are taken from the New York Journal of the Telegraph,' deserves record here. At an early hour on the morning of February 1st, the wires of the Western Union Telegraph Company from San Francisco to Plaister Cove, Cape Breton and the wires of the New York Newfoundland and London Telegraph Company from Plaister Cove to Heart's Con

tent were connected, and a brisk conversation commenced between these two continental extremes. Compliments were then passed between San Francisco and Valentia, Ireland, when the latter announced that a message was just then being received from London direct. This was said at 7.20 a.m., Valentia time, Feb. 1. At 7.21 a.m., Valentia time, the London message was started from Valentia for San Francisco; passed through New York at 2.35 a.m., New York time; was received in San Francisco at 11.21 p.m., San Francisco time, Jan. 31, and was at once acknowledged the whole process occupying two minutes actual time, and the distance traversed being about 14,000 miles! Immediately after the transmission of the message referred to, the operator at San Francisco sent an eighty-word message to Heart's Content in three minutes, which the operator at Heart's Content repeated back in two minutes and fifty seconds. Distance, about 5,000 miles.

12. ZOOLOGY-ANIMAL MORPHOLOGY AND

PHYSIOLOGY.

(Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London.)

New Species of Ape.-It will be remembered that M. du Chaillu described a species of ape under the native name of Nshiego Mbouvè, though zoologists were unwilling to accept it as a novelty, referring it to a variety of a known species. Dr. Slack of Philadelphia, however, has described it, in a communication to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, as distinct from the Chimpanzee; and says. that a fine skeleton of an adult has been for some time in the Academy's collection, and was until recently regarded as a chimpanzee. Duvernoy had previously decided in favour of its specific distinctiness. Dr. Slack's description is, "general colour black, sometimes grey in old age. Size, about equal to Anthropopithecus niger. Head, black and shining; chin of adult bearded. Ears, large, much larger than in the gorilla, though smaller than those of the chimpanzee. Inhabits the deep forests and table-lands of Equatorial África.”

Acclimatization of Sparrows.-The sparrows introduced into Australia by the Acclimatization Society bid fair to become as great a nuisance as those of the south of England, which we hear of as being slaughtered by the thousand. The latest complaint against them is contained in a letter from the Rev. George Mackie of South Yarrow to the Melbourne Corporation, in which he complains of the excessive damage done to his fruit-trees in consequence of the

depredations of sparrows and similar birds, and asks permission to use a gun against them.

Moa Skull.-A perfect Moa skull is said to have been found near Westport, near a prospector's claim on the Caledonian Lead, at a depth of 25 feet from the surface, and embedded in clay that had no appearance of ever having been disturbed. The men who discovered it are now engaged in excavations, in the hope of finding the remainder of the skeleton.

Disease in Grouse.-Dr. John Young, of Glasgow, has investigated this subject, and finds that nearly every bird he examined was affected with tape-worm, not, however, as the primary disease, but arising from peritoneal inflammation, which resulted in adhesion of the intestines and in perforation. He considered the disease as not arising from local causes, but from mal-nutrition, inducing an inherited cachectic condition, which predisposed the young to suffer from temporary influences. Mr. Gray attributed great influence to overprotection-the annihilation of its natural enemies having allowed a greater number of sickly birds to survive; and thus a weaker race had sprung up where formerly only strong birds prevailed. Man's interference thus disturbed the nice balance of nature, and the consequent evils followed.

The Fauna of Palestine.-The Rev. H. B. Tristram recently read a paper before the Royal Society upon the results of the Palestine Exploration, as regards the Fauna and Flora. An examination of the Fauna shows that it forms an extreme southern province of the Palearctic region, impinging upon the Ethiopian closely, and more distantly upon the Indian. The mammals point to an earlier settlement than that made across the recent deserts; there is no Indian immigration, and Hyrax Syriacus is an exclusively Ethiopian type. The birds are numerous and very irregularly distributed, the Dead Sea basin being distinct and typical, sometimes Indian, generally Ethiopian, in character, with no less than twenty-seven peculiar species. Among reptiles there is less intrusion of Ethiopian types, and snakes in particular are more limited to the original locality of the individuals. River-fish are few in number but distinct. of the eighty-one species of land and fresh-water mollusca have no geographical significance; the fresh-water being more distinct than the pulmonifera, and indicating a very ancient separation from any adjacent district. Similar inferences are drawn from the Arachnida and insects, as well as the Rhizopod fauna, which is similar to that of the Indian Ocean. It is remarked that the peculiar fish of the Jordan date probably from the earliest period after the elevation of the land.

Most

Theory of Birds' Nests.-In an interesting paper by Mr. Wallace, in the Journal of Travel,' he endeavours to prove that the exact mode of nidification of each species of bird is probably

the result of a variety of causes, which have been continually inducing modification, in accordance with changed organic or physical conditions, viz. first, the structure of the species; and second, its environment. He further points out that these are correlative, the former cause depending upon the latter, and not vice versa. Mr. Wallace lays it down as a rule, that when both sexes of birds are of strikingly gay and conspicuous colours, the nest is such as to conceal the sitting bird; while whenever there is a striking contrast of colours (the male being gay and conspicuous, the female dull and obscure), the nest is open and the sitting bird exposed to view. He gives many illustrations of this view, embracing almost every group of bright-coloured birds. Mr. Wallace says he was first led to see these relations by the study of protective resemblance or mimicry among insects, and points out that there is no incapacity in the female sex among birds to receive the same bright hues and strongly contrasted tints with which their partners are so often decorated, since whenever they are protected or concealed during incubation, they are so adorned: hence, he infers, that it is due to the absence of such concealment that gay and conspicuous tints are withheld, as in the Chatterers, Manakins, and Tanagers. A few anomalous facts supply a crucial test, viz. in cases where the males assist in incubation, or perform it altogether, in which case, as in the Grey Phalarope, the sexes, which are alike in winter, become reversed in colours in summer, the female instead of the male taking on a gay and nuptial plumage-while the male sits on the eggs, which are laid upon the bare ground.

A curious instance of misplacement, for want of sufficient specimens for examination, seems likely to be corrected, in the case of a bird (Steatornis caripensis), referred to the goat-suckers from outward resemblance, but which is known to feed on fruits so hard as to require a hammer to break them. Specimens have lately been received in spirits, and presented to the College of Surgeons and British Museum, which will be submitted to anatomical examination.

Sexes of Spiders. Mr. Pickard-Cambridge remarks upon the numerical relations between the sexes of spiders. He says that in the extensive group Epëirida, comprising several genera, he has never seen an example of the male sex; nor in an examination of the Museums of Vienna, Milan, Berlin, Frankfort, and Leyden, could he meet with a specimen, though females occurred in them all. He supposes that the males of this group are exceedingly small compared to females, and probably overlooked by collectors and probably they would look like little horny and more or less spiny ticks. In Nephila, which are giants of the spider race, the males are almost unknown, and when known are ridiculously disproportionate in size to the females. Some species of other families also present a striking disproportion in the relative size of the sexes.

The extraordinary sexual history of the spiders may account for this on Mr. Darwin's principle of sexual selection. Thus the smaller the male individuals, the more chance they would have of escaping the ferocity of the female by playing at hide and seek among her limbs and over her body in the mode M. Vinson describes. This selection would go on exercising its inevitable influence upon the size of the males until at length they became what in M. Vinson's instances they appear to be-mere parasites upon the female; the indefinite diminution of the male would only be checked by the natural requirement of a certain size for the fulfilment of the offices of impregnation.

Lithodomous Annelids.-Mr. Ray Lankester records some cases of Annelids of the genera Sabella and Leucodore which occurred in calcareous boulders, and points out the curious fact that none of the accompanying sand-stones, however indurated, nor the clay, were ever bored, the perforations being entirely confined to rocks of the same chemical composition, whether soft as chalk or dense as limestone. Having pointed out that there is no hard structure in these annelids which non-boring species do not possess, he concludes that the constant apposition of the tail of the annelid is the cause-and this is proved to be acid, for placed on blue litmus paper it gives a strong acid reaction in both species. It is not contended, however, that all cases of boring are due to chemical agency, for some, as the Pholas in gneiss, disprove the universality of this explanation.

Pearl Fishing-Australian letters relate a discovery of considerable importance, viz. the existence of an extensive pearl-fishery on the north-west coast of Western Australia. The fishing-ground is described as stretching along the coast no less than a thousand miles. There had been upwards of sixty tons of pearls obtained up to December, and these were purchased on the spot at the rate of 1007. per ton. The banks at Perth will advance 1007. per ton, not including the inside pearls, which are valued at from 17. to 207. sterling each. About thirty men were then engaged in pearling.

Swarms of Locusts.-Fearful devastation has been caused in Algeria by millions of locusts, which in the latter days of April last darkened the air for hours together, destroying every green thing. The inhabitants by every means in their power endeavoured to divert them from their fields, and torrents of rain drowned myriads of them, besides those killed by boys; but the destroyed numbers were but as a drop in the bucket to those which remained. Sickness was expected to follow this plague from the abundance of their putrefying bodies.

Breeding of Queen Bees.-M. De Romestin, English chaplain at Baden, calls the attention of English bee-keepers to a most important discovery made by M. Köhler, a Protestant minister in Hesse. It is no less than the secret of directing the breeding of the bee, so that, as with our cattle, we may select the choicest male to