# The Zoologist/4th series, vol 2 (1898)/Issue 686/Editorial Gleanings

Published in: The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2, issues 686 (August, 1898), p. 373–376
EDITORIAL GLEANINGS.
The Trustees of the British Museum have appointed Professor Ray Lankester as Director of the Natural History Department. He succeeds Sir William Henry Flower, who retires, through ill health, on Sept. 30th. The remuneration is £1200 per annum.
We recently (ante, p. 236) referred to a paper by Mr. Faxon on some "Observations on the Astacidæ, &c." Since then Dr. Emar Löonberg, in the 'Zoologischer Anzeiger,' has contributed to the same subject "Some Biological and Anatomical Facts concerning Parastacus." Parastacus hassleri, Faxon, is found in Chile, and Mr. P. Dusen has related some facts as to its life -history. This Crayfish lives in slightly sloping, moist meadows. The humidity on the surface was, however, not greater than that Mr. Dusen could walk there with dry shoes," and there was no open water, lake, or river in the neighbourhood. Here the Crayfishes had made vertical holes in the earth, and round these holes they had erected " mud chimneys " out of the clayey material which they had carried up from their burrows. These chimneys had often a height of 2-3 decm. The results arising from Dr. Loonberg's study of this species are, "that in Parastacus hassleri a partial hermaphroditism is prevailing, but male and female organs are not functionary in the same individual, neither are ripe elements of both sexes produced by the same specimen. The hermaphroditism could thus be called rudimentary." The Astacidæ seem to offer a most interesting study to zoologists, both by their functions and habits.
In the 'Western World' for May last, a correspondent writes:—"In a very few weeks the last remnant of the Buffalo tribe, so far as Manitoba is concerned, will be removed from Silver Heights, near Winnipeg, where they now are, to the National Park at Banff. They have been given by Lord Strathcona to the Dominion Government, with a view to their preservation in the park, but how long they will stay there is another question. It is only too likely that their natural instincts will, in spite of their half- tame condition, reassert themselves and induce them to wander off in any direction. The herd numbers seventeen in all. There are five pure bred males, eleven, seven, six, five, and two years old; and four pure bred females, eleven, six, four, and two years old; one aged half-bred cow about sixteen years old, one three-quarter bred heifer three years old, one ​three-quarter bred bull seven years old, and one three-quarter bred bull five years old. Four calves of last year, two of them pure, make up the lot.
"It is now well-nigh thirty years since the first Buffalo calves were brought in by Indians for James Mackay, of Silver Heights. A little later, when the herd had increased to about twenty, they were taken to Stony Mountain, where, having been bought by the late Col. Bedson, with the exception of the few claimed by Sir Donald Smith as his share, the bulk of the herd, including a few cross-breeds, were sold to "Buffalo Jones," who was then speculating on getting up a company to breed crosses on domestic cows for the sake of the robes, as well as the extra value of the meat. Besides a few owned by private individuals, there is still a wild herd preserved by the U.S. Government in the National Park at the head of the Yellowstone. In the Smithsonian Institute at Washington is a splendidly mounted group of stuffed specimens set up by Mr. Hornaday, who was sent out in 1883 to procure for that purpose a few specimens out of a small remnant then existing in the Bad Lands on the Upper Missouri. Some of the finest specimens were killed on that expedition. The bull stands 6 ft. high, and is set up just as he stood at bay, after he had been shot by Hornaday, and his leg broken. Millions of Buffalo were killed between 1873 and 1883, and some of the higher valleys looked white all summer with the skeletons of countless Buffalo that had been killed for the sake of their hides, the meat going to feast the wolves."
In the May number of the 'Osprey,' Mr. George Harlow Clarke, the Naturalist to the Peary Polar Expedition, 1893–4, contributes an article on "The Birds of Bowdoin Bay." Bowdoin Bay is situated far up the western shore of Greenland. It is " some five miles wide, extends inland a distance of about twelve miles due north from Inglefield Gulf, an arm of the Polar Sea penetrating the coast between Smith Sound and Baffin Bay." "A list, based on observations covering a period of twelve consecutive months, of the birds frequenting the bay comprises nineteen authenticated species."
Some others were seen, but as yet they can only hypothetically be accorded a place in the limited ornithology of the bay. The most conspicuous bird is the Haven, and scarcely less numerous is the Rock Ptarmigan (Lagopus rupestris reinhardti). These birds are indisputably resident species, and the Eskimos aver that the Snowy Owl and Greenland Gyr-falcon also "brave the vigorous sunless winter of that latitude. Prominent as summer visitors are the Mandt's Guillemot, Little Auk, Kittiwake and Glaucous Gulls, Eiders—King and Northern—Old Squaw, Snowflake, and Greenland Redpoll." The Red-throated Diver rears its young in that locality; the Wheatear was first seen on August 21st, 1893, but on July 4th, 1894, a nest containing seven eggs was found on the shore of Inglefield Gulf, a few ​miles east of the bay. Knots and Turnstones were reported during July and August, and the Ring Plover was occasionally seen. The advance guard of Burgomasters and Kittiwakes arrived early in May, and in June, 1894, a solitary Snow Goose passed overhead, an occupied nest of the species being discovered in the Tucktoo Valley, beyond Bowdoin Glacier.
We have received the Report of the Marlborough College Natural History Society for the year ending 1897. This Society shows every mark of vitality. Its president is Mr. E. Meyrick, the well-known lepidopterist; it has been found necessary to limit the number of school members to three hundred; while its financial position is shown by a credit balance of about £100. Among interesting facts to be found in these pages is a census of the Rooks' nests in College Grounds, compiled by Mr. Meyrick:—"The nests were counted on April 6th, when there were found to be 13 in the trees facing B House, 153 in the Wilderness, 8 on the Mound, and 1 in a willow lower down the garden; total, 175, being an increase of 7 on last year, but not yet quite up to the record of 1894. During the last two years there have been (each year) two nests in the elms in Mr. Morrison's meadow at the top of Kingsbury Hill; this attempt at forming a new colony is probably due to stragglers from the College settlement."
Another note relates to a climbing habit in Frogs:—"We have made a curious discovery this summer in our garden. Some Frogs have taken up their abode for the last month in two deserted Blackbirds' nests, built in round thick box bushes about two feet from the ground. One Frog is generally to be seen alone sometimes on or near the edge of the nest, sometimes comfortably ensconced in the middle, only his head peeping out. In the other nest there are now always two Frogs."—(E.A.M.; July 20th).
An Anthropological Record, giving statistics of weight and measurement of all boys passing through the College, is a very valuable feature of these Reports. We read that in 1897 "some modifications have been introduced into our practice. The dynamometer test has been discontinued; the results attained by it were very fluctuating, being probably largely influenced by the condition of the subject on the particular day, and it has also been found difficult to get boys to pull to their full capacity, the action being unfamiliar. The chest measurement hitherto taken seems also unsatisfactory, as it is difficult to determine when the chest is really normally expanded, neither too full nor too empty. In place of these we have now substituted two chest measurements; one of the chest expanded to its fullest capacity, and one taken when it is emptied as far as possible. The mean of these two measurements may be regarded in practice as indicating the normal girth, and the difference between them gives a measure of the total capacity of expansion, and may be taken as an index of the efficiency of respiration."
"He remarked on the enormous length of time and the large extent to which fishing had been carried on for the commercial sponge, the red coral, trepangs, the lob- worm, and similar marketable forms of fish life, and he said it was very interesting and instructive to find that after ages of eager pursuit there is as yet no sign of the extinction of these species. For ages man has gathered the sedentary and creeping shellfishes, such as Mussels, Cockles, Periwinkles, for food and bait, often without the slightest restriction, as in the case of the Periwinkle and Limpet; yet extinction has not ensued in the much-abused and easily reached Mussel, which has suffered, on the one hand, from reckless fishing, and, on the other, from the very varied suppositions of Mussel-merchants and politicians. In dealing with food fishes, he remarked that at first sight it seems almost incredible that such species as the Cod, Haddock, Whiting, Herring, Plaice, and Sole could withstand the vast annual drain caused by the operations of fishermen. Yet at this moment all these species in the open seas present as wide a distribution, and, in some, as little diminution in numbers, as if the constant persecution of man had not been. It is true that the large examples of the common species of food-fishes become fewer by persistent fishing, but it cannot be said that, in the case of either round or flat fishes in the majority of the areas, signs of extinction are apparent. Even, if, in the waters within a reasonable distance of land, fishing were carried to such a degree that it would be no longer profitable to pursue it, it is possible that the adjoining areas and the wonderful powers of increase of the few fishes remaining would by-and-by people the waters as before, because everything in the sea around, including the plentitude of food—so nicely fitted for every stage of growth—would conduce to this end. It has apparently been beyond man's power either to reduce to vanishing point or greatly to increase the yield of the open sea. The larger forms of such species as the Halibut, for instance, may be thinned by constant attacks, but the race continues as before with a resilience and pertinacity none the less sure that they are often doubted and may be denied."
The Syndics of the Cambridge University Press have undertaken the publication of a series of monographs upon material obtained by Dr. Arthur Willey, Balfour Student of the University of Cambridge, from New Britain, the Loyalty Islands, and other Islands of the South Pacific during the years 1895-1897 inclusive. The work will embody the zoological results of the expedition, and will, it is expected, be completed in five or six parts.