attempted to throw upon Kühne's conclusions with regard to the red colour of mammalian muscular tissue were rendered of less significance than before." Then follows a long series of researches by Mr. Lankester himself, which are Ilustrated by an excellent plate.-[Over from the last Number of P. S. R.] The Honey-making Ant of North Mexico.-A paper on this subject has been read before the Academy of Sciences, Philadelphia, on April 21, by Mr. Edwards. The community is divided into three classes-the workers, arriers, and the honey-makers. The workers are much larger than the others, and of a black colour; they guard the nest and convey to it the materials from which the honey is made; these they deposit in a leaf over the centre of the nest, and from this leaf it is transported by the carriers to he honey-makers in the interior of the nest. The carriers are much smaller than the workers, and of a light brown colour. The honey-makers resemble the carriers in size and colour, with the exception of the enlarged abdomen. They are found in the centre of the nest, generally at a depth of two or three feet from the surface. They are supported on a sort of web made of closely woven fibres. Each ant occupies a superficial indentation in the web in which it remains. In fact, all locomotion in the honey-makers is impossible, as the distended abdomen, which constitutes the honey-bag, is at least twenty times as large as the rest of the body. The honey is of a fine flavour, and much sought after by the natives.

What are Instinctive Actions?—This is really, to the thoughtful man, who is learned on the subject, the most intensely difficult question. A paper on t his question appears, from the pen of Mr. George Henry Lewis, in "Nature," April 10, and is well worthy of perusal. He (Mr. Lewis) states, among other things, that the fact that we require some character to distinguish the instinctive from the impulsive actions, may be readily shown. No one calls breathing, secretion, excretion, &c., instincts. Yet these are the actions of congenital tendencies in the organism. "A hungry chick," says Mr. Spalding, "that never tasted food, is able, on seeing a fly or spider for the first time, to bring into action muscles that never were so exercised before, and to perform a series of delicately adjusted movements that end in the capture of the insect." Every one would pronounce this a typical case of instinct. Now compare with it the following, which no one would class among the instincts: A new-born animal that has never breathed before is able, on first feeling the stimulus of the atmosphere, to bring into action a very complicated group of muscles which never were so exercised before, and to perform a series of delicately adjusted movements which end in the aëration and circulation of the blood. This contrast may lead us to the character sought. Understanding that every line of demarcation in psychical phenomena must be more or less arbitrary, and only justified by its convenience, we may draw such a line between impulse and instinct. Impulses are the actions which from the first were fatal, inevitable, being simply the direct reflex of the stimulated organs. Given the respiratory organs and the atmosphere, respiration is the inevitable result. Given the secretory organ and the plasma, secretion is the inevitable result. There is no choice, the action either takes place or it does not.

The Lemurs not related to the Apes.-Professor Milne Edwards has made an important discovery. It seems that he has prosecuted an extensive series

of observations on "The Embryology of the Lemurians and the zoological affinities of those animals ;" and he finds that the placental system differs so widely from that of the simiæ, with which they have been supposed to present very close relationships, that he is of opinion the lemurs should take an intermediate, but wholly distinct, place between monkeys and carnivores.

A Change of Habits in an Animal.—At the Academy of Sciences, Philadelphia, February 18, Mr. T. C. Gentry called attention to what he considered to be an interesting case of a change of habits which had recently occurred in the life of an ordinary chickaree, the Scinus hudsonius, of Pallas. During the early part of last autumn, his attention was called to the fact that the birds in a certain designated locality of Mount Airy, during the hours of the night, were undergoing a system of wholesale destruction, the work of small animals which were supposed to belong to some species of carnivora. Labouring under this impression, and being desirous of securing a specimen or two, he started for the scene of slaughter, bent upon discovering the name and character of the animal; when within a few rods of the place, the almost deafening noise that greeted his ears from the tall trees led him to suspect that all was not right. After reaching the spot, a few moments of anxious waiting sufficed to reveal to him the cause of the noise and the origin of the sacrifice above alluded to; for, sitting upon a twig just above his head, he observed a chickaree, holding in its paw a bird which it had captured, and from which it was very contentedly sucking the life It is a well-established fact, he further remarked, as far as he had been able to verify it, that the numerous species of rodents, with but two exceptions at the most, subsist principally or entirely upon vegetable matter, especially the hard parts of plants, such as nuts, bark, and roots. This habit of imitating the propensities of the Mustelide, he thought might have arisen from the habit which some squirrels possess, possibly the one under consideration, of sucking the eggs of birds; the blood-sucking habit he assumed to be an outgrowth from the other. This adoption of another's mode of life by S. hudsonius, he thought a discovery of some note, as usurpation of habits, leading to functional and structural changes in an animal's economy, is accounted an element of no mean weight in the development hypothesis, according to the testimony of able writers upon evolution.

current.

The Sexes of Sphæroma.—In a recent memoir on Crustacea on the Coast of France, published in the "Annales des Sciences Naturelles," 5a série, tome xvii. 1872-3, M. Hesse has, with considerable hesitation, advanced the opinion that Sphæroma is only the female of Cymodocea, and that Dynamene is the female of Næsea. The hesitation of this author rests upon the fact, that the evidence in his possession was unsatisfactory and negative in character; and he laments his ill success in raising the young of these animals, significantly remarking of the offspring of Sphæroma, which he raised as far as the third moult, "Lorsque ces Crustacés sont parvenus à ce degré de transformation, ils ont la forme de leur mère, c'est-à-dire celle des Spheromiens." In the case of Dynamene and Næsea less hesitation is expressed, and the absence, so far as known, of the former genus from the American coast, cannot be considered as conclusive against the proposition. Neither has Cymodocea yet been obtained so far as Professor Verril knows

on our coast, but Sphæroma quadridentata [Say] is not uncommon on the coast of New England south of Cape Cod; and, in any considerable collection of these animals, both sexes may be easily found.-Prof. Verril in "Silliman's Journal," April,

The Classification of Mammals.-Mr. Theodore Gill has published a work on this subject in America, which has been issued by the Smithsonian Institution. It is yet, however, incomplete. The part published contains, (1) a list of the families and higher groups of mammals, with some of their synonyms; (2) Bibliography of the works referred to; (3) Synoptical Tables of Characters of the subdivisions of Mammals, with a catalogue of the Genera. The Synoptical Tables are completed only to the end of the Cete. This part of the work gives a very convenient epitome of the principal characters of the groups, and it is to be hoped that it will soon be completed.

A Peculiar Degraded Race of Man has been explored, so to speak, by M. Lagardelle, who communicates through M. Hamy, one of the secretaries of the Anthropological Society of Paris, some curious information in regard to the habitations of the degraded people known under the names of Colliberts, huttiers, &c., who for many ages occupied the marshy lands of Poitou, near the mouths of the Sèvre, and whose descendants were known till recently as nioleurs. This district was occupied by Gauls before the Norman Conquest, and after that event it became, from its inaccessible character, a place of refuge for fugitives. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries the Colliberts, whose special occupation was fishing, were dependent, as homines conditionales, on several religious houses, but were nevertheless left in a state of heathen, almost savage, ignorance. Their huts were made of inter

laced willow twigs, and their only means of locomotion before the formation of the network of canals, which have proved the chief agents in rescuing them from their isolation, were their long ash-stilts and the so-called nioles, or light boats, from which they took their name.

The Animals dredged in Lake Ontario in 1872.—Mr. Alleyne Nicholson, who lately gave a brief account in the "Annals” of his labours, now prints a fuller description of these in the "Canadian Journal." This is fully analysed in "Silliman's Journal" for May, by Prof. A. E. Verril, who says that "the dredgings were all in shallow water as compared with those made by Mr. S. I. Smith in Lake Superior in 1871. The greater part of the species were obtained in Toronto Bay, where the depth was from 1 to 3 fathoms. Some dredgings were also made in the open lake, where the water was from 8 to 40 or 50 fathoms deep. But in most of the deeper dredgings very few animals were found. The list of animals obtained includes 43 species, of which 21 are shells, and 6 fishes and reptiles. The minute species are omitted. The shells are all inhabitants of shallow water, and most of them are species that are widely distributed in the fresh waters of the northern United States and Canada. Valvata tricarinata was the only species found living at depths as great as 8 fathoms; all the others were from less than 4 or 5 fathoms. Three species of leeches are described and figured as new. One of these, Clepsine patelliformis, appears to be perfectly identical with C. elegans, described by me in this Journal, vol. iii. p. 132, Feb. 1872.

The colour differs slightly from the variety originally

described; but the colour-variety that he describes is not uncommon at New Haven. Prof. Nicholson states that this species carries the young attached to the ventral surface by means of their posterior sucker, and thinks that this is a remarkable habit. He says, 'This extraordinary habit of carrying the young has been noticed by Prof. Verril in another species of Clepsine; but I am not aware that attention has otherwise been drawn to it.' In the paper by me, to which he refers (this Journal, Feb., 1872), I gave this habit as a generic character (as many other writers had done before me), saying (p. 127), 'The young adhere in a group to the posterior part of the lower surface of the body of the parent, by means of the posterior sucker, and before quitting the parent, usually present the essential characters, and often nearly the pattern of colour of the adult, though paler.' And in describing the species, the attached young of four species were mentioned, and more or less fully described."

Habits of Ants Displaying Considerable Intelligence.-Mr. Darwin has received a letter from J. D. Hague, which, as it contains facts of interest, he has sent to "Nature," April 10, for publication. Among other points of interest in the communication is the following account :-" One day I observed a number of ants, perhaps thirty or forty, on the shelf at the foot of the vase. Thinking to kill them I struck them lightly with the end of my finger, killing some and disabling the rest. The effect of this was immediate and unexpected. As soon as those ants that were approaching arrived near to where their fellows lay dead and suffering, they turned and fled with all possible haste. In half an hour the wall above the mantelshelf was cleared of ants. During the space of an hour or two the colony from below continued to ascend, until reaching the lower bevelled edge of the shelf, at which point the more timid individuals, although unable to see the vase, somehow became aware of trouble and turned about without further investigation; while the more daring advanced hesitatingly just to the upper edge of the shelf, where, extending their antennæ and stretching their necks, they seemed to peep cautiously over the edge until beholding their suffering companions, when they too turned and followed the others, expressing by their behaviour great excitement and terror. An hour or two later the path or trail leading from the lower colony to the vase was almost entirely free from ants. I killed one or two ants on their path, striking them with my finger, but leaving no visible trace. The effect of this was that as soon as an ant ascending towards the shelf reached the spot where one had been killed, it gave signs immediately of great disturbance, and returned directly at the highest speed possible. A curious and invariable feature of their behaviour was, that when such an ant, returning in fright, met another approaching, the two would always communicate, but each would pursue its own way; the second ant continuing its journey to the spot where the first had turned about, and then following that example.”