Abstract
THE current number of the Zoologist commences with a notice by the editor, of Mr. Lloyd's “Official Handbook to the Crystal Palace Aquarium.” In an interesting historical sketch of the growth of aquaria, he divides its development during the last forty years into three eras, the earliest being the instructive, the second the poetic and fashionable, and the present the commercial. The early development of the aquarium is then entered into, the work done by Bowerbank, Daubeny, and Warington being fully described. This is followed by a review of Mr. T. J. Moggridge's work on Harvest idea that these insects do accumulate seeds in store-houses for winter consumption is correct, contrary to the assertions of Kirby, Latreile, and other high authorities. What is very peculiar is that these seeds scarcely ever show any tendency to gering Ants and Trapdoor Spiders, in which the author, from a careful and painstaking series of excellent observations on the habits of ants, which are described in detail, shows that the old minate, though under apparently very favourable circumstances.—Mr. Cornish notes the occurrence of the following fish at Penzance:—The Black Fish (Centrolophus pompilus), the Solenette (Monochirus linguatulus), the Braize (Pagrus vulgaris), Bloch's Gurnard (Trigla blochii), and the Torpedo (Raia torpedo). —Mr. F. H. Balkwill, in reply to a critical note which appeared in this journal (NATURE, July 24, p: 252) on a paper by him in the Zoologist for July last, objects to his remarks being thrown into the general form; the fact that the forms and arrangements of teeth in vertebrates is practically infinite, being assumed by him. But that such is very far from being the case will be agreed to by all zoologists; the types and arrangements of teeth being extremely few in comparison to what they might be. The argument does not require, as Mr. Balkwill thinks, the proof of the statement that the teeth of the wombat, dog, &c., should be of low type and simple development, which they are not; and he may be assured that all “genuine Darwinists” are of opinion that when two not distant types of animal life are in a position to occupy new and separate regions, the fact that their food can only be obtained from two sources, namely, animal and vegetable tissues, invariably leads to their divergence in two directions only, that is, towards a carnivorous and a herbivorous conformation. Therefore the non-placental type, on occupying Australasia, as well as the placentalia in the rest of the world, have differentiated into flesh-eaters and vegetable-eaters, each having developed, by natural selection, organs suitable for procuring their accustomed diet. It is not therefore to be wondered at that these organs should present many points of similarity in the two main divisions of the Mammalia.
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Scientific Serials . Nature 8, 395–396 (1873). https://doi.org/10.1038/008395b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/008395b0