1941: Zoology

Reports on Aquatic Life.

Dr. A. Svihla of the University of Washington reports the occurrence of freshwater sponges on the Island of Oahu, one of the Hawaiian Islands. This is the first authentic report of these animals from this particular region.

A. M. Phillips and O. M. McCay of the New York State Conservation Department at Cornell University have shown, experimentally, that trout will develop an anemic condition if deprived of certain nutritional substances. Furthermore, they have also shown that fresh liver or liver extracts are effective in alleviating the symptoms. However, they announce that one of the best treatments for this anemia in fish is the feeding of the larvae of the ordinary housefly.

Dr. H. W. Fowler of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences has described a shark, Isistius braziliensis, which is found in most tropical waters. In his description of this shark, he states that it is another of the common marine animal species which produces phosphorescent light. The luminous parts of its body are chiefly confined to the ventral body surface.

Dr. William Beebe of the New York Zoological Park describes the morphology of a young Pacific sailfish Istiophorus greyi. An interesting feature of the young sailfish is that in spite of its small size, it seems to be superficially very much like the full grown fish. He states that the greatly elongated upper jaw and pelvic fins as well as the enormous expanse of the dorsal fin are as characteristic of the 42 mm. specimen as they are of the adult, more than 60 times as long.

Dr. A. M. Banta reports more evidence to show that the angler fish (Lophius piscatorius), while obviously an inhabitant of the bottom, does make excursions to the surface for food. Upon examination, the specimen reported in this case, had eaten a herring gull. Dr. Banta states that, while a few records of the angler fish feeding upon birds are known, the few such American records give this report added interest.

Reports on Reptiles.

Mr. C. M. Bogert of the Department of Herpetology, American Museum of Natural History, reports some interesting observations obtained with rattlesnakes under experimental conditions. He reports that rattlesnakes detect their deadly enemy, the kingsnake, by odor rather than by sight. These experimental studies are of further interest in that they confirm the well-established idea that snakes use their tongues to pick up odoriferous particles and then deposit them into a specialized sense organ, known as Jacobson's organ.

In most textbooks which mention the breathing mechanism of turtles, the statement is usually made that turtles breathe air in a manner essentially similar to frogs. Dr. I. B. Hansen of George Washington University, has recently carried out a series of experiments which indicate that the movements of inhalation and exhalation are performed by distinct respiratory muscles in the body of the turtle and not by the throat.

Dr. F. M. McCutcheon of North Carolina State College has also repeated and supplemented the experiments of Dr. Hansen on turtles. He agrees in general with Dr. Hansen but differs in regard to some of the detailed points. Dr. McCutcheon states that the primary breathing mechanism in turtles is the movement of muscular diaphragms located at each leg pocket in the shell, together with the muscular closure of the opening in the glottis. Furthermore, the hyoid or characteristic throat movements appear, from existing records, to be definitely correlated with sensory rather than respiratory functions, and are almost certainly related to olfaction.

Another long-held zoological doctrine, printed in many books dealing with reproduction in snakes, has also been upset during the past year. The birth of a number of live young to a female ball python at the Hershey Estates Zoological Garden at Hershey, Pa., tends to upset the doctrine that all pythons are egg-laying snakes.

Reports on Birds and Bird Life.

Two male albatrosses were recently brought to the United States by the Mandel Expedition of the Field Museum of Natural History from the Galapagos Islands. These are believed to be the only living specimens of their kind in captivity at this time. This same expedition also brought back over 2,000 skins and preserved specimens representing the fish, reptile and bird faunas of 15 islands in this region.

Three Emperor penguins, large birds of over 4 feet in height, as well as four Gentoo penguins, two kelp gulls and one white giant fulmar were returned to the National Zoological Park from the Antarctica by the Admiral Byrd expedition.

Prof. C. G. Kadner of Loyola University has recently reported that pigeon malaria, for the first time, has been found to occur in California. This disease is transmitted through the bite of a bloodsucking fly and is distributed throughout the southern states and California. Pigeon malaria is capable of causing serious losses to commercial squab farms.

It is a well known fact that adult birds are grouped with mammals as homeothermic or warm-blooded. However, Dr. A. L. Romanoff of Cornell University has recently shown, by means of unique experiments, that the developing chick egg, although producing heat, at first behaves as a poikelothermic or 'cold-blooded' animal. In a few days of incubation the temperature of the egg increases above that of the temperature of the incubator, and the embryo gradually becomes a homeothermic or 'warm-blooded' animal. However, Dr. Romanoff states that the true homeothermy presumably is not acquired by the chick until the fourth or fifth day after hatching.

Reports on Animals and Animal Life.

An unusual discovery of the 1940 field season was an Oligocine rodent remarkable, not only as the largest known rodent of such antiquity, but also as a survivor of a group believed to have become extinct at about the end of the Eocene period. This discovery was also remarkable in that it was found in the White River region of Montana. This new genus and species of rodent was described by Dr. G. G. Simpson of the American Museum of Natural History.

S. E. Aldous of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and J. Manweiler of the United States Soil Conservation Service have made a series of field studies on the diet of the short-tailed weasel in Northern Minnesota. Their figures, representing the contents of a large number of weasels' digestive organs, revealed that over 50 per cent of the food consisted of mice, about 40 per cent of shrews and the remaining 10 per cent included birds, rabbits, squirrels, porcupines and fish.

Dr. Arnold Pictet, a Swiss naturalist, has reported that deer, chamoix and hares found in the alus, show evidence of a goiterous condition. The affliction is brought about by a lack of iodine in the soil and hence a deficiency of the chemical in the animal's food. This worker also reports that the chamoix are often afflicted with another deficiency, namely, calcium and magnesium. This deficiency results in abnormal bone development. The author states that animals congregating in the lowlands escape this deficiency because of the greater abundance of lime in the soil water at the base of the mountains.

The superintendent of a monkey colony on Santiago Island off the coast of Puerto Rico reports that a young gibbon has been born. This is the fourth case on record where these monkeys have given birth to young in captivity after having been transported to the Western hemisphere from their native habitat, Thailand. At present, only one of the four young is alive. The successful increase in this species of monkeys is of special interest to scientists because of their close anatomical relationship to man. See also BIOLOGY.