EDITORIAL GLEANINGS.
The Bishop of Carpentaria has contributed to 'Nature Notes' some interesting narrative of a journey through Central Australia. We are told that "one of the great enemies of the overland telegraph line is the common Green Frog (probably Hyla ewingii). In order to save the insulators from being broken by the lightning, they are provided with wire 'droppers' leading round them at a little distance to conduct on to the iron pole in case of need. The Frogs climb the poles, and find the insulars cool and pleasant to their bodies, and fancy that the 'dropper' is put there to furnish them with a back seat. After a nap they yawn, and stretch out a leg until it touches the pole—result, sudden death of the Frog; and, as the body continues to conduct the current to earth, we have a paragraph in the papers to the effect 'that in consequence of an interruption to the lines, probably caused by a cyclonic disturbance in the interior, we are unable to present our readers with the usual cables from England'!"
At the Meeting of the Zoological Society, on March 18th, Dr. H. Gadow, F.R.S., F.Z.S., read a paper "On the Evolution of Horns and Antlers." He stated that three main types could be distinguished in the evolution of the ornamental weapons on the heads of Ruminants, and that all these types were referable to an ancient condition in which the beginning weapon, be it one of offence or defence, appeared as a mere exostosis with a thickened skin-pad. This stage resembled that of Dinoceras of the Eocene. Secondly, there was found exostosis of the frontal bone producing a pedicle, surmounted by a cartilaginous mass of apical growth, which by subsequent basal ossification became an antler. Skin originally unaltered and hairy; this, and the chondrostoma or cartilaginous later osseous growth, was shed periodically, and constituted the Cervine type.
A side issue of Type II. was that of pro-Giraffe-like animals. Cartilaginous growth preponderant, with multiple and broadened bases. Ossification delayed, but still proceeding from the base, e.g. the Samotherium of the topmost Miocene. A further development of this type (II.a) was shown by the Giraffe, in which the outgrowth pro-
