Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 1 (1897).djvu/213

Rh "The process which went on in the Silurian sea during the formation of the Wenlock limestone was this: the shells and skeletons of the larger marine organisms which existed, collected on the floor of the sea in very small fragments. Whether this condition was due to detrition, or to the fact that the creatures had served as food for large Ganoid fishes," the author has no knowledge. In Carboniferous days microscopic life must have been quite as abundant "as it was in the sea in which the chalk formation took place and in parts of the ocean of to-day." Of the Jurassic period Mr. Wethered refers the formation of the oolitic granules ("roestone") to organic origin.

The microscope has thus fresh fields to conquer; not only the unseen life of the present epoch, but the remains of the minute organisms of a long past.

following note on the breeding of the Caracal or Desert Lynx is taken from our contemporary 'The Field':—"About eighteen months ago (August, 1896), I purchased here a pair of 'Red Cat' kittens, which must then have been about four or five months old. By 'Red Cat,' as we call it out here, I mean the African Lynx, or Caracal. On December 10th last the cat had one kitten, which unfortunately died on the second day after its birth. No one out here seems to have heard of 'Red Cats' breeding in captivity, and so it may be of interest to record it. I am told that they have two kittens at a birth; on this occasion only one was born, which may be accounted for, perhaps, by its being the first litter. The mother is now expecting for the second time, and I hope in a few weeks to report the successful rearing of her second family.— (Vryburg, Bechuanaland, February 1st)."

This note evidently refers to Felis caracal—"Rooi Kat" of the Dutch. Nicolls and Eglington, in their 'Sportsman in South Africa,' well observe that "when its size is taken into consideration, it is justly reputed to be, without exception, the most savage and intractable of the Felidæ. Even when obtained quite young and brought up by hand, it gradually develops a character, so to speak, of pure 'cussedness,' that any attempts to tame it have invariably proved unsuccessful."

the Report of the Superintendent of the National Zoological Park, Washington (Ann. Rept. Smith. Iustit. to July, 1894), published in 1896, and just received, we read that a young Black Bear was "born on Feb. 5, 1894. There are but few opportunities for observing the growth of these animals, as they are rarely born in captivity. The little creature was very small at birth, not larger than a good-sized rat, weighing but nine ounces,