AN ORNITHOLOGICAL JOURNEY IN MOROCCO IN 1951.

Only one other ornithologist has investigated the bird-life immediately south of the Great Atlas Range, when Col. Meinertzhagen journeyed from Taroudant to Ksar es Souk in the autumn. We were the first ornithologists to cross the desert between Ksar es Souk and the Grand Erg Occidental by way of Boudenib and Colomb Béchar and to have undertaken the desert journey from Ouarzazate to the Algerian frontier in the early months of the year and list the birds encountered en route.
Pterocles coronatus was added to the list of Moroccan buds and significant extensions of range were recorded for the following species: Eremophila bilopha, Oenanthe leucopyga, Oe. moesta, Diplootocus mussieri, Phoenicurus ochrurus, Ammomanes cinctura (arenicolor), Hirundo daurica (rufula), Riparia paludicola and Argja fulva .
An account is given of three days' intense migration witnessed at Tangier when during a levante Black Kites and Montagu's Harriers were seen coming to shore from the Atlantic, the Harriers in an exhausted condition.
Of interest was the early date, 12 February, when Swallows were passing north in hundreds along the western seaboard.
The season in Morocco in January, February and March was a late one and migration across the desert and over the Atlas had barely commenced. The main route of migrants coming north, in so far as we saw it , followed the coast line, but that some migrants cross the Great Atlas range up to 6500 ft. was proved by Chaworth-Musters in the spring of 1937.
We were struck by the paucity of vultures throughout Morocco.     

ANALYSIS OF PETAL VENATION IN RANUNCULUS. I. ANASTOMOSES IN R. REPENS V. PLENIFLORUS

Arnott , Howard J., and Shirley C. Tucker . (Northwestern U., Evanston, Ill.) Analysis of petal venation in Ranunculus. I. Anastomoses in R. repens v. pleniflorus. Amer. Jour. Bot. 50(8): 821–830. Illus. 1963.—The venation patterns of 1218 petals of Ranunculus repens v. pleniflorus were analyzed, with particular attention to the number and position of vein anastomoses. The essentially open dichotomous vascular pattern is complicated by the presence of vein fusions in 69.4% of the petals. The anastomosis ratio (number of anastomoses/number of appendages) is, therefore, high (1.37), compared to a maximal 0.61 for Ginkgo leaves. Of the petals having such fusions, 55.3% have more than 1 anastomosis; the maximal number of fusions found per petal is 8. The presence of anastomoses shows a high degree of correlation with petal size and petal lobing. The types of fusions (types A, B, C, D) are identical with those found in Ginkgo leaves, with the addition of 2 modifications of type C. Curiously, types C and D account for 98.7% of the total anastomoses, while types A and B are rare. An analysis of the location of each type within the petal shows that type C's are disproportionately numerous along the distal periphery, and that type-D fusions are unusually numerous in the central and basal regions. Such evidence suggests that the occurrence of a vein fusion is no “accident,” but rather that it is one manifestation of morphogenetic control.