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HA RD WICKE' S SCIENCE- G OS SIP. 



of the moon recur, as the astronomers of Sargon, 

 Thales, and others of the Grecian schools were more 

 or less aware, nor is it nineteen or seventeen years. 

 But what wonders have we here ? Only multiply 

 eighteen by two hundred and we have the saros, which 

 divided by six represents the neros or twelve jubilees 

 of the antediluvians; or multiplied by twelve, adding 

 naughts to taste, becomes the approved cycle of the 

 Brahmins. To find the deluge and conflagration 

 years of Aristarchus, we must multiply eighteen by 

 one hundred, but to find the same epoch of Herodotus 

 and Sinus, six hundred is our factor ; whereas to 

 attain to that of Cassandrus, we must multiply 

 seventeen by six thousand. These numbers, and many 

 more, may however be fortunately referred to one 

 idea, namely an endeavour to calculate the time the 

 earth takes to sway to and fro, called the procession 

 of the equinoxes, which with the change in its course 

 round the sun, known as its ellipticity or eccentricity, 

 is now employed by geologists to account for eras of 

 ice with a golden age between them. The modern 

 astrologers took their cue from physicians such as 

 Hippocrates, and imagined that the seasons hastening 

 on in their sevens and nines must impart to a man's 

 life an impetus to journey on independently in like 

 fashion, with a stress upon the seven times nine, and 

 seven times ten of Daniel the prophet ; so that now 

 the heir must come of age at one-and-twenty, and the 

 family cat must have its nine lives, although the 

 fundamental laws are far more evident, perchance in 

 the periods of utero-gestation, incubation, and 

 pupation, than marked in tables of assurance. The 

 little cycles of the seasons may also be referred to as 

 golden ages, and compared with the average sun- 

 spot series of eights and threes. Pliny thus mentions 

 cycles of four and eight years ; and the saros computed 

 at the Druidical nineteen, or the twelve-year cycles 

 of Turkistan presided over by bird and beast, at the 

 moment occur. The Chiapenec language is akin to the 

 Hebrew — votan is " to give," and ben a " son :/' conse- 

 quently the fifty-two-year cycle of the Mexicans may 

 claim common derivation with the jubilee, and be 

 referred to Joseph and the Nile banks : but the 

 jubilee series being lunar, counts its fifties as forty- 

 nine, and to all intents and purposes was an even 

 series of seven years ; whereas the Mexican eras look 

 like a mistake. Finding that the labels to certain 

 Assyrian tablets read much like the items in the 

 Bibliothecae Sloanianse, — " Blessing which follow the 

 sun and moon being together on the tenth ; Portents 

 from the flight of locusts," — I ventured to inquire of 

 Mr. Pinches whether a translation of this ancient sun 

 lore was available, when he good-naturedly gave me 

 to understand that the mysteries of the saros had in a 

 measure floored the staff of Orientalists, so that possibly 

 the Assyrians, like others, were most bewitched when 

 they least understood. — A. If. Siuintoii. 



Cocoa-nuts and Seeds. — On examining the fruit 

 of a germinating cocoa-nut a few days ago, 1 observed 

 that a number of small fruits (seeds) were entangled 

 within the fibres at the base of the cocoa-nut, near 

 the point from which the young shoot springs ; around 

 this spot the outer skin is slightly broken. Some of 

 these seeds, amongst which I recognised millet and 

 hemp, whilst still within the husk, have germinated. 

 The occurrence of these seeds in this position may, 

 of course, have been accidental ; but if frequently 

 occurring, it appears possible that seeds may thus be 

 transported from one spot to another. I do not 

 remember any reference in the works of Darwin or 

 of any other writer to this particular mode of trans- 

 portation and preservation of seeds. — The Infirmary, 

 Southampton. 



Collecting Birds' Eggs in "Clutches." — 

 In Science-Gossip for June, 'Mr J. P. Nunn 

 appears as a champion of the clutch collecting cause, 

 and another correspondent inveighs against that 

 cause, but does not go into the question at all. As 

 the subject is now brought before the readers of 

 Science-Gossip, I should like to see it thoroughly 

 thrashed out. Mr. Nunn does not produce a single 

 argument in favour of clutch collecting ; his letter 

 consisting chiefly of reflections upon the variety 

 collector. First let me state plainly that I protest 

 against making a collection of clutches, but not 

 against ever taking the whole clutch of eggs from a 

 nest. In many cases it is the best course for the 

 collector, and even for the bird too, that all the eggs 

 should be taken : it is best for the collector, because 

 in some cases he can, without really doing any harm 

 to the avifauna of his district, considerably increase 

 the value of his own collection, and perhaps that of 

 his friends' collections also, by taking all the eggs ; 

 it is best for the bird because in some cases, e.g. 

 early in the season, she will, if robbed of her first set 

 of eggs, set to work to produce a second, and in due 

 time bring forth a whole brood of young, instead of 

 half, which would have been ithe case if half only of 

 her first set of eggs had been taken. The collector 

 must use his own discretion according to the particular 

 circumstances of each individual case. I maintain 

 that egg-collecting is of great use to the student of 

 ornithology ; it increases his interest in and know- 

 ledge of the birds he is studying. What man has 

 ever become a naturalist of authority without having 

 at some period of his life collected specimens of that 

 branch of Natural History which he studied ? There 

 always will be men who will collect birds' eggs, and 

 humanitarian naturalists would do better by trying 

 to keep the collectors within due limits, than by 

 trying to prevent their collecting at all, as some 

 attempt to do. To return to Mr. Nunn's letter ; 

 he says that a collection of eggs not in clutches 

 " serve no purpose in showing what eggs really are." 

 This is quite ridiculous, — eggs are eggs whether they 

 are single specimens or in clutches, and I hold that a 

 series of twelve eggs of one species of bird, showing 

 so many different varieties of the egg of that bird, is 

 far more interesting and instructive than that number 

 composed of, say three clutches, showing probably 

 only four or five varieties of the egg. In order to 

 show twelve distinct varieties of an egg, the, clutch 

 collector would have to keep about forty or fifty 

 pecimens. This illustration shows plainly whether 

 clutch or variety collecting is most beneficial to the 

 birds themselves. Mr. Nunn is no doubt correct 

 when he says that a pair of birds can just as easily 

 rear a full brood as a part only, but at the same time 

 we must not overlook the fact that when the whole 

 set of eggs is taken late in the season the birds will 

 not nest again ; had only half the eggs been taken, 

 there would, at any rate, have been half a brood of 

 birds brought in the world. Mr. Nunn then proceeds 

 to recommend collectors who are not of his style of 

 collecting, to content themselves with plates of eggs 

 and "leave the birds in possession of their jewels." 

 Apparently unless we are greedy enough to want the 

 whole clutch of eggs we ought not to have any at 

 all ! It is true, as Mr. Nunn says, that in the same 

 clutch two or even three type^ of eggs are frequently 

 found ; but the two or three types, in a collection, 

 would represent the egg of the particular species 

 quite as well as the whole clutch would. I contend 

 that clutch collecting is very selfish and quite useless : 

 selfish because the clutch collector keeps a superfluous 

 number of specimens, and, instead of dividing the 

 contents of a nest with an ornithological friend, 



