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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



trician, confronted by so many unfamiliar 

 terms — technical terms of everyday use — 

 that he would at once cry out for greater 

 simplicity of language." In the geological 

 sciences the technicalities play the same part 

 they do in the arts and in business. Every 

 new name in geology, however, must be prop- 

 erly defined before it can be noticed, and its 

 subsequent career will depend on its utility. 

 It may be said that no greater boon to the 

 working geologist has been devised than the 

 plan of designating geographically geological 

 units irrespective of exact position or age. 

 Since its adoption a vast mass of valuable 

 information has been obtained that was pre- 

 viously unthought of, and is in a shape to 

 be always used ; the other departments of 

 geology have been much aided, and strati- 

 graphical geology has been greatly helped. 



The Origin of a Cnrions Habit.— The 



following paragraphs are taken from a recent 

 Nature. It is well known that the kea, or 

 mountain parrot of New Zealand, has ac- 

 quired the habit of attacking sheep, and 

 making holes by means of its sharp and pow- 

 erful beak in the backs of these animals for 

 the purpose of abstracting the kidney fat, 

 which appears to be esteemed as a luxurious 

 diet. It is supposed that this peculiar habit 

 or instinct was developed by the bird getting 

 the fat from the skins of sheep that had been 

 slaughtered, but this solution is not very sat- 

 isfactory, as there appears nothing to connect 

 the fat on the skins of sheep with the live 

 animals. In a note published in the Zoologist 

 (May 16th), Mr. F. R. Godfrey, writing from 

 Melbourne, offers the following solution of the 

 mystery, which seemed to him to be simple 

 and satisfactory, and more rational than the 

 skeepskin theory : In the hilly districts of 

 the middle island of New Zealand there is 

 a great abundance of a white moss, or lichen, 

 which exactly resembles a lump of white 

 wool, at the roots of which are found small 

 white fatty substances, supposed by some to 

 be the seeds of the plant, and by others to 

 be a grub or maggot which infests it, which 

 is the favorite food of the kea. Probably 

 the bird, misled by this resemblance, com- 

 menced an exploration in sheep, and this 

 proving satisfactory, originated the new habit. 

 In a note to this suggestion the editor points 

 out that Mr. Godfrey is in agreement with 



another observer — Mr. F. R. Chapman— who 

 in describing the hills of this island says : 

 "A very interesting raoulia, or vegetable 

 sheep, was very plentiful on steep, rocky 

 places. ... It is said that the keas tear 

 them up with their powerful beaks, and that 

 these birds learned to eat mutton through 

 mistaking dead sheep for masses of raoulia." 



Changes in Plant Characters. — From ex- 

 periments upon the cultural evolution of 

 Cyclamen lafifolium, W. T. Thiselton Dyer 

 finds that, when once specific stability has 

 been broken down in a plant, morphological 

 changes of great variety and magnitude can 

 be brought about in a comparatively short 

 space of time. It appears that though sud- 

 den variations do occur, they are, as far as 

 we know, slight as long as self-fertilization 

 is adhered to. The striking results obtained 

 by cultivators have been due to the patient 

 accumulation by selection of gradual but con- 

 tinuous variation in any desired direction. 

 The size which any variable organ can reach 

 does not appear to be governed by any prin- 

 ciple of correlation. Large flowers are not 

 necessarily accompanied by large leaves. 

 The general tendency of a plant varying 

 freely under artificial conditions seems to be 

 atavistic — or to shed adaptive modifications 

 which have ceased to be useful, and to revert 

 to a more generalized type, or to reproduce 

 characters which are already present in other 

 members of the same group. But this state- 

 ment must be accepted with caution. The 

 most remarkable phenomenon in the cultiva- 

 tion of the Cyclamen is the development of 

 a plume or crest on the inner surface of each 

 corolla segment. This shows that the plant 

 still possesses the power to strike out a new 

 line and to develop characters which would 

 even be regarded as having specific value. 



Hanging an Elephant. — One of the ele- 

 phants in Barnum and Bailey's show, having 

 repeatedly shown signs of insubordination 

 and bad temper, it was finally decided to kill 

 him. From a note in Nature we get the 

 following account of his execution : After 

 considerable discussion it was decided to 

 strangle him. A new Manila rope was 

 loosely wound three times around his neck, 

 and his legs, fully stridden, were securely 

 chained each to a post firmly driven into the 



