1^4 



HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OS SIP. 



scope is focussed with magnifying power, which is a 

 constant quantity for any combination, and which 

 varies only for different combinations. The two 

 terms are frequently confounded, and this has even 

 been done in mathematical Tripos papers ! Neither 

 of them depends on the distinctness with which 

 details of an object are or are not seen.— G. H. 

 Bryan, B.A. 



ZOOLOGY. 



Durham etc., Natural History Society.— 

 Part 2., vol. viii. of the Natural History Transac- 

 tions of Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle 

 upon-Tyne, have just been issued to the members, 

 and comprise the years 1882, 1883, and 1884. 

 Although this part is not so extensive as many of the 

 previous issues, yet it contains some highly important 

 and interesting matter, among which may be men- 

 tioned a number of letters, extending from the years 

 1849 to 1853, by the late Charles Darwin, Esq., to the 

 late Albany Hancock, Esq., an eminent naturalist. 

 These letters were written about the time that Darwin 

 was occupied with a monograph of the Cirripedia, 

 which was afterwards published by the Ray Society- 

 Mr. Hancock having discovered a form of burrowing 

 barnacle {Alcippc lampus) on the Northumberland 

 coast, which he afterwards described in a paper com- 

 municated by him to the British Association, at the 

 meeting held at Birmingham in 1849, and this appears 

 ±0 have originated the correspondence between these 

 two eminent naturalists. The part now issued com- 

 prises the following papers : — Presidential Address 

 to the Members of the Tyneside Naturalists' Field 

 Club, by the Rev. Canon Wheeler, M.A., giving a 

 detailed account, agreeably to a rule of the club, of the 

 several meetings held during the year 1882 up to May 

 1883. — Next come Miscellanea, which contains a note 

 by Mr. John Hancock, on the habit of the young 

 cuckoo in ejecting the eggs and young of its foster- 

 parent from the nest. This is a highly interesting 

 paper, and should it come under the notice of those 

 sceptical ornithologists, I think all doubts would be 

 removed from their minds as to the action of the 

 young cuckoos as written by Mr. Hancock. He 

 takes nothing on hearsay ; everything he states was 

 witnessed by himself ; he was residing at Oaklands, 

 in Surrey, at the time, June 1S83, and found a 

 cuckoo's egg in the nest of a hedge accenter on the 17th 

 of that month with four of its own eggs. He watched 

 the nest daily, and on the 27th June, the cuckoo's 

 egg, and two eggs of the accenter were hatched. On 

 the following day one attempt of the young cuckoo to 

 put out accenter's egg did not succeed ; at 10.30 A.M. 

 same day, first egg was put out of the nest, at 11 A.M. 

 the first young accenter was pushed out ; at 1. p.m. 

 the second egg was pushed out in the presence of 



three witnesses. The last of the lot, the second 

 young accenter was ejected, between 1 and 3 o'clock. — 

 Note on the Indian Form of the Spotted Eagle {Aquila 

 ntzria) 1S85, by Mr. John Hancock. — Lichen Memora- 

 bilia, 1884, by Rev. W. Johnson. — Note on the 

 Birds seen at Nut House, Felling shore, in May and 

 June, 1884, by Dr. Embleton.— Note on the occurrence 

 of Shrimps in the Tyne, by Dr. Embleton. — Note on 

 the visit of a shoal of Tunny to the Northumberland 

 Coast, in June, 1884, by Mr. Richard Howse,[alsoby 

 same on the capture of a very large Tunny near the 

 mouth of the Tyne, August, 1S85. — Presidential 

 Address of Alexander S. Stevenson, Esq., describing 

 the meetings of the Club during the year 1883 up to 

 May, 1884.— Presidential Address of G. H. Phillipson, 

 Esq., M.D., D.C.L. — giving a detailed account of 

 the proceedings at the meetings held during 1884 up 

 to May, 1885. The concluding paper of this part is 

 by Dr. Embleton, entitled The Tyne, The Lost 

 Burn and the Stain, a very learned paper showing 

 great research into the origin of these names by the 

 author. — Diptoti Burn. 



ANIMAL PSYCHOLOGY. 



Migration of Birds. -^Since I penned the note 

 under this heading on page 42 of this year's volume, 

 I have came across the following note in Paley's 

 " Theology " : — " Observation seems at variance with 

 the notion of the older birds teaching the yearlings ; 

 indeed, the two classes have been found not to travel 

 together. But the agitation universally observed 

 in birds of passage kept in cages at the season 

 of migration proves clearly that no experience nor 

 instruction will account for the changes of place." 

 Now, as this note was written some time before 1836, 

 I should like to know whether there is any recent 

 and satisfactory evidence from a reliable source 

 which confirms the above observation ? The follow- 

 ing account of the migration of the fur-seals abso- 

 lutely satisfies me how untenable my position is — 

 irrespective of the remarks of T. W. Ogilvie : — 

 "The instinct which guides the fur-seals back every 

 year to their breeding islands is miraculous. The 

 breeding places of these seals are confined to five 

 islands in the North Pacific. All through the 

 winter they disport themselves in the waters of the 

 Facific ; in the spring they begin travelling north- 

 wards, and arrive nearly the same day every year, 

 May 12th, at the islands. It seems that the seal 

 almost always returns to the island on which it has 

 been born, although not necessarily to the same 

 rookery, and the date of its appearance is one of 

 considerable regularity." Now there can be no 

 salient features to direct seals in their course ; nor do 

 I consider that we have any reason to suppose that 

 their intellect is in any way inferior to that of a bird. 



