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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



A unique collection of migrating birds 

 formed at Heligoland during forty years by 

 Herr Gatke has been bought for England by 

 Mr. Henry Sebohm, and is to be deposited 

 in the natural history department of the 

 British Museum. 



Observations made on Venus to test the 

 conclusions of M. Sehiaparelli respecting its 

 rotation, indicate that the rotation is slow, 

 and is made in such a way that the relative 

 position of the spots and terminator do not 

 go through any notable change during many 

 days ; that the time of rotation of the planet 

 does not differ more than thirty days from 

 its sidereal period of revolution (about 225 

 days) ; and that the axis of rotation of the 

 planet is almost perpendicular to the plane 

 of its orbit. These conclusions support those 

 deduced by Sehiaparelli from an extended 

 discussion of all the observations of the 

 planet. 



A curious instance of protective mim- 

 icry in a toad is described by Mr. Robert 

 Snordy, of Durham, England. The muscles 

 of the batrachian's body were (as usual) 

 arranged in such a fashion that the back of 

 its head " looked like minute nodules of 

 dark gravel imbedded in a damp path below 

 trees." On top of this gravel-like arrange- 

 ment of muscles was spread a mesh or net- 

 work of very fine lichen, with oval-shaped 

 leaves of lightish - green color, connected 

 more or less to each other by a hair-like 

 process of stems. This lichen spread irreg- 

 ularly over the toad's back, and odd sprays 

 of it were also to be seen on the legs and 

 upper surfaces of the feet. "Now," says 

 Mr. Snordy, " had the toad been in its regu- 

 lar haunts under t e trees and shrubs, with 

 this wonderful counterfeit of gravel and 

 protective coloring, it would have been al- 

 most impossible to discriminate its form 

 from the dark gravel, lichens, moss, wood, 

 sorrel, and dead leaves of the place; and I 

 doubt not that this animal's unobtrusive at- 

 tire would aid it materially in capturing the 

 insects necessary for its subsistence." 



In Paris compressed air is supplied to 

 houses through pipes for working elevators, 

 and also for refrigerating purposes. 



An Edinburgh physician writes to the 

 London Times that he has driven a horse, 

 without shoes, on a tour of over four hundred 

 miles, and afterward used him on paved and 

 macadamized streets, without the animal 

 showing any signs of lameness or tenderness. 

 With two larger horses the experiment failed. 

 In slippery weather the unshod horse proves 

 far more sure-footed than a horse with rough- 

 ened shoes. The doctor concludes that where 

 the growth of the hoofs is strong and rapid, 

 horses are the better for not being shod, es- 

 pecially in the country. The front of the 

 hoofs may have to be rasped away a little, 

 but the sole of the foot is left untouched. 



The ratio of the circumference to the 

 diameter of the circle was calculated by 

 Archimedes as 22 : 7 ; P. Metius made it 

 355 : 113. Now Shanks has fixed it, after a 

 very long calculation, as far as 530 deci- 

 mals, and Rutherford has verified his results 

 up to the 440th decimal. Omitting the in- 

 teger and taking only the fractional part of 

 w, in the decimal notation, he has found 

 that the first twenty figures added together 

 give 100 ; the alternate figures in the odd 

 series (first, third, etc.) give 45 ; and the 

 alternates of the even series (second, fourth, 

 etc.) give 55. A curious triple coincidence, 

 but one that has no meaning. 



A number of experiments on the com- 

 parative palatability of insects, etc., are re- 

 corded in Nature, by E. B. Tichener and F. 

 Finn. The insects experimented upon 

 consisting of beetles, moths, bees, etc. were 

 offered to domestic mice, common toads, 

 and a common mynah (Acridolheres tristis). 

 The results evinced considerable variability 

 and some caprice in the tastes of the ani- 

 mals fed, but do not indicate that their ap- 

 petites were voracious for the delicacies 

 given them. The stronger beetles were 

 taken with some hesitation. The mice de- 

 clined to take bumble-bees ; the mynah ate 

 wasps greedily; the toads readily took wasps 

 and bees, and were often stung, without 

 seeming to pay much attention to the acci- 

 dent. The cockroach was eaten by the 

 toads. The mynah for a long time refused 

 it, and only took it, as well as the earth- 

 worm, finally, in the dearth of other insects. 

 A few centipeds were given to the mice and 

 the mynah, but were never eaten, though the 

 mice, in one case, eagerly seized and killed a 

 large specimen. 



A striking example of law-making de- 

 feating its own purpose is furnished in India, 

 where a bounty offered for killing poisonous 

 serpents has led the natives to breed the 

 reptiles as a source of income. This recalls a 

 former practice in Australia, where a reward 

 was paid in one district for the feet of rab- 

 bits, and in another district for their heads. 

 As a result the heads and feet became ob- 

 jects of exchange between the inhabitants of 

 the two sections. 



An instance of transmission of an ac- 

 quired mental peculiarity is given by Pastor 

 Handtmann, of Seedorf on the Elbe, to the 

 German Anthropological Society. It occurred 

 in the case of a farmer who always wrote 

 his first name " Austug " instead of " Au- 

 gust," and his daughter. Inspecting the 

 school, some years after his first acquaint- 

 ance with it, the author heard a little girl 

 read "Leneb" for " Leben," "Naled"for 

 " Nadel," etc. She was the daughter. The 

 farmer had been remarkable for his habit 

 of shifting the consonant sounds of words, 

 which had originated in a fall some time be- 

 fore the birth of the daughter. 



