142 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



on the whole, one of the darkest chapters 

 in the colonization of Australia. " Every- 

 Avhcre and always we find the same 

 process: the whites arrive and settle in 

 the hunting grounds of the blacks, who 

 have frequented them since the remotest 

 time. They raise paddocks, which the 

 blacks are forbidden to enter. They 

 breed cattle, which the blacks are not 

 allowed to approach. Then it happens 

 that these stupid savages do not know 

 how to distinguish between a marsupial 

 and a placental animal, and spear a calf 

 or a cow instead of a kangaroo, and tlie 

 Avhite man takes revenge for this mis- 

 deed by systematically killing all the 

 blacks that come before his gun. This, 

 again, the natives take amiss, and thi'ow 



a spear into his back wlien he rides 

 through the bush, or invade his house 

 when he is absent, killing his family and 

 servants. Then arrive the ' native po- 

 lice,' a troop of blacks from another 

 district, headed by a white officer. They 

 know the tricks of their race, and take 

 a special pleasure in hunting down their 

 own countrymen, and they avenge the 

 farmer dead by killing all the blacks in 

 the neighborhood, sometimes also their 

 women and children. This is the al- 

 most tj'pical progress of colonization, 

 and even though such things are abol- 

 ished in the southeastern colonies and 

 in southeast and central Queensland, 

 they are by no means unheard of in the 

 north and west." 



MINOK PARAGEAPHS. 



In a brood of five nestling sparrow- 

 hawks, which he had the opportunity of 

 stvidying alive and dead, Dr. R. W. Shu- 

 feldt remarked that the largest and 

 therefore oldest bird was nearly double 

 the size of the youngest or smallest one, 

 while the three others were graduated 

 down from the largest to the smallest in 

 almost exact proportions. " It was evi- 

 dent, then, that the female had laid the 

 eggs at regular intervals, and very likely 

 three or four days apart, and that incu- 

 bation commenced immediately after the 

 first egg was deposited. What is more 

 worthy of note, however, is the fact that 

 the sexes of these nestlings alternated, 

 the oldest bird being a male, tlie next a 

 female, followed by another male, and so 

 on, the last or youngest one of all five 

 being a male. This last had a plumage 

 of pure white down, with the pin feath- 

 ers of the primaries and secondaries of 

 the wings, as Avell as the rectrices of the 

 tail, just beginning to open at their ex- 

 tremities. From this stage gradual de- 

 velopment of the plumage is exhibited 

 throughout the series, the entire plum- ' 

 age of the males and females being very 

 dilferent and distinctive." If it be true, 

 as is possibly indicated, that the sexes 

 alternate in broods of young sparrow- 

 hawks as a regular thing, the author has 

 no explanation for tlie fact, and has 

 ne\er heard of any being olTercd. 



AUCIIITKCTURE AND BUIT.DING givCS 



the following interesting facts regard- 

 ing the building trades in Chicago: " Re- 



ports from Chicago are that labor in 

 building lines is scarce. The scarcity 

 of men is giving the building trades 

 council trouble to meet the require- 

 ments of contractors. It is said that 

 half a dozen jobs that are ready to go 

 ahead are at a standstill because men 

 can not be had, particularly iron work- 

 ers and laborers — the employees first to 

 be employed in the construction of the 

 modern building. . It is also said that 

 wages have never been better in the 

 building line. The following is the 

 schedule of wages, based on an eight- 

 hour day: Carpenters, $3.40; electri- 

 cians, .$3.7.5; bridge and structural iron 

 workers, .$3.00; tin and sheet-iron work- 

 ers, $3.20; plumbers, $4; steam fitters, 

 $3.75; elevator constructors, $3; hoist- 

 ing engineers, $4; derrick men, $2; gas- 

 fitters, $3.75; plasterers, $4; marble cut- 

 ters, $3.50; gravel roofers, $2.80; boiler- 

 makers, $2.40; stone sawyers and rub- 

 bers, $3; marble enamel glassworkers' 

 helpers, $2.25; slate and tile roofers, 

 $3.80; marble setters' helpers, $2; steam- 

 fitters' helpers, $2; stone cutters, $4; 

 stone carvers, $5; bricklayers, .$4; paint- 

 ers, $3; hod carriers and building labor- 

 ers, $2; plasterers' hod carriers, $2.40; 

 mosaic and encaustic tile layers, $4; 

 helpers, $2.40." 



Ix presenting the fourth part of his 

 memoir on The Tertiary Fauna of Flor- 

 ida (Transactions of the Wagner Free 

 Institute of Science, Philadelphia), Mr. 

 William Healey Dall observes that the 



