[ iq From Magazines, &c. \ }' n o 



and D. culminaia are both found occasionally in our seas, but 

 I do not know that they breed here. Dr. Filhol says that D. 

 chlororhyncha breeds at Campbell Island, but he probably did not 

 distinguish the species accurately. I saw none when I was there 

 in January, 1901, only D. melanophrys, which was extremely 

 abundant and a few D. bulla i or 1). culminata." 



The Ascent of Birds on " Motionless " Wings. — Writing to 

 the Daily Mail (London) Mr. E. C. Malan thus explains the power 

 some birds have to rise in the air without apparently moving 

 their wings : — " The air that is divided by the bird's body does 

 not pass away on either side of it, but forms two eddies under the 

 bird's outstretched wings, which act as screw-jacks and literally 

 screw the bird up higher and higher. Thus we should see, if 

 our eyes were sharp enough, two large footballs of air under a 

 bird's wings, ever winding and screwing so as to support the bird, 

 and continually to raise it higher. To ensure this result, the bird 

 must sail against the wind, otherwise there will be no anguish 

 at work under the wings." " Anguish," he previously says, 

 " must be taken to mean that snake-like, curling, writhing, 

 enfolding action, with many cortortions and convolutions, which 

 in a twining fluid or a jointed object is familiar to all. Thus the 

 air, when divided by a bird, is thrown into a state of anguish, 

 which is not the case when it is perforated by an arrow ; and this 

 state of anguish is the excellent and most simple secret of flight." 

 Against Mr. Malan's theory must be placed the doubts as to 

 whether, even in a strong wind, the air has of itself sufficient 

 buoyancy to support a bird's weight without effort on the part 

 of the bird, and whether it would produce the " football " effect 

 without such effort. The " screw " theory as to a bird's flight is 

 not borne out by scientific investigation, and if, as the photo- 

 graphic records of Prof. Marey (confirmed by the more exhaustive 

 experiments of Anschiitz, in which every detail in the motion of a 

 bird's wing in flight is revealed to the microscope) tend to prove, 

 each feather has an independent action whilst the bird is on the 

 wing, is it not possible that (granting for the moment the " anguish 

 or eddy theory to be correct) there is some truth, after all, in the 

 older idea that when a bird is " sailing " there is some movement 

 in the wings (imperceptible, it may be, to the observer) and that 

 the " eddies " are thus maintained in proper form to enable it to 



ascend ? 



* * * 



Destruction of Birds by Poisoned Grain. — Timmering, 

 Sunday. — The laying of poisoned wheat for the destruction of 

 Sparrows throughout the Echuea and Deakin shires has resulted 

 in the wholesale destruction of native birds, particularly Magpies 

 and Magpie-Larks, which are supposed to be protected under the 

 Game Act, and are to be seen lying dead in scores, while Plover 

 are also destroyed. The Sparrows are getting too wary to touch 



