THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 53 



the pressure of the air only to stop it, the friction of the passing 

 air being comparatively small. 



Supposing the bird under the influence of the force of gravity 

 to go 30 or 40 knots an hour, and never nearer than at an angle 

 of 60 degrees to the direction of the wind, it could still keep up 

 with a steamer going 12 knots an hour dead against the wind, 

 and, as many birds can with ease go more nearly 50 or 60 miles 

 an hour, it will be realized that a heavy bird can readily follow 

 any of our ocean steamers on a head to wind course. Although, 

 as I have said, they do not seem to me usually to go head to 

 wind, still, by this process, they could, if sufficiently heavy, quite 

 easily dive right into the wind, rising again vertically at the end 

 of each dive. Even this proceeding, however, would hardly 

 justify Sir Walter Buller's statement, quoted by Mr. Ashworth 

 ("Trans. N.Z. Inst.," vol. xxvi.), that " the flight of the albatross 

 is a rapid, well-sustained motion, ever against the wind, with 

 scarcely any visible movement of the wings." It will be seen 

 that, in my explanation, although a strong wind helps the bird 

 more easily to rise to the height required for its momentum, still a 

 high wind materially affects its rate of progress, and to a light bird 

 the strength of the same wind appears proportionately greater than 

 to a heavy one, in exactly the same way as a large steamer is less 

 affected by a high sea than a smaller one. Thus Stormy Petrels, 

 Whale Birds, &c, when flying rapidly, make more use of their 

 pinions than the larger birds. The wonderful mastery these birds 

 possess over the movements of their bodies while hanging in the 

 air, their graceful balancing and delicate adjustment of the plane 

 of their feathers to the air current, is only equalled among human 

 beings by the movements of an accomplished skater, or of a 

 skilful gymnast, and doubtless has to be acquired by young birds 

 as the result of practice. 



REMARKS ON A WILD BANANA OF NEW GUINEA, 

 Bv Baron von Mueller, K.C.M.G., M. & Ph.D., LL.D., F.R.S. 

 In the 10th volume of the " Proceedings of the Linnean Society 

 of New South Wales," p. 348 (1885), the late Mr. N. de Miklouho- 

 Maclay alluded to a Musa from New Guinea " with fruits con- 

 taining very large, irregularly shaped seeds (about 10 mm. long 

 and 1 1 mm. in diameter), which when ripe are of a brilliant 

 black colour and are greatly used by the natives as ornaments." 

 In the same volume, p. 356, the writer of these remarks offered 

 from personal inspection fuller notes on these seeds, and gave 

 then to this species the name M. ca'osperma, when also an account 

 of the Papuan M. Maclayi was given. In a letter, written in 

 Sydney on the 4th September, 1885, the distinguished Russian 

 naturalist mentioned (here translated) " Musa calosperma seems to 



