i;iKl) I.IFl'. IN XATAl,. 3f)5 



conscqiUMiocs of " liunian aolidn'" nia\' \)v. can liardlx- l)c dis- 

 counted without .U'cinj^' nii>ri' decplv into tin- (lucstioii, hiil sufli- 

 cierit lias been said to proxo that chan<;c's of a not insij^nitk-ant 

 character are l)cin<j- carried out l)y the aj^ency of birds, wliich in 

 their turn have either been extirpated or proj)ajj^ate'd by human 

 action, especially on the one hand by lessening the destruction 

 of noxious insects, and on the other by the spreadinj^- of some 

 of the worst weeds the farmer has to contend with.* and I 

 cannot conclude this paper without puttint^ forward a strong 

 plea for the preservation of such birds esj^ecially known as insect 

 destroyers, as well as adding beauty and interest to the country. 

 We liardlx know as yet what far-reaching consequences may 

 follow on what is sometimes a thoughtless disturbance of the 

 "balance" of Nature, and which not infrequently has 'an ad- 

 verse effect on the welfare of the human race — surely a strong 

 reason against the indiscriminate destruction of the feathered 

 denizens of the country. 



Note. — For the technical names of the birds mentioned I 

 am indebted to " Natal Bush Birds " (Woodward). 



Spectrum of the Solar Corona.— in the Report 



of the Council of the Royal Astronomical Society, made to the 

 97th Annual General Meeting of the Society, it is stated that the 

 discovery of a new red line in the coronal s])ectruni during the 

 ecli])se of August 21, 1914, has led to an important extension of 

 Nicholson's theory of the s])ectrum of the solar corona. It was 

 first noted by Carrasco that this new line, A6374, was a member 

 of the same cube root series as the green line A5303, and Nichol- 

 son has deduced therefrom that the atom of the element coronium 

 is a simple-ring system with nucleus jc. When it has eight 

 electrons, or a single negative charge, it emits the lines 6374, 

 5303, 4566, 4359. 3642, 3534. The neutral and positively charged 

 atoms yield lines which are outside the range of observation. All 

 the remaining known lines of the corona have previouslv been 

 assigned by Nicholson to prototluorine. 



*Tlic' fore«>oiiio; reiiiaik leads the writer to the conclusion that the 

 (■hanf>;e of habitat in the l)ir(ls mentioned (environment) has more to 

 do with it than climate, and following on the premises, that these change3 

 often lead to others, which, in some cases it must be admitted, ni,ay he 

 brought about by ordinary migration. Some time ago I noticed that 

 a naturalist, in examining the feet of a grouse { Lnr/opiis Scoticiis) , found 

 a dozen or more seeds of plants adhering to its fe;ithereil feet in nodules 

 of clay, and round my own homestead, among the ornamental trees, nearly 

 every known tree in the adjoining bush is represented by the iipspringing 

 of young plants. T have also noticed that of recent years the large 

 mimosa, generally known as the "camel tliinn."" is s|)r'ea(ling into the 

 midlands: s|)ecimens may now be seen as far uj. as Lion's lUver and 

 Dargle lload stations — a tree that was quite unknown in these part.s, the 

 seed of which must have been carried by birds from the tliorn country. 



