1897] NOTES AND COMMENTS 149 
THE PHOTOGRAPHY OF MICROSCOPIC ORGANISMS IN MOTION 
AccorDING to the Scientific American, the principles of the kineto- 
scope have been applied to the microscope with some interesting 
results by Dr Robert L. Watkins of New York. The instrument 
employed, termed a micromotoscope, has been very difficult to devise, 
owing to the manipulation of the light and lens. When the light 
is concentrated sufficiently for photography, it very quickly kills or 
seriously injures almost any kind of life in the microscopic field. 
The greater the magnification, the more intense and the nearer the 
lens the light must be. Difficulties are also multiplied by the 
length of time sometimes taken in arranging the focus on the sensi- 
tive film. After repeated efforts, however, Dr Watkins has obtained 
some measure of success, and motions that are not too rapid have 
been very satisfactorily recorded. He has been able to produce 
about 2500 pictures per minute. This is not a sufficiently rapid 
process to photograph the motion of the blood circulating in the 
web of a frog’s foot; but it has served admirably in the case of at 
least one rotifer, which exhibits the most interesting form of cell 
motion yet reproduced. 
THE GREAT AUK IN IRELAND 
Remains of the extinct Great Auk (Alca impennis) have already 
been recorded from the north of Iveland, but the known range of 
this interesting bird has just been considerably extended by the 
discovery of a few bones in a Kitchen Midden on the coast of 
Waterford, nearly as far south as 52° N. latitude (R. J. Ussher, 
Irish Nat., vol. vi., p. 208). A humerus, tibia and metatarsus 
have been identified by Dr Hans Gadow and Professor Alfred 
Newton. They were associated with bones of common domestic 
animals and the red deer, and thus probably do not date back to 
an earlier period than the remains already found in the refuse- 
heaps of Caithness and Durham. 
EXtTINcT BirDS OF MADAGASCAR 
Durine his stay in Madagascar Dr Forsyth Major spent several 
months in the Sirabé district searching for remains of Aepyornis. 
What success attended his efforts has already been noticed in these 
columns, but besides Aepyornis, Dr Major discovered remains 
of numerous other birds associated with it. Mr C. W. Andrews, to 
whom we are indebted for the careful description of these Aepyornis 
