554 



NATURE 



{April 17, 1879 



himself, but is likewise able to 'extract good work out of 

 other people— a task often more hard to be accomplished 

 than the former one. 



The Countries of the World. By Robert Brown, M.A., 



Ph.D. Vol. iii. (London : Cassell.) 

 This volume is devoted to Central and South America, 

 and appears to us to present a fairly full and trustworthy 

 and certainly interesting account of the countries of this 

 most attractive region. Dr. Brown has evidently taken 

 the trouble to search most of the authorities likely to help 

 him. The illustrations to this volume are unusually good 

 and appropriate. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



\The Editor docs not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. Neither can he uttdertake to return, or 

 to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts. No 

 notice is taken of anonymous communications. 



[The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep tJuir letters as 

 short as possible. The pressure on his space is so gi'eat that it 

 is impossible othenvise to ensure the appearance even of com- 

 munications containing interesting and novel facts.\ 



A Carnivorous Goose 



I INCLOSE to you an accouut of a Golden Eagle, which I have 

 reason to know to be authentic. The possibility of a bird so 

 purely graminivorous as a goose being taught to eat flesh, and 

 acquiring the power of digesting it, is extremely curious. It is 

 well known, however, that cows are largely fed on fish offal in 

 Scandinavia, and I have heard of a Highland cow devouring a 

 salmon which an unwary angler had hid among fern on the 

 banks of a river in Sutherland. Argyll 



Isola Bella, Cannes, April 7 



" March, 1879. — There is in the possession of W. Pike, Esq., 

 at Glendarary, in the Island of Achil, Co. Mayo, a Golden 

 Eagle, now about twenty-five years old,* which was taken from 

 the nest and brought up in confinement. This eagle, in the 

 spring of 1877 laid three eggs, which Mr. Pike took away, 

 replacing them with two goose-eggs, upon which the eagle sat, 

 and in due time hatched two goslings. One of these died, and 

 was torn up by the eagle to feed the survivor, who, to the great 

 tribulation of its foster-parent, refused to touch it, together with 

 the other flesh with which the eagle tried to feed it, Mr. Pike 

 providing it with proper food. The eagle, however, in course 

 of time, taught the goose to eat flesh, and (the goose having free 

 exit and ingress to the eagle's cage) always calls it by a sharp 

 bark whenever flesh is given to it, when the goose hastens to the 

 cage and greedily swallows all the flesh, &c., which the eagle, 

 tearing its prey to pieces, gives it. 



" I saw them in May, 1878, when, the goose being a year old, 

 had made a nest in the eagle's cage, and laid eleven eggs, and 

 the two birds were sitting side by side on the nest. I hear from 

 :Mr, Pike that he did not allow them to hatch out, fearing that 

 it might interfere with their attachment to one another. 



" The eagle is very tame and fond of Mr. Pike ; he goes into 

 the cage, and it allows him to handle it as he likes, but will not 

 allow any one else near it. It never attempts to get out of the 

 hole made for the goose to go in and out." 



Sense of Force and Sense of Temperature 



The sense of force, or of resistance to pressure, and the sense 

 of temperature, have been very commonly confounded under one 

 name, "sense of touch." Indeed, I think they are still imper- 

 fectly distinguished in many modern works dealing with the sub- 

 ject of sensation. Nevertheless, there can be no doubt as to 

 these two being sensations altogether distinct. It is even quite 

 probable that they are observed and transmitted by distinct 

 nerve-systems. 



y? An important and interesting question arises as to the kind of 

 information given to us by these two senses ; viz. , how far it is 

 merely relative, and how far these senses may, by cultivation, be 

 made to give us absolute information. 



than B. To test their relative weights we lift first the one aad 

 then the other, and decide between them. Sometimes we may 

 go a little farther towards making an absolute estimate by mean.-, 

 of the sense of force. I can tell, for example, that a weight is 

 greater than 20 lbs. and less than 30 lbs. by trying to hold it out 

 at arm's length ; and most likely with a little practice I could 

 learn to estimate weights to within closer limits than 5 lbs. on 

 each side of 25 lbs. But such testing as this is all that is done 

 in ordinary cases. 



There is, however, a'very remarkable case in which the sense 

 of force is made absolute to a high degree by practice. It is the 

 case of letter-sorters in the Post Office, who learn to distinguish 

 letters that are over a particular weight with accuracy that is per- 

 fectly marvellous. It would be very interesting to try a series 

 of experiments with letters of different weight, some slightly 

 under weight for a particular postage, and some slightly over- 

 weighted, and to observe the errors or rather the limits of 

 uncertainty. 



The sense of temperature may also be rendered absolute to a 

 certain extent. Several instances might be mentioned, some of 

 which depend, as in the case of testing force by lifting the 

 greatest possible weight in a particular way, on the limit of 

 endurance. 



One remarkable case of an absolute determination of tempera- 

 ture by the senses is that of the plumber and tinsmith who are 

 in the habit of holding up the soldering bolt to the face, and 

 judging by feeling whether it is at the proper temperature f jr a 

 particular piece of work in hand. 



Probably there are other cases in the arts in which the sense of 

 temperature is cultivated to a high degree. It is in the hope of 

 getting information on this subject through your readers that I 

 address this note to you. J- T. B. 



April 7 



Did Flowers Exist During the Carboniferous Epoch ? 



Mr. a. R. Wallace, in his review of Mr, Allen's, " The 

 Colour Sense" (Nature, vol. xix. p. 501), has been misled in sup- 

 posing the fossil insect from the Belgian coal-fields, named Breye- 

 ria borinensis may be a moth. It was originally described as the 

 hind wing of an orthopterous insect, under the name oi Pachyty- 

 lopsis borinensis (Comptes Rendus, Soc. Ent. Belg. xviii. p. xli).: 

 Subsequently it was transferred to the lepidoptera on bad advice, , 

 and re-named Breyeria borinensis (same Comptes Rendus, p. Ix.).' 

 Its original location was nearer the truth. I examined the 

 fossil at Brussels in 1877, and have no doubt it belongs to the 

 pseudo-neuroptera, family Ephemeridce {vide my note to this efiect 

 in the same Comptes Rendus for 1877, xx. p. xxxvi.)_. The very 

 dense transverse reticulation did not receive sufhcient import- 

 ance when M. de Borre was induced to refer it to the lepidoptera. 

 Thus we remain without any zoological evidence that would tend 

 to prove the existence of flowering plants in the carboniferous 

 ao^e. R- McLachlan 



Lewisham, April 4 



Water-level Indicators 



I OBSERVE in Nature (vol. xix. p. 518) a description of wha 

 is stated to be a new form of water-level indicator which ha 

 lately been erected by the India-rubber, Gutta-percha, and lelej 

 graph Works Company,'at the Leamington New Waterworks, j 



So far as mere form goes, it possibly may be considered newJ 

 but hardly so in any other sense, as a water-level indicator, fulj 

 fillin'T the purposes you mention, on a very extended scale, haS 

 beenln action at the Nottingham Waterworks for many montfi^ 

 pjist. It is not only capable of being made to give smaller mdij 

 cations than one foot, but is actually doing so. This apparata^ 

 was designed and constructed in the electrical department of tM_ 

 General Post Of&ce, and has given great satisfaction. I may 

 mention that it was under the consideration of Mr. Preece so 

 far back as the latter end of 1877, and but for his determination 

 to have an instrument perfect in every respect before he turnea 

 it out, it might have been at work early in 1878. 



Nottingham, April 8 



H. ROFE 



Eastern Yucatan 

 Is there any information to be had about Eastern Yucatan! 



So far"as the sense of force is concerned, it is with most | In 1847 the Maya I-^^ians there rosjagai^^Mexi^^^^^^^ 

 persons chiefly relative. Every one is prepared to say, but , become independent ^ Th« ^^^^''P^' J,^.^^^^^^^^ ' 



generally very roughly, that of two bodies, A and B, A is heavier , Mexicans is so great that there is scarcely any po.siDimy 



