March 14, 1878] 



NATURE 



381 



and in nothing perhaps is it more grateful than in the reminis- 

 cences it brings to our homes of its wilder associates far afield ; 

 for Starlings consort with many kinds of birds, learn their notes 

 and frequently mingle them in their own strain." 



And then as a foot- note : — 



"Thus the well-known wail of the Lapwing, and the piping 

 note of the Ringed Plover may be heard in places wholly unsuited 

 to the habits of those birds. Messrs. Matthews mention Starlings 

 imitating the cry of the Kestrel, Wryneck, Partridge, Moorhen, 

 and Coot among other birds (Zool. p. 2430). Saxby says that 

 in Shetland the notes of the Oyster-catcher, Golden Plover, 

 Rfdshank, Curlew, Whimbrel, and Herring-Gull, are perfectly 

 mimicked. Mr. Hooper, of Upton near Didcot, informs the 

 editor that Starlings in that neighbourhood will render exactly the 

 characteristic cry of the Quail and the Corn-Crake. The common 

 sounds of the poultry-yard are often copied with more or less 

 accuracy, and a Duck may be heard to quack, a Hen to cackle, 

 and a Cock to crow from the topmost bough of a tall tree." 



It follows that if a Starling can so well imitate the notes of the 

 above-named birds, it would have still less difficulty with those 

 of species much more nearly allied to it, as the Blackbird, 

 Chaffinch, and Sparrow. ALFRED Nkwton 



Magdalene College, Cambridge, March 9 



The "Geographical" and the Public 



Quite accidentally this evening I noticed in Nature that 

 Capt. Evans was to read a paper on the Magnetism of the 

 Earth, before the Royal Geotjraphical Society at the London 

 University. Having devoted considerable attention to the 

 subject I was desirous of hearing the paper and hurried up to town. 

 I found, however, that I could not obtain admittance without an 

 order. I offered payment but that was useless. I explained to 

 the doorkeeper that I had come a long distance, was most 

 anxious to hear the paper, and did not know until then the terms 

 of admission, otherwise, as many of my friends are Fellows, I 

 would have supplied myself with the necessary order. 



I offered my card and suggested that it might be sent in to Sir 

 Henry Kawlinson, to whom I was known, or to the Secretary 

 or some other official, but to all my endeavours there was a curt, 

 i.ot to say pert, reply. 



It occurred to me that if I waited a short time some friend 

 might possibly make his appearance and help me in my 

 "pursuit of knowledge under difficulties." I had not waited 

 many moments when I noticed the door-keeper despatch on an 

 errand a lad who supported him. I was weak-minded 

 enough to imagine he had relented, and that some official would 

 come to my aid. An official did certainly come back with the 

 lad — it was a policeman ! who gave me a look which I inter- 

 preted to mean, " It you don't be off I'll ' run you in.' " A lew 

 words in a very low tone passed between the doorkeeper and 

 himsel', and as I had no desire to spend the night in Vine Street 

 station, I departed, feehng that this was an argumentum ad 

 hominem which I could not resist. X. 



Temple, March il 



Hearing and Smell in Insects 



All that I have observed leads me to believe that any sensi- 

 tiveness shown by insects to sound is due to a diffused sensibility 

 to vibration rather than to a differentiated sense like our own. 

 This will sufficiently explain the behaviour of J. C.'s moths 

 (Nature, vol. xvii. p. 45), and my own larvae (Nature, 

 vol. xvii. p. 102). In the one case the ringing glass, and in 

 the other the vibrant wood of the feeding-box communi- 

 cated the alarm. If anyone, an hour after his kitchen has been 

 left in darkness and quiet, will enter it as gently as possible, 

 without shoes cr light, and then, having no contact with any- 

 thing, other than the unavoidable one of his sock-muffled feet 

 with the floor, will speak suddenly and sharply, I believe he will 

 find that not a cockroach shows any signs of alarm. If, on the 

 other hand, he should drop something heavy abruptly, or enter 

 with his usual step in boots, there is a stamjiede ; but even then 

 nothing to compare with the commotion caused by the introduc- 

 tion of light. 



As to smell, there can be no doubt, it seems to me, that it 

 is a very finely- differentiated sense; residing, I suspect, to a 

 great extent, in the antennae, and probably capable of detecting 

 qualities in substances of which our own analogous sense gives us 

 no warning. The ichneumon flies are an example in point. One 



of the larger of these alighted inside my open window in the 

 sunshine this afternoon, and I noticed, xs often before, the 

 incessant play of his antennae as he hunted restlessly to and fro, 

 apparently in search of larvae, or pupae, concealed under the 

 wood. As the prey of some members of this tribe are always so 

 hidden, and the egg is accurately laid therein, by means of the 

 long ovipositor, without the aid of sight, some other sense, in 

 great perfection, must guide them in their quest. But here ii a 

 quite conclusive instance. 



I saw in Athens, March, 1864, in the collection of Mr. Merlin, 

 then our vice-consul there, placed in juxta-position in one drawer 

 in his cabinet, a wasp and spider, of which he told me that that 

 species of spider is the habitual prey of that species of wasp, and 

 that he hunts him by scent, nose down, precisely like a hound. 

 He witnessed himself the chase from beginning to end in the case 

 of the actual specimens I saw. It occurred in his own house, 

 and was continued for some time, and across, as I understood 

 him, more than one room. The spider, as soon as he found him- 

 self marked down, showed the greatest terror, running hither and 

 thither, with many doubles and turns. These the wasp — a long, 

 thin-bodied variety — followed accurately, turn by turn, never 

 quitting the spider's track for an instant, recovering, when at 

 fault, like a dog, until, after an exciting chase, he seized his 

 exhausied prey, and the keenly-interested human observer secured 

 both pursuer and victim. Henry Cecil 



Bregner, Bournemouth, March 2 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 



The Total Solar Eclipse of July 29. — Prof. New- 

 comb has lately issued empirical corrections to Hansen's 

 Lunar Tables, which he proposes to employ in the Ameri- 

 can Ephemeris for 1883. The errors of the tables have 

 now attained such magnitude, and exhibit so steady an 

 increase, that it becomes necessary to apply corrections, 

 even though they may be of the otherwise unsatisfactory 

 nature of empirical quantities, and it is probable that 

 Prof. Newcomb may not be the only superintendent of 

 an ephemeris who will adopt this course pending the 

 formation of new lunar tables at, it may be hoped, no 

 distant period. 



At the time of the total solar eclipse which traverses 

 the United States in July next, Mr. W. Godward finds 

 the correction of the longitude of the moon deduced from 

 Hansen's tables to be - 9"'5, and the correction of the 

 latitude -\- d'g, according to Newcomb. Applying these 

 corrections to the moon's place, and adopting Leverrier's 

 diameter of the sun, with a somewhat reduced diameter 

 of the moon from that given by Hansen's tables, which 

 corresponds well in the calculation of eclipses, the follow- 

 ing equations are found, which may be expected to give 

 the times of beginning and ending of the total phase 

 with considerable accuracy for any point not far distant 

 from Denver, Colorado, the most important place traversed 

 by the belt of totality. 



Cos7£» = 59 '7050 — [i'852ii] sin / + [i "71204] cos/, co%{L + 216° 48'"2) 

 / =9h. S4m. 34 •2S. T [i'93963] sin iv - [3'56966] sin / 



— [3 82402] cos /, cos (Z, + 256° 25' '6). 



Here / is the geocentric latitude of the point, L its west 

 longitude from Greenwich, to be used with a negative 

 sign, and the quantities within square brackets are 

 logarithms ; t is the Greenwich mean time of beginning 

 or ending of totality, according as the upper or lower 

 sign of the second term is used, [r93963] sin iu repre- 

 senting the semi-duration of the total phase ; and apply- 

 ing the longitude of the place for which we are calculating 

 in the usual way, the local mean times result. 



As an example of the method of using formulae of 

 reduction similar to the above, which is frequently a 

 matter of doubt to the uninitiated, we may tind from" 

 them the local mean times of beginning and ending of 

 the total eclipse in 106° 14' W., and 4.0° 23' N., which, 

 according to the Nautical Almanac elements, is the 

 position of the central eclipse at loh. 28m. Greenwich 

 mean time. 



The reduction of the geographical to the geocentric 



