438 



NATURE 



{March 28, 1878 



signal giver and connected with an ordinary telephone as receiver 

 an air played at one end of the line could be heard by the whole 

 audience at the other end. The Henry signal is constructed to 

 work with a dry element, and requires no other wires than those 

 of the telephone. 



The Midland Naturalist continues to keep up the promise of 

 its first number. No. 3, for March, has the first part of a lecture 

 by Dr. Cobbold on the Parasites of Man, and among other inte- 

 resting papers we may note those of Mr. Robert Gamer on 

 Edward Forbes and his Country, and the Ray and Palreonto- 

 graphical Societies : An Appeal, by Mr. W. R. Hughes. 



Photographic Rays of Light is the somewhat unhandy title of 

 a new photographic quarterly published in Baltimore, U.S.A. 

 The contents are varied, and the journal seems likely to prove 

 useful to photographers. The first number contains a photo- 

 graphic plate, " A Study in Artistic Photography." 



In the February session of the Berlin Anthropologische 

 Gesellschaft, Dr. Rahl-Riickhard delivered an elaborate address 

 on the anthropology and ethnology of South Tyrol, a subject 

 which has hitherto been untouched. This region has been swept 

 over by so many tidal waves of invasion that the character of the 

 original inhabitants has hitherto been entirely unknown. In 

 order to solve the problem a large collection of skulls was 

 obtained from an ancient charnel-house at Meran, and submitted 

 to careful measurements. The results showed that they belonged 

 to two sharply-defined classes. The first, a brachycephalic 

 type, was evidently identical with that of the ancient Rhtetians 

 who formed the aboriginal population at the advent of the 

 Teutonic tribes. The second variety, an orthocephalic type with 

 dolichocephalic tendencies, cannot easily be classified. It is, 

 however, certain that it does not coincide with the cranial type 

 of the ancient Helvetians in the neighbouring parts of 

 Switzerland. 



At the workshops of the Michigan Central Railway at Jack- 

 son, Michigan, an interesting experiment was recently made, in 

 order to ascertain the very shortest time in which a locomotive 

 engine could be mounted ready for use from the finished com- 

 ponent parts. Up to the present this work had been generally 

 done by about five or six workmen in the^space of from nine to 

 fourteen days. When the fact became known that a Mr. 

 Stewart of Jackson had done the work with fourteen workmen 

 in twenty-five hours, and a Mr. Edington, with the same num- 

 ber of workmen, in i6| hours, a bet between these two gentle- 

 men was the result ; and before a number of spectators they 

 eventually both proceeded to mount a locomotive engine, each 

 being assisted by fourteen workmen, and having all the parts of 

 which the engine consists ready at hand. They.accomplished 

 the task in the remarkably short period of two hours and fifty- 

 five minutes. The bet was won by Mr. Edington, who finished 

 one minute sooner than his antagonist. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Rhesus Monkey {Macacus erythraus) from 

 India, presented by Mrs. Baxter ; a Green Monkey {Cercopithe- 

 cus callitrichus) from West Africa, a Vervet Monkey (Cercopithe- 

 cus lalandii) from South Africa, presented by Mr. Jas. Bennett ; 

 a Malayan Bear {Ursus malayanus) from Malacca, presented by 

 Mr. S. Palmer ; a Short-toed Eagle (Circaetus gallicus). South 

 European, presented by Mr. H. M. Upcher ; a Savigny's Eagle 

 Owl (Bubo escalaphus) from Persia, presented by Dr. J. Huntly ; 

 two Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) from Lapland, deposited ; a 

 Beccari's Cassowary {Casuarius beccarii) from South-East New 

 Guinea, a Plantain Squirrel {Sciurus plantani) from Java, a 

 Spotted Eagle Owl {Bubo maculosus') from South Africa, a One- 

 streaked Hawk {Melierax monogrammicus) from West Africa, 

 two Matamata Terrapins {Chelys matamata) from the Upper 

 Amazons, an Anaconda (Eunectes murinus) from South America, 

 received in exchange. 



MIMIC R V IN BIRDS 



'yiT'E have received two interesting contributions to this 

 subject. One is contained in The New Moon, or 

 Crichton Royal Institution Literary Register for November, 

 1873, being the observation on a starling by Dr. Crichton^ the 

 Medical Superintendent. 



"Two or three years ago," he states, " in accordance with our 

 principle of encouraging birds to become denizens of the grounds, 

 we put up a few boxes for starlings. One of these was placed on 

 the window sill of the writer's bedroom. Two years ago one of 

 these birds took possession of the aforesaid box. Every 

 morning, for two or three hours, he perched himself on an iron 

 railing, erected' to protect flowers, within two feet of the window, 

 and there executed a comic medley with all the precision and 

 effect of a finished artiste. The attention of the vvriter was first 

 called to this extraordinary performance by having his window 

 every morning surrounded by what appeared to be a general 

 assembly of the whole tribe of Aves, wild and tame. The 

 quacking of the duck, the screech of the lapwing, the eerie notes 

 of the moorland plover, and many others, were imitated with a 

 precision worthy of Mimos himself. He failed, however, to 

 secure a mate for that year. Last year he was more successful. 

 He revisited in spring his former cottage, and brought a mate 

 with him. The usual family arrangements were made with the 

 greatest care and despatch, when, in due time, a brood of young 

 linguists made their appearance. During the hatching season 

 our linguistic friend, every morning at dawn, resumed his perch 

 within three feet of my bed, and for two or three hours, he 

 repeated his extraordinary performance. The birds imitated 

 always with the greatest precision are the hen, duck, goose, lap- 

 wing, plover, heron, and gull. The song or whistle of many 

 small birds are also imitated. The only human note imitated is 

 the whistle of the boy. This is frequently heard. It always 

 begins on the same pitch, and passes downward through a major 

 third, forming a beautiful musical curve. He is gradually adding 

 to his vocabulary. During twelve months he has certainly 

 added the cry of the heron, the gabble of the goose, and the 

 cackle of the hen. 



Mr. H. O. Forbes sends us the following instance : — 

 In the grounds of a friend in the neighbourhood of London, a 

 colony of starlings had for many years built their nests in the 

 trees in boxes placed here and there for their accommodation. 

 The children of the house — all quite young then — a few years 

 ago — at whose presence the birds showed not the slightest 

 alarm, were constantly playing about close to the nests, and of 

 course constantly calling each other by name. There was only 

 one girl in the family, called Maggie, and as she was a great pet, 

 perhaps her name was oftener mentioned than those of the others. 

 Be that as it may, her father was one day greatly astonished by 

 hearing his daughter's name pronounced in exact imitation of the 

 voice of one of her brothers, whom he knew could not be near. 

 For a moment he was puzzled, but close at hand, on the bough 

 of an acacia tree, he detected the mocking-bird — a common 

 starling— in the act of deception, v/hich he continued to practice 

 often afterwards. 



AMERICAN SCIENCE 

 nPHE comparison of the intensities of light of different 

 ■*■ colours has long been considered one of the most difficult 

 of photometric problems. In the February number of the 

 American yournal of Science and Arts Mr. Rood describes a 

 simple method of making this comparison. The luminosity of 

 cardboard painted with vermilion, e.g., was determined thus : — 

 A disc of the cardboard is attached to the axis of a rotation 

 apparatus, and smaller discs of black and white (in sectors) are 

 fixed on the same axis, so that by varying the relative proportions 

 of black and white a series of grays can be produced at will. 

 The compound black and white disc is first arranged to give a 

 gray decidedly darker than the vermilion ; this tint is now 

 gradually lightened till the observer becomes doubtful as to the 

 relative luminosities of the red and gray discs ; the angle of the 

 white sector is then measured. Next a gray decidedly more 

 luminous than the vermilion is compared with it, and diminished 

 in brightness till the observer again becomes doubtful, when a 

 second measurement is taken. (The manipulation is done by an 

 assistant without the experimenter knowing the exact black and 

 white discs chosen.) From a number of such experiments a 

 mean is obtained, which (it is proved) expresses the luminosity 

 very correctly. 



