304 



NATURE 



{July 26, 1888 



A SERIES of volumes to be entitled the " Fauna of British 

 India," containing descriptions of the animals found in British 

 India and its dependencies, including Ceylon and Burma, is 

 about to be issued, under authority from the Government. For 

 the present the work will be restricted to vertebrate animals. 

 The editorship has been intrusted by the Secretary of State for 

 India in Council to Mr. W. T. Blanford, formerly of the Geo- 

 logical Survey of India, and the printing and publication to 

 Messrs. Taylor and Francis. The descriptions of vertebrates 

 will occupy seven volumes, of which one will be devoted to 

 mammals, three to birds, one to reptiles and Batrachians, and 

 two to fishes. The mammals will be described by Mr. Blan- 

 ford, the reptiles and Batrachians by Mr. G. A. Boulenger, of 

 the British Museum, and the fishes by Mr. F. Day, Deputy 

 Surgeon-General. The arrangements for the volumes on birds 

 are nearly complete, and there is every probability of their being 

 undertaken by a competent Indian ornithologist very soon. 

 A half-volume of mammals will be issued immediately. It is 

 expected that one or two volumes will be published each year. 

 The work will be illustrated by cuts. 



Messrs. Sampson Low will publish shortly the " Life and 

 Correspondence of Abraham Sharp," the Yorkshire mathe- 

 matician and astronomer, with memorials of his family, by 

 William Cudworth. The work will be illustrated with numerous 

 drawings specially prepared for it. Abraham Sharp, a member 

 of an ancient family at Horton, near Bradford, was assistant 

 in 1689 to Flamsteed, the first Astronomer-Royal, and designed 

 and fixed the mural arc and other astronomical instruments 

 with which the Astronomer-Royal made his observations at 

 Greenwich Observatory. He also computed the places of 

 many of the fixed stars in Flamsteed's famous " Catalogue," and 

 was the principal means of completing and publishing ihe second 

 and third volumes of the " Historia Celestis," published after 

 Flamsteed's death. For many years after Abraham Sharp left 

 the Observatory, a correspondence was kept up between him 

 and Flamsteed, which gives much insight into many of the 

 scientific events of the period, and especially refers to the 

 difficulties experienced by Flamsteed in the publication of his 

 great work, and to the doings of his contemporaries, Sir Isaac 

 Newton, Dr. Halley, Sir Christopher Wren, and others. This 

 correspondence will form the basis of Mr. Cudworth's work. 



The third number of vol. vi. of the Proceedings of the Bath 

 Natural History and Antiquarian Field Club has been issued. 

 Among the contents are the following papers : on some Ostracoda 

 from the fullers' earth Oolite and Bradford clay, by Prof. T. 

 Rupert Jones, F.R.S., and C. Davies Sherborn ; landslips and 

 subsidences, by W. Pumphery ; remarks on some Hemiptera- 

 Heteroptera taken in the neighbourhood of Bath, by Lieut. - 

 Colonel Blathwayt ; recent " finds " in the Victoria gravel pit, 

 by the Rev. H. H. Winwood ; note on Webbina irregularis 

 (d'Orb.) from the Oxford clay at Weymouth, by C. Davies 

 Sherborn. 



Messrs. William Wesley and Son have issued No. 90 of 

 their "Natural History and Scientific Book Circular." It con- 

 tains lists of works relating to astronomy and mathematics. 



The heat in Norway this summer is most intense, the tem- 

 perature exceeding any registered this century. At Christiania 

 the thermometer has several times registered 30 to 32 C. in 

 the shade, and at Nyborg, in the Varanger Fjord, near the White 

 Sea, it was 35 C. at the end of June. 



On July 15 a remarkable mirage was seen, about 11 p.m., 

 at Hudiksvall, on the Baltic. It represented a ship going down 

 in a terribly agitated sea, a boat being on the point of putting 

 off from the vessel. The mirage lasted five minutes. 



A CURIOUS ornithological phenomenon is witnessed at Odder- 

 nses, in the south of Norway, this season, the ring throstle 

 (Tttrdus torquatus) nesting there. Generally, the bird only 

 breeds in the extreme north. Prof. Esmark is of opinion that 

 the present unusual occurrence is due to the severity of the 

 spring. 



During the spring of the present year some 200 eider-fowl 

 were caught in fishermen's nets on the south coast of Sweden. 



The remains of several prehistoric canoes have been found at 

 the bottom of some lakes drained off in uplands in Central 

 Sweden. They were made by the hollowing out of trunks of 

 trees by fire. One had evidently been sunk on purpose, being 

 full of large stones. 



An unusually large skull of the Rhinoceros tichorrhinus was 

 lately discovered in a well-preserved condition at Rixdorf, near 

 Berlin. It has been sent to the Natural History Museum of 

 Berlin. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Green Monkey (Ctrcopithecus callilrichus 9 ) 

 from West Africa, presented by Mrs. Holden ; a Rhesus 

 Monkey (Macacus rhesus £) from India, presented by Mr. 

 Herbert C. Oates ; two Californian Quails (Callipepla califor- 

 nica <5 $ ) from California, presented by Mrs. Fanny Lloyd ; a 

 lesser Kestrel (Tinnunculus cenchris) European, presented by 

 Mr. Harold Hanauer, F.Z. S. ; two ^Esculapian Snakes (Coluber 

 cesculapii) from Germany, presented by Mr. P. L. Sclater, 

 F.R.S. ; seven Slender-fingered Frogs (Leptodactylus pcntodac- 

 tylus) from Dominica, W.I., presented by Dr. H. A. A. 

 Nicholls ; two American Black Bears ( Ursus americanus 6 Q ) 

 from North America, a Grey Parrot {Psittacus erithacus, white 

 var.) from West Africa, an /Esculapian Snake (Coluber asculapii) 

 from Germany, a Tabuan Parrakeet (Pyrrhulopsis tabuensis) 

 from the Fiji Islands, deposited. 



ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA FOR THE 

 WEEK 1888 JULY 29— AUGUST 4. 



/"pOR the reckoning of time the civil day, commencing at 

 ^ Greenwich mean midnight, counting the hours on to 24, 



is here employed. ) 



At Greenwich on July 29 



Sun rises, 4h. 22m. ; souths, I2h. 6m. ii'is. ; sets, I9h. 51m. : 

 right asc. on meridian, 8h. 36"5m. ; decl. 18 36' N. 

 Sidereal Time at Sunset. 16K. 23m. 

 Moon (at Last Quarter July 30, 2oh.) rises, 22h. 31m.*; souths, 

 4h. 46m.; sets, nh. 13m.: right asc. on meridian, 

 ih. I4"8m. ; decl. 2° 21' N. 



Right asc. and declination 



Planet. Rises. Souths. Sets. on meridian. 



h. m. h. m. h. m. h. m. 



Mercury.. 2 48 ... 10 44 .. 18 40 ... 7 137 ... 20 26 N. 



Venus ... 4 44 ... 12 28 ... 20 12 ... 8 57-9 ... 18 31 N. 



Mars ... 12 43 ... 17 34 ... 22 25 ... 14 5-1 ... 13 55 S. 



Jupiter ... 14 42 ... 19 6 ... 23 30 ... 15 37-8 ... 18 39 S. 



>aturn ... 4 36 ... 12 19 ... 20 2 ... 8 491 ... 18 29 N. 



Uranus... 10 42 ... iG 21 ... 22 ... 12 51*7 ... 4 52 S. 



Neptune.. 23 44*... 7 31 ... 15 18 ... 4 o'8 ... 18 57 N. 



* Indicates that the rising is that of the preceding evening. 



Comet Sawerthal. 



h. 



Right Ascension. Declination 



h. '. m. / 



164 



I 46 



53 4N. 

 53 37 



July. 



29 ... o 

 Aug. 



2 ... O 

 July. h. 



29 ... 21 ... Mercury at greatest elongation from the 

 Sun 19 west. 

 Aug. 



2 ... 1 ... Saturn in conjunction with the Sun. 



