JtUy 15, 1875J 



NATURE 



213 



cat came to an untimely end eighteen months ago, but the only 

 surviving kitten of the five named above is as fond of the dog 

 as her mother was. She brings mice, young rats, and rabbits, and 

 lays them down before "Cato," and looks beseechingly till he 

 takes them. She constantly plays with him and gets on her 

 hind legs to look fondly into his face, while he puts his paws 

 round her as he used to do to her mother. 



vShe must have inherited ihis affection from her mother, as she 

 was too young to have imitated her mother's actions at the time 

 of her death. H, G. 



Clent, July 13 



Scarcity of Birds 



I SHOULD much like to know whether blackbirds and thrushes 

 are scarce in other localities this year ; because they have most 

 unaccountably vanished from this neighbourhood, with the excep- 

 tion of a very few stragglers. Our cherries and strawberries are 

 untouched. I have not observed a single blackbird or thrush in 

 our garden or pleasure-grounds since the fruit ripened, though 

 every other year we captured several m the cherry-nets, and 

 shot many others. 



R. M. Barrington 



Fassaroe Bray, co. Wicklow, July 12 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 



Variable Stars.— Of the three stars to which Col 

 Tennant draws attention as being probably variable 

 ("Monthly Notices R.A.S.," June 1875), B.A.C. 740 

 appears more especially deserving of regular observation. 

 The B.A.C, has adopted the magnitude assigned by 

 Groombridge, 6 ; other estimates are : — Hevelius, 6 ; 

 Fedorenko (Lalande, 1789 November), 8 ; Piazzi, 8, by 

 seven observations; Schwerd, 8^; Taylor, in 1834 or 

 1835, in vol. iii. of "Madras Observations," 7 (he calls 

 the star 21 Cephei) ; Carrington, 8-i ; the Radcliffe 

 Catalogues, 7-5 ; and Durchmusterung, 8-4. With regard 

 to the observation of Hevelius, which has been assumed 

 to refer to this star, it may be remarked that the position 

 given in his Catalogue for 1660, where it is No. 46 in 

 Cepheus, does not well agree with the place of the Redhill 

 Catalogue for B.A.C. 740, the difference of position 

 amounting to 16' ; nevertheless, it is not easy to identify 

 the star observed by Hevelius with any other in the 

 modern catalogues. In the cases of the stars B.A.C. 

 4166 and 4193, also noticed by Col. Tennant, the esti- 

 mates of magnitude from the epoch of Schwerd's obser- 

 vations to the present time appear pretty accordant. 

 [In comparing the magnitudes assigned in different cata- 

 logues to the naked-eye stars it is necessary to bear in 

 mind that in'Argelander's Uranometria, and in Heis and 

 Behrmann, 6*5, 5-4, &c., apply to stars which are judged 

 to be somewhat brighter than an average sixth or fifth 

 magnitude, and are not to be understood decimally, as is 

 the case in the " Durchmusterung."] 



The Double-star 2 1785. — The proper motion of this 

 star is investigated in Argelander's researches, Bonn 

 Observations, vol. 7. He remarks : " Die Begleiter geht 

 mit," and of this there can be no doubt, since in the 

 interval between Struve's first measures and the last pub- 

 lished by the Baron Dembowski, the amount of proper 

 motion, according to Argelander's values, would be 

 - 2o"-9 in R.A. and - 2"-4 in Decl. But the relative fixity 

 of the components, which might have been surmised from 

 Argelander's comparison of his differences of R.A. and 

 Decl. for i867'34, with those deduced from Struve's angle 

 and distance in 1830, is clearly refuted by the recent 

 measures. Thus we have — 



one that should be regularly measured. The position for 

 the beginning of the present year is R.A. i3h, 43m. 24s 

 and N.P.D. 62° 23'-6. ' 



The Total Solar Eclipse, 1927, June 29. — We 

 believe the Rev. S. J. Johnson, of Upton Helions, Devon, 

 was the first who pointed out the probable totality of this 

 eclipse for a short interval in this country. It is one of 

 those eclipses in which the moon's augmented semi- 

 diameter exceeds that of the sun by a small quantity, even 

 where the sun is on the meridian. The following are 

 approximate elements :— 



Conjunction in R.A. 1927, June 28, at i8h. 27m. 14s. g.m.t. 



R.A 



Moon's hourly motion in R. A. 

 Sun's ,, ,, 



Moon's declination 



Sun's „ 



Moon's hourly motion in Decl. 

 Sun's ,, ,, 



Moon's horizontal parallax 

 Sun's ,, 



Moon's true semidiameter 

 Sun's ,, 



The sidereal time at Greenwich noon on June 29 is 

 6h. 26m. 17s., and the equation of time 3m. 3s. subtrac- 

 tive from mean time. The middle of general eclipse at 

 i8h. 23m. 17s. 

 Hence the following points on the central line :— 



Long. 3 21 W. Lat. 54 11 N. 



„ o 45 W. „ 55-40 



M I 30 E. „ 57 3 



„ 3 32 E. „ 58 15 N. 



Sun's zenith distance"! 78-5 



,. "76-3 



74-5 



M 72-8 



Perhaps it is not yet practicable to decide whether this 

 relative change is due to sKght difference of proper motion 

 or to the binary character of the star, but it is evidently 



In 1° 37' W. and 55° 12' N. totality begins according to 

 the above elements, June 28 at I7h. 19m. 31s. local mean 

 time, and continues only nine seconds. It will be seen 

 that the track of the central line in its passage over 

 England is from Windermere, a little north of Morpeth, 

 to the Northumberland Coast ; it appears to just' escape 

 the Isle of Anglesey, but our data are not quite definitive. 



Minor Planets.— M. Stephan has calculated elements 

 of No. 146, discovered by M. Borrelly, from the Mar- 

 seilles observations of June 9, 18, and 29, which give as 

 a first approximation to the period of revolution, 1627 

 days ; the planet has been named Lucina. Euphrosyne 

 is in opposition about this time, with 57° South DecHna- 

 tion ; this body makes one of the widest excursions of any 

 in the group, and may at times be found in Ursa Major. 

 Daphne is the brightest of the small planets now near 

 opposition. 



SCIENCE IN GERMANY 



{From a German Correspondent^ 



T N continuation of the last report (p. 152) we make the 

 ■*■ following further communication on Gotte's "His- 

 tory of Development." As we have already mentioned, 

 Gotte deduces the structure of the embryo from the 

 difference in size and position of the parts resulting from 

 the division of the ovum. He supports this theory by 

 the following observations. In the case of all ova, first 

 of all a difference shows itself in the vertical axis, the 

 parts round the upper pole being smaller and generating 

 quicker than those round the under pole. The ratio of 

 displacement is therefore also much greater in the upper 

 hemisphere ; and as this one expands concentrically it over- 

 grows downwards the more bulky lower hemisphere, or 

 causes it to bulge inwards, so that from the ovum which 

 divides into many cell-like pieces, results a beaker-shaped 



