330 



NA TURE 



\Aug. 26, 1875 



libratory motion, or to slew upwards towards the main stream, 

 and therefore perpendicularly to their length. 



Nothing could suggest to the mind more strongly the idea of 

 converging streams of infinitely minute particles of matter passing 

 through space at a distance from the earth less than that of the 

 moon, and at which the earth's aerial envelope may still have a 

 density sufficient, by its resistance, to give to cosmic dust passing 

 through it with planetary velocity that slight illumination which 

 it possessed. 



The rapid development of the luminosity of these streams on 

 this occasion is evidenced by the fact that they were observed at the 

 time of leaving church, namely, 8 r.M. to 8.20 p.m., by none of 

 the several congregations of this town and Perth, but were ob- 

 served by many persons from a quarter to half an hour after that 

 time, so far as I have yet been able to ascertain by a rather 

 extensive inquiry. On coming out of church I myself certainly 

 looked round the whole visible horizon and the higher portion of 

 the heavens, and I made to a companion some observations on 

 the clearness of the stars and dark blue colour of the sky ; but 

 about twenty minutes after my exit from church these streams of 

 light had attained their maximum of illumination. 



Their apparent figure was that of a nearly circular (slightly 

 flattened) arc of an amplitude of 15° or 20°, as viewed from the 

 middle point of its chord. Both the brightness and the conver- 

 gence of the streams towards the western horizon were more 

 marked than those towards the eastern horizon. 



Fremantle, West Australia, May 17 J. W. N. Lefroy 



PS. — Since writing the above, in the Supplement of the South 

 Australian Register of Thursday, May 20, I have found the fol- 

 lowing paragraph : — 



" A beautiful lunar rainbow was visible in the western heavens 

 on the evening of Sunday, the i6th inst., a few minutes after 

 8 o'clock. For a short time the arch was nearly perfect, but for 

 upwards of fifteen minutes the limbs were very bright. The 

 southern Pmb also appeared visible for some time after the 

 upper portion of the arch had faded away." 



Now, allowing for the difference of local time batween Fre- 

 mantle and Adelaide, I think it fairly assumable that this para- 

 graph must refer to the same phenomenon which I have attempted 

 to describe as above ; and, if so, it clearly shows that it was not 

 a lunar rainbow. I can find no allusion to it in any Melbourne 

 paper yet received here, and which reach to the 19th inst. 

 There the sky may that evening have been cloudy, and thus 

 have rendered it invisible. All intelligent persons here who 

 observed it, and with whom I have had opportunity of conversing 

 since the i6th inst. to this day, concur in my impression that 

 minor lateral streams or feathers of light on the north side of the 

 main stream intervened between the earth and the moon, and 

 one or more of them in its slow librations swept the surface of the 

 moon and sensibly obscured its light. — ^J. W. N. L. 



May 31 



" Instinct " and "Reason" 



A FEW facts came under my observation during the spring of 

 this year that strikingly illustrate this subject. A pair of black- 

 birds built a nest on the top of my garden wall, which is thickly 

 covered with ivy and within three yards of the drawing-room 

 window. When the young birds were about three parts fledged 

 one of them by some mishap left the nest and fell into the flower 

 garden. My cat (seven years old, and which has killed scores of 

 small birds) immediately found it, and at the same time a kitten 

 (about three months old, but not belonging to the cat) began to 

 pay rather rude attentions to the young blackbird, and would 

 have used it as kittens are wont, but the old cat would not suffer 

 her to touch it. The cause of this was the old cock blackbird, 

 being aware of the peril of its young, made a great noise and kept 

 flying here and there around the scene of action, crying and 

 scolding with might and main. It then became evident to me 

 that the cat had two or three objects in view, and a purpose to 

 gain. Firstly, not to allow the kitten to touch, or kill, or make 

 off with the young bird. Secondly, to use the young bird as a 

 decoy to entrap the old one. Thirdly, to make the young bird 

 cry sufficiently from fear or pain to induce the parent's affection 

 to overcome its discretion. 



During the manojuvres old Tom repeatedly made unsuc- 

 cessful springs to catch the cock-bird, alternately running to 

 give the kitten a lesson of patience, or self-denial, or impose a 

 fear of punishment. The young bird repeatedly hopped out of 

 sight amongst the flower* and stinted its cries ; then anon the 



cat touched it again and made it flutter about and cry again, 

 which from time to time brought the old bird down with cries of 

 terror, or wrath, or a blending of both emotions, and almost into 

 the very mouth of the cat. Two or three times I thought old 

 Tom was successful, but no, he missed his object most surpris- 

 ingly. It became evident to me that the cat was using the young 

 bird as a decoy to catch the old one. After I had watched some 

 ten or fifteen minutes, it became too painful for me to witness, 

 so I caught the young bird and put it again into its nest, which 

 was about ten feet from the ground. 



In less than an hour the young bird was again on the ground, 

 the cat, kitten, and parent bird performing the same drama, with 

 this difference in the acting : the cat lay down, rolled about, or 

 sat at a convenient distance from the young bird, yet with eyes 

 alert, though half shut, and otherwise giving an assurance that 

 he did not intend to make another bound without succeeding to 

 catch his prey. He was, however, disappointed, and made four 

 without achieving his purpose. At this juncture the mother- 

 bird came on the stage with cries of distress, but kept aloof on 

 the branches of a tall cherry-tree that rises above the wall ; and 

 if her boldness were less than the cock-birds's, her discretion was 

 greater, for she kept far aloft. Once it seemed to me that the 

 cock-bird actually struck the back or head of the cat with his 

 wing and mandible. This scene continued about seven or ten 

 minutes, when I again caught the young bird and threw it over 

 the wall, and the exhibition of animal thought, emotion, and 

 passion ceased. 



Here were manifested phenomena of a more remarkable kind 

 than those seen in the cases cited by the Duke of Argyll in the Con- 

 temporary Review iox July, in an article to illustrate "Animal 

 Instinct in relation to the Mind of Man," for the cat showed an 

 amount of reasoning which he probably never before exercised, 

 because never before placed in the same circumstances. That 

 he had used young sparrows, of which he must have caught 

 scores, as decoys to catch the old ones is possible, but I am per- 

 fectly sure that no kitten ever was in the garden during his reign 

 as " monarch of all he surveyed " in the shape of birds. Hence 

 his authority over the kitten, which was full of life and eagerness 

 to appropriate the young bird, the killing of which would have 

 defeated the purpose of the cat in using the young bird as a decoy 

 to catch the old one, was indeed remarkable, and disclosed a 

 combination of mental forces of self-conscious reason of no 

 trifling order, and, as it appears to me, conclusive that the differ- 

 ence — and only difference — between instinct and reason is one of 

 degtee. James Hutchings 



Banbury, Aug. 16 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 

 Double Stars. — Dr. Doberck, of Markree Observa- 

 tory, has published a first approximation to the elements of 

 ( Aquarii, on measures between 1781 and 1870, in which 

 long interval, however, the angle of position has only 

 changed 45"— a case where very great latitude must be 

 allowed to any orbit that may be deduced. Dr. Doberck 

 fixes the peri-astron passage to I924"i5, and assigns a 

 period of revolution of upwards of 1,500 years. The latest 

 measures we have met with are those of Nobile, taken at 

 the Observatory of Naples, in November 1873, giving the 

 angle 335°'5, or 3°*4 greater than that calculated. — There 

 appears now a probability that the smaller component of 

 44 Bootis has passed its greatest apparent distance from 

 the primary several years since : if good measures of dis- 

 tance have been made this year, they ought to be sufficient 

 to enable us to pronounce definitely upon this point. That 

 this star forms a true binary there can be no doubt, though 

 it is Sir W. Herschel's measures in 1781 and 1802 alone, 

 that afford conclusive evidence of the physical connection 

 of the components. Thus we might represent the mea- 

 sures between Struve's earliest in iSigand the present 

 time by the formulas 



A a = - 3"-4233 - [8-8968] (t - 1830-88) 

 A 5 = - 1 -6979 - [8-3115] (t - 1830-88) 



But if we calculate from the same formulae for Sir W. 



Herschel's epochs we find, 



1781-62 Position 1 56° "I Distance o" -75 

 1802-25 „ 214 -8 |„ I -35 



