May I, 1879] 



NATURE 



1 



can be made by mi^ating birds, without leading them out of 

 yiew of their destination. With shorter journeys it is evident the 

 error of flight may be largely increased without endangering the 

 safety of the migrants. 



Migratory birds that are strictly nocturnal cannot cross any 

 Tery great expanse of barren ocean, hence, unless their error of 

 flight is large, and the land they wing their way to small, there 

 is not much fear of their losing themselves. Moreover, if they 

 do go wrong, dawn must assuredly bring back their powers of 

 vision. E. H. Pringle 



Beckenham, April 27 



An Observatory of Newton's ? 



There is a tradition associated with a domed building, now 

 covered with ivy, situate on Stamford Hill, that it was once 

 employed as an observatory by Sir Isaac Newton. Can any of 

 your readers give any information upon the subject ? Imme- 

 diately beneath the revolving dome there is a well-shaped excava- 

 tion (now partially filled with water) in which is an extinguisher- 

 shaped stand, supposed to be of iron ; this may have formed 

 part of the base of a telescope, but no information upon the 

 subject can be obtained from the local inhabitants. 



ClIARLES'COPPOCK 



Grosvenor Road, Highbury New Park, N., April 23 



Waterton's Wanderings — Goat-suckers 



One would like further information respecting the "nocturnal 

 flies " which settle on the udders of cows or goats, and may be 

 seen on moonlight nights. Many lepidoptera and coleoptera 

 and a few hymenoptera are nocturnal, but are not known to 

 adopt the habit described. Of the true flies, diptera, are any 

 nocturnal? Henry H. Higgins 



A STATUE TO CAPTAIN COOK 



THE Australians have found a hero worthy of their 

 worship, and Capt. Cook has at length found an 

 English-speaking people eager to take occasion to honour 

 the memory and the work of one of the greatest of 

 Englishmen. The mystery of the reticence of our 

 wealthy but unwieldy Geographical Society on the 

 occurrence of the centenary of Cook's death, still re- 

 mains unsolved ; they did not even send a represen- 

 tative to Taris, to the amazement of the enthusiastic 

 French geographers ; was the weather too rough for the 

 gallant admiral who we believe volunteered to the indif- 

 ferent Council to go to the Paris meeting ? We are glad 

 for the credit of the nation that it has not been left 

 entirely to the foreigner to recognise the greatness of 

 one of England's greatest navigators and discoverers. 

 Our readers may remember that some time since a statue 

 of Cook adorned Waterloo Place, near the Athenaeum 

 Club. The statue was admitted to have been exceedingly 

 happy in conception, and successful in execution ; it is 

 supposed to represent the great navigator coming within 

 the loom of the east Australian coast, which he first saw 

 near Cape Howe, to the south of Sydney. It was for 

 this city that the statue was designed, and it was to 

 inaugurate the work of Mr. Woolner, that on February 25 

 last one of the greatest demonstrations took place that 

 has been witnessed in Australia since the first shipload of 

 convicts was landed at Botany Bay. When we said that 

 Australia had found a hero, perhaps we spoke too widely, 

 for only New South Wales as represented by Sydney, 

 seems to havejoined in the demonstration to commemorate 

 the centenary of Cook' s tragic end and the unveiling of 

 his statue. It seems to us a great thing for a people to 

 have a worthy national hero, and since the days when 

 Abraham begat Isaac, and probably long before, every 

 nation of any note has had its hero or demigod in 

 whom all the national virtues have been embodied. 

 The Australians have the making of a great people 

 among them, and while they have a right to count our 

 gods as theirs, still no doubt they would like to have a 

 Hengist of their ojvn to mark a new starting-point in their 



history. Happily, as we have said, thsy have found a 

 worthy one — one whose character is in every respect 

 worthy of their admiration, and the principles of whose 

 conduct, if adopted and acted upon, will help to make of 

 them a really great people. However desirable we may 

 think the federation of our Australian colonies to be, any 

 advocacy of it in these pages would be out of place. Still 

 we cannot but think that it would have been a good thing 

 in many ways — a good thing for the colonies themselves, 

 and conducive to cordiality among them — had they all 

 united to do honour to one so worthy of honour in all 

 respects, and to whom, in a sense, they are indebted for 

 their very existence. 



Nothing could have been more successful than the 

 gathering in Sydney on February 25, to assist at the un- 

 veiling of the statue by Sir Hercules Robinson. It was 

 a universal holiday. Probably there were not much less 

 than 100,000 people gathered in and around Hyde 

 Park at the time of the opening ceremony — people 

 of all classes who had voluntarily given up their 

 work or business for the day, apparently, to a large 

 extent, from genuine enthusiasm towards the man who 

 first landed near the site of what in a few years has 

 become one of the finest cities in the world. The 

 statue seems to have given universal satisfaction, and the 

 enthusiasm reached its height when Sir Hercules Robin- 

 son unveiled it at the conclusion of a solid and suitable 

 speech. In his address the Governor traced in a sympa- 

 thetic manner the career of the hero whom they had 

 gathered to honour, from his birth as a peasant's son, till 

 his unfortunate murder at Hawaii. Sir Hercules does 

 not, however, seem to be well up in the latest evidence 

 with regard to Cook's death, and seems, as of old, to have 

 attributed it to mere savagery, whereas it seems pretty 

 clearly ascertained that it was a blunder on the part of 

 the poor natives. We have so recently written on the 

 character and work of Cook, that it is unnecessary again 

 to go over the same ground. Sir Hercules very happily, 

 we think, read the moral of Cook's life to the people of 

 Sydney. He was a man who eagerly pursued knowledge 

 as his scanty opportunities afforded : who valued science, 

 and endeavoured to do all his work by its light and 

 guidance ; who treated those under his command with 

 the greatest consideration, and exercised the utmost ten- 

 derness and humanity towards the natives of the various 

 islands with which he had any dealings. " Such a statue 

 is creditable to ourselves," Sir Hercules justly concluded, 

 "as marking our admiration of the character and services 

 of the man, and our gratitude for the benefits which his 

 discoveries have conferred, not only on Australia, but also 

 on the world at large. . . . There is scarcely a lad born in 

 this country who has not within his reach educational ad- 

 vatages superior to those which were available to the poor 

 Yorkshire peasant boy, and I hope that the history of his 

 early life may not be thrown away upon the young, but 

 that many a child in the future will learn at the foot of 

 this statue how a faithful, patient, cheerful attention to 

 the details of daily duty, however monotonous and com- 

 monplace, will bring its own reward, and may perchance, 

 as in the case of James Cook, leave behind a noble and 

 imperishable memory." 



While we regard it as right and proper that this fine 

 statue should have been erected in Sydney to Cook, we 

 think, moreover, the people of New South Wales would 

 only be carrying out the work of Cook if they took some 

 step to obtain a more thorough knowledge of these Pacific 

 islands and seas, for a knowledge of which Cook did so 

 much. We recently referred to the lecture given them 

 by Dr. Miclucho Maclay on the want of a zoological 

 station at Sydney ; and we would suggest that the people 

 of Sydney, helped by the other Australian cities, should 

 carry out the work they have so well begun, by founding 

 an institution, that under proper guidance would add 

 immensely to our knowledge of the life of these interesting 



