432 



NATURE 



{Sept. 4, 1879 



intervals varj-ing from two to five minutes' duration, I counted 

 six of these discharges, and following each discharge there came 

 a gentle tremulous movement. Immediately after the last move- 

 ment, heavy rain fell, and at 1. 55 there were several flashes of 

 very vivid lightning accompanied by loud peal^ of thunder. The 

 rain continued to fall during all yesterday and last night. 



Although Dominica is essentially of volcanic origin, and con- 

 tains at the present day three active geysers, called respectively 

 the Souffri^re, the Walton Waven, and the Boiling Lake, no 

 unusual quantity of sulphurous or raephitic vapours have lately 

 been noticeable in the atmosphere ; in fact, only one of the 

 phenomena usually attending earthquakes preceded the shocks I 

 have just described, and that was violent rain. The planters' 

 " dry season " may be said to begin in January and to end in 

 July, and during these months, harvesting, i.e., sugar-making, 

 goes on uninterruptedly. This year, however, there has been no 

 "dry season," for ioi"67 inches of rain have fallen on the east 

 coast and 4S'8o on the west coast of this island. 



I may add, in conclusion, that being unwell and unable to 

 sleep, I was reading by lamplight when the shocks above de- 

 scribed took place, and that I timed them carefiilly with a chro- 

 nometer-watch by Barraud and Lund, which was on a chair near 

 my bed. Edmund Watt 



Resident District Magistrate, 

 Leeward Islands 



Dominica, British West Indies, August 1 1 



Is it True that no Animal can be shown to have made 

 Use of Antecedent Experience to intentionally im- 

 prove upon the Past ? 



I HAD a pair- of yellow African singing finches last year. The 

 hen laid twenty-two eggs during the year, three at eifcch nesting. 

 In early spring I gave her materials to build with. She selected 

 cotton wool and fine dryish grass for her purpose. It was very 

 cold weather when she bnilt her first nest in a little basket which 

 I fixed high up in her cage. 



The nest was a mere film of cotton wool lined with a few blades 

 of grass. Of course the little creature could not sufficiently warm 

 her eggs to hatch them, if they had proved fertile, which they 

 did not. 



At the end of fourteen days the cock, finding the eggs un- 

 hatched, set to work to bury them under cotton and grass (he 

 being the only cock bird I had ever kept that built quite as well 

 and as diligently as the hen did). 



I then removed the eggs and the nest, and gave the birds fresh 

 materials to build another nest with. They very soon accom- 

 plished this, making the nest of the same materials, but thicker 

 and more compact than the last. 



Again three white e^s were laid in it, but the hen could not 

 get up the necessary degree of heat to hatch them, and at the 

 end of fourteen days the cock set to work to build a third nest 

 over them as before. 



I again took away the nest and eggs, and I replaced the 

 basket, this time covered externally with wadding and flannel, in 

 hopes that thus I might help the hen to get up the proper tem- 

 perature. 



The little creatures immediately set to work 'to build again, 

 but they this time built a much thicker and warmer and more 

 compact nest than they had ever done before. The eggs proved 

 fertile, and the process of incubation seemed to be successfully 

 drawing to a close ; but the patience of the cock did not suffice 

 for the occasion. At the end of the tenth day he set to work to 

 pull the aotton wool and grass about from the edges of the nest, 

 and tried to bury the eggs as before, urging the hen to begin 

 again also. This showed an unaccountable lack of instinct, not 

 to say of reason ; but surely the fact that the birds built each 

 succeeding nest more and more thickly and warmly till incuba- 

 tion was possible indicates that they had made use of antecedent 

 experience, and intentionally improved upon the past. These 

 birds built a warm nest this spring, and succeeded in hatching a 

 young one. J. E. S. 



Deltaic Growths 

 In Nature, vol. xix. p. 506, a Rangoon correspondent states 

 that the Gulf of Martaban has shallowed 100 feet since the surveys 

 of Captains Ross and Crawford, made probably thirty years 

 ago. He is mistaken as to the date of these surveys for this 

 reason : — 

 i In 1822, at the outbreak of the first Burmese war, my father 



was appointed Flag Captain to Commodore Sir John Hayes's 

 squadron, and he subsequently received the thanks of the Indian 

 Government for, among other services, his surveys and explora- 

 tions of the enemy's coasts and rivers. Now the soundings in 

 the gulf would be about the first made. Hence the date would 

 be 1822, or fifty-seven years ago. This shows an average 

 annual dejTOsit of I '8 foot, which, although very much less than 

 what Mr. Doyle imagines, is yet almost incredible. May there 

 not have been a gradual rising of the sea bottom to assist ? 



Eraser S. Crawford 

 Adelaide, South Australia, July 16 



Sphinx (Deilephila) Lineata 

 As this insect is "unquestionably rare in England," and not 

 common anywhere (" D. Daucus, a native of North America, 

 being placed for it " — according to Mr. Stephens — " in collec- 

 tions "), perhaps I may be allowed to mention that a beautiful 

 and perfect specimen of it was secured in my garden, on the 

 15th inst., by my little son, William Cecil. He was attracted to 

 its resting-place in a wigelia bush by the flight there of a common 

 gamma, and to his credit, inclosed it gently in his hand without 

 the slightest injury — a prize indeed for a collector eight years 

 old! 



A specimen was also sent my daughter some months ago, 

 from Porto Fino on the Riviera di Levante, by Mr. Robert 

 Macdonald, but it was unfortunately wrecked in the post. 

 Bregner, Bournemouth, August 18 Hknry Cecil 



The Recent Hail-storm 



I INCLOSE a tracing of a broken window-pane — one of the 

 the numerous cases of damage caused by the hail-storm on the 

 morning of the 3rd inst. in this place. I almost fear the subject is 

 one unworthy the attention of your readers, but I am curious 

 to know what relation the space cut out may bear to the size of 

 the hailstone causing it ; and whether the clean and regular open- 

 ing made would indicate an almost horizontal direction of the 

 blow, as in the case of a bullet. 



Observations of the extreme dimensions of the hailstones on that 

 occasion are various among my neighbours, but one so large as 

 3J inches seems incredible ; and that one approaching such a 

 size should strike a window at a right angle appears also im- 

 probable. Chas. Fredk. White 



42, Windsor Road, Ealing, August 20 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 

 The Washington Catalogue. — A second edition, a:; 

 it is termed, of this extensive and useful work has been 

 published, and will be found to be an even more impor- 

 tant aid to the practical astronomer than the former one, 

 which appeared as an appendix to the Washington volunie 

 for 1871, and to which reference has been made in this 

 column as the " Washington General Catalogue." Like 

 the first edition, it was prepared for publication by the 

 late Prof. Yarnall, who died suddenly after a few hours' 

 illness on February 27, having been an astronomer at the 

 United States Naval Observatory for twenty-six years. 

 In a note prefixed to this second edition, Admiral Rodgers, 

 the present superintendent of the Observatory, handsomely 

 acknowledges the extent and value of Prof. Yarnall's 

 labours. A large majority of the observations upon which 

 the catalogue is founded were made by him, as well as 

 the computations, and the first printing of the work was 

 executed under his immediate direction. It is stated that 

 " the completed volume only reached him when he was 

 already unconscious— an hour before his death. Astro- 

 nomers will recognise in this volume not only a work of 

 exceeding usefulness to them, but also a fitting memorial 

 coming at the close of the long professional hfe of its 

 author." , . , . 



As was explained in the introduction to the former 

 edition, the stars forming the catalogue consist mainly of 

 stars used in observations wth the zenith telescope, in 

 the U.S. Army Surveys, in the lists of the Coast Survey, 

 and many of Lacaille's stars mostly observed by Lacaille 

 only But there is a great addition of small stars, the 



