Dec. 6, 188SJ 



NA TURE 



37 



mosses, and other rock-loving plants, which, by being mixed 

 with sand and particles of rock, would necessitate the develop- 

 ment of such long lasting molars as it is remarkable for 

 possessing. Additional specimens of Enpctaurus would be most 

 valuable for scientific examination, especially if of different ages ; 

 and Mr. Thomas expresses a hope that some of the many 

 British sportsmen who annually visit Kashmir will help to enrich 

 cither the Indian Museum in Calcutta, or tlie National Museum 

 at home, with examples of this, the latest addition to the 

 mammal fauna of our Indian Empire. 



In the new number of the Zoologist Mr. T. Southwell has an 

 interesting article on Pallas's sand grouse in Norfolk. Speak- 

 ing of a large flock which Mr. Wood, of Morston, had under 

 his close observation for some months, Mr. Southwell says 

 that they frequented the same fields with great regularity ; their 

 favourite feeding-place being a large clover layer, from which, if 

 disturbed, they flew across to some adjacent turnip-fields, choosing 

 the bare patches for their feeding-ground. Here they spread 

 over a circle of some 30 or 40 yards, separating, and diligently 

 searching the ground until they appeared to have exhausted 

 the food in that particular locality, when they all rose together 

 and repaired to a fresh spot, which they exhausted in like manner. 

 At stated times they departed for the salt marshes adjacent. The 

 bird is usually extremely shy, but not always. Mr. A. Napier 

 was shooting on the Holkham sand-hills with Lord Leicester and 

 party, on October 13, when they met with a flock of about thirty- 

 five. " A single bird," says Mr. Napier, " which I came upon, I 

 felt convinced must have had either a nest or young. When first 

 I saw it, it fluttered along in front of me just like a partridge with 

 young. It was so tame that I called Lord Leicester and the 

 others up to see it, and i:. did not fly up until we had approached 

 to within 3 or 4 yards of it. At first I thought it must have 

 been a wounded bird, but I do not think so now, for it 

 flew away very strongly, calling out most lustily. Its action re- 

 minded me very much of the turtledove." Other incidents of 

 a like kind are recorded by Mr. Southwell. On August 5 the 

 gardener at Shernbourne Hall came to Mr. Parsons to say that 

 a sand grouse was running about on the lawn. Mr. Parsons 

 went out to catch it, thinking his son's pinioned bird had escaped. 

 On being approached, the bird " ran and skulked in a little 

 ditch," and did not rise till Mr. Parsons was about to put his 

 hand on it, when it flew away "quite strong." Another, now 

 in Mr. Guraey's aviary at Nonhrepps, was found, on October 31, 

 floundering in a wet ditch at Suffield, and taken by hand. 



We learn from the Canadian Record of Science (vol. iii. 

 No. 3) that in June 18S7 a small collection of graptolites was 

 obtained by Dr. G. M. Dawson, on Dease River, in the extreme 

 northern and inland portion of British Columbia, about lat. 59" 

 45', long. 129^. These fossils were derived from certain dark- 

 coloured, carbonaceous and often calcareous shales, which, in 

 association with quartzites and other rocks, characterize a con- 

 siderable area of the lower part of the Dease, as well as the 

 Liard River, above the confluence. In .1886 a similar small 

 collection was obtained by Mr. G. R. McConnell, near the line 

 of the Canadian Pacific Railway, in the Kicking Horse (Wapta) 

 Pass. No other locality in the western portion of the Dominion 

 has yet been found to yield graptolites. Prof, Lapworth, to 

 whom Dr. Dawson's collection has been transmitted, thinks that 

 the graptolite-bearing rocks are clearly of about Middle Ordovi- 

 cian age. They contain forms he would refer to the second or 

 Black River Trenton period ; i.e. they are newer thr.n the I'oint 

 Levis series, and older than the Hudson and Utica groups. 

 The association of forms, he says, is such as we find in Britain 

 and Western Europe, in the passage beds between the Llandeilo 

 and Caradoc Limestones. 



The following are the lecture arrangements of the Royal 

 Institution before Easter : — Prof. Dewar, six lectures (adapted to 



a juvenile auditory) on clouds and cloudland ; Prof. G. J. 

 Romanes, twelve lectures constituting the second part of a 

 course on before and after Darwin (the evidences of organic 

 evolution and the theory of natural selection) ; Prof. J. W. Judd, 

 four lectures on the metamorphoses of minerals ; Dr. Sidney 

 Martin, four lectures on the poisonous action of albuminoid 

 bodies, including those formed in digestion ; Prof. J. H. Middle- 

 ton, four lectures on houses and their decoration from the 

 classical to the mediceval period ; Prof. Ernst Pauer, four lectures 

 on the characters of the great composers and the characteristics 

 of their works (with illustrations on the pianoforte) ; and eight 

 lectures by the Right Hon. Lord Rayleigh, on experimental 

 optics (polarization ; the wave theory). The Friday evening 

 meetings will begin on January 25, when a discourse will be 

 given by Prof. G. H. Darwin ; succeeding discourses will 

 probably be given by Prof. W. C. Mcintosh, Sir William 

 Thomson, Prof. A. W. Riicker, Mr. Harold Crichton Browne,. 

 Prof. Oliver Lodge, Prof. Archibald Geikie, the Rev. Alfred 

 Ainger, the Right Hon. Lord Rayleigh, and other gentlemen. 



The Russian naturalist, M. K. Nossilow, has been making 

 geological investigations in Nova Zembla, and has discovered 

 traces of gold. 



Prof. Oliver J. Lodge writes to us as follows about his letter 

 on the "Velocity of Sound" (Nature, November 22, p. 79).- 

 "In equation (6), U + z* should, strictly, he -\J + v, because 

 the sign of U has changed with its signification. Equation (7) 

 is therefore wrong. In the paragraph between equations (3) 

 and (4), the words ' condensation ' and ' rarefaction ' should be 

 transposed." 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include two Squirrel Monkeys {Chrysothnx sciurea) 

 from Guiana, presented by Master H. B. Young ; a Silvery 

 Gibbon {Hy Mates leiiciscus i ) from Burmah, presented by 

 Captain D. L. de la Chevcis ; a Pig-tailed Monkey {Macacus 

 nemestrimis 9 ) from Java, presented by Mr. W. Merry weather ; 

 a Polecat {Mttstela putorius), British, presented by Mr. F. D. 

 Lea Smith, F.Z.S. ; a Raven {Corvus corax), British, presented 

 by Mr. C. Petrzywalski ; a Sparrow Hawk {Accipiter msus)y 

 British, presented by Mr. G. Skegg ; two Barn Owls (Stnx 

 flammea), British, presented by Mr. E. Hart, F.Z.S. ; a Lion 

 Marmoset ( Hapalc 7-osalia) from Brazil, deposited ; a Blue- 

 cheeked Barbet {Megalcema asiatica) from India, a Golden- 

 crowned Conure [Conuitis aureus) from South-East Brazil, a 

 Golden winged Parrakeet {Brologerys chiysopterus) from the 

 Amazons, purchased. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



Stonyhurst College Observatory. — The Report of this 

 Observatory for 1887, which has been recently published, is ot 

 the usual character, giving the results of the magnetic and 

 meteorological observations for the year. The daily areas of 

 the spots observed upon the sun during 1886 and 1887, ex- 

 pressed in millionths of the sun's visible hemisphere, are alsO' 

 given in both tabular and graphical form. The latter shoAS in 

 a very striking manner the remarkable depression in spot-activity 

 which marked the seven months from the end of September 188& 

 to the end of April 1887, and the regular series of gentle undu- 

 lations which succeeded it. A note on the "Upper Glows in 

 1887" records that the white haze round the sun, and the pink 

 "fore" and "after" glows consequent upon the Krakatao 

 explosion, were still observed occasionally in 1887, but more 

 feebly and less frequently than in 1886. 



The Hopkins Ouservatory. — The little Observatory of 

 this name attached to Williams College, Mass., is the oldest 

 public Observatory in the United States, and during the past 

 summer the jubilee of its dedication was duly celebrated. This 

 interesting commemoration was made the occasion for the delivery 

 of a discourse by Prof. T. H. Saflford, Field Memorial Professor 

 of Astronomy at Williams College, on the development of astro- 



