i84 



NATURE 



[December 20. 1900 



The precautions adopted for concealing their eggs 

 while birds are temporarily absent from the nest claim 

 a considerable share of the author's attention ; particular 

 interest attaching to the description and illustration of 



when a child, he was delighted by bird-stories told by 

 his grandfatlier. " They," he adds, " will enjoy a great 

 advantage over me in being able, through the achieve- 

 ments of my brother's camera, to examine accurate 

 pictures of the birds living, loving and labouring 

 amidst their natural surroundings." No words of 

 ours can add aught to this modest description of 

 the most attractive feature of a charming book. 



R. L. 



W 



Fig. I. — Eggs of the Ringed Plover. '(From Mr. Keaiton's " Our Bird Friends. ') 



the manner in which moorhens are in the habit of bend- 

 ing down some of the adjacent reeds in order to prevent 

 the eggs from being seen from above. Not less attrac- 

 tive are the illustrations showing the contrast in the 

 appearance of the nest of the eider-duck when just 

 vacated by the parent bird and when the eggs are en- 

 veloped in a mantle of fleecy down. Other illustrations 

 display the adaptation of the eggs of the plover tribe 

 to their environment, as well as the economy in space 

 obtained by the clutch of four being placed with 

 their narrow ends pointing inwards, both these features 

 being admirably displayed in the annexed photograph 

 of a ringed plover's nest. While on the subject of eggs 

 it may be mentioned that some confusion is, we think, 

 likely to occur in identifying which is the raven's and 

 which the curlew's &'gg in the photograph on p. 80. And 

 it may be added' that, on the same page, Epyornis is not 

 the way to spell the scientific name of the extinct 

 Malagasy roc, which is compounded from 

 the Greek aiTrvs. 



Another subject to which the author 

 directs the attention of his readers is 

 the connection between the structure and 

 form of feathers and the uses they are 

 intended to subserve ; and here, again, 

 the illustrations admirably assist in the 

 interpretation of the letterpress. After 

 describing the manner in which a gannet 

 dashes into the water in its headlong 

 descent when in pursuit of prey, Mr. Kearton pro- 

 ceeds to observe that " the shock produced by such 

 a heavy bird suddenly striking the surface of the 

 ocean after descending from a considerable height at 

 great velocity would kill some species of smaller size 

 on the spot. But the gannet has been properly equipped 

 for its task. The shafts and vanes of its breast feathers 

 have been tremendously thickened, and their quills are 

 buried in a quarter-inch-thick pad of very close-set 

 down, which acts like a buffer when its wearer strikes 

 the surface of the sea." 



Contrasted with this are the " fluffy " and loosely- 

 attached feathers on the breast of the heron, which fishes 

 while standing, and therefore needs no breast-plate. 



In his preface the author tells his young readers how, 



NO. 1625, VOL. 63] 



HUXLE V MEMORIAL. 



E have received a copy of the final report 

 of the Huxley Memorial Committee, which 

 announces the completion of their task, and is 

 accompanied by a full donation list, signed on 

 behalf of the committee by the Hon. Treasurer 

 and Secretary. It shows the cost of the statue to 

 have been 18 14/. ; of the dies for the medal 264/., 

 inclusive of all that pertained to each ; and this, 

 with the sum of 201/. for total working expenses, 

 and the balance of 1126/., paid to the Board of 

 Education as an endowment for the medal at 

 the Royal College of Science, brings the total 

 amount received and expended to a little over 

 3450/., as compared with the Owen Memorial, 

 which realised iioo/., the Darwin rather more 

 than 5000/., and the Jowett about 10,000/. 



The statue we have already described (NATURE, 

 vol. Ixii. p. 12), and of the medal for the Royal College 

 of Science and the arrangement for the production of 

 a memorial medal at the Anthropological Institute, 

 to which we alluded at the same time, the report 

 contains nothing that is new. It concludes with the 

 thanks of the committee to the Hon. J. Collier for 

 the gift of a portrait of the late Prof. Huxley to the 

 National Portrait Gallery, in lieu of their inability to 

 provide one. 



The number of persons of distinction of all nation- 

 alities who ultimately consented to join the " General 



-Arctic Tern guarding her nest. (From Mr. Kearton's "Our Bird 

 Friends." 



Committee" was close upon 750, and of these one- 

 third were foreigners, 33 colonials. All but 60 of them 

 subscribed, and the total number of contributors was 



