August 12, 1920] 



NATURE 



747 



a minute it was there ; then it came out and flew 

 away. Burning with curiosity, I hurried into the 

 garden, and, eagerly parting the branches of the 

 hedge, looked into the nest — and lo 

 and behold, there, lying in Henrietta's 

 dear little cup-shaped, softly lined 

 cradle, I saw the cuckoo's ^^^ ! One 

 of my sisters had watched the whole 

 affair with me, and once more we 

 were amazed at the positively uncanny 

 sagacity of the bird. The whole thing 

 seemed so extraordinarily intelligent 

 and so mean." 



The observer noticed that the 

 cuckoo had not her t.^^^ in her bill, and 

 concluded that it was in its mouth out 

 of sight. But might not the cuckoo 

 lay the ^%^ in the nest? The hedge- 

 sparrow laid four eggs, and when the 

 young cuckoo was hatched the usual 

 tragedy occurred. " For the first two 

 days his shiny naked little body was 

 dark fawny-pink in colour, but by the 

 fourth day he had gone almost 

 black, and his- eyes, covered over 

 with blue-black skin, looked dispro- 

 portionately large. From the moment 

 that his eyes opened he showed 

 signs of surprising viciousness when- 

 ever I put my hand anywhere near the 

 nest." When the young cuckoo was 

 a fortnight old, more than filling the 

 nest, the foster-mother was seen brood- 

 ing, "uncomfortably crouched on top 

 of his broad and ample back. It was 

 rather like a pigeon trying to brood a 

 hen." Whenever either of the foster- 

 parents approached, the young cuckoo 

 made a "strange little tinkling noise, 

 . . . just like a tiny tinkling silver 

 bell." The menu consisted of 

 grubs, daddy-long-legs, butterflies, 

 caterpillars, and small insects, and 

 the number collected and consumed 

 in a day was amazing. The in- 

 defatigable foster-parents continued to feed the 

 cuckoo for more than a week after it had left 

 the nest. 



Miss Terras tells her story in a very attractive 

 way. We do not know whether she has done 

 this by instinct or by art, but we know we have 



Fic. 2. — Hedge-sparrow feeding a young cuckoo. 



Ihc St.iry of a Cuckoo's EgR." 



had a most delightful hour. We recommend the 

 book very strongly to young people and to those 

 who would renew their youth. 



Helium: Its Production and Uses.^ 

 By Prof. J. C. McLennan, F.R.S. 



IN 1868 Janssen {Compt. rend., 1868, vol. Ixvii., 

 p. 838) directed attention to the existence of 

 certain lines hitherto unobserved in the solar 

 spectrum, which we now know are given by the 

 element helium. In the same year Frankland 

 and Lockyer- (Proc. Roy. Soc, 1868, vol. xvii., 

 p. 91), from their observations on these spectral 

 lines^ were led to announce the existence of an 



1 From a lecture delivered before the Chemical Society on June 17. 

 " See Nature for May 20, p. 361. 



NO. 2650, VOL. 105] 



element in the sun which up to that time had not 

 been found on the earth. To this element they 

 gave the name "helium." 



In 1882 the discovery was made by Palmieri 

 {Gazzetta, 1882, vol. xii., p. 556) that the helium 

 spectrum could be obtained from rocks and lavas 

 taken from Vesuvius. 



In the United States of America, Hillebrand in 

 1890 (Bull. U.S. Geol. Survey, 1890, No. 78, 

 p. 43) succeeded in obtaining a quantity of gas 



