June 2, 1898] 



NATURE 



1 1 1 



fined to one sex, and why is it indulged in whilst the females are 

 away egg-laying, or presenting the strange phenomenon of a 

 perfectly different habit from that indulged in by their lords and 

 masters ? It is of course quite reasonable to suppose that, if a 

 number of exact observations be made, females in small numbers 

 do visit puddles, and pools, and streams for drinking purposes. 

 Certain it is that females come to sugac equally with males, but 

 this we may take it is for food, and not for drink, and it is just 

 in this that our difficulty lies. We know that moths and butter- 

 flies that visit sugar, over-ripe fruit, and similar dainties are of 

 both sexes. They come, it seems, for food ; but males alone 

 seem to be attracted by pure water. Does their extra activity 

 give them a greater need in this direction ? and has a habit 

 which was at first (and still is in a measure) a necessity be- 

 come so pleasurable that excessive drinking has literally become 

 a vice ? " 



Messrs. Seeley and Co. will shortly publish a concise 

 popular account of wireless telegraphy, by Mr. Richard Kerr, 

 being the substance of lectures delivered by him in the principal 

 cities of England, Scotland, and Holland. Mr. Preece will 

 contribute a preface to the volume. 



Herren Feiedi.ander, of Berlin, have just issued their 

 Book-Catalogue No. 430, consisting of 103 pages, entirely 

 devoted to the anatomy, physiology, and embryology of 

 plants. 



An earnest appeal is made by the Rev. W. Porter, " Von- 

 mueller," Arnold Street, South Yarra, Victoria, one of the 

 trustees, for further contribution? for the erection of a granite 

 monument over the grave of the late Baron Ferdinand von 

 Mueller, in the cemetery of St. Kilda. 



Dr. Erwin F. Smith reprints a lecture delivered before the 

 Massachusetts Horticultural Society on the spread of plant 

 •diseases, in which he discusses the parts played respectively by 

 insects and by the wind in the propagation of the diseases of 

 plants. 



The May number of the National Geographic Magazine is 

 devoted to an account of the geography, resources, and political 

 conditions of Cuba, and contains as a frontispiece the portrait of 

 Captain Charles D. Sigsbee, the commander of the ill-fated 

 battleship Maine. For several years, prior to taking command 

 of the Maine, Captain Sigsbee was Hydrographer of the Navy 

 Department, and his contributions to our knowledge of the sea 

 bottom, and its topography, place him in the front rank of 

 scientific hydrographers. 



Messrs. Taylor, Taylor, and Hobson have issued a 

 booklet of twenty-three pages setting forth the merits of their 

 Cooke lens. Every photographer knows how difficult it is to 

 •obtain a lens which gives a sharply-defined image all over the 

 field of view. By increasing the number of lenses, it is possible 

 to overcome this difficulty and secure sharp definition even at the 

 margins of a picture. The Cooke combination satisfies this photo- 

 graphic desideratum by the simplest means, only three lenses 

 being used in its construction. The superiority of the lens over 

 the symmetrical and other old types is strikingly shown in the 

 book by a series of reproductions from the margins of plates. 



The eleventh part of Mr. Oswin A. J. Lee's illustrated work 

 ''Among British Birds in their Nesting Haunts" has been pub- 

 lished by Mr. David Douglas, Edinburgh. Ten plates are in- 

 cluded in this new part, representing nests of the robin, wren, 

 rook, marsh tit, golden eagle, spotted flycatcher, teal, and 

 pheasant. An insertion announces that the author is desirous 

 of taking photographs of the nests of the following birds : kite, 

 Montagu's harrier, honey buzzard, hobby, garganey, and ruff. 

 If any reader is able to help Mr. Lee to procure these, intimation 

 should be sent to him at 58 Manor Place, Edinburgh, 

 NO. 1492, VOL. 58] 



"We have the satisfaction of being able again to look back 

 upon a year of general activity and extended progress, which 

 will bear comparison with any of its predecessors." The Report 

 of the Marlborough College Natural History Society, from 

 which these words have been taken, show that interest in scien- 

 tific subjects is well fostered by the Society. The members are 

 encouraged to observe and to contribute papers recording the 

 results of their observation and reading, so that the Society, like 

 other similar societies in our public schools, is of great assistance 

 in developing very useful faculties. For instance, the following 

 observation, by " E. A. M," of climbing habit in frogs is interest- 

 ing : — " Some frogs have taken up their abode for the last month 

 in two deserted blackbirds' nests, built in round thick box bushes, 

 about two feet from the ground. One frog is generally to be 

 seen alone sometimes on or near the edge of the nest, sometimes 

 comfortably ensconced in the middle, only his head peeping out. 

 In the other nest there are now always two frogs." Mr. E. 

 Meyrick describes and figures some cinerary urns discovered 

 during excavations in the College grounds. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Collared Peccary {Dicotyles taja(u) from 

 South America, presented by Mr. Eustace Grey ; a Gazelle 

 {Gazella donas, S ) from North Africa, presented by Mr. J. D. 

 Lambert; a Short-headed Phalanger ( /'(?/'a«r«j- breviceps) ixova 

 Australia, presented by Mr. Julian T. Pym ; a Small Hill 

 Mynah {Gractila religiosa) from India, presented by Mrs. 



Strather; a Squirrel (Scinnts, sp. inc.), three Schlegel's 



T>ovGs {Calopelia puella) from West Africa, presented by Mr. 

 W. II. Boyle ; two Malabar Squirrels {Scittnis maximus, var. 

 dealbalus) from India, presented by Mr. R. C. Wroughton ; an 

 Algerian Tortoise ( Testudo ibera) from North Africa, presented 

 by Mr. Albert West ; a Smooth Snake {Coroneila aitstriaca)^ 

 British, presented by Mr. Bryan Hook ; a Black-shouldered 

 YiXlQ (Etanus caruieiis), a Tachiro Goshawk (Astur tackiro), a 

 Spotted Eagle Owl {Bubo maculostis), two Infernal Snakes 

 (Boodon infernalis), two Lineated Snakes {Boodon lineatus), a 

 Smooth-bellied Snake {Homalosoma liitrix), four Rough- 

 keeled Snakes (Dasypellis scabra), eleven Rufescent Snakes 

 {Leptodira hotainbceia), four Rhomb-marked Snakes ( TVi'w^r- 

 orhinus rhombealus), fifteen Crossed Snakes [Psammophis 

 criici/er), a Cape Adder {Biiis atropos), three Puff Adders 

 {Bitis arietans) from South Africa, presented by Mr. J. E. 

 Matcham; a Gazelle {Gazella, sp. inc., <J ) from Senegal, two 

 Black-striped Wallabies {Macropus dorsalis, <J 9 ) from New 

 South Wales, a Canadian Skunk (Mephitis mephitica), a 

 Florida Tortoise ( Testudo polyphemus) from North America, a 

 Beccari's Cassowary {Casuarius beccarii) from New Guinea, a 

 Sharp-nosed Crocodile {Crocodilus acutus) from Jamaica, de- 

 posited ; two Mantchurian Cranes {Grtis japonensis) from North 

 China, purchased ; an African Wild Ass (Equus tiZniopns, S ), 

 two Barbary Wild Sheep [Ovis trage/aphus), two Black-necked 

 Swans {Cygnus nigricoliis), bred in the Gardens. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



Sun Worshii' by Tusayan Indians.— In the fifteenth 

 annual report of the U.S. Bureau of Ethnology, and in recent 

 numbers of the American Anthropologist, Dr. J. Walter Fewkes 

 gives a detailed account of a group of the ceremonials which form 

 the ritual practised by the Tusayan Indians. It has been 

 known for some years that the aborigines of the semi-deserts in 

 the south-western portion of the United States possess a re- 

 markably elaborate system of belief and ceremonial, and Dr. 

 Fewkes has devoted a considerable amount of attention to them 

 in order to determme the significance of the various parts of the 

 ritual followed. In the course of his investigations he has made 

 a number of interesting observations on the astronomical means 

 used for determining the time for ceremonials. He has found 



