March 17, 1892] 



NATURE 



465 



The areas in the above table are calculated on the assumption 

 that both shell and foot are ellipses, which is fairly near the 

 truth. I need hardly point out that the old theory of atmo- 

 spheric pressure will not account for these figures, and in the 

 case of Patella the mucus is too thin to have mucb cohesion. 

 Perhaps some of your readers can throw light on the subject. 



29 St. James's Street, Jersey. Percy A. Aubin. 



On the Variation of Latitude. 

 In connection with the interesting investigations of Dr. 

 Chandler on the variation of latitude, permit me to suggest the 

 desirability of calling attention to Maxwell's remarks on the 

 same subject at the conclusion of his paper " On a Dynamical 

 Top," Ed. Phil. Trans., xxi., Part iv. p. 568 (read April 1857). 

 Maxwell, taking the value of - as 1-00309, as deduced from the 



amount of precession (Pontecoulant, ii. 268), finds the time of 

 revolution of the pole of the earth about the true pole to be about 

 325-6 solar days. Dr. Chandler's period of 427 days would on 

 the same principles correspond to the value - = rco235. 

 RoBT. B. Hayward. 

 Fairlight, Harrow, February 28. 



ORNITHOLOGY OF THE SANDWICH ISLES. 



T' 



HE departure for Honolulu of Mr. Robert C. L. 

 Perkins (as already announced in these pages), the 

 gentleman sent out by the Joint Committee appointed by 

 the Royal Society and by the British Association to in- 

 vestigate the zoology of the Sandwich Islands, may 

 render the present moment opportune for noticing what 

 has already been done towards obtaining a knowledge of 

 their presumably expiring Fauna, though I can only lay 

 claim to acquaintance with a single Class of it — the 

 Birds. Yet students of that important branch of Biology 

 which is known by the clumsy and not strictly accurate 

 title of the "Geographical Distribution of Animals," will 

 bear in mind that the first successful attempt to grapple 

 with and elucidate it was based upon this very Class ; and, 

 furthermore, that by far the most comprehensive work on 

 the subject has proceeded from the pen of a most pro- 

 ficient ornithologist, while nobody can doubt that but for 

 his intimate knowledge of Ornithology many of his results 

 would have been inconclusive if not unattainable. Into 

 the reason why the most vagrant Class in creation was 

 thus so serviceable to Mr. Sclater and to Mr. Wallace, 

 there is no need here to enter. It is perhaps enough to 

 state that indubitable fact to warrant the publication of 

 the present remarks having reference to a small portion 

 only of the Hawaiian Fauna ; and, if they should furnish 

 an indication of what may be proved when the rest comes 

 to be better known, it will so much the more redound to 

 the credit of Ornithology ; while, should further acquaint- 

 ance with other Classes contradict the inferences to be 

 drawn from the Birds, the suspicion, to call it by no 

 stronger name, at times expressed, that what is a good 

 Law of Nature for one set of animals will not hold for 

 another, may be justified. 



Moreover, within the last six months has been pub- 

 lished a very remarkable dissertation, " On the Structure 

 of certain Hawaiian Birds, with reference to their System- 

 atic Position," contributed by Dr. Gadow to Mr. Scott 

 B. Wilson's beautifully illustrated " Birds of the Sandwich 

 Islands." From its title, this essay might be supposed 

 to interest only the taxonomer or the ornithotomist ; and 

 the zoologist of wider views might leave it unheeded as 

 having a scope too limited for his purposes. The very 

 contrary is the truth, and those who will follow the 

 author's deductions to their logical end will perceive that 

 his " Remarks " disclose a state of things which is not 

 only subversive of the generally-received opinion as to 

 the nature and affinities of the avifauna of the Sandwich 



NO. 1168, VOL. 45] 



Islands, but is fraught with evidence of a kind hardly 

 hitherto suspected in regard to the origin and derivation 

 of the animal population of that group. Hints to this 

 effect may, indeed, be gathered from Mr. Wallaces 

 works, and especially from his " Island Life" ; and that, 

 with the few facts at his disposal, he was able to give 

 them, is proof of the depth of his perception ; but hence- 

 forth he will be able to speak boldly, and drop every 

 uncertain phrase. 



The dearth of facts with which Mr. Wallace had to 

 contend, even in 1880, shows that the Sandwich Isles 

 have not been fortunate in their Natural Historians, 

 though perhaps no worse off in this respect than many 

 another group " lying in dark purple spheres of sea. ' 

 Discovered in 1778 by Cook, during the last of his cele- 

 brated voyages, his ships communicated with one of the 

 more western islands— Atooi, as its name sounded to him 

 and his companions, but since, and doubtless more 

 correctly, written, Kaui. The admiration of the visitors 

 was excited by the cloaks and helmets of the natives, 

 beautifully bedecked with feathers, the more or less 

 rr.oth-eaten remains of which may yet be seen in many a 

 Museum ; and the scarlet birds which furnished the most 

 brilliant adornment of these ingenious works of art were 

 duly mentioned by Cook in his journal as published. 

 After less than a fortnight's stay, in the course of which 

 the existence of five islands was made out, his ships 

 stood off to the northward to prosecute their voyage of 

 discovery. Towards the end of the year they returned, 

 and Cook, having had experience of the hospitable treat- 

 ment of the islanders, designed to make his winter- 

 quarters in the Sandwich Isles, as he had named them, 

 after the then First Lord of the Admiralty ; but, keeping 

 more to windward, the first land he made was the most 

 eastern of the group, one that he had not even seen on 

 his first visit. This was the historic Owhyhee— now- 

 adays written Hawaii— which, being the largest of them, 

 and that which produced the warrior-king and statesman 

 who eventually subdued all the rest, has given its official 

 name to the Archipelago. , 



Though Owhyhee was sighted on November 29, Cook s 

 course along its eastern and southern coast was so deli- 

 berate that it was not until January 17, 1779, that he 

 found a safe anchorage, and that in Kealeakakua Bay, on 

 its western side. What passed there during the next 

 three weeks need not be here recorded, but those who 

 know how to read his narrative and the accounts since 

 divulged from native sources will admit that it throws an 

 important and yet most lurid light on the history of 

 superstition. To the unprejudiced it must be doubtful 

 whether even now the whole truth is or ever can be 

 known. The ships sailed on February 4 ; but in making 

 her way to the northward, the Resolution sprung her 

 mainmast, and within a week returned to her old 

 anchorage. Three days later occurred the terrible 

 tragedy which deprived the world of one of its greatest 

 seamen. A week after Cook's death, the ships sailed to 

 the westward, touching at some of the intermediate 

 islands— Mowee (Mauai), Lanai, and Morotai (Molokai), 

 making once more for Atooi (Kauai) and Oneehow 

 (Niihau), the last famous for its yams. Then, on March 

 15, they bore away again to the northward, and did not 

 return. 



Now, the object of giving here these details is to show 

 that the natural history specimens obtained by Cook's 

 ships were procured only on the islands of Hawaii, 

 Kauai, and Niihau. This is the more needful because 

 the first descriptions of any of the birds of the Sandwich 

 Isles were given, with two exceptions, by Latham in his 

 "General Synopsis of Birds," published in 1781-85, and 

 most of the specimens so described no longer exist. 

 Some were in the British Museum or the collection of 

 Sir Joseph Banks, afterwards transferred thereto ; the 

 rest were in the Leverian Museum. Of the former, as i& 



