558 



NA TURE 



[April 14, 1892 



February 13 has so generally been ascribed was really respon- 

 sible for that outbreak, there should have been a series of dis- 

 plays, for this spot was very large and apparently active 

 throughout its transit. As a matter of fact, whatever auroral 

 eflfect the disturbed region in its vicinity was able to exercise 

 fell about February 2-4 and February 29. U )on the latter 

 date there was a fine display, but upon the former it was 

 generally cloudy. M. A. Veeder. 



Lyons, N.Y., March 23. 



Pilchards. 



I WAS very sorry to find from Mr. Dunn's letter (p. 511) that 

 I had not reported his evidence on the occurrence of young 

 pilchards with perfect accuracy. He admits that the misunder- 

 standing was probably not altogether my fault. It seems that 

 in the days before the radway existed in Cornwall, and when 

 seines were largely used at Mevagissey for the capture of pil- 

 chards, snail pilchards under 8 inches in length, of the same 

 size as French sardines, were often taken in vast numbers, but 

 were either a'.lowed to escape, or used only as manure. The 

 sentence in my article, therefore, which states that Mr. Dunn 

 had never seen such pilchards rnust be corrected, and I make 

 the correction most willingly, regretting that I should have 

 unconsciously misrepresented Mr. Dunn's statement. 



But I must warn your readers against the idea that my article 

 on the growth of the pilchad c ntained nothing which Mr. 

 Dunn had not discovered and made known years ago. The 

 letter to which he refers in Buckland's " Familiar History of 

 British Fishes " deals with the subject of curing pilchards in oil, 

 and contains nothing whatever about the rate of growth of the 

 fish. It merely mentions that if small fish were wanted they could 

 be had in quantities : "Some seasons their smallness is a pest 

 to the fisher nen, and millions have been returned to the sea 

 after being inclosed in the seines, because of being no money 

 value." But Mr. Dunn acknowledges that I correctly reported 

 him as saying that no such small sardines have been taken since 

 the factory at Mevaj;issey was started, and that no pilchards of 

 the same size as French s-ardines have ever been tinned in 

 Cornwall. As for his exhibit of a series of pilchards from those 

 an inch in lenijth up to the two years old full-grown fish, I find 

 that it is only catalogued in the Polytechnic Society's Report, 

 and that no dimensions are mentioned, nor any description 

 given. My published evidence on the rate of growth in this 

 species was therefore by no means superflu >us, and I am glad to 

 find that my conclusions confirm those which he had already 

 formed, but for which he had sought no satisfactory means of 

 publication. I have often received and acknowledged with the 

 greatest pleasure valuable information from Mr. Dunn : in this 

 instance I was unaware that he had collected any evidence on 

 the subject beyond that which I acknowledged in my article. 



But while correcting misunderstandings on my part, Mr. 

 Dunn misunderstands part of my article far more seriously, I 

 stated that the adult sardme of the Atlantic coast of France was 

 of the same size as the full-grown Cornish pilchard, while the 

 sardine of the Mediterranean, taken at Marseilles, was con- 

 siderably smaller. I did not say that the Ent;lish pilchard was 

 "larger than those of other countries," and I did not say that 

 the Spanish pilchard was smaller than the Cornish. My "in- 

 formants " were Prof. Pouchet for France, and Prof. Marion 

 for Marseilles ; and the accuracy of their published observations 

 on the mere question of size is not in the T ast affected by any 

 grave doubts, however much italicized, on Mr. Dunn's part. 



Plymouth, April 5. J. T. Cunningham. 



Ornithology of the Sandwich Islands. 



Your correspondents. Prof. Newton and J. E. Harting (p. 

 532), are a little hasty in their conclusions referring to the 

 Banksian collection. 



In order to make things clearer, I will go a little further back 

 in the history of this matter. 



When the Linnean Society removed from 32 Soho Square, 

 Dr. Brown was left in possession of that portion which had been 

 built upon and used by Sir Joseph Banks as his museum. 



Mr. John Calvert, partly out of veneration for the old house 

 where so many men of science had from time to time met together, 

 and partly from want of additional space for his very extensive 

 museum and library, secured a long lease of these premises, 

 including the old museum ; so by that arrangement Dr. Brown 

 NO. IT 72, VOL. 45] 



became his tenant. Now, it is a well-known fact that a portion 

 of the Banksian collection was never removed from these pre- 

 mises, and remained the property of Dr. Broun, at the death 

 of whom, Mr. J. Calvert arranged with Dr. Bennet (one of his 

 executors), who had been for months removing van- loads of 

 books, herbariums, and other articles of scientific interest, to 

 purchase and take over, with the premises, various cases of 

 birds, sundry articles, and the remainder and refuse of this 

 large collection. 



In two cupboards on the south side of the gallery were the 

 ethnological relics collected during the voyage of the Endeavour, 

 as well as many manuscripts in the autograph of Sir Joseph 

 Banks, together with some of the catalogues of his collection. 



On November 10, 1863, there was a sale at the rooms of Mr. 

 J. C. Stevens by order of the Council of the Linnean Society. 

 We soon detected the case of birds, which matched in every 

 particular the cases that we purchased of Dr. Brown's executor ; 

 it had the same handwriting at the back, undoubtedly in the 

 autograph of Sir Joseph. We also detected, in a cabinet of 

 fos-ils and minerals which had belonged to Dr. Pulteney, one 

 of the volumes of Sir Joseph Banks's catalogue, which matches 

 the other volumes we had previously obtained : that volume still 

 contains the stamp of the Linnean Society. 



Lot 174 of this sale was a very large lot in boxes and a 

 cabinet ; added to which was a good proportion of the dirt and 

 dust of bygone times. This collection had been formed by Dr. 

 Maton with great care and industry, and contained various 

 figured and type specimens, being all named in the quaint 

 nomenclature of that period. At the bottom of one of the 

 drawers of the cabinet was a letter in the autograph of the great 

 Linnaeus. 



We purchased all these, together with others in that sale. 



The Duchess of Portland, Sir Ashton Lever, and Sir Joseph 

 Banks, were the great collectors of that period ; and the ( )whyhee 

 case of birds might have been obtained by Sir Joseph either by 

 purchase or otherwise at any date during his life. We have this 

 ca-e marked Owhyhee in the undoubted autograph of Sir Joseph 

 Banks. The birds are all badly set up, and one has fallen from 

 its perch, but underneath each one is a number which is referred 

 to in one of Sir Joseph's catalogues. 



In our Museum there are several thousand specimens which 

 formed portions of the three collections just named, with regard 

 to which we have absolute proof of identification, and in some 

 cases the old lot tickets still remain. 



As our museum is densely packed in several houses, and in 

 some instances there are large cabinets four and five rows deep, 

 it is not possible at a few hours' notice to dig out all and every- 

 thing connected with this matter ; tmt I will at the earliest 

 opportunity bring the Banksian collection to the front, which I 

 shall give a full description of in print, for the satisfaction of all 

 those who are interested in the matter. 



As to the collection of eggs of Mr. J. D. Salmon, we knew 

 this collection well, but have never seen it since his death. There 

 is not one single specimen in our museum that belonged to that 

 collection, nor did we ever make a catalogue of the same, as the 

 very exhaustive and elaborate catalogue made by the owner 

 would be amply sufficient for all purposes. 



Albert F, Calvert. 



63 Patshull Road, N.W. 



First Visible Colour of Incandescent Iron. 



Having read in your number for March 24 (p. 484) a letter 

 on the above subject, T thought it might prove interesting to try 

 a similar experiment with the carbon filament of an ordinary 

 incandescent lamp. That used was an Edison Swan 16 candle- 

 power 80 volt, and the method empl >yed to heat it was to pass 

 a gradually-increasing current ("supplied from accumulators), 

 using a water resistance gradually diminished by the addition of 

 very dilute sulphuric acid in sensibly equal portions. The room 

 in which the experiment was performed was very carefully 

 darkened, and the observers were kept in darkness some 

 minutes before the current was switched on, the dilute acid 

 being added, so that, after visibility had been reached, five 

 additions should bring the lamp to dull redness (by diffused day- 

 light. The number of the experiment being called out, each 

 observer wrote this down, together with his impression of the 

 colour, in the dark, so that the retina was not affected by any 

 extraneous light throughout. Each observer closely inspected 

 the filament till he felt satisfied as to the colour, and then rested 



