502 



NA TURE 



[September 24, 1891 



Tobacco is being cultivated with much success in the German 

 part of New Guinea, and is said to be better than the tobacco 

 produced in Sumatra. It is expected that there will be a great 

 increase in the amount grown during the coming year. 



According to M. d'Amagher, the Russian correspondent of 

 the Monde Economique, a central Agricultural Institute is to be 

 established in Russia. It will include several sections — agri- 

 cultural, geological, meteorological, botanical, chemical, and 

 technological ; and branches will be formed in the provinces. 



Unusually fine atmospheric effects were produced by the 

 clear weather of the Mediterranean during the month of July. 

 According to the Mediterranean Naturalist, the new monthly 

 periodical issued in Malta, the phenomenon of irregular diffrac- 

 tion was especially shown by the raising of the line of sight to 

 such an extent that objects at great distances, at other times 

 completely concealed from view, were apparently raised so much 

 above their true position as to be clearly discernible from the 

 shores of Malta and Gozo. The cliffs of the coast- line, and the 

 undulatory contour of the mountains of Sicily, were to be seen 

 distinctly with the naked eye on July II and 12, while the out- 

 lines of Etna stood boldly out against the clear azure sky. 

 Although more than 100 miles away, the form of the mountain 

 was perfectly recognizable. 



The honey of the Malta bees has long been noted both for 

 its purity and for its delicious flavour. A writer in the Medi- 

 terranean Naturalist says the flavour is largely due to the 

 extensive crops of suUa (clover) that are annually raised through- 

 out the islands, from which the bees derive the largest propor- 

 tion of their material. It is estimated that to collect one pound 

 of honey from clover, 62,000 heads of clover must be deprived 

 of nectar, and 3,750,000 visits must be made by the bees. 



Some excellent directions for the collection, preparation, and 

 preservation of birds' eggs and nests have been put together by 

 Mr. C. Bendire, and published by the United States Nationa 

 Museum. He begins his counsels by telling the would-be 

 collector that unless he intends to make an especial study of 

 oology, and has a higher aim than the mere desire to take and 

 accumulate as large a number of specimens as possible regard- 

 less of their proper identification, he had better leave nests and 

 eggs alone. The mere accumulation of specimens, Mr. Bendire 

 points out, is the least important object of the true oologist. 

 The principal aim of the collector should be to make careful 

 observations on the habits, call-notes, song, the character of the 

 food, mode and length of incubation, and the actions of the 

 species generally from the beginning of the mating season to 

 the time the young are able to leave the nest. 



At one of the meetings ^of the Wellington Philosophical 

 Society in 1885, Sir Walter Buller, F.R.S., exhibited a series of 

 the so-called wandering albatross, and expressed his belief that 

 there were two species under the common nzxa^ oi Diomedea 

 exulam, one of them being highly variable in plumage, and the 

 other distinguished by its larger size and by the constancy of its 

 white head and neck. But, although that was his conviction, he 

 did not feel justified in setting up the new species and giving it a 

 distinctive name until he could produce incontestable evidence 

 of its existence. From a paper read by him before the same 

 Society in February last, and published in the new volume of 

 the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, we learn that he 

 had lately had an opportunity of examining sixteen beautiful 

 specimens of both sexes and of all ages, and that as the result 

 of his study of these specimens he had no hesitation in speaking 

 of a new species. " It is undoubtedly," he says, "the noblest 

 member of this group, both as to size and beauty, and I have 

 therefore named it Diomedea regia." He exhibited before the 

 Wellington Society a series of both species, and in the cou-ss of 

 NO. II 43, VOL. 44] 



some remarks on them stated that they keep quite apart from 

 one another on their breeding-grounds, and do not commingle 

 "except when sailing and soaring over the mighty deep, where 

 a community of interest and a common pursuit bring many 

 members of this great family together." 



In the paper in which he deals with the species called by him 

 Diomedea regia. Sir Walter Buller refers to a remarkable cha- 

 racteristic of the wandering albatross — a characteristic which 

 has been carefully studied by Mr. Harris. At a certain time of 

 the year, between February and June — Mr. Harris cannot ex- 

 actly say when — the old birds leave their young and go to sea, 

 and do not return until October, when they arrive in large num- 

 bers. During their absence the young birds never leave the 

 breeding-ground. Immediately after the return of the old 

 birds, each pair goes to its old nest, and, after a little fondling 

 of the young one, turns it out, and prepares the nest for the 

 next brood. The deserted young ones are in good condition, 

 and very lively, frequently being seen off their nests exercising 

 their wings ; and, when the old birds come back, a young bird 

 will often remain outside the nest and nibble at the head of the 

 old one, until the feathers between the beak and the eye are 

 removed, and the skin made quite sore. The young birds do 

 not go far from land until the following year, when they ac- 

 company the old ones to sea. When the young are left in the 

 nest at the close of the breeding-season, they are so im- 

 mensely fat that Sir Walter Buller thinks they can subsist for 

 months without food of any kind. Captain Fairchild has de- 

 scribed to Sir Walter from personal observation the coming 

 home of the wandering albatross, and the peremptory manner in 

 which the young bird in possession is ordered to quit the nest, 

 so as to make room for its successor. 



TviKhdihiisoi iheWng^shsr {Halcyonvagans) formed thesubject 

 of an interesting paper Tcad some time ago by Mr. J. W. Hall be- 

 fore the Auckland Institute, and now printed in the Institute's 

 Proceedings. He raised the question, Is it customary for the king- 

 fisher to capture live birds ? Last winter he saw one with a live 

 white-eye in its mouth. The tree the kingfisher was perched upon 

 was not many yards distant from him, and he distinctly saw the 

 little wings flatter convulsively as the kingfisher was preparing 

 to beat its prey against the branch. So it could not have been a 

 dead bird casually picked up. Perhaps this, he said, was an 

 application of the lex talionis, for, besides being mercilessly per- 

 secuted by the small boys with their catapults, the kingfisher was 

 not infrequently captured by the common hawk. But some- 

 times the hawk does not come off best. One day at Parawai 

 (Thames) a hawk sailsd round the bend of a hill, followed (acci- 

 dentally, he supposed) by a kingfisher. There at once arose a 

 great outcry, and the hawk came again in sight, bearing the 

 kingfisher in its talons. But, nothing daunted, the kingfisher 

 with its pickaxe of a bill pegged away at the breast and abdomen 

 of its captor to such good effect that the hawk was glad to 

 liberate its prey, whereupon the kingfisher flew away apparently 

 but little the worse for the encounter, and carrying with it, he 

 need hardly say, the full sympathy of the onlookers. A friend 

 of the author had seen a kingfisher dive under water to escape 

 the pursuit of a hawk. 



Mr. J. Crawford, State Geologist and Mineralogist of 

 Nicaragua, visited in 1888 the Amerrique Indians, from whose 

 ancestral name " America " may have been derived ; and he has 

 lately submitted to the Boston Society of Natural History some 

 interesting notes about them. They occupy a hilly region in the 

 gold-mining part of the district of La Libertad, Nicaragua, 

 where there are "true fissures,'" each containing gold in 

 sufficient quantities to give profits to the mine and mill owners 

 now "operating " them. A few melted masses of gold, weigh- 

 ing from half an ounce to two ounces each, pierced with 



