June i6, 1892] 



NATURE 



161 



taken for the common IJltle squirrel {Sciurus hippurus), of 

 which it has much the appearance. When alarmed it quickly 

 darts up the trunk of the nearest tree, but it is a poor climber, 

 and never seems to go high up like the squirrel. Besides these 

 points of resemblance, it appears to be largely frugivorous. It 

 was found that the seeds sown in boxes were constantly being 

 dug up and devoured by some animal, and traps baited with 

 pieces of coco-nut or banana were set, and a number of tupaias 

 were caught. These being put into a cage appear to live very 

 comfortably upon bananas, pine-apple, rice, and other such 

 things ; refusing meat. The Rev. T. G. Wood, in his " Natural 

 History," states that 71 femtginea is said to feed on beetles, 

 but to vary its diet with certain fruits. The common species at 

 Singapore seems to be almost entirely frugivorous, though its 

 teeth are those of a typical insectivore. 



The thirtieth Bulletin of the Botanical Department, Jamaica, 

 contains a careful paper, which ought be be very useful, on the 

 sugar-cane borer, by which much damage is being done in sugar 

 plantations. The author is Mr. T. D. A. Cockerell, Curator of 

 the Institute of Jamaica. Another contributor to the Bulletin, 

 writing of gardening in Jamaica, mentions that about a year ago 

 Messrs. Cannel and Sons, Swanly, Kent, sent her some small 

 plants of chrysanthemums by post. They were all new and 

 valuable ; and the English season being so short, Messrs. Cannel 

 and Sons begged her to try whether she could succeed in getting 

 seed from these for them, offering to send her a collection of 

 choice chrysanthemums in repayment of her trouble should she 

 be successful. Out of the six plants one died, killed by a grub ; 

 the rest turned out magnificent, blowing with a profusion such 

 as she had seldom seen before— they were perfect umbrellas of 

 bloom ; but the flowers died off without seeding. The plants 

 then threw out a perfect little forest of offsets, and she finds that 

 any cuttings broken off from the old plants will root easily. 



A METHOD of rabbit-destruction which has been tried with 

 considerable success in the Hay district, is recomnnended by the 

 Ap-icultural Gazette of New South Wales as worthy of the con- 

 sideration of pastoralists throughout the colony, more especially 

 wliere the rainfall is light. The destroying agent is poisoned 

 water, which is prepared as follows : — Cover i ounce of strychnine 

 with concentrated hydrochloric acid, or what is commonly known 

 as strong muriatic acid or spirits of salts, and leave to soak all 

 nit^ht. The mixture easily dissolves in half a gallon of boiling 

 water. After making the solution, bottle off and use as required. 

 A pint of the mixture will poison 60 gallons of cold water ; 

 possibly a weaker mixture might be efficacious. This system 

 has been adopted at Benerembah Station, sixteen shallow 8- to 

 lo-gallon troughs being used to each tank, and the number of 

 rabbits poisoned at each tank nightly is stated to be lo.cxx). In 

 the Mossgiel district no less than 27,000 rabbits were destroyed 

 in two weeks by the use of poisoned water. 



The idea of flower-farming for perfumes seems to be exciting 

 a good deal of interest in New South Wales, as many inquiries 

 on the subject have lately been submitted to the Agricultural 

 Department. There are at present in the colony no means of 

 illustrating the practical operations of this industry, but the 

 Agricultural Gazette of NrM South Wales hopes that this de- 

 ficiency will soon be supplied by the institution of experimental 

 plots on one or more of the experimental farms. The Gazette 

 points out that in scent farms large quantities of waste material 

 from nurseries, gardens, orchards, and ordinary farms might be 

 profitably utilized, while occupation would be found for some 

 who are unfit for hard manual labour. A Government perfume 

 farm was lately established at Dunolly, in Victoria, and this 

 promises to be remarkably successful. 



At the meeting of the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria on 

 March 14, Prof. Baldwin Spencer, the President, gave an 

 NO. I 181, VOL. 46] 



interesting account of a trip he had made to Queensland in 

 search of Ceratodus. Special inleiesl attaches to this form, 

 since it is the AuMralian lepieseniaiive of a small group of 

 animals (the Dipnoi) which is iniermediale between the fishes 

 and the amphibia. Ceratodus has its home in the Mary and 

 Burnett Rivers in Queensland, whilst its ally, Lepidosiren, is 

 found in the Amazon, and another relative, Protopterus, flourishes 

 in the waters of tropical Africa. Although unsuccessful in 

 obtaining the eggs of Ceratodus, owing to the early season. 

 Prof. Spencer was able, from a careful study of the surroundings 

 under which the animal lives, to infer that its lung is of as great 

 a service to it during the wet as during the dry season— a theory 

 in direct opposition to the generally accepted one that the lung 

 functions principally during the dry season, when the animal is 

 inhabiting a mud-cocoon within the dry bed of the river. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include a Macaque Monkey {Macacus cynomolgus) 

 from India, presented by Mr. Oswald Norman ; a Common 

 Fox {Canis vulpes), British, presented by Mrs. Onslow Wake- 

 ford ; two Four-horned Antelopes ( Tetraceros quadricornis 

 9 ? ) from India, presented by Mr. W. F. Sinclair ; a 

 M^ellanic Goose {Bcrnicla magellanica) from the Falkland 

 Islands, presented by the Rev. J. Chaloner ; six Common 

 Lizards I^Lacerta vivipara), a Slowworm {Anguis fragilis), 

 British, presented by Mr. Percy W. Farmborough ; three Little 

 Green- winged Doves {Chalcophaps chrysochlora) from North 

 Queensland, deposited ; two Diamond Snakes {Morelia spilotes), 

 a Punctulated Tree Snake {Dendrophis punctulatus), a Bearded 

 Lizard {Ampliibolurus barbatus), a Burton's Lizard (Lialis 

 burtoni) from Australia, received in exchange ; a Great Kan 

 garoo {Macropus gigantcus), born in the Gardens. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 



The Late New Star in Auriga.— A very interesting 

 table, showing a summary of all the observations made with 

 regard to the magnitude of the late new star in Auriga, will 

 be found in JJ Astronomie for June. Commencing with the 

 photographs taken by Prof. Pickering, when the Nova was very 

 nearly of the I2th magnitude, the table shows a tremendous 

 increase of brilliancy up to December 18, when it had 

 reached a maximum, its magnitude then being about 4*5. From 

 that date to March 2, the diminution m intensity was 

 only very slight, being reduced only by about one magnitude, 

 but, subsequent to this, the fading was nearly as rapid as the 

 brightening, the star diminishing, on an average, a magnitude 

 in a period of about 3 '2 days. 



Photographic Measures ok the Pleiades.— The third 

 number of the " Contributions from the Observatory of Columbia 

 College, New York," consists of the Rutherfurd photographic 

 measures of the group of the Pleiades reduced by Mr. Harold 

 Jacoby. These photographs were among the complete set of 

 original negatives that were presented to this Observatory by 

 Mr. Rutherfurd, and were taken in the years 1872 and 1874. 

 This special group was chosen for reduction in order to investi- 

 gate the accuracy obtainable by the methods employed, and the 

 results show that the reduced places can be thoroughly relied 

 upon. The table containing a catalogue of the stars in question 

 gives the places for the epoch 18730, together with the pre- 

 cessional and secular variation. In the discussion of the results, 

 the Yale and Konisberg heliometer measures have been used for 

 the sake of comparison, and Mr. Jacoby clearly demonstrates 

 that the photographic results are ot very considerable accuracy. 

 Taking the case of the right ascensions, the difference of the 

 residuals, obtained from the Yale and New York results, and 

 those from Yale and Konisberg, amounts in only two cases to as 

 much as o"-50, while the mean may be roughly estimated as less 

 than o"-25. That part of the table relating to the decimations 

 furnishes equally satisfactory values, showing us that, for any 

 future study regarding the determination of proper motions in 

 this region, these photographic observations ought to be taken 

 into account. The average probable errors in right ascension 



