12 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[Januaby, 1003. 



and birds of tlie Hudson Bay district. 'Although com- 

 paratively few forms are described as new, the notes in 

 this memoir are very important to naturalists, since, 

 judged by modern standards, our knowledge of the 

 Hudson Bay fauna was very imperfect. 



Royal Society's Medals. — The medals of the Royal 

 Society have been awarded this year as follows: — 



The Copley Medal to Lord Lister, in recognition of the 

 value of his j>hysiological and pathological researches in 

 regard to their influence on the modern practice of surgery. 

 The main result of those researches, namely, the definite 

 proof that the suppuration of wounds, no less than putre- 

 faction, was the work of living organisms, was not reached 

 as a happy accident ; it was the natural outcome of long- 

 coutiuued scientific observation and reasoning. 



The Bamf<ird Medal, which is awarded for "new 

 inventions and contrivances by which the generation and 

 pi'eservation and management of heat and of light may be 

 facilitated," was given to the Hon. Charles Algernon 

 Parsons. By his invention and perfection of the steam 

 turbine, he has not only provided a prime mover of 

 exceptional efficienc}' workiug at a high speed without 

 vibration, but has taken a step forward which marks au 

 epoch in the history of the appHcation of steam to industry, 

 and which is, probably, the greatest since the time of 

 Watt 



The Roi/aJ Medals were conferred upon Prof. Horace 

 Lamb, for his investigations in mathematical physics, and 

 Prof. Edward Albert Schiifer, for his researches into the 

 functions and minute structure of the central nervous 

 system, especially mth regard to the motor and sensory 

 functions of the cortex of the brain. 



The Davy Medal was given to Prof. Svante August 

 Arrheuius, for his application of the theory of dissociation 

 to the explanation of chemical change. 



The Darwin Medal was awarded to Mr. Francis- Galtou, 

 for his numerous contributions to the exact study of 

 heredity and variation contained in " Hereditary Genius," 

 "Natural Inheritance," and other writings. It may safely 

 be declared that no one living has contributed more 

 definitely to the progress of evolutionary study, whether 

 by actual discovery or by the fruitful direction of thought, 

 than Mr. Galton. " 



The Buchanan Medal, awarded every five years for 

 distinguished services to hygienic science or practice, is 

 given to Dr. Sydney A. Moncktou Copeman, for his experi- 

 mental investigations into the bacteriology and comparative 

 pathology of vaccination. 



The Hughes Medal has been conferred upon Prof. 

 Joseph John Thomson, in recognition of his contributions 

 to the advancement of electrical science, especially in 

 connection with the phenomena of electric discharge 

 through rarefied eases. 



Britisf) <§vmti^olog;tcal Notes. 



Conducted hy Haery F. Witheeby, f.z.s., m.b.o.u. 



Swallows' Nesting Hahits. — Mr. Cox, in his interesting article on 

 the " Domestic Economy of tlic Tlirush " (Knowledge, December, 

 1902), says that the parent birds seem to feed the youug ones indis- 

 criminately. Tlie following will show that this is "not the case with 

 all birds. One morning a paii- of Swallows flew through the dressing- 

 room window into my brother's bedroom at Frocester Court, 

 Gloucestershire, perched on a picture, chattered, and. apparently, 

 took stock of the place. This they repeated for several days, and, 

 finally, made a nest in the becb-oom about on a level with one's lead. 

 During incubation the chambermaid might come into the room, and 

 do her ordinary work, but if she went near the nest the bird flew out 

 of the window. If a stranger or ami other member of the household 

 entered the room she flew out at once. On the other hand, she 

 allowed my brother to do anythhig, take her off the nest and put her 



back, handle the eggs, and so on. When the young were hatched he 

 noticed that the cock fed, say, Tso. 1 and then No. 3, the hen feeding 

 Nos. 2 and 4 ; so he tried to puzzle them by repeatedly shifting the 

 young ones; but the birds always knew which had been fed last, and 

 never made a mistake. In course of time they flew, but always 

 returned at night till, early one morning, the whole family, instead of 

 flying out for the day as usual, perched on the rail at the head of the 

 bed and kept up an incessant twittering for an hour or more, and then 

 flew oil not to return that yeir. I may mention that my brother had 

 placed a chain and padlock on the window to prevent anyone closing 

 it. A pair tried to repeat the pi'ocess nest year, but for obvious 

 reasons were not allowed to do so, and the window was kept closed 

 till, I suppose, they had selected a nesting place elsewhere. — Geokgk 

 J. CnAPSiAX, Carlecotes, Dunford Bridge, Shellield. 



Migration of Blue-heailed Wagtails CMolacilla flaea) in Kent and 

 Sussex. — Mr. N. F. Ticehurst has lately been keeping observation, 

 with Mr. M. J. NicoU, on the migration of Wagtails along the coast 

 of Kent and Sussex. The conclusion reached is that tlie Blue-headed 

 Wagtail, which has been considered hitherto as an irregular visitor on 

 migration to Great Britain, is a regular visitor over this whole area. 

 It arrives from the 20th of April to the 1st of May, and it is thought 

 that some remain to breed. The rctvii-n flight of these birds consists 

 chiefly of young ones, which pass about the third week in August. 



Wafer Pipit (Anthus spipoletlij in Siisser.—At the November 

 meeting of the British Ornithologists' Club, Mr. Howard Saunders 

 exhibited a female specimen of a Water Pipit obtained by Mr. M. J. 

 Nieoll in Rye Harbour on October 20th. 'This bird seemed to be the 

 seventh example of the species recorded for Sussex, while a specimen 

 had been procured in Carnarvonshire and another in Lincolnshire. 

 The Water Pipit is very much like the Scandinavian form of the 

 Rock Pipit. It seldom visits us, although it breeds as near to us as 

 in the Alps and the mountains of Germany and Central Europe, as 

 well as in the Pyrenees and some of the mountain ranges in the 

 Spanish Peninsida. 



Glossif Ibis in Ireland (The Field, November 29th, 1902, p. 930.)— 

 The Glossy Ibis has been recorded from England several times this 

 autumn, and now Messrs. AVilhams, of Dublin, record that a male 

 specimen was shot in Co. Clare and a female near Wexford. 



All contributions to the column, either in the way of notes 

 or photograplis, should be forwarded to Habry F. Witheeby, 

 at the Office o/ Knowledge, 326, High Holhorn, London. 



^oticm of Boolts. 



" History of Astrono-my: during the Nineteenth 

 Century." Fourth edition. By Miss Agnes Gierke. A. & C. 

 Black. 1902.) Illustrated. 16s. — In a few words Miss Gierke 

 gives a picture of the state of sidereal science when the last 

 quarter of the eighteenth century began. "It included," .she says, 

 " three items of information : That the stars have motions, real 

 or apparent ; that thej- are immeasurably remote ; and that a. few 

 shine with a periodically variable light. Nor were these scantily- 

 collected facts ordered into any promise of further development. 

 They lay at once isolated and confused before the inquirer. 

 They needed to be both multiplied and marshalled, and it 

 seemed as if centuries of patient toil must elapse before any 

 reliable conclusions could be derived from them. The sidereal 

 world was thus the reoognissd domain of far-reaching specula- 

 tions, which remained wholly unoramped by systematic research 

 until Herschel entered upon his career as an observer of the 

 heavens.'' 



And now we have entered on the first quarter of the twentieth 

 century, and the intervening years have been as many centuries 

 in the multiplication of facts and fancies in this same sidereal 

 science. All the greater need that they should be marshalled 

 and passed in review ; that fact should be joined to fact in a 

 promise of further development ; that proved fact should be 

 disjoined from unproven fancy lest the two together should 

 point out a wrong conclusion, and knowledge be darkened in a 

 confusion of words. This gigantic task Miss Gierke first 

 undertook in 188.5, in her first edition of this book. A second 

 edition followed, and a third in 189.'!. The nine years which 

 followed witnessed such a march in almost all the branches of 

 astronomy that in her fourth and present edition Jliss Gierke 

 has found it necessary to rewrite the book almost from cover to 

 cover. That the volume does not bulk larger than the previous 

 editions is due to the smaller print and thin paper which the 

 publishers have used. 



