November, 1906 ] 



KNOWLEDGE & SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



591 



Movements of Sand-hills. 



Movinf^ s.nKl-liill> havi- briii the c^um' cif mucli (ifstriii- 

 tioii. A well-known instance is that which occurred on the 

 north coast of Germany, at the Kurische Nehrung. In 

 iSog, the dunes stood between the sea and a church. Hy 

 the movement of the sand the church was covered up in 

 1839. The moving; dune passed on, and in 1869 the church 

 was asjain completely visible, the dune then bein;^ on its 

 landward side. .Another similar instance is recorded, in 

 which, between 1S04 and 1827, a mifjratinsf dune in Prussia 

 destroyed a tall pine forc^st, coverinj::; hundreds of acres. 



Aeolian Denudation. 



Nineveh was buried in ffiolian sand two centuries after its 

 destruction, and the frettina: of the sand tjrains left the marks 

 of its denuding action on the building stones. Our second 

 illustr;ition serves as a remarkable instance of the action 

 of wind-denudation. The pillars and various portions of the 

 stone-work of Whitby Abbey, besides exhibiting the ordinary 

 effects of aerial denudation, are scored in a noticeable way, 

 as though an endless rope had been continually drawn to 

 and fro over them. The sandv waste .seems to have been 



Aeolian Denudation at Whitby Abbey. 



used over .and over again as a kind of emery powder, and 

 blown with terrific force against; the sandstone pillars, and 

 it has cut its way into the softer portions. This scoring can 

 be seen in the illustration. The subject of aeolian denuda- 

 tion has received a good deal of attention in recent years, 

 and is becoming a well-recognised factor in modern geology. 

 It is not a little remarkable that the same principle is being 

 utilised commercially, and the sand-blast is being used as a 

 denuding agent in the cleaning of the faces of buililings 

 in which sandstone has been used. 



The Plateau Bridge into Europe. 



In Dr. I''rli\ ()-\\.iUr> irealisc on the "(.coloov of 

 .\rmenia," we have a monument of original research and 

 p.atient industry. Dr. Oswald h;is personallv studied the 

 whole of the formations here exhibited, and besides giving 

 an account, running into 225 pages, of geological work 

 already done in this part of .Asia, he gives the record of his 

 c.wn original work to the c.\tent of 257 pages, illustrated 

 by sections and inaps, fully elucidating the te.xt. He gives 

 us a striking picture of the Armenian plateau, forming a 

 portion of that long plateaux-chain extending from the 

 .Aegean across to China, a portion of the colossal wrinkle 

 which extends also westward through Europe, and speaks 

 of the great mediterranean sea of Central Asia, now repre- 

 sented only by evapor.ating salt-lakes. Alonsr this belt is 

 the zone of thick sediments of Cretaceous and Eocene age, 

 which were plastic enough to be thrown into mountain folds. 

 .\ siriking map of Asia shows this central uprisen series 

 of plateaux, squeezed, as it were, between the great active 

 mountain-making pressure from the north and the passive 

 lesisl.mce of the ancient table-lands of Egypt, Arabia, 

 Ilindoostan, etc. 



A Record in Geological Publication. 



Dr. Osw.ald's book deserves special notice here. It is his 

 thesis accepted by the University of London for the degree 

 of Doctor of Science, but is remarkable from another point 

 of view. It is printed from type set up by the author him- 

 self, and printed page by page from a hand-press. The 

 labour involved must have been very' great. The maps have 

 also been reproduced by the author, and the whole focs to 

 form a book printed so clearly and distinctly as to make it a 

 pleasure to read it. I hope again to take an opportunitv 

 of referring to it. For the present, I should like to say that 

 its contents fully justify its publication, that the edition is 

 limited to a hundred copies, and that the author invites 

 subsctibers at a guinea each. Application should be made 

 to him .at " lona," Beeston, Notts. 



ORNITHOLOGICAL. 



By W. P. Pycraft, A.L.S., F.Z.S., M.B.O.U.. &c. 



The Bird Protection Society. 



Tim Royal .Soeirty for the rrctection of Hirds, since its 

 formation, has done more good and useful work than is 

 generally realised. It is, therefore, with regret that we find 

 ourselves compelled, for the moment, to' enter a protest 

 against some recent ofiicial utterances of the Societv. 



In a leaflet just issued (No. 58), we find the following 

 stupid and ill-judged paragraph : " \\'hen it is regarded 

 as a shameful and despicable thing to kill and pos.sess the 

 stuffed remains, or the egg, of a vanishing species, the 

 private collector will probablv cease to exist." 



\Ve are to suppose from this silly st.atement that the aim 

 of the private collector is simply to complete the extermina- 

 tion of rare birds ; and this, too, in spite of the fact that 

 some of the most influential members of the Council of the 

 Society are private collectors! The Society either knows 

 too much, or too little, of the aims of the' members who 

 dictate its policy. Had the framers of this extraordinary 

 paragraph levelled their guns at the collector of the eggs of 

 British birds they would have hit many in this countrv very 

 hard. The egg collector, is speaking generallv, for there 

 are many happy exceptions, a pest. .And the man who trives 

 long prices for rare birds— British killed— is onlv a little 

 less mischievous. But between these " collectors," and the 

 real student of birds, to whom a collection is an ab.solute 

 necessity, there is a wide gulf, which the Societv does not 

 seem to recogni.se. 



Glossy ibis in Ireland. 



It seems prob.ible that a sin.all llock of glossy ibises made 

 their way to Ireland during September, since a young 

 male is described in the Zmilonist for October as having 

 Iieen shot on Twin I.sland, Belfast Lough, on September 9, 

 while a second is reported in the Firld (September 29) as 

 having " recently " been shot on the Sh.uinon, at Eyrecourt. 



Hoopoe in Cheshire. 



The Zonloqist for October contains a record of the fact 

 that a male hoojioe was " taken " near Chester, on .August 



29, this making llie third leconl for the district. 



Hobby in Cheshire. 



We regret to note that a line adult male hobby was also 

 " taken " at Tarvin, near Chester, early in .August, and 

 has been presented to the Chester Museum. One of the 

 most beautiful and most harmless of our falcons, it seems 

 ;i pity that hooligans with guns cannot be induced to spare 

 this bird. 



Solitary Snipe in Norfolk. 



Mr. .\rthur \\ . Blythe writes to the /'iV/./ (September 29) 

 to say that a .solitary snipe was shot by him at Melton 

 Constable, on September 22, flushing the bird in a drv grass 

 field. 



