December 2, 1895. 



KNOWLEDGE 



269 



America, appeared blue, while at Panama on 2nd and 3rd 

 of that mouth, the sun appeared green. " 2nd September, 

 Trinidad, Port of Spain. — Sun looked like a blue ball, and 

 after sunset the sky became so red that there was 

 supposed to be a big fire, oth September, Honolulu. — 

 Sun set green. Remarkable after-glow first seen. 

 Secondary glow lasted till 7.45 p.m., gold, green, and 

 crimson colours. Corona constantly seen from September 

 5th to December 15th. Misty rippled surface of haze." 

 On November 26th some remarkably beautiful twilight and 

 after-glow effects were seen at Chelsea, Loudon. The 

 writer, then resident in the Isle of Wight, well remembers 

 that one afternoon in October, 1883, the moon presented 

 a singularly delicate bluish appearance. He remarked 

 that the effect must be due to some exceptional medium at 

 a great altitude. 



The Royal Society's Report is enriched with six coloured 

 plates illustrative of these effects, copies of pictures executed 

 atthe time by Mr. W. Ascroft, and contains tabulated 

 evidence of similar sky-phenomena as supplementary to 

 great volcanic eruptions in former times. There is also 

 the interesting fact that at the eruption of Krakatoa in 

 1680, blood-red skies were, shortly after, visible from 

 Denmark. 



Fio. 4.— Outline Sectiou, viewed from S.W,, showing position of 

 volcanic cones upon Krakatoa after the Eruption. 



FiS. 5. — Outline of present crater. The dotted line shows the 

 portions blown away and changes effected by lava. 



It remains to be said that when this now famous island 

 was visited shortly after the eruption of August, 1883, 

 great changes were noted. The whole northern and lower 

 portion of the island had vanished, except an isolated 

 pitchstone rock, ten yards square and projecting out of 

 the ocean, with deep water all round it. " At the same 

 time, a large portion of the northern part of Rakata was 

 blown away or destroyed, and a nearly vertical cliff 

 formed." See Figs. 4 and 5. In fact, a " magnificent 

 section " had been made of this basaltic cone, and hence 

 " there is afforded a perfect insight into the internal 

 structure of the volcano." — Hoy. !>oc. lUp. The coloured 

 plate in the album to Dr. Verbeek's work, entitled 

 " Krakatau," represents this aspect. Such a unique 

 picture is a noteworthy contribution of art to the literature 

 of physical science. What a tremendous work of evis- 

 ceration that must have been is attested by the present 

 condition of the island. Where Krakatoa Island, girt with 

 luxuriant forests, once towered from three hundred to 

 fourteen hundred feet above the sunlit waters, it is now, 

 in some places, more than a thousand feet below them. 



THE GOLDEN EAGLE. 



CONSIDERABLE interest is just now being awakened 

 amongst naturalists and in the press, on the subject 

 of photographing birds and their nests. The 

 October number of Knowledge contained a re- 

 production of some yovmg kestrel hawks, while iu 

 the present number we reprodiice a photograph of a golden 

 eagle's nest containing two young ones. 



This photograph was taken some time ago for the late 

 Lord Colin Campbell, and was kindly sent to us by Mrs. 

 Tweedale, an enthusiastic bird-lover. 



The nest, which was built on the ledge of a cliff" at 

 Benmore, in the Isle of Mull, was of easy access, so much 

 so that Mr. McDonald, the keeper at Benmore, writes that 

 it " can almost be walked into along the ledge of rock on 

 which it is built." As a rule, the golden eagle builds on a 

 cliff or crag in some wild, mountainous glen. On rare 

 occasions it builds in a tree, and Mr. Howard Saunders 

 says that it sometimes nests on the ground. We doubt if 

 there could be any nest on the groimd in the British 

 Islands now ! The bird has been almost exterminated from 

 this country by means of gun, trap, and poison, and it is 

 only during the last few years that it has received 

 protection. At the present time a good many eyries exist 

 in the Highlands of Scotland, and we are thankful to say 

 that most of them are jealously guarded by the proprietors 

 of the land. By such means this noble bird will, no doubt, 

 long continue to exist as a British species. In Ireland it 

 receives little protection, and consequently there are only 

 a few pairs left, and they nest in the wild regions of the 

 west and north. 



About two hundred years ago the golden eagle bred in 

 Derbyshire and Wales, and little more than a century has 

 passed since it nested in the Lake District, but we suppose 

 that it will never again be induced to take up its quarters 

 south of the Border, or even in the Lowlands of Scotland, 

 although it does occasionally visit the latter in winter. In 

 the summer the golden eagle moves about but little. The 

 same site, indeed the same nest, is used year after year as 

 a breeding place, though perhaps not always by the same 

 two birds. One of the pair may be killed, but the other 

 mates again, and so for years the same eyrie is tenanted. 

 The nest in the photograph, we are told, has been used 

 for at least thirty years. 



The nest itself is a huge rough structure — a platform 

 of sticks and heather, with a soft lining of moss, dead fern 

 leaves and dry grass. It is often five feet in diameter, and 

 is always strewn with prey and the remains. In our 

 illustration a lamb's head can be distinctly seen, and the 

 fur from no doubt innumerable hares and rabbits. Grouse 

 and other birds, also fawns, form prey for the eagle, and 

 he will sometimes attack and kill sickly ewes and deer. 

 But it is sad to have to say, that this noble bird is a 

 great carrion eater, which propensity, together with his 

 "ordinary looking " appearance when perched, has detracted 

 from his merits in the eyes of some naturalists. Mr. 

 Seebohm goes so far as to liken him to a vulture, and 

 says that "his motions are sluggish, cowardly, and tame 

 compared with the death-swoop of the peregrine, or 

 the brilliant performance of the sparrow-hawk or the 

 merlin." 



Perhaps we have gone too far in dubbing the golden 

 eagle the " King of Birds," yet he is not the only king 

 that fails to fulfil the conditions of an ideal monarch. We 

 cannot better understand why he has been entitled 

 the " King of Birds," than when we see him swooping 

 round on outstretched wings soaring into space. It is, 

 indeed, an awe-inspiring sight. A great dark bird, fully 

 six feet across the wing, suddenly appears above us, and 

 we watch as, with no perceptible movement of the out- 

 stretched wings, he soars round and round in great circles. 

 Higher and higher he mounts, and smaller and smaller he 

 appears to grow, until he seems no bigger than a sparrow, 

 and then we see nothing but a black dot, which itself 

 disappears, though barely ten minutes ago the bird's great 

 shadow fairly startled us. 



This habit of soaring, which the eagle shares with the 



