278 



KNOWLEDGE 



[Dkokmber, 1902. 



P.S. — Wliilo no spots liiivo bueu visible for some mouths 

 now, the chromospliore seems to show a very rugged 

 a[Pi)e;ir;iiue lately, espeeially iu the polar rej^'ious. A 

 frieiiil of mine lias ailvised nio to let the sun's lij,'ht jiass 

 throuj;h a ruby-tinted glass when observing prominenees, 

 ete., in tiie Ha (C) line, and I must say that it greatly 

 assists me in obtaining good views, aud 1 recommend the 

 simple device to brother spectroscopists. — -A. A. B. 



Bnttsij ©vnitfjological Notes. 



Conditclcd by Hakry F. Withekby, f.z.s., m.b.o.u. 



Greenish Willow Warller {Phi/Uoscopus viridanm) in Scotland.— 

 At tlio Octobi'i' mcotiiig of the British Ornithologists' Club, Mr. 

 Howard .Sftuiidcrs exhibited, on behalf of Mr. W. Eagle Clarke, a 

 m.-ile specimen of this little Warbler. It struck the lantorn of the 

 Suloskerry liglitliouse on September the 5th last. Suleskerry is a 

 storui-swept rock about 35 miles from tlie nearest point of Sutherland. 

 This specimen is the second example of the species obtained in Great 

 Uritaiu, the iirst having been sliot by Mr. Caton Haigh in Lincolnshire, 

 on September 5th, 1896. The Greenish Willow Warbler has been 

 known to occur only some half-dozen times in Western Europe, 

 although it breeds no further off than a little to the north-east of 

 St. Petersburg. Its true summer home, however, is in the Urals aud 

 further east. 



White-spotted Bluethroat in Kent. — The White-spotted Bluetbroat 

 is the southern form of the Ecd-spotted Bluethroat which inhabits 

 arctic Europe and Asia, and often visits our southern and eastern 

 loasts at the times of migration. The white-spotted form (Cyanecula 

 Iciicuci/ana) had not been recorded for Great Britain until October 

 last, when Mr. M. J. Nicoll exhibited a specimen of the bird to the 

 British Ornithologists' Club. This specimen was picked up dead 

 close to Dungoness lighthouse by a man named Gasson, on October 

 6th, 1902. 



White-winged Lark (Alauda sibirica) in Kent. — Two examples of 

 the White-winged Lark were obtained at Woodcliurch, Kent, on 

 January 27th and 28th, 1902, and at the time a third bird was seen. 

 This was obtained on March 22nd. All three specimens have been 

 exhibited by Mr. N. F. Ticehurst to the British Ornithologists' Club. 

 Previous to these examples, the White-winged Lark had been obtained 

 only once in the British Islands, namely, near Brighton, in November 

 1869. 



Rustic Bunting (Emberiza ruslica) in Susse.v. — The fourth example 

 of this eastern species to be obtained iu Great Britain was exhibited 

 by Mr. N. F. Ticehurst at the October meetiug of the British 

 Ornithologists' Club. The bird was a young male, and was shot 

 by a boy at North Croft Farm, Westlield, Sussex, on September 

 22nd, 1902. 



Little Bunting (Emheriza pusillaj at Tte.i Mouth, Co. Durham 

 (Xaiuraliit, November, p. 353).— Mr. C. E. Milburu records the 

 occurrence of a bird of this species on October 11th, on the Durham 

 side of the Tees mouth. The specimen, which is a female, was ex- 

 liibited by Mr. W. R. O. Grant at the October meeting of the British 

 Ornithologists' Club. The Little Bmiting breeds in Northern Russia, 

 and has only once before been recorded as occurring in Great Britain. 



Aquatic Warblers (Aerocephahis aquations) in Sussex. — At the 

 October meeting of the British Ornithologists' Club, Mr. Bonhote 

 exhibited a pair of Aquatic Warblers, shot at Winchelsea, Sussex, 

 last August. The bird, which breeds in France and Germany, has 

 been previoiisly noticed some half-dozen times in England. 



Lesser Greg S/iriie (f.anius minor) in Norfolk. — At the October 

 meeting of the British Ornithologists' Chib, Mr. G. E. Lodge ex- 

 hibited a young specimen of Lanius minor, which he had sliot ou 

 October l"lth, at Docking, in Norfolk. The Lesser Grey Shrike, 

 ■nliich is an annual summer-visitor to Southern and Central Europe, 

 occasionally wanders to England at the migrating seasons. 



Glossy Ibis in Hampshire and Sussex.— Mr. Edward Uiickell 

 writes that a Glossy Ibis was shot near Komsey, Hants, on October 

 19th last; while Mr. E. Aehburnham records (Field, November Hth, 

 1902, p. S08) that a specimen was shot near Rye at the beginning of 

 October, and another in Pevcnsey Marsh, in Siissc!, iu the middle of 

 October. 



Iled-necked Phalarope in Anglesea. — In the course of an inte- 

 resting article on the birds of Anglesea, Messrs. T. A. Coward and 

 Charles Oldham describe how they watched a bird of this species, on 

 Jime 5tli and (ith, on a shallow pool. Although it still breeds in the 

 islands in the north of Scotlanil, the Red-necked Phalarope strangely 



enough is seldom recorded from England, and less often from Wales, 

 in spring, although those cimnlriis lie between the birds' winter and 

 summer quarters. The authors of this paper draw attention to a 

 conspicuous wliite spot above the eye of the bird, which was distinctly 

 noticeable in the live bird, but, they say, is practically obliterated 

 in dried specimens, owing to the contraction of the skin over the 

 orbit. 



Great Bustard near Cambridge. — A Great Bustard was shot near 

 Cambridge, on September 25th last. This was prisumably one of 

 the birds which were put down in Norfolk in 1900 in the hopes 

 that the t])ecies would re-establish itself iu its former haunts (see 

 IvNowi.EDQK, 191)0, October, p. 2.30). Several of these birds, unfor- 

 tunately, have now been shot liy ignorant people. In the present 

 case, the farmer who shot the bird, when convictc<l of the offence, 

 expressed his regret, explaining that he did not know what the bird 

 was, and had not seen any of the notices which hiul been published 

 in the neighbourhood in order to draw attention to the presence of 

 the bird, and to ask for its protection. If those directly interested in 

 the reintroduetion of this fine bird will persist in their efforts by 

 importing a few pairs of birds each year, and advertising their 

 presence, there is every reason to hope that the experiment will prove 

 a success. In a few years' time, perhaps, it will not be necessary 

 for us to go all the way to Spain to see the finest bird on our game 

 list. 



Alpine Swift in Kent (Field, November Ist, 1902, p. 761).— Mr. 

 H. S. D. Byron states that an Alpine Swift was shot at Thanet on 

 October 21st, but he gives no particulars of the bird. 



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

 or photograpJis, should be forwarded to Harby F. Witherby, 

 at the Ojjlce o/ Knowledge, 3"2t), Iliijh RoUmrn, Lvndun. 



AsTRONOMiCAi,. — The repetition of Foucault's pendulum 

 experiment at the Pantheon in Paris has attracted con- 

 siderable attention, thoiigh it is only remarkable for the 

 large scale ou which the experiment is performed. It may 

 not be generally known that there is a permanent exhibi- 

 tion of the exj)eriment iu the Science Collections of the 

 Victoria aud Albert Museum at South Kensington, w'here 

 the demonstration of the earth's rotation is completely 

 satisfactory, in spite of the fact that the pendulum wire is 

 only 40 feet in length, as compared with the 220 feet of 

 the Pantheon experiment. Excellent results have also 

 been obtained by the writer of these notes with a carefully 

 suspended pendulum not more tliau seven feet in length, 

 tlie deviations being often correctly shown for three- 

 quarters of an hour. 



Following u]> a general solution of an eijuation due 

 to Laplace, Mr. E. T. Whittaker, one of the secretaries 

 of the Koyal Astronomical Society, has been led to the 

 important conclusion that gravitation is in all probability 

 propagated by undulations in the same medium by which 

 light is transmitted through space. This uudulatory 

 theory requires that gravity should be propagated with a 

 finite velocity, but this velocity need not be the same as 

 that of light, ;ind may bt; enormously greater. Mr. 

 Whittaker is careful to point out that his investigation 

 does not explain the cause of gravity, but shows that the 

 l)ro]>agatiou across space of forces which vary inversely as 

 the square of the distance does not require for its 

 explanation any new property of the transmitting medium. 

 The development of the theory will be awaited with the 

 greatest interest. — A. F. 



