256 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[NoMiMBER 1, 1900. 



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



Nutcracker in Lincolnshire. — Mr. F. M. Burton 

 describes (see Nat/iralist, October, 1900, pp. 319-20) how 

 he saw and heard a Nutcracker (Niicifraga caryocatacfes), 

 on August 14th, in a wood near Scotton Common, Lin- 

 colnshire. The Nutcracker is of very irregular occurrence 

 in Great Britain. There are several forms of the Nut- 

 cracker. One inhabits Scandinavia. West Russia, East 

 Prussia, and the Alps, and another inhabits Asiatic 

 Siberia. It is the Eastern Siberian form that is the chief 

 visitor to Western Europe. This bird periodically wanders 

 westward in autumn, sometimes in large numbers. Such 

 a migration has oceui-red this autumn in Scandinavia, 

 where, for the last few months the Siberian form of the 

 Nutcracker has been very common. The last " invasion " 

 occurred, I believe, in 1887. The reason for these 

 irregular migrations westward of this bird is considered 

 by good authorities to be the failure in Siberia of the crop 

 of pine-cones, the seeds of which are the Nutcracker's 

 favourite food. Mr. Burton suggests that the bird he 

 saw had bred here in England, but taking the above facts 

 into consideration, this is most unlikely, and Mr. Burton's 

 bird was most prol lably one of these wanderers from Silieria 

 which are now visiting Norway and Sweden. — H. F. W. 



T!ie Greylags of Slair Drummond. By Lt.-Col. Dutliie, m.b.o.u. 

 {Annals of Sco//ish Nat. Mist., October," 1900, pp. 193-G.) Under 

 this title, Col. Duthie gives some interestinf; particulars of a flock of 

 semi-domesticated Greylag Geese at Blair Drummond, in Perthshire. 

 These birds have originated from a pair brought over from North 

 Uist some twelve years ago. Since tlieii they have reached a niaximiim 

 of some fifty birds, but are now beginning to decrease. The reason 

 for this seems to lie a want of new blood. Although these birds 

 behave mucli as wild ones, feeding cautiously in the stubbles, some- 

 times even in the same field as wild birds of their own species, and 

 leaving their home lake in liard weather sometimes for as long as 

 three months, tlu^y never associate with the wild birds, and neither 

 go away with them nor bring a stranger Imck to their "' home." 



Red-crested Pochard in Yorkshire. (The Naturalist, October, 

 190U, p. 304.) A specimen of this somewhat rare duck is reported by 

 Mr. T. II. Nelson as having been obtained at Redear on January 

 2uth, 1900. On the same page of the same journal, Mr. J. W. 

 Fawcett repttrts that a specimen of the Red-crested Pochard was 

 obtained at Kedcar on February lOth, 190O. It may be that these 

 two records both refer to the same specimen. 



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

 or photoi/rdphs, should be forwarJitI to Harry F. Witherby, 

 at 1, Eliot Place, Blacklieath, Kent. 



i^otifts of Boofes. 



— • — 



" An Atl-4S of Representative Stellar Spectr.\." By Sir 

 William Huggins, K.C.B., and Lady Huggins. (William Wesley & 

 Son.) An ob.servatory report in an edition de lu.\e is apt to strike 

 one as something incongruous. And yet, in the book before us. we 

 find the sumptuous form is truly fitted to the results therein ex- 



pressed. The iirst volume of the publications of Sir William 

 Huggins' Observatory is certainly unique in its appearance. It is 

 not less so in its contents. It is a beautiful book, and its beauty is 

 but an inde.x of its scientific importance. Its chief purpose as its 

 title implies is to supply an Atlas of Representative Stellar Spectra, 

 so reproduced and arranged as to place the student as nearly as 

 possible in the position of the original observers with resj^ect to 

 the liglit which those spectra can supply on the subject of Stellar 

 lite-history. 



As this is the first volume of the publications of the observatory 

 the earlier chapters naturally give an account of the history of 

 the observatory, and descriptions of its instruments, chapter I. 

 being in the main a re])roduction of an article ajjpfaring in the 

 "Nineteenth Century" for June, 1897. It is an account whioh, 

 though written with much self-restraint, it is impossible for any 

 scientific reader to peruse without a thrill of intensist interest. It 

 is the story of tlie first e.xplorer of unknown realms. " The time 

 was indeed one of strained expectation and of scientific exaltation 

 for the astronomer almost without parallel; for nearly every 

 observation revealed a new fact, and nearly eveiy night was red- 

 lettered by some discovery." In all the histoiy of the science 

 there must have been few experiences indeed to parallel those which 

 fell to Sir William Huggins' lot on August 29th, 1864, v, hen he first 

 turned the spectroscope on a planetaiy nebula, and again on 

 May 18. 1866, when the Nova T Coronse was first examined. 



Chapter II. with its significant initial of the bee-hive with the 

 motto " nil nisi laliori " is simply a catalogue of papers published 

 on the work done in the obsei-vatoiy. These are over eighty in 

 number, and almost eveiy one was the breaking up of new ground. 



The three following chajiters are concerned with the description 

 of observational and instrumental details, and chapter VII. contains 

 a description of Plate II., which is devoted to fifteen "historical 

 Sjiectra " ; some of the most interesting pioneer jjhotographs ob- 

 tained at the Tulse Hill observatory. The chief importance of the 

 hook, however, rests in Plates III. to XII., and chapters YI 

 and VIII.. the latter being- the detailed description of the jilates, 

 with a preliminary discussion of them. Of these Plates XI. and 

 XII. are of quite exceptional importance, containing as they do the 

 separate spectra of the components of six double stars, the be- 

 ginning of an entirely new subdivision of stellar spectroscopy and 

 one which pi'omises sjjecially important results. 



Chapter VI. gives a "discussion of the evolutional order of the 

 stars," and is the principal portion of the text. Next to the great 

 jjroblem of the structure of the heavens, which Sir William Herschel 

 attacked with such Titanic energy, ranks this question of stellar 

 evolution ; indeed the two are intimately connected. Ever since 

 the spectroscope enabled us to differentiate between the radiations 

 of .star and star it has been under discussion, and especially so within 

 the last decade. Sir William Huggins's treatment of it is character- 

 istic in its clearness, caution, and restraint, and brings out some 

 new points of great importance. Proceeding from the definition 

 that "in a classification of stars, that type of star must come first 

 which we have reason to believe to be the most difi'use, or in other 

 words in the stage in which condensation is least advanced," he 

 insists strongly on the almost forgotten or neglected influence 

 which the change of surface gravitation would exert as condensation 

 proceeded. Adopting Lane's results. Sir William gives great pro- 

 minence to the fact that the temperature of a star must increase 

 with its condensation, so long as it is jnirely gaseous. The 

 "youngest," i.e., the least condensed stars, though the richest '.n 

 potential energy, are therefore not the hottest. In comiection with 

 this point he aives the deduction from his own stellar photographs 

 that the "solar" or "metallic" stars, — obviously more condensed 

 than the " hydrogen " or " white " stars — yet have their continuous 

 spectra between the absorption lines relatively more brilliant in 

 the ultra-violet. This is a point of the first im])ortance and is 

 an obvious challenge to the extremely detailed scheme of stellar 

 temperatures recently ]jublished by Sir Norman Lockyer. The 

 statement will no doubt be carefully examined by other competent 

 w-orkers, but in the meantime the extreme care, patience and caution 

 which always chanu'tcrize Sir William and Lady Huggins' work, 

 and the nature of their equipment, enabling them to secure spectra 

 well-defined as far as wave-length 3500, give it a commanding 

 weight. 



The quantity of work which Sir William and Lady Huggins have 

 accomplished is remarkable, but its quality is more striking still. 

 Their researches on the s]iectrum on the great nebula in Andro- 

 meda afford perhaps the best illustration of the tireless patience 

 and delicate skill with which_^they have followed up an object of 

 so much difficulty. 



The present volume though so important is evidently not intended 

 by its authors to stand as a complete setting forth of their work. 

 It is Volume I., and all astronomers will look with eager anticipa- 

 tion for Volume II., which we would hope may contain the authors' 



