June 5, 1890] 



NA TURE 



-V — 



135 



the normal height, and excessive when the barometric pres- 

 sure is lower than usual ; that at or about the epochs of 

 minimum solar spotted area, high abnormal barometric pressure 

 movements make their appearance, and that at or about the 

 epochs of maximum solar spotted area, abnormally low pressure 

 movements take place in India and over greater part of the 

 tropics ; that cyclones are formed in the trough of a relatively 

 minimum barometric pressure ; and lastly, that the number of 

 atmospheric disturbances is great at the epoch of minimum sun- 

 spots. 



In Dr. A. Petermann's Mittcilutigen (Heft v., 1890), Dr. A. 

 Supan gives some particulars respecting Emin Pasha's meteoro- 

 logical journal, which will shortly be published. The registers 

 extend from August I, 1881, to February 27, 1890, and, omitting 

 the interruptions, contain observations for seven years and ten 

 months. They are said to have been taken with great care, and 

 maybe divided into three periods: August i, 1881, to April 24, 

 1885, at Lado ; July 13, 1885, to December 5, 1888, at Wadelai ; 

 and March i to December 4, 1889, during the march with 

 Stanley to the coast. On the latter date Emin Pasha met with 

 his serious accident, but so great was his desire to continue the 

 observations, that he resumed them on January 5, 1890, in the 

 German hospital at Bagamoyo. Dr. Supan regrets the non- 

 publication of Mackay's observations at Rubaga (Uganda), 

 which were sent to the Royal Geographical Society in 1886, as 

 they promise to be the most important contribution to the 

 climatology of the interior of tropical Africa. 



A CHEAP bunsen burner is being sold by Messrs. John J. 

 Griffin and Sons, which possesses many advantages over the 

 ordinary burner, with central gas jet constructed so that the gas 

 and the air may be simultaneously regulated. In the new patent 

 burner the gas passes into the tube through a way cut in the side 

 of the tube, which is therefore open from top to bottom. Such 

 an arrangement is a considerable improvement, inasmuch as 

 there is no jet to become choked. The burner can also be 

 easily taken apart in order to clean the tube when corroded. To 

 regul.ate the flow of gas under varying gas pressures small mov- 

 able disks are provided, which, however, are little better for the 

 purpose than the older method of rotating a cylinder concentric 

 with that containing the air-inlets. Combinations are also made in 

 which each buraer can be regulated or extinguished separately, 

 thus rendering them very suitable for combustion furnaces. 



An elaborate Report on the Natal forests, by Mr. H. G. 

 Fourcade, has just been issued. He arrives at the following 

 conclusions: — (i) The Natal forests, more particularly the 

 timber forests, are well worth preserving, whether from an 

 economic or climatic point of view, and the Government alone 

 is competent to undertake the work. (2) The condition of the 

 forests is, for the most part, lamentable, and the result of past 

 abuses ; their destruction is proceeding apace, and the following 

 measures are recommended to insure their preservation and 

 utilization to the best advantage : (a) The survey and demarka- 

 tion of the principal forests, {b) Their protection from fires, from 

 depredations, from destruction by natives or cattle, by means of 

 suitat)Ie n^easures, such as the clearing of fire-belts, the esta- 

 blishment of small wattle plantations, the prohibition of wattle- 

 cutting and cattle-grazing, with the aid of proper supervision 

 and special legislation, {c) The closure of the forests pending 

 survey, demarkation, and settlement. {d) The adoption of 

 sound methods of forestry to secure a steady yield, improvement 

 of the forest, and most profitable management, {e) The utiliza- 

 tion of colonial woods for railway sleepers. (3) Plantations of 

 conifers and hard woods, designed to supply the future require- 

 ments of the country, can be made profitably along railway lines 

 in the upland and the midland districts. (4) The most urgent 

 work of a Forest Department in Natal would be to save what is 

 NO. 1075, VOL. 42] 



left of the native forests, and plantation work should be deferred 

 till it can be undertaken without detriment to the progress of 

 survey and demarkation. 



In the new number of the Zoologist there are some interesting 

 notes, by Mr. R, J. Ussher, on crossbills in the county of 

 Waterford. This spring he has had exceptionally good oppor- 

 tunities of observing the breeding habits of these birds, as four 

 of their nests were found in his neighbourhood, three of them 

 being within fifteen hundred yards of his house. Of the four 

 male birds, three were red, or red interspersed with brown. 

 One had yellow plumage, similar to that of a specimen which 

 Mr. Ussher presented last year to the British Museum. This 

 bird had all the appearance of having arrived at full maturity, 

 being large, active, vigilant, and with mandibles conspicuously 

 crossed. When Mr. Ussher climbed to the nest, both male and 

 female perched within four feet of him, "calling excitedly." 

 "On April 17," he says, "these crossbills were seen to carry 

 bits of something in their mouths to the nest, as if to feed their 

 young. The nature of the food has not been ascertained, but is 

 suspected to be largely composed of the green opening buds of 

 the larch, on which I have repeatedly seen the male feeding — 

 e.g., on April 4." Mr. Ussher thinks that crossbills are on the 

 increase in Ireland at present. 



In the Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society (vol. 

 iv. No. 3) Mr. E. Giles records a curious fact which ought to 

 have some interest for entomologists. In June 1888 he was stand- 

 ing one morning in the porch of his house, when his attention 

 was attracted by a large dragon-fly of a metallic blue colour, 

 about 2^ inches long, and with an extremely neat figure, who 

 was cruising backwards and forwards in the porch in an earnest 

 manner that seemed to show he had some special object in view. 

 Suddenly he alighted at the entrance of a small hole in the 

 gravel, and began to dig vigorously, sending the dust in small 

 showers behind him. " I watched him," says Mr. Giles, " with 

 great attention, and, after the lapse of about half a minute, when 

 the dragon-fly was head and shoulders down the hole, a large 

 and very fat cricket emerged like a bolted rabbit, and sprang 

 several feet into the air. Then ensued a brisk contest of bounds 

 and darts, the cricket springing from side to side and up and 

 down, and the dragon-fly darting at him the moment he alighted. 

 It was long odds on the dragon-fly, for the cricket was too fat 

 to last, and his springs became slower and lower, till at last his 

 enemy succeeded in pinning him by the neck. The dragon-fly 

 appeared to bite the cricket, who, after a struggle or two, turned 

 over on his back and lay motionless, either dead, or temporarily 

 senseless. The dragon-fly then, without any hesitation, seized 

 him by the hind legs, dragged him rapidly to the hole out of 

 which he had dug him, entered himself, and pulled the cricket 

 in after him, and then, emerging, scratched some sand over the 

 hole and flew away. Time for the whole transaction, say, 

 three minutes." 



A Catalogue of the Birds in the Provincial Museum, 

 N.W.P. and Oudh, Lucknow, has been printed by order of the 

 Museum Committee. Like the previous catalogue, it records 

 the purely Indian birds in the Museum, now 783 in number, 

 represented by 5360 specimens. Mr. George Reid, who is in 

 honorary charge of the natural history department of the 

 Museum, says no pains have been spared to make the work both 

 accurate and complete. " It contains, he believes, in a con- 

 venient form, all the information requisite to enable workers at 

 a distance to avail themselves, if necessary, of the contents of 

 the Museum ; while it places in the hands of all an absolutely 

 trustworthy record of localities for a considerable number of 

 species, and so contributes to an accurate knowledge of their 

 geographical distribution, which, after all, is, or ought to be, the 

 primary object of all local catalogues." 



