October i", 1901] 



NA TURE 



box 



being well outside the vallum except on the west side, 

 where a right of way interferes with the true circle. The 

 next work undertaken— the most difficult and important 

 of the whole— was the raising of the "leaning stone"— 

 the largest monolith in England except Cleopatra's 

 needle — to an upright position. This stone formed one 

 of the uprights of the trilithon the fall of which was 

 said to have been caused by the digging and researches 

 of the Duke of Buckingham in 1620. The horizontal 

 and the other upright (the latter broken in two pieces) 

 now lie prostrate across the altar stone. 



The great stone leaned considerably towards the 

 N.E. and appeared to rest upon (actually touching at 

 one point) a beautiful little pillar stone of syenite, the 

 danger being that in some storm, especially after a heavy 

 fall of snow and sudden thaw, the great stone would 

 break in three pieces (having three veins) in falling, and 

 also crush the smaller stone beneath it. 



That a forward movement was continually taking place 

 is shown by observations taken by Mr. Flinders Petrie 

 some years ago. It then leaned at an angle of 62, which 

 has been increased to one of 65 degrees lately. The work 

 of the raising of the stone was begun on August iS and 

 finished September 25, and was under the direct super- 

 vision of Ur. Gowland, Mr. Detmar Blow, aichitect, 

 and his assistant Mr. Stallybrass, and Mr. Carruthers, 

 engineer. The first thing done was to make a fitting to 

 the stone of a strong timber cradle so as to protect it 

 from injury by the immense iron chains and ropes placed 

 round it, these being attached to winches worked by men, 

 so that the stone was actually " wound up,'' so to speak, 

 into an upright position. Hydraulic jacks were also 

 used. The whole thing was most carefully and slowly 

 done, and devotedly watched over by workers. A 

 rectangular excavation was made in front of the stone, 

 a square excavation at the back. A frame of wood 

 with numbers at equal distances apart was placed over 

 the ground, which was excavated in sections, and the 

 earth was most carefully sifted in layers through four 

 grades of sieves in such a manner that the position of 

 every object found could be recorded. The excavations 

 round the base of the stone are now filled with concrete, 

 and the large struts which uphold it will remain in their 

 positions for six months, until the concrete be thoroughly 

 set. 



The objects found were one Roman coin at a shallow 

 depth, and many chippings of both the blue and sarsen 

 stones. Numerous flint axeheads and large stonehammers 

 were also found at a depth of from two feet to three feet 

 six inches underground ; all tending to prove the great 

 antiquity of Stonehen^e- at least Neolithic. But all 

 this will be discussed scientifically later on. 



Florence C. M. Antrobus. 



BIRD LIFE IN THE CANARIES AND 

 SOUTH AFRICA} 



ALTHOUGH the author can scarcely be congratu- 

 lated on his choice of a title, which in our opinion 

 is too prolix and disconnected, he has succeeded in pro- 

 ducing a very readable and interesting little work, based 

 on a stay of six months in the Canaries and a sojourn of 

 about the same duration in South Africa. Much of the 

 contents is devoted to the ordinary incidents of travel, 

 but the special feature of the book is formed by the 

 excellent series of photographs of birds in their native 

 haunts. As every one who has tried bird- photography 

 is aware, but little can be done with the camera in this 

 respect except during the nesting season ; but the 

 author's object has been, not to obtain pictures of the 



1 " Essays and Photographs. 

 South Africa." By H. E. Ha 

 (London : Porter, iqoi.) 



NO. 1668, VOL. 64] 



Birds of the Canary Islands and 

 Pp. xvi-F2i2. 8vo. Illustrated. 



birds while actually sitting, but in their natural attitudes 

 when in the neighbourhood of their nesting places. In 

 this way it is possible to show birds in positions which 

 could not be attempted in a drawing ; and the value of 

 such pictures for the guidance of the taxidermist who 

 desires to be true to nature cannot be over-estimated. 

 Apart from getting near enough to the bird without dis- 

 turbing it, there are, however, difficulties connected with 

 this branch of photography which can only be fully 

 realised by those who have had practical experience. 



The ideal way of showing a bird, as the author tells 

 us, is perhaps to portray it amid its natural surroundings, 

 but, with rare exceptions, this is unfortunately a practical 

 impossibility in photography. The chief difficulty with 

 which the photographer has to contend is the back- 

 ground—whether this should be in proper focus at the 

 expense of the bird, or ^'ice versa. In most of the photo- 

 graphs the background has been sacrificed ; the birds 

 standing out against a dark background, due to out- 

 of-focus distance behind them. This method has the 

 advantage of bringing into relief the various markings 

 and details of the plumage in a manner that would other- 

 wise be impracticable ; and, at any rate from the 

 naturalist's point of view, the author is to be congratu- 

 lated on the success of his method, many of the pictures 

 being perfect representations of bird life. 



In the section of the work dealing with the Canaries, a 

 very considerable portion of the text, as well as some of 

 the illustrations, are devoted to the description of the 

 country, its inhabitants and its buildings, so that it is only 

 here and there natural history subjects are discussed at 

 any length. There are. however, several excellent photo- 

 graphs of the nests and eggs of birds— notably the stone- 

 curlew and the Egyptian vulture ; and we may call 

 especial attention to the pictures of a malachite sun-bird 

 and its nest (Plate xxii) as first-rate examples of what can 

 be done by photography in portraying the smaller types 

 of bird- life. 



In the second part of the volume, which treats 01 the 

 author's experiences in South Africa, the bird-lover will 

 find a very large amount of interesting matter. Person- 

 ally, we have been much attracted by the author's account 

 of his visit to Bird Island and St. Croix, two islets lying 

 off Port Elizabeth. Apparently no one is allowed to visit 

 these bird-haunted islets without a special permit, and an 

 amusing story is told of the difticulty of obtaining such 

 permission in this particular instance. Bird Island is the 

 chosen resort of the Cape gannet, and the following 

 account, illustrated by two photographs, gives a good 

 idea of the numbers of these birds in the nesting season : — 



" We rounded the north end of Bird Island first," 

 writes Mr. Harris, "and then, close to the lighthouse, 

 and covering quite an acre and a half of ground, were to 

 be seen thousands of Cape gannets. The ground was 

 white with the birds themselves, while above them in the 

 air a kind of kaleidoscopic efifect was produced by the 

 ever-moving wings. Among a crowd of birds so thickly 

 packed together as these gannets were, one naturally 

 wonders if it is possible for them to keep to their own 

 eggs : perhaps each bird recognises its own special place 

 from the position of its neighbour. . . . The men at the 

 lighthouse say that these birds arrive in a mass at this, 

 their breeding season, and that when the season is 

 finished the island is untenanted as to bird life until the 

 following year. The spectacle was not so imposing as 

 that presented by the gannets on the Bass Rock in Scot- 

 land, where the birds, as seen from a distance, have the 

 appearance of bees swarming round a hive. Here the 

 birds were shown horizontally instead of vertically." 



Penguins are likewise abundant on these islands, and 

 the author was fortunate in obtaining two photographs 

 of these birds, in one of which they are shown swimming, 

 and in the other standing on the rocks. 



Perhaps the most interesting chapter in the whole book 



