126 



NATURE 



[June 7, 1883 



involving towards the end of the la^t century the removal of the 

 ol I and erection of the present tower, which, due to this in- 

 crease, is now very much in the same relative position as its pre- 

 decessor of 1 792. This local accumulation runs northward to 

 " Romney Hoy " but is accompanied beyond this again north 

 ward by a constant struggle to preserve the sea frontage right up 

 to Hythe. 



Take the Royal Military Canal, twenty miles long, as the base of 

 a triangle running out ten miles seaward therefrom, with two in- 

 clined side:- of ten miles and fourtee miles, or twenty-four miles of 

 sea margin in all ; of th : s we have on the west side eight miles 

 of stationary or receding shore, thence two miles to the "Ness," 

 and northward of it four miles, or six miles in all of local in- 

 crease, and northward again ten miles of stationary or receding 

 shore. 



Now under these conditions who is to fix, and on what 

 principle, the landward boundary of what may be termed the 

 " live beach," and is it not this very material (not grass-grown or 

 covered as it ultimately becomes by vegetation) that lies most 

 te nptingly for removal ' 



A very tentative advertisement has recently been displayed at 

 the Charing Cross terminal station of the SouthEastern Rail- 

 way offering sea-beach or shingle for sale. J. B. Redman 



6, Queen Anne's Gate, Westminster, S.W., May 28 



for about a foot in depth ; and on the top is the nest proper, 

 with six or seven eggs. The handle is never moved by any one. 

 The bird apparently enters at the hinge. 



While on this topic I would ask, Has any systematic study 

 been given to the questi >n of scares for birds ? I recently sowed 

 some gra s and clover seed on a lawn, and, to scare the sparrows, 

 stuck up some bils of wood, with square pieces of paper, 

 attached with string to flutter in the wind ; but from the occa- 

 sional position of sparrows on the lawn, I suspect the radius of 

 action of these scares was decidedly limited. Are birds most 

 scared by still effigies of persons, or by sight of movements apart 

 from such imitation, or again by sounds, as in a scare I saw 

 lately, where pieces of g ass were hung so as to clink together? 



Finchley, May 29 M. 



Sheet Lightning 



Some people never see lightning ; I have met one lady who 

 cannot, and have heard of other in^ances. The question sug- 

 gests itself, consequently, whether the duration of a flash of 

 lightning is sufficient to produce a visible image on the retina 

 or whether the image is only produced after successive reflections 

 in the eye itself, which might be too few to produce such an 

 image in the case of people with very dark eyes ; if the latter is 

 the case, this would go far towards accounting for the difficulty 

 there is in deciding as to the character of sheet lightning as far as 

 any optical test is concerned, but would indicate the possibility 

 of further light being thrown on the subject by photography. 



Ripon, May 24 N. W. Taylor 



[We never heard of any one (except blind people, of course) 

 v>ho could not see lightning, nor have we any idea how the 

 colour of the iris (or reflection either) can have to do with it. 

 As to the duration and visibility of a flash, see Nature, vol. 

 xxii. pp. 340-41. As to "summer lightning," the following 

 statement from Prof. Tait's lecture on Thunderstorms (Nature, 

 vol. xxii. p. 438) may be of interest : — " 1 have said nothing of 

 what is commonly called summer lightning, which is i-robably, 

 at least in a great many cases, merely the faint effect of 1. distant 

 thunderstorm, but which has also been observed when the sky 

 appeared tolerably clear, and when it was certain that no 

 thunderstorm of the ordinary kind had occurred within a 

 hundred miles. In such cases it is probable that we see the 

 lightning of a storm which is taking place in the upper strata of 

 the atmosphere, at such a height that the thunder is inaudible, 

 partly on account of the distance, partly on account of the fact 

 that it takes its origin in air of small density." We know that 

 Prof. Tait speaks trom having himself seen what he here de- 

 scribes, which shows unquestionably that (on some rare occasions) 

 its source is really above our heads, and not (as i* the general 

 -ule) a thunderstorm of the ordinary kind several miles off. — Ed.] 



Curious Nest-building — " Scarecrows" 

 There is an old house at Whetstone at which a robin lately 

 built its nest in a singular position. The gate in the garden 

 w dl, opposite the door, is opened from inside by a servant, 

 when the bell rings. To do this she goes to a little hole in the 

 wall close by the gate, and pushes along a small bell-pull handle 

 in the line of the wall (the motion very shght). In the space 

 behind this handle, and evidently scanty for the purpose, a robin 

 built its nest, and it is now filled with little birds, which stretch 

 out their yellow gaping beaks when one pushes the handle. The 

 case is the more curious in that the master of the house, fearing 

 inconvenience on both sides, had the nest twice removed when 

 in course of building ; but the robin persisted, and was ulti- 

 mately allowed. A little way along from this gate is an old 

 disused pump, the front of which opens on hinges. Round the 

 vertical rod of this pump a tomtit has laboriously built up a pile 

 of twigs and various scraps, quite filling the body of the pump 



Ground Ivy 



I SHOULD like to know if a peculiarity I often see in the posi- 

 tion of the stigmas in the pistillate form of this flower is generally 

 observed. Instead of the stigmas opening up and down from 

 the style as usual in Labiates, they often diverge to right and 

 left across the flower, and the style also often curves forward, 

 so as greatly to facilitate cross-fertilisation as it seems to me. 

 If I am right this slight change may be of interest as a step 

 towards diceciousness. I found this peculiarity in 291 out of 

 531 flowers with abortive stamens which I 1 .oked at ; the 

 stigmas opened in the usual way in 85, while in 141 one stigma 

 was vertical and one horizontal ; 14 cases were doubtful. In 

 some unopened burls, the stigmas already diverged horizontally. 

 For comparison I lojked at 418 perfect flowers, and here, while 

 the stigmas of 360 opened as usual, only 15 spread horizontally ; 

 34 had one stigma vertical and one horizontal, and 9 cases were 

 doubtful. S. S. DOWSON 



Geldeston, May 22 



Meteor 



I have ju^t seen a very splendid meteor (at 10.40 p.m.). I 

 watched it during about thirty seconds, in which time it traversed the 

 heavens from abaut the point south-east nearly to that of north- 

 west, where it burst. Its path was nearly parallel to the 

 horizon, probably approaching it at an angle of ab >ut 5 degrees. 

 When first seen it appeared nearly yellow as to colour, with a 

 very fine tail, but just before it broke up the colour changed to 

 white, anil the fragments reminded me very much of some 

 "magnesium star* " fired from a rocket. No d ubt you will 

 have a quantity of communications concerning this meteor. I 

 wondered whether any one else had noticed this appearance. 



Filston Hall, Shoreham, Kent, June 3 A. Hall 



Wasps (L. C.).- 

 observations. 



-Thanks ; but there is nothing new in your 



Mimicry (Dr. Kesteven). — The occurrence is perfectly well 

 known. It is probably Urapleryx Sambucana. You have mis- 

 taken the anterior for the posterior extremity. 



RECENT ORNITHOLOGICAL WORKS " 



TO those who imagine that British ornithology is 

 worked out, and that there is nothing left to do in 

 this well-worn field, we commend the study of the present 

 book, as presenting us with a delightfully fresh view 01 

 an old and familiar subject. The author is already well 

 known to the public from his admirable books of Siberian 

 travel, but it is only his private friends who have been 

 aware of the devotion to this favourite branch of science 

 which has characterised Mr. Seebohm for many long 

 years, when most people imagined him to be absorbed in 

 business in the north of England. Brief excursions to 

 points of interest on our own coasts, snatched in intervals 

 of scanty leisure, succeeded in after years by more im- 

 portant expeditions to Greece and Asia Minor, the River 

 Petchora, the Yenisei, &c, have given him an acquaint- 

 ance with field-ornithology which is surpassed by few of 

 his contemporaries, while the fact that the dry details of 

 literary research have no terrors for him is proved by the 



1 "A History of British Birds, with Col mred Illustrations of tieir Eggs. ' 

 By Henry Seebohm. Published by the Author, 1883. 



