128 



NA TV RE 



\Jnne 7, 1883 



that we have not space to give extracts from the many 

 charming accounts of the habits of our English birds of 

 prey, which have certainly not been surpassed by any 

 modern writer. We have already alluded to the anomalous 

 position given to the Osprey in Mr. Seebohm's classification, 

 and we notice that in the characters which he assigns to the 

 genus (p. 54) he does not refer to the skeleton, which is so 

 essentially Owl like in structure. The author calls atten- 

 tion to a very serious slip made by ourselves in the 

 " Catalogue of Birds'' with regard to the Rough-legged 

 Buzzard (Archibuieo lagopus). We were certainly in error 

 in placing this bird with the genus Buteo, and indeed the 

 woodcut of the reticulated tarsus convicts us on the face 

 of it ; but we strongly doubt the correctness of Mr. See- 

 bohm's relegation of the species to the genus Aquila, 

 and we hardly think that Dr. Gadow's evidence as to the 

 resemblance of certain points in the anatomy of the 

 genera Aquila and Archibuieo was intended to suggest 

 that they were closely enough allied to be considered 

 inseparable. On p. 134 we are told that " ornithologists 

 seem to have a fatality for making petty blunders." This 

 probably accounts for Mr. Seebohm's admitting (p. 130) 

 a woodcut of the nest of the Hen Harrier with the bird 

 appearing in the background about the size of a Song 

 Thrush. Perhaps Mr. Whymper, the artist who has 

 drawn this otherwise pretty sketch, will, like Mr. Hanhart, 

 who has done the plates of the eggs, " get better as he 

 improves." '{Vide the " Notice to Subscribers.") 



Passing on to the family Strigidce or Owls, we find 

 with regret that Mr. Seebohm has once more ruthlessly 

 destroyed the simplicity of nomenclature in the European 

 species, and this on the authority of the " Storia degli 

 Uccelli," whose fourfold authorship would surely be more 

 than sufficient to place the book out of court. The genus 

 Aluco is once more invoked for the Barn Owl, Strix is 

 restored to the Tawny Owl as well as to the Long-eared 

 Owl, Short-eared Owl, an 1 Tengmalm's Owl, and the 

 Snowy Owl and the Hawk Owl are placed in one genus, 

 Surnia. This classification of the Owls is by far the 

 most disappointing portion of Mr. Seebohm's book, and 

 ornithologists will be inclined to view with suspicion the 

 ideas of an author who, in endeavouring to upset the 

 rules of the British Association, requires them to pin 

 their faith to a system which would lead to such a result 

 as is here offered to us. Gerini's " Ornithologia Methodice 

 Digesta" may have gone down a hundred and forty years 

 ago, but in the present day it appears to be " Chaos, 

 rudis indigestaque moles," which the stomachs of the 

 present generation of ornithologists will not be found 

 strong enough to assimilate. A little woodcut is appro- 

 priately inserted as a tailpiece on p. 182, which represents 

 the author coming to grief on a downhill path ! 



In the account of the Passeridee, or Singing Birds, 

 another suggestive tailpiece at once meets our eye at 

 p. 199 : it represents a peaceful scene on a river, and is 

 probably placed there as emblematical of the joy of the 

 author at finding himself once more in smooth waters. 

 The rest of the volume is occupied with an account of the 

 Thrushes and Warblers, Chats, Redstarts, and Fly- 

 catchers, with which birds Mr. Seebohm possesses an 

 acquaintance beyond that of any of his contemporaries ; 

 and no one who reads his book will find tault with this 

 portion of the work, which appears to us to be in every 

 way excellent. We unhesitatingly express our opinion 

 that since the time of Macgillivray no such original book 

 as Mr. Seebohm's has been published on British ornitho- 

 logy, and, in spite of a few less satisfactory illustrations, 

 we think that the figures of the eggs are by far the best 

 that have yet been given. We have ourselves too often 

 run counter to the rules of the British Association Com- 

 mittee to allow of a suspicion of our complete sympathy 

 with these rules, and Mr. Seebohm has done much to 

 prove their unworkable character in many instances, but 

 at the same time his strong expressions with regard to 



some of their most conscientious supporters seem to us 

 likely to lessen the respect with which many of his incon- 

 trovertible strictures would otherwise have been received. 

 Another most useful ornithological work has also just 

 made its appearance in Mr. Eugene Oates's " Handbook 

 to the Birds of British Burmah." l Although less am- 

 bitious in its scope than Mr. Seebohm's work above 

 noticed, it is nevertheless a very complete resume of the 

 ornithology of the country of which it treats, and it forms 

 one of those useful volumes which appear from time to 

 time from the pens of hardworking ornithologists, which 

 bring into one focus the results of many scattered essays 

 in various journals. It must not be supposed, however, 

 that Mr. Oates's work has been confined to the incorpora- 

 tion of the labours of his predecessors, for although he 

 has gathered together into one compass the results of the 

 travels of Mr. Davison and Capt. Bingham in Tenas- 

 serim, and of Capt. Wardlaw Ramsay in Karennee, the 

 book is also enriched with an account of his own personal 

 experiences during a fourteen years' residence in Pegu. 

 One great characteristic of this book is its conciseness. 

 In the present volume of 430 pages, four hundred species 

 are disposed of, and yet the principal references are 

 given, as well as descriptions of all the species. In fact, 

 the book quite comes up to our idea of what a model 

 " handbook " should be, and there is no doubt that it will 

 be simply invaluable to the collector in British Burmah, 

 within whose reach it is placed by the exceedingly 

 modest price at which it is published. All workers in 

 the field of Indian and Indo-Malayan ornithology will not 

 be able to do without this most useful volume. 



R. BOWDLER SHARPE 



THE AURORA BOREALIS 1 

 III. 



7 HE " Utstrbmnings" Apparatus.— On the top of a 

 mountain, or in a spot situated so high that it 

 commands the surrounding country within a radius of 

 some 5 kilometres, the apparatus, which I have termed 

 an " utstromnings " apparatus, should be erected. This 

 instrument consists of a copper wire, at least 2 mm. in 

 diameter, laid out on insulators fixed on poles 2 metres 

 in height, along which points or nibs of copper or brass 

 are attached at every half metre in such a way that they 

 always point upwards. The wire is, I believe, arranged 

 with most advantage as shown in the subjoined Fig. 

 1. If the wire begins at o, and the distance 00' is = 

 iS metres, the total surface area of the apparatus will be 

 = 324 square metres. The letter i indicates insulator. 



The length of the wire is, therefore, 194 metres, and 

 the number of insulators, if one insulator is attached in 

 the centre of each outer coil, = 27. 



The insulators should be of a peculiar construction, so 

 that they would, under all conditions, even when covered 

 by hoar frost, be perfectly efficient. The kind shown in 

 Fig. 2, based on the principle of M. Mascart's insu- 

 lator, appears to me to be the most serviceable. 



This diagram shows the vertical section of the insulator 

 attached to the pole, ab is a glass tube 7 mm. thick, 

 5 cm. in diameter, and 20 cm. in height. This tube is 

 soldered to the bottom of the jar cdef, the outer diameter 

 of which is 11 cm., and height 135 cm., and is, at the 

 side, 10 cm. from the bottom, provided with an opening 

 o (2 cm. in diameter), which can be closed with a cork. 

 Above the tube, ab, the bell, mini is affixed, which is pro- 

 vided with arms for the coiling of the wire. In the 

 cork, o, a U-shaped glass retort, with short arms pointed 

 downwards, is inserted, and if the retort fede is filled 



1 " A Handbook to the Birds of British Burmah, including those found in 

 the adjoining State of Karennee." by Eugene W. Oatrs, Executive 

 Engineer, Public Works Department of India (British Burmah). London : 

 R. H. Porter. 6. Tenderden Street, W., and Dulan and Co., 1S83. 



2 Continued from p. 109. 



