53° 
NAT ORE 
[April 5, 1883 
getting lower every year, and would never again attain the level 
that they once had according to the traditions of past genera- 
tions, It should be added that the springs were at their highest 
about the commencement of this month, and are now gradually 
falling. P. L. SCLATER 
Hoddington House, Odiham, March 31 
3 
4 
Scorpion Suicide 
I AM sorry that my experiments on scorpion suicide has given 
pain to some of your correspondents. Allow me to explain ina 
few words the object of my investigation. It is commonly 
believed in this colony and elsewhere that scorpions commit 
suicide; Dr. Allen Thomson, in a letter to NATURE, lent the 
weight of his scientific name to this view; and Dr. G. J. 
Romanes, in his “ Animal Intellizence,” treats it as an open ques- 
tion. Nowifthis habit ofcommitting suicide be an e-tablished fact, 
we have in scorpions a highly persistent type of creature that 
inherits a habit detrimental alike to the individual and the 
species. Scorpion suicide, therefore, if a fact, is one of the strongest 
individual cases against the Theory of Evolution by Natural 
Selection that is presented to us in the animal kingdom. It 
seemed to me that the only way of settling this questi n was by 
the direct appeal to experiment. But is the Theory of Natural 
Selection of sufficient importance in its bearing upon human life 
and human progress to justify the infliction of jain upon, say, 
sixty scorpions? Iam one of those who believe that it is. I 
am one of those who believe that the theory of evolution has 
enormously influenced human thought and action, and is destined 
to influence it in a constantly increasing degree. I believe thit 
much of the moral and intellectual progress of our race is in- 
dissolubly associated with this theory of evolution, I may be 
wrong in that opinion, but that is the opinion I hold. And 
holding that opini om it became to me a duty to do something to- 
wards settling a question which seemed to me to be of great import- 
ance in its bearing on the evolution theory. And it was my 
object to do the work, as far as I could, thoroughly and once 
for all. I believed that if I could show that even under torture 
scorpions do not commit suicide, the view that they do so when 
irritated by the bright light of a candle-flare became highly im- | 
probable. To establish a negative in the face of ppsitive 
assertions is, however, difficult, and I considered it necessary to 
experiment upon a number of individuals. Azne le lachryme! 
One of my friends, however, protested as follows: ‘* The theory 
of evolution,” he said, ‘‘is now so strongly established, that 
scorpion suicide is @ priori impossible.” But I hold ic to be 
dangerous in the extreme, in the present position of science, to 
set up the theory of evolutior as a doctrine from which to draw 
deductions, unchecked by an appeal to nature where such appeal is 
possible. C. Ltoyp MorGAn 
Rondibosch, March 12 
Nesting Habits of the Emu 
I aM able fully to confirm Prof. Moseley’s statement of the 
habits of the emu in nesting at Blenheim. Some years ago my 
father was very successful in rearing these birds at his place at 
Brockham Lodge, near Dorking. The first egg was usually laid 
shortly after Christmas ; the total number of a brood being from 
fifteen to twenty, laid usually at intervals of about forty-eight 
hours. Some time before the full number was laid the cock 
bird would commence the incubation by carefully drawing them 
under him. When the hen bird was ready to add to their 
number she would sit down by his side, produce the egg, and 
her mate would then carefully draw it under him with his foot. 
As soon as the number was completed, it became necessary to 
seclude the hen bird, as she was from this time ** vicious ” 
towards her mate and towards her own eggs ; and the seclusion 
continued until the young birds had attained a considerable size, 
as she showed every disposition to destroy them. The number 
of eggs laid was often too large for the cock bird to get com- 
fortably under him. Still during several years that my father 
kept the birds a considerable number of eggs were annually 
hatched, and the young lirds reared to th: breeding age. No 
brood from native birds was, however, obtained. ‘1hey showed 
no disposition to change the breeding season from January to 
July. In captivity the birds strikingly exhibited their singular 
inquisitive propensities. They were not usually vicious, except 
during the breeding season, but were very easily frightened. 
London, March 31 ALFRED W. BENNETT 
The Recent Cold Weather 
THE excessively severe and prolonged cold weather of the 
month of March has hardly a parailel in this century. It 
appears to have been felt throughout Europe, and has even 
reached the shores of Africa, Frost, snow, and wintry gales 
we expect at a season proverbial for its fitful severity, but the 
scarcely interrupted sweep of the frigid atmospheric waves 
which have overwhelmed us for three successive weeks is an 
experience of weather so remarkable that I conceive the record 
wiil probably interest some of your readers. 
In position, altitude, and in its freedom from the sheltering 
influence of large towns, this station may be accepted as favour- 
able for giving an accurate account of the weather in the centre 
of England. Our instruments are on a proper meteorological 
stand, and are by Negretti and Zambra. I may add that, in its 
blighting influence on vegetation stimulated into activity by a 
mild and moist period in February, this weather has proved 
more destructive to early fruit blossoms, certain shrubs and 
plants accepted as hardy, than from any weather previously 
experienced in March in other years ; but apart from vegetation, 
and acting on the upturned fallows and soddened clods of clay, 
the penetrating winds, frequent frosts and falls of snow have 
pulverised the land, so that it falls before the plough or harrow 
like calcined limestone, and in respect to the preparation of 
land the weather has had a beneficial action. 
Record of Weather, March, 1883, at Belvoir Castle, Leicestershire 
March. Min. Max. 
Grass. Wind. Rain. Snow. 
4 27 50 27S. toe ee _— 
5 27 51 20 N. _ => 
6 33 52 29 N. =" F0lke2 
7 26 40 22 NE — F202 
8 24 41 24 N. — .. 025 
9 20 35 14 N. ==' Solr 
fe) Mes e3 7 4 N. SE ORS 
II PION ag ey s) fe) N. _— == 
12 25 39 23 N.W. Pe. ONe2 
13 25 39 20 We — on ox 
14 20002. 49 22 We — _ 
15 CS orp eh) 20 |... Ni 27S) Begs 
16 20s Me), oe WES EM 6 cre = = 
17 28 38 24 Saw —" Mors 
18 2 40 20 S: — o'r 
19 28 42 21 N. — | ro 
20 31 40 31 E.N.E. — "SS Oke: 
21 32 37 She N.E, ae 
22 28 35 27 E. — = 
23 28 35 26 N.E. _— = 
24 18 42 5 W. — 
25 26 45 16 N.W. ONO 
26 26 4I 19 N.W. Ci ss = 
27 27 40 18 N. es a 
28 26 43 TOU ONE _ = 
2 24 41 12 Ss. on ae 
30 35 48 35 See ho 
31 30 55 24 S.W. POD OY kag = 
Belvoir Castle Gardens WILLIAM INGRAM 
Sap-Flow 
A REMARKABLE instance of the strong up-rush of sap in trees 
at this time of the yeer occurred here during the late severe 
weather, The boughs of a sycamore overhanging a road were. 
trimmed on the 21st of this month during a very keen frost, and 
next day icicles of frozen sap, varying in length from a couple 
of inches to a foot, were hanging from the severe i ends. The 
icicles were semi-opaque in appearance and slightly iridescent, 
like the sheen on the moonstone, and, when put in a bottle and 
melted, the product was pure sap. 
The sycamore, being one of the earliest trees to develop leaves, 
had its sap rising, notwithstanding the intense cold and late 
season ; while a beech, which is much later in coming out, and 
an ash, which is usually latest of all, whose boughs had also 
been lopped, showed no signs of bleeding, and the cuts remained 
dry and bare. : 
The icicles have been melted, reformed, and melted again 
since the 21st, and still the sap is dropping from the cuts. 
Highfield, Gainsborough, March 28 F. M, BuRTON 
