March 25, 1875J 



NATURE 



407 



be cast by each spark. The two shadows will be seen to be 

 most beautifully tinted with different delicate colours, varying 

 according to the metal inserted in B. 



It will be seen that the shadow thrown by A is lighted by B, 

 and is seen on a ground jointly illuminated by A and B ; whilst 

 B's shadow, lighted by A, is seen on the same common coloured 

 groimd as before. 



Without these considerations, it might have been supposed 

 that the shadow throuni by B, and lighted by the unchanging 

 spark A, would itself have rem.ained unaltered. I saw it of the 

 colours, pink, light pink, dim pink, light green, nearly wliite, 

 and yellow-green ; corresponding to the introduction into B of 

 Bi, Ag, Sn, In, Al, and Mg respectively. 



I was indebted for the apparatus to Prof. Liveing, in whose 

 laboratory last November, at Cambridge, I made these observa- 

 tions. C. T. L. Whitmell 



Nottingham, March 16 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 

 Anthelm's Star of 1670(11 Vulpecul/E). — In the 

 catalogue of stars observed at the Royal Observatory, 

 Greenwich, in the year 1872, in the volume lately circu- 

 lated, will be found the position of the small star near the 

 place of Anthelm's star of 1670, which was for some time 

 of the third magnitude. It is No. 816 in the above- 

 named catalogue, and for iS75'o its R.A. is igh. 42m. 

 32578., and N.P.D. 62° 59' i5"'4. This is only about one 

 minute of arc from the place given by Picard's observa- 

 tions published in Lemonnier's " Histoire Celeste," and 

 there is an uncertainty in the R.A. deduced from those 

 observations amounting to one or two seconds of time. 

 The star deserves attention, and the more so as there has 

 been a suspicion of sensible variation about an average 

 minimum for some years past. It may be advantageously 

 compared with a star of pretty nearly the same magni- 

 tude following I2s'5 in R.A., and 4''g to the north, and 

 also with one which follows 22s'5, about o'■^ to the north. 

 Occasional slight variations are perceptible in Nova 

 (Ophiuchi), 1848, usually of I2'I3 magnitude, and, accord- 

 ing to Schonfeld's observations in Nova (Corona;), 1866, 

 also, as we have lately stated, in the star close upon the 

 position of Nova (Cassiope.'e), 1572. We follow the 

 e.\ample of the Manheim astronomer in applying the 

 term Nova to these objects, though it would probably be 

 more correct in each case to consider them as belonging to 

 a class of irregular variables of great extremes of bright- 

 ness. Mr. Tebbutt, of Windsor, N..S.W., was satisfied 

 from his own observations that tj Aigiis had been " alter- 

 nately above and below a mean magnitude " for several 

 years previous to 1870. 



Meteor-shower of October a.d. 855.— This showe"" 

 of meteors does not fall in with the thirty-three year 

 period indicated by Prof. H. A. Newton ; but from the 

 description in " Annales Fuldenses," it was evidently one 

 of similar character, and indicated a great accumulation 

 of meteors in a part of their orbit far distant from the 

 mass encountered by the earth in 1799, 1833, and 1S66. 

 We read : " Mense vero Octobris xvj. Kal. Novemb. (i.e. 

 October 17, O. S.), per totam noctem igniculi, instar spi- 

 culorum, occidentem versus per aerem densissime fere- 

 bantur." It was from a comparison of this date with that 

 of the great display in 1366, witnessed in Bohemia and in 

 Portugal, that Uoguslawski suspected an advance in the 

 nodes of the meteor-orbit at a time when its real form 

 had not been detected. Quetelet, in his " Nouveau Cata- 

 logue des Principales Apparitions des Etoiles Filantes," 

 refers to an Arabic account of the same shower (855), and 

 on the same date, Oct. 17, in the following year, he men- 

 tions the occurrence " des feux semblables h. des pointes 

 parcourent le ciel pendant toute la nuit," on the authority 

 of a chronicler whose history is found in Bouquet's Col- 

 lection ; suspecting, however, its identity with the shower 

 recorded by the Fulda annalist. We know that there are 

 recent cases of considerable numbers of meteors on or 



about November 12, which are also divergent from ■ the 

 thirty-three year period for maximum, as on Nov. 12, 

 1S20 and 1822 ; but the shower of October 17, 855' 

 appears a remarkable instance. The dense strearn 

 towards the west brings to recollection the grand display 

 of November 1866. 



Comet 1840, 1 1 1.- -This comet, discovered by Dr. 

 Galle, at Berlin, on March 6, and observed at Pulkova 

 till the 27th of the same month, affords a curious instance 

 where one of these bodies, after apparently encountering 

 the powerful influence of the planet Jupiter, has presented 

 itself in these parts of space moving in an orbit which is 

 undistinguishable from a parabola. Definitive elements 

 have been lately calculated by Kowalczyk and Doberck, 

 and if we trace the path backward thereby, to the 

 beginning of 1839, we find the distance between the 

 comet and planet about January 20 would be less than a 

 third of our mean distance from the sun. It is true the 

 interval over which the observations extend is only three 

 weeks, but the residual errors of the parabola are so very 

 small, that it is evident no very sensible ellipticity was 

 produced by the near approach to Jupiter, as would appear 

 to have been the case with many other comets. There is 

 a suspicion that something similar took place with the 

 third comet of 1759, which passed so near the earth in 

 January 1760, but the elements of that body may perhaps 

 admit of better determination. Lacaille's orbit shows a 

 pretty close approach to Jupiter on the comet's journey 

 towards the sun, a circumstance first referred to by Pingrd 



THE BIRDS OF BORNEO * 



'X'lIE fifth volume of the annals of the "Museo Civico" 

 ■'■ of Genoa (for the establishment of which science is 

 indebted to the liberality and exertions of the Marchese 

 Giacomo Doria) is devoted to an elaborate memoir on 

 the birds of Borneo, prepared by the well-known ornitho- 

 logist, Tommaso Salvadori, of the Museum of Turin. 

 The work is based upon the rich collections made by 

 Doria and his companion. Dr. Beccari, during a scientific 

 expedition to Borneo in 1865 and the following years. 

 Whilst the latter naturalist devoted himself principally to 

 plants, and obtained an enormous series of them which 

 has enriched many of the herbaria of Europe, the former 

 occupied himself in general zoological collections. Among 

 the results of his activity were upwards of eight hundred 

 specimens of birds, obtained chiefly near Kutchin, the 

 capital of Sarawak, which was the head-quarters of the 

 travellers. Dr. Salvadori having had this fine collection 

 placed in his hands for examination, thought the oppor- 

 tunity was favourable for attempting a complete account 

 of the birds hitherto known to have been obtained in 

 Borneo, on which, up to the present time, there has been 

 no authority. In the present memoir we have the I'csults 

 of his labours, forming altogether a volume of 430 pages. 

 Considering the large extent of the island of Borneo, 

 the pubHshed works of naturalists upon its fauna are few, 

 and a large portion of its varied surface remains still un- 

 explored. As regards its ornithology, we are indebted to 

 the naturalists formerly employed by the Dutch National 

 Museum at Leyden for the greater part of our knowledge. 

 .Schwaner, Diard, Salomon Miiller, and others, made rich 

 collections in the territories of Pontianak and Banjermas- 

 sing, fifty years ago, and supplied many of the types 

 figured by Temminck in his " Planches Colori&s." Our 

 Mr. Wallace was the first ornithological explorer of Sara- 

 wak, but never published any complete account of his 

 collections made there. Another Enghsh naturalist, 

 James Mottley, also made several collections in the island 

 of Labuan and in Banjermassing. These were partly 

 described in 1855, in a work commenced by Mr. Mottley 



* " Catalogo sistematico degli uccelli di Borneo," di Tommaso Salvadori 

 con note cd osservazioni di G. Doria cd D, Beccari, intorno alle specie da 

 essi raccoltc ncl Ragiato di Sarawak. 



