April I, 1886] 



NA TURE 



519 



ASTRONOMICAL PHENOMENA FOR THE 

 WEEK 18S6 APRIL 4-10 



/"pOR the reckoning of time the civil day, commencing at 

 ^ -*■ Greenwich mean midnight, counting the hours on to 24, 

 is here employed.) 



At Greenwich on April \ 

 Sun rises, 5h. 30m. ; souths, I2h. 3m. O'os. ; sets, i8h. 36m. ; 



decl. on meridian, 5° 46' N. : Sidereal Time at Sunset, 



7h. 28m. 

 Moon (New) rises, 5h. 43m. ; souths, I2h. 2m. ; sets, i8h. 32m. ; 



decl. on meridian, 3° 6' N. 



Planet 



Mercury 

 Venus ... 

 Mars . . . 

 Jupiter... 

 Saturn .. 



Rises 

 h. m. 



5 23 

 3 59 

 14 40 



16 54 



9 7 



Souths 

 h. m. 

 12 27 

 9 20 

 21 46 

 23 7 

 17 19 



19 3> 

 14 41 



4 52 



5 20 



Dec]- on meridit 



... ii°37N. 



... 8 20 S. 



... II 56 N. 



... 1+4N. 



... 22 50 N. 



' Indicates that the setting is that of the following morning. 



Occultations of Stars by the Moon (visible at Greenwich) 



Corresponding 

 il Star Mag. Disap. Reap. ^^^'^011°^^^; 



inverted image 



Aldebaran 



130 Tauri 



26 Geminorum. 



17 S 

 23 49 



22 2i 



17 54 

 o 2 it 

 23 18 



.. 175 257 

 •■ 175 251 

 •• 143 28s 



t Occurs on the following morning. 



Saturn, April 4. — Outer major axis of outer ring ~ 4o""9 

 outer minor axis of outer ring = l8""3 ; southern surface visible" 

 April h. 



9 ... 4 ... Mercury in inferior conjunction with the 

 Sun. 



Stars with Remarkable Sfiectra 



BIOLOGICAL NOTES 

 Crayfish. — The Museum of Comparative Anatomy at Har- 

 vard having an uncommonly rich collection of the genera and 

 species of the family Astaciclae, Mr. Faxon presents us with a 

 revision of the group, which falls little short of being a well- 

 illustrated monograph. In the first part, which has just reached 

 us, we find the crayfishes of the northern hemisphere treated 

 of, and in a second part the author promises to write of those of 

 the southern hemisphere. As will be known to all readers of 

 Huxley's work, "The Crayfish," the family Astacidse (which in 

 a strict sense is equivalent to the genus Astacus, as limited by 

 Milne-Edwards) falls naturally into two subordinate groups. 

 These groups of Huxley's Faxon makes into sub-families : (i) 

 the PotamobiinEE, comprising the crayfishes of Europe, Asia, and 

 North America ; and (2) the Parastacinre, comprising those of 

 the southern hemisphere, viz. those of South America, Fiji 

 Islands, New Zealand, Tasmania, Australia, and Madagascar. 

 The Potamobiin<-B are treated of in this memoir, and include 

 the genera Astacus and Cambarus. The Parastacinje will be 

 treated of in a second memoir. Of the genus Cambarus, esta- 

 blished by Erichson in 1846, fifty-two species are .accepted by 

 Faxon, and all of these except one are American forms, ranging 

 from Lake Winnipeg to Cuba and Guatemala, from New 

 Brunswick to Wyoming Territory (in Mexico to the Pacific 

 Ocean). The genus Cambarus would] not seem to have been 

 developed under the influences affecting cavern life, though 

 several cave and blind species are known, and in Europe it 

 would appear that one solitary species still lingers in the under- 

 ground waters of some of the Carniola caves. It seems strange 

 that on so interesting a question any doubt should remain, and 

 yet it is true that, except a short notice in the Berlin Ento- 

 mologisclte Zcitschrift, by Dr. G. Joseph, of a specimen of a 

 crayfisli referred to Cambarus, and labelled, as found, " Aus der 

 Grotte von St. Kanzian bei Metaun," we know nothing of this 

 interesting form, which must, if the determination is correct, be 

 taken as an indication that at one time species of Cambarus 

 inhabited the European rivers. Of the genus Astacus fourteen 

 species are given. These occupy three widely-separated geo- 

 graphical areas: (i) Western North America, from the Rocky 

 Mount.ains to the Pacific Ocean ; (2) the western portion of the 

 Europeo- Asiatic continent from the Ural Mountains and the 

 basin of the Sea of Aral to the Spanish peninsula .and (?) Ireland ; 

 (3) Eastern Asia, in the Amoor River system, and in Japan. No 

 Astaci are known from any part of Siberia between Lake Baikal 

 and the Urals, or from any of the Siberian rivers flowing into 

 the Arctic Ocean. To this memoir an interesting note on the 

 fossil forms referred to Astacidae and a table showing the geo- 

 graphical distribution, as far as has been ascertained, of the 

 species of Cambarus and Astacus are appended. — ["A Revision 

 of the Astacidae," by Walter Faxon. Part I. "The Genera 

 Cambarus and Astacus " (« ith ten plates). Cambridge, for the 

 Harvard Museum, August, 1885 (being vol. x. No. 4, of the 

 Memoirs of the Museum of Comparative Anatomy).] 



Habits of the Cuckoo. — However well known may be this 

 summer visitant of ours, there are still few points in its strange 

 life-history that have been well worked out. Even an ornitholo- 

 gist will hesitate to say n hether it is the male or female bird which 

 utters the familiar cry, or will be able to say when the young bird 

 moults. In Mr. Henry Seebohm's important and just-published 

 " History of British Birds " we find that the strongest doubts 

 are thrown on the statements that the young cuckoo, soon after 

 it is hatched, ejects the young or eggs of its foster-parents from 

 the nests. "One feels inclined," we read, "to class these 

 narratives with the equally well authenticated stories of ghosts 

 and apparitions," and this, too, though these narratives are 

 from the pens of such accurate observers as Montagu, Jenner, 

 and others. It is therefore not without interest that we 

 find, from a series of observations made with every pre- 

 caution as to their accuracy by Mr. John Hdncock (Nat. 

 Hist. Trans., Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle- 

 on-Tyne, vol. viii. , 1886), that the observations of the 

 older writers were exact. The nest of a hedge-accentor, 

 built in a convenient spot for observation, was found, on 

 January 17, 1S84, to contain four eggs of the accentor and one 

 cuckoo's egg. On the 27th the cuckoo's egg and two eggs of 

 the accentor were hatched. On the 28th the "murder" began 

 with an attempt on the part of the cuckoo to put out of the 

 nest one of the unhatched eggs. At 10.30 a.m. on the same 

 day the egg was successfully thrown out. Getting more perfect 



