December 26, 1912] 



NATURE 



475 



features. The greatest height reached was zq'z km. 

 on September 9 ; pressure 43 mm. ; temperature 

 -59° C. The lowest temperature, —62°, was re- 

 corded at 14" I km. All the balloons travelled easterly, 

 but as several were lost owing to the pro.ximity of 

 lake or forest, the station had to be moved from 

 Toronto to Woodstock, about eighty miles to the 

 westward. The kite station is at Agincourt, about 

 fourteen miles from Toronto; Dines 's kite and 

 jneteorographs were used, and good records of pres- 

 si.ire, temperature, humidity, and wind direction have 

 been obtained; the highest flight was 7900 ft. above 

 sea-level. 



BIRD NOTES. 



1.\ the November number of The Zoologist Mr. 

 lUirvie-Ki-own, in completing his account of the 

 southern e.Ktension of the breeding range of the fulmar 

 which has been in progress for many years, points 

 out that these essentially Arctic birds had established 

 tliemselves in St. Kilda at least 250 years ago. In 

 iSj.S or 1S37 they were observed for the first time 

 in the Faroes, nesting on the cliffs of Qualboe in 

 Suderoe, and by 1849 they had colonised Skuor and 

 Great Dimon. From these islands the fumar has 

 invaded, as a breeding species, the Shetlands, the 

 Scottish mainland, and the west coast of Ireland. 



To Notes from the Leyden Museum, vol. xxxiv., 

 Nos. 3 and -i. Dr. Van Oort contributes further re- 

 cords of the recapture of birds marked in Holland 

 during 191 1 and 1912. Among the species mentioned 

 is the spoonbill, of which oae example was taken at 

 Reculvers, Kent, while four others were killed in 

 north-western France. The total number of birds 

 ringed in 1912 is considerably in excess of those 

 marked in 191 1. 



.'\.n article on the haunts of the spotted bower-bird 

 (Chlamydodera maculala), contributed by Mr. S. VV. 

 Jackson_^ to the October number of The Emu, is illus- 

 trated by excellent photographs of the "runs," nests, 

 and eggs of these birds. In addition to certain im- 

 plements purloined from the writer's camp, the objects 

 in one of the bowers included ribs and vertebra; of 

 sheep, toe-bones of emus, fragments of coloured 

 glass, stoppers of sauce-bottles, metal clippings, 

 screws, metal bottle-capsules, a cartridge-case, and 

 numerous pods and seeds. The birds nest high up 

 in leafy trees, but select as look-out stations leafless 

 branches or trees. 



In vol. iij, No. 1, of the University of California 

 Publications in Zoology Mr. H. C. Bryant bears 

 testimony to the utility of birds as destroyers of grass- 

 hoppers. In July last it appears that grasshoppers 

 were doing considerable damage to alfalfa and 

 vegetables at Los Banos, Merced County, California. 

 .An average of about fifteen grasshoppers to a square 

 yard is harmful, but in this instance there were from 

 twenty to thirty. Several kinds of birds were observed 

 (o be feeding on the insects, and it was noticed that 

 the local contingent of the former was reinforced from 

 the neighbourhood. The author is led to conclude 

 that although birds cannot be regarded as a trust- 

 worthy means for controlling all infestations of grass- 

 hoppers, yet they are efficient in preventing many. 

 Thev can be depended on to protect crops by their war 

 against the grasshoppers. "The failure of birds to 

 check an insect outbreak is evident to all. Their suc- 

 cess in preventing insects from becoming abnormally 

 abundant is not so apparent but is no less real." 

 Many birds in this particular case changed their 

 normal feeding habits, and took to preying on grass- 

 hoppers, and species usually considered harmful to the 

 agriculturist were commended for their utility. 



NO. 2252, VOL. go] 



J. he lood 01 the pneasant in the Scottish grouse 

 moors forms the subject of a note by Mr. P. H. 

 Grimshaw in The Scottii^h Naturalist lor November. 

 Examination of the contents of the crop of a bird 

 killed in Argyllshire, where the heather-beetle (Loch- 

 nioea suturalis) was unusually abundant during the 

 summer, showed that these consisted chiefly of in- 

 sects. These included 22S6 flies {Bibio lepidus), 50S 

 heather-beetles, and six other insects. This leads to 

 the conclusion that the pheasant, like the blackcock, 

 may be reckoned of importance in checking the 

 ravages of the heather-beetle. 



Another paper on the food of birds is published as 

 Bulletin No. 44 of the Biological Survey of the U.S. 

 Department of Agriculture. This report, which is 

 drawn up by Mr. F. E. L. Beal, relates to the fly- 

 catching species of North America, referable to the 

 genera Sayprnis, Empidonax, Muscivora, Myiarchus, 

 Tyrannus, &c. The contents of the stomachs, or 

 crops, of seventeen species were examined, and it was 

 found that "of thirteen of these species Hymenoptera 

 are the largest element in the diet. Of one species 

 Orthoptera (grasshoppers and crickets) are the leading 

 food ; in another Lepidoptera (moths and caterpillars) 

 are the favourites ; and in two others Diptera (flies) 

 stand at the head. Hemiptera (bugs) are eaten ex- 

 tensively by some, but naturally the ones taken are 

 the larger flying species. Plant-lice and scales 

 [Coccidse] have not yet been found in the stomach of 

 any fly-catcher, though one bird was shot on a plant 

 covered with lice, with which its bill was filled." 



Several of these birds have been charged with de- 

 vouring honey-bees, but the accusation is not sustained 

 by the examination of their food ; comparatively few 

 of these insects being devoured, and those chiefly 

 drones. The real harm done by these birds is the 

 destruction of predaceous and parasitic Hymenoptera 

 which wage war on injurious insects. R. L. 



STOCK DISEASES AND THEIR 

 SUPPRESSION IN SOUTH AFRICA.'^ 



MODERN knowledge of trypanosome disease and 

 others of a similar nature can be usefully 

 applied to some of the problems which are in my 

 particular line of research, viz. to diseases of our 

 domesticated animals. I shall mention but tw-o, 

 known probably to you all, and which are of great 

 economical importance — horse-sickness in equines, and 

 blue-tongue in sheep. Long before any expert came 

 in contact with him, the observant farmer quite 

 rightly classed these two diseases in one group. He 

 even "went so far as to say they were identical, but 

 here is an opinion which, we are not able to support. 

 There are, nevertheless, more similarities than differ- 

 ences in the two ; they resemble each other in nature 

 of the cause, both being due to micro-organisms of 

 infinitesimal minuteness, so small that none of our 

 modern microscopes can detect them. 



The theory of our modern microscope teaches us 

 that there is a limit to visibility beyond which objects 

 can no longer be recognised. The so-called ultra- 

 microscope, which makes use of a different principle 

 of illumination, and allows the detection of objects 

 varying in the magnitude of a molecule, has in these 

 two diseases failed to enable us to demonstrate an 

 organism so far. It must be there, nevertheless, and 

 we conclude this from the experiment that we are 

 able to transmit the disease by inoculation with blood 

 from a sick to a healthy animal, in which latter, after 

 a definite incubation time, it appears, thus showing 



1 From the Presidential Address delii 

 slion for the .Advancement of Scien 

 r. Arnold Theilcr, C.M.G. 



•red before the South African Asso- 

 :, at Port Elizabeth, on July 2, by 



