354 



NA TURE 



[August 9, 1906 



presence of a barometric see-saw, or opposite pressure 

 variation, because the Australian maxima do not occur 

 simultaneously with the South American minima ; 

 there seems to be a general time-difference of phase 

 amounting to about six years, the epochs of the 

 Australian maxima preceding those of the South 

 American region. If a see-saw did exist, then the 

 inverted South American curve should represent the 

 Australian variation. That this is not so will be 

 seen by comparing the two lower curves in Fig. 3. 



It will thus be seen that the South American 

 pressure type is closely similar to that existent in 

 Australia, but unlike that in operation in India. 



The magnitudes of these changes of pressure from 

 year to year are by no means insignificant. The 

 following table shows in compact form approximate 

 measures of the amplitudes of the curves in the cases 

 of both the short and long variations. The third and 

 fifth columns of figures represent, in percentages of 

 the annual variations, the amplitudes given in the 

 second and fourth columns of figures : — 



Pressure Amtlitudes. 



India 



S. America . 



Australia 



11-9 

 20 -b 



347 



Per cent. 

 9-0 



23-8 



The brief summary at the foot of the table in- 

 dicates an approximate mean value of the per- 

 centages for each region. In the case of Australia, 

 for example, the fact is made apparent that the ampli- 

 tude of the variation of short duration amounts to as 

 much as 35 per cent, of that of the mean annual 

 variation, while the variation extending over nine- 

 teen years reaches nearly 25 per cent. Such large 

 pressure changes must therefore play an important 

 part in producing variations in the seasonal weather 

 from year to year. 



With regard to the origin of these long barometric 

 changes, it is interesting to note that the Indian 

 pressure curves resemble in general the inverted 

 curve representing solar activity as deduced from the 

 area of sun-spots. This fact has for many years been 

 known, and was pointed out by Brown, Hill, Eliot, 

 Blanford, Douglas Archibald, and others. It will 

 be seen from the curves, however, that the re- 



NO. 191 9, VOL. 74] 



semblance was far more striking before the year 1880 

 than after it. 



Since the Australian curves are allied to but some- 

 what modified forms of the Indian variation, it seems 

 possible that this modification may be due to some 

 terrestrial cause. 



Mr. H. C. Russell, who is a strong advocate of a 

 nineteen-year cycle of weather in Australia, has been 

 led to discard solar action and to consider the moon 

 as being the prime mover or origin of this cycle, a 

 suggestion which he put forward in 1870, and again 

 in 1896. 



The present discussion of the barometric pressures 

 seems to indicate that the family likenesses between 

 the Australian and Indian curves, here shown in 

 Fig. I, and between the Indian curves and the in- 

 verted sun-spot curve, are sufficient to suggest for the 

 Australian nineteen-year variation a solar origin with 

 a terrestrial modification without having to appeal 

 to lunar action. 



William J. S. Lockyer. 



SIR WALTER 



LA WRY BULLER, 

 F.R.S. 



K.C.M.G. 



CIR WALTER LAWRY BULLER, who died on 

 •^ July ig at Pontdail Lodge, Hampshire, will be 

 rimcmbered long in the scientific world on account 

 of his accurate and sumptuous works on the ornith- 

 ology of New Zealand. He was a son of the Rev. 

 James BuUer, of Canterbury, in the Southern Island, 

 and was born in 1838. He was proud of being a 

 New Zealander, and passionately devoted to all that 

 concerned Maoriland. At the age of twenty-four, and 

 for ten years subsequently, he filled the post of Resi- 

 dent Magistrate and Native Commissioner and Judge 

 of the Native Land Court of New Zealand. Few 

 had so intimate a knowledge of the Maoris as he 

 possessed. In 1865, during a critical period of the 

 Maori War, when Sir George Grey, the Governor, 

 determined to take a personal hand in the contest in 

 his endeavour " to quicken the slow dragging on of 

 the military operations," Sir Walter served as a 

 volunteer on his staff, and had the honour of being 

 mentioned in despatches. 



From an early age Sir Walter was a close observer 

 of the birds of his native country. Fired no doubt 

 by the example of (among others) Mr. Potts, an 

 enthusiastic student and recorder of the habits of the 

 birds of Canterbury, he, it would seem, very early 

 conceived the ambition of making himself the 

 authority on the birds of New Zealand. He was only 

 thirty-four years old when, during the years 1872-3, 

 the publication of his " History of the Birds of New 

 Zealand," a quarto volume illustrated by coloured 

 plates by Keulemans, placed him at once in the un- 

 disputed position of ornithologist par excellence of 

 the colony. In bringing this splendid work to its 

 successful birth he was greatly aided by the wide 

 experience of his friend Dr. Bowdler Sharpe. The 

 persistent exploration of the recesses of the country 

 and his own continued study of its avifauna soon 

 showed him that he had made but a contribution to 

 the history he had undertaken. After fifteen years 

 he brought out a second edition, in two costly 

 folio volumes, also profusely illustrated by Keule- 

 mans, which attained a success which few bird 

 books have ever met with. For seventeen years more 

 Sir Walter continued gathering in the aftermath of 

 his already great harvest, the results of which he had 

 determined to issue as a supplement in two volumes, 

 which, superbly illustrated like their predecessors, 

 were only quite recently distributed. 



