534 



NA TURE 



[September 28, 1905 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 

 \rhe Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions 

 expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he underiahe 

 lo return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected 

 manuscripts intended for this or any other part of Nature. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] 



The Preservation of Native Plants and Animals. 



From London papers recently to hand, I see that at the 

 ornithologica! congress, on the motion of the Hon. W . 

 Rothschird, a resolution was forwarded to the Premier of 

 New Zealand in regard to the importance of taking steps 

 to preserve and protect the birds on the Auckland and 

 Campbell Islands. 



It may be of interest to ornithologists in Great Britain 

 lo hear that our local scientific societies had already, in 

 May, memorialised the Government to the same effect ; 

 indeed, we asked that protection should be afforded, not 

 only to the birds, but also to the flora. 



We have likewise forwarded a similar resolution to the 

 State Government of Tasmania in respect of the penguins 

 on the Macquarie Islands. 



The resolution, therefore, of the ornithological congress 

 should strengthen the hands of our local institutes, which 

 bodies are keenly alive to the importance of preserving, as 

 far as possible, the fauna and flora of New Zealand. 



The Government, too, has hitherto met our requests 

 in a prompt and generous manner. A couple of years 

 ago, for example, the Otago Institute pointed out to the 

 Minister for Lands that sheep were destroying the alpine 

 flora of the Southern Alps, especially in the region 

 around Mount Cook ; the Government at once proclaimed 

 the area as a *' reserve," and the sheep were banished. 



In fact, the Government is remarkably ready to afford 

 any protection that is possible ; and the recent proclamation 

 of the whole of the .S.W. portion of the South Island — 

 including the Great Lakes, a vast mountainous, forest- 

 clad area, and the famous fjords — as a " national park," 

 and the prohibition of the use of guns and dogs herein, 

 has alreadv had its effect in the increase in number of 

 some of our rare birds. 



You will see, therefore, that we out here, equally with 

 naturalists at home, have at heart the interests of our 

 native plants and animals. W. B. Benh.\m. 



Otago Cniversity Museum, Dunedin, N.Z., .\ugust 21. 



The Omission of Titles of Addresses on Scientific 

 Subjects. 



I VESTURE to ask the attention of " whom it may con- 

 cern " to the practice in vogue in Great Britain of publish- 

 ing presidential addresses of scientific societies and of 

 sections of the British Association without any mention 

 of the titles of those addresses. Take, for example, a 

 case quite at random, but just at hand. N.^ture of 

 August 17, beginning on p. 368, contains the inaugural 

 address of the president of the British Association with 

 the heading " Part I." On p. 372 of the same number is 

 another presidential address without a title. On p. 378 

 a third address has no general head, but it has the distinct 

 advantage of four subheads that enable the reader to 

 select at a glance what he wants, and to pass over other 

 matters if he so chooses. 



L'nfortunately these arc not exceptional cases. I have 

 in my library scores of these addresses in the form of 

 separates without a word on the title-page to indicate how 

 they are to be classified in a library. The presidential 

 addresses published in the reports of the British Associ- 

 ation are conspicuous examples of this kind of publication. 

 I have taken the trouble to look through these reports 

 from the beginning of the association in 183 1 down to 

 1892, and out of all the addresses of the presidents of the 

 association published in these sixty-one years there are 

 only five that have titles or subtitles. These are the 

 addresses given in 183 1, 1839, 1854, 1880, and 1885. 



It is easy to see how this absence of title came about 

 originally, but, as seen from this respectful distance, the 

 history of it is nothing to the point. ' What this busy 

 world wants is help to get at what we are interested in 

 wMth the least possible waste of time. 



This hot haste may seem unbecoming to men of science, 

 NO. 1874, VOL. 72] 



cr perhaps it may appear that we Americans are in too 

 big a hurrv — that we are too much impressed with the 

 motto "time is dollars." But we are not spending all 

 our time chasing the dollar ; there are many other nimble 

 things that we are trying to keep up with, and one of 

 them is the progress of science in Europe, along the lines 

 in which we are especially interested. 



If a member of so young and giddy a nation might 

 venture to make a suggestion to older and wiser people, it 

 would be in favour of requesting or requiring the presi- 

 dents of the various scientific organisations and sections 

 of the British Association to provide headings for their 

 addresses so that those of us who have not the time to 

 read all these good things may be able at a glance to 

 pick out what we want especially to see. As matters now 

 stand we arc compelled, as a rule, to do one of two 

 things — either to let them all go unread — to our great 

 regret and loss — or to wade through pages upon pages of 

 matter which, however valuable it may be, is out of our 

 line and of no especial interest to us. Such titles, head- 

 ings or subheads as are here suggested would avoid these 

 difficulties. It would not cost much ; it would not take 

 much time, and it would save much of ours and some of 

 your own. \\'e appeal to you for sympathy and help. 



John C. Br.axner. 



Stanford University, California, September 7. 



Protective Coloration of the Inside of the Mouth in 

 Nestling Birds. 



The habit shown by many helpless nestlings, of gaping 

 widely when the nest is approached, is usually explained 

 bv supposing that the birds are appealing for food. This 

 explanation has always seemed to me inadequate, for 

 nestlings that gape usually have the inside of the mouth 

 brightly coloured, and in some cases marked with con- 

 spicuous spots. Moreover, newly hatched nestlings among 

 the Passcrcs gape if the fingers are snapped just above 

 them, or if the branch bearing the nest is shaken. It 

 seems a fair inference, therefore, that the act of gaping 

 is often, if not usually, an expression of alarm. 



In order to test the effect of the widely opened and 

 brightly coloured mouth, I have several times asked young 

 children to touch the edge of the nest or place a finger 

 in the mouth of one of the birds, and from their hesitation 

 or even refusal to obey I am convinced that the con- 

 spicuous coloration, by centering attention upon the 

 gaping mouth, tends to protect the nestling from molest- 

 ation. Mr. W. P. Pycraft thinks that the bright colours 

 and spots are " guide-marks " to facilitate the proper 

 placing of the food in the mouth by the parents. But 

 persons who rear nestlings find no difiiculty in feeding 

 them so long as they gape freely, without troubling them- 

 selves about placing the food in any particular region of 

 the mouth. W. RusKiN Butterfield. 



4 Stanhope Place, St. Leonard 's-on-Sea. 



Helmert's Formula for Gravity. 



On p. 79 of Everett's valuable " Illustrations of the 

 C.G..S. System of Units with Tables of Physical Con- 

 stants " (London : Macmillan and Co., Ltd., 1902) the 

 following lines occur : — 



" In a Report now printing, which will contain a very 

 full list of results, Helmert adopts, as the most accurate 

 general formula for g reduced to sea level, 



^^=980.617 (1—0002644 cos 2^4-0000007 COS" 2^). 



.... This may be accepted as the best general formula 

 yet put forward." 



The formula alluded to was given first by Helmert in 

 his paper " Der normale Theil der Schwerkraft in 

 Mceresnivcau " (Sitzungsberichte der k. Preussischen 

 Akademie der ]Visseuschaften zu Berlin, 1901, xiv., pp. 

 332-336), but with a different coefficient, namely, 



^ = 980632 (l —0-002644 cos 21^ -(-0.000007 COS" 2^), 



and it is not reproduced in the report mentioned in the 

 above quotation from Everett, but in a subsequent one 

 (Comptes rcndus des Seances de I'.issociation G^odesiquc 

 Jntcrnaiionale, Copenhagen, 1903, ii., p. 42, Berlin, 1905). 

 Ottavio Zanotti Bianco. 

 Turin, \''A dclla Rocca 28, September 8. 



