May 2, 1912] 
NATURE 
231 
several sections into which the island is divided for 
meteorological purposes. While the rainfall is fairly 
well distributed over the year, it is rather heavy in 
each division in May, June, September, and October ; 
the north and north-east divisions have winter rains 
in November and December, and the north-east and | 
west-central divisions have summer rains in July and | 
August. The annual average for the whole island is 
71°77 inches, maximum go'61 inches in 1886, mini- 
mum 4518 inches in 1872. The heaviest falls occur 
in the north-east division, where the aggregate average 
is 93°52 inches, the annual amounts exceeding 100 
inches in many years. Some remarkable flood rains 
in twenty-four hours are reported during cyclonic dis- | 
turbances, frequently exceeding 20 inches, and on one 
occasion (November 6, 1909) exceeding jo inches on 
the Blue Mountain range. A table of the mean 
diurnal range at Kingston shows that the rainfall 
increases more or less regularly from the early morn- 
ing until 3h. and 4h. p.m., after which it decreases 
to a minimum at midnight. The work is a valuable 
addition to our knowledge of the rainfall in the West 
Indies. 
Dr. O. L. Fassig has sent us a useful paper on 
“The Climate of Porto Rico,’ chiefly based upon 
observations of the U.S. Weather Bureau during the 
years 1899-1909. The island, which is the most 
eastern of the Greater Antilles, and one of the most 
favoured regions within the tropics, has always been 
primarily devoted to the pursuit of agriculture. It 
has an equable and comfortable climate; the mean 
annual temperature at forty selected stations (com- 
bining all the records) is given as 764°, February 
733°, August 791°, absolute maximum 103° in 
August, minimum 43° in February and March. The 
mean values naturally vary somewhat at individual 
coast and mountain stations; there is a fairly con- 
stant difference of 6° to 8° between the coast tempera- | 
tures and those of the higher inland stations through- 
out the year. 
whole island is 77°30 inches; the amounts vary greatly 
from year to year, e.g. 93°72 inches in 1901, and only 
64°18 inches in 1907, while in the Luquillo mountains, 
where rainfall is heaviest, the average annual amount 
exceeds 135 inches, and along portions of the south | 
coast it is less than 40 inches. The average number 
of rainy days is 169 for the island as a whole; there 
are no well-defined wet and dry seasons. Porto Rico 
is comparatively free from storms of all kinds; the 
centre of a hurricane has only passed over the island 
three times in forty years, all in the month of 
August. 
BIRD NOTES. 
{ee Agricultural Research Institute at Pusa, 
Bengal, has taken up the subject of the food of 
Indian birds, and issued a preliminary report (Mem. 
Dept. Agric. India, Entomology, vol. iii., January, 
1912) by Mr. C. W. Mason, edited and supplemented 
by Mr. H. Maxwell Lefroy. To a great extent the 
report is a compilation of extracts from the writings 
of Indian ornithologists relating to the food of birds, 
but it also includes an analysis of the contents of the 
stomachs of a considerable number of specimens 
(1325) which have been examined in the laboratory. 
It is very largely a confession of ignorance, as at 
present little is known with certainty as to the 
economic utility or harmfulness of Indian birds, and 
it is consequently impossible in most cases to make 
definite statements. Mr. Mason is, however, of 
opinion that as weed-killers—by consuming seeds— 
birds are of no value at all in India. Such birds 
“may keep weeds down to a certain extent, but this 
is of minor importance in a country where labour is 
NO. 2218, VoL. 8q] 
The average annual rainfall for the | 
cheap and where farming is not practised on such 
intensive lines as elsewhere. Even in intensive culti- 
vation we cannot rely on weeds being kept down by 
birds, and the expense of cultivation to eliminate 
weeds is, I believe, not reduced in the slightest by the 
action of birds.” 
It is noteworthy that although hawks and owls are 
regarded, in the main, as beneficial, yet they are 
considered to be undoubtedly harmful on account of 
destroying insectivorous shrewmice, toads, frogs, and 
lizards. 
In the February number of Witherby’s British 
Birds Mr. Ogilvie Grant points out that the partridge 
possesses two seasonal plumage-changes—one in the 
male and the other in the female—which have been 
hitherto overlooked. During the autumnal moult, 
lasting from July to September, the cock develops on 
the sides of the head and neck light umber-brown 
feathers marked by narrow buff, black-bordered 
shaft-stripes; this so-called eclipse-plumage replacing 
for about two months the normal black-waved grey 
feathers. In the hen during May the ordinary 
plumage of the same parts, as well as of the back, is 
replaced by sandy-brown feathers mottled or barred 
with black, and having buff shaft-stripes, and usually 
a terminal spot of the same hue. This breeding 
plumage, which is retained until September, produces 
a mottled appearance, especially round the neck, 
which is held to be protective to the sitting bird. 
The April number of the same journal contains a 
supplementary record by the editor of the dispersal of 
little auks over the inland districts of England due 
to the stormy weather which prevailed in the early 
part of January. The birds seem to have struck 
the coast in greatest numbers between Norfolk and 
| the Firth of Forth, those reported from the western 
and midland counties having probably travelled from 
the east. Although the number of birds appears to 
have been fewer than in the visitation of 1895, they 
seem to have been spread over a wider area of 
country. he 
Notes on the breeding of the white-headed stilt in 
a swamp near Melbourne are contributed by Mr. C. 
French to the January numbers of The Emu and The 
Victorian Naturalist. This is believed to be the first 
record of the breeding of these beautiful birds in 
Victoria. Unfortunately, the swamp dried up before 
the nesting was completed, thus causing many of the 
eggs and young to be deserted. The nests, which 
were from zo to 1s ft. apart, and were made of dried 
water-plants, were constructed on tussocks of sea 
crab-grass (Salicornia); the first eggs were laid early 
in October. 
In his review of Norfolk ornithology for 1911, 
published in The Zoologist for April, Mr. J. H. 
Gurney suggests that the breeding of a pair of 
bitterns in the county may have been due to the 
drying up of some of the Dutch swamps by the 
unusual heat and dryness of the summer. Another 
event was the nesting of a pair of curlews near 
King’s Lynn. 
We have received a copy of the second number of 
The Austral Avian Record, a new journal, edited by 
| Mr. G. M. Mathews, and published by Messrs. 
| Witherby and Co., primarily devoted to the study of 
Australian birds. This number contains a long list 
| of new subspecies and other addenda _ to the 
| Australian fauna, which from internal evidence is 
clearly from the pen of the editor, although there is 
no other indication of its authorship. f 
The birds of Lower Egypt form the subject of an 
article by Mr. C. B. Ticehurst in the February issue 
of The Zoologist; Mr. M. J. Nicoll is also writing on 
| the same subject in The Ibis. 
