March 25, 1909] 



NATURE 



113 



them is very great. It is not generally known that all 

 the better institutions are developing so rapidly that their 

 large revenues are inadequate. 



It is ofan thought that in America there is an excessive 

 expenditure on buildings and grounds, but this expenditure 

 has been greatly exaggerated, and as to equipment, many 

 American institutions are far behind the best of those in 

 Europe. The number of professors is large, and in many 

 cases this fact arises from excessive teaching or too much 

 specialisation. In the best schools, however, it is due to 

 an effort to encourage close relations between teacher and 

 student. The administrative side of American institutions 

 is highly developed, and, in fact, in matters of organisation 

 and administration American institutions differ markedly 

 from those in other countries. In the best schools a strong 

 etTort is made to avoid an excess either of " theory " or 

 of " practice." The length of the course is usually four 

 vears, with a tendency to establish fifth-year cours_es for 

 post-graduate study. Great importance is attached to 

 means for keeping the schools in close touch with in- 

 dustry. One means of effecting this is the custom of 

 encouraging professors to take an active part in the prac- 

 tice of their profession. 



The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is described 

 in detail. The property of the institute is valued at 

 about 800,000/. ; its annual expenditure is about 100,000/. 

 There are about 1500 students, and the annual fee is 50/. 

 The teaching staff consists of about two hundred men, of 

 whom nearly half are professors. The programme of 

 studies involves thirteen different courses, each leading to 

 the degree of Bachelor of Science. The student is free to 

 choose whatever course he names, but in any given course 

 most of the work is prescribed, although there is always a 

 considerable number of options. The studies are not purely 

 "professional"; a certain amount of modern languages, 

 literature, history, and even of political economy is provided 

 for. Prof. Maclaurin directs attention to special features 

 of the institution, such as the facility offered for researches 

 in chemistry, physics, and sanitary science. For this re- 

 search work special laboratories are provided. The 

 chemical laboratories are planned to hold about a thousand 

 students. The chemical department occupies forty-five 

 rooms, including twenty-five laboratories, four lecture- 

 rooms, a library, three rooms for weights and measures, 

 and so on. The laboratory of chemical research occupies 

 six separate rooms, and the chemical library has 10,000 

 volumes. 



Prof. Maclaurin doubts the wisdom of separating science 

 and technology. He thinks that a properly managed insti- 

 tute of technology should be an admirable training ground 

 even for the man destined to devote his life to the advance- 

 mtnt of " pure " science. It would avoid that separation 

 of head and hand that is so bad for both. Science is 

 sometimes in danger of becoming preoccupied with abstrac- 

 tions : its detachment from practice deprives it of a much 

 needed stimulus, and makes for the detriment both of 

 *xicnce and technology. 



SOME BIRD-PAPERS. 



OHSKR\'.\TIOXS made in the neighbourhood of Tun- 

 bridge Wells have led Messrs. C. J. and H. G. 

 Alexander to conclude that in the case of many of our 

 migratory species of birds, each pair occupies a definite 

 and restricted area during the breeding-season, into which 

 other pairs of the same species do not intrude. This has 

 led to the formulation of a scheme for mapping the in- 

 dividual distribution of such migratory birds in their 

 breeding-haunts, the details of this plan being explained 

 by the authors in the March number of British Birds. In 

 noting on the map the nesting-area of any particular pair 

 of birds, the authors generally relied upon the singing of 

 the cock in one special spot. A reproduction of the 

 Ordnance Survey map on the 6-inch scale of a small dis- 

 trict in the neighbourhood of Tunbridge Wells, on which 

 have been marked the nesting-areas of the individual pairs 

 of migratory birds, serves to illustrate the plan. 



To vol. vi., part v.. of Annotationcs Zoologicae 



NO. 2056, VOL. So] 



Japonenses, Mr. M. Ogawa contributes a hand-list of the 

 birds of Japan, arranged on the same plan as the British 

 Museum " Hand-list of Birds." 



In a paper on the kingfishers commonly known under 

 the generic designation of Pelargopsis, published as No. 

 1657 of the Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum 

 (vol. XXXV., p. 657), Mr. H. C. Oberholser proposes to 

 abolish that name, on account of insufficient definition, and 

 to replace it by Ramphalcyon of Reichenbach. If the 

 innovation be adopted, it may be hoped that the spelling 

 of the name will be amended, and also that ornithologists 

 will not follow the author in using the absurd designation 

 Ramphalcyon capensis capensis for the typical race of a 

 species restricted to the Malay Islands. Ornithologists 

 have generally considered the sexes of these kingfishers 

 to be externally indistinguishable, but this Mr. Oberholser 

 points out is incorrect, the females being generally larger 

 than the males, with the back and wings, and some- 

 times also the tail, duller and browner or greener in 

 colour. 



The January number, vol. viii., part iii., of the Ennt 

 contains the second part of a paper, by Mr. A. H. E. 

 Mattingley, on the mallec-fowl {Lipoa ocellafa), which is 

 largely devoted to the eggs, young, and nesting-mounds 

 of these remarkable birds. The Lipoa does not commence 

 to lav until two vears old, and during the first half of the 

 breeding-season the eggs are laid regularly every third 

 or fourth day, after which the intervals between the de- 

 position of the eggs increase according to the disposition 

 of the individual birds and the amount of food available. 

 Hot and dry seasons have a noticeable effect on these 

 birds, which under such conditions lay fewer eggs than 

 usual. Laying usually commences early in September, 

 but may be deferred until December is well advanced, and 

 the total number of eggs laid by the individual hens in a 

 season varies from one to a score. The eggs have un- 

 polished shells of. a delicate salmon-pink or pinkish-red 

 colour when first laid, but soon fade to earthy-brown. 

 They are laid in the mound in tiers, with four in the 

 basement tier ; between each tier is a layer of sand 

 3 or 4 inches thick, and the eggs in the same time are 

 separated from one another by from 6 to 12 inches of 

 the same material, and placed near the solid wall of 

 decaying vegetable matter bounding the egg-chamber. 

 The eggs are ahvavs placed with the narrow end down- 

 wards, so that when hatching the head of the chick, which 

 occupies the larger end, will be uppermost. 



In the Times of March 3 Mr. P. McKenzie announces 

 the shooting in the Polela district of Natal of a white 

 stork, which bore on one leg a metal band with the 

 inscription " Ornith. Kospont, Budapest, Hungaria, 209.' 

 To this letter there appeared in the same journal for 

 March 17 a replv from Dr. O. Hermann, director of the 

 Royal Hungarian Central Bureau for Ornithology, stating 

 th.u the bird in question was liberated in Transylvania m 

 July, 1908. This, taken with another event of the same 

 nature, serves to settle the disputed question whether 

 European storks cross the equator on their winter migra- 

 tion. ,. 



To the February number of the Victorian Naturalist 

 Mr. A. J. Nuth' contributes notes on the habits of 

 Xustralian bower-birds. After alluding to the fact that the 

 species of the genera Ptilonorhvnchus and Chlamydodera 

 adorn their bowers chieflv with bones, next to which come 

 shells, stones, berries, and fragments of metal, while 

 Prionodura uses flowers alone, and thus approaches the 

 Papuan gardener-bird (Amblvornis). the author points out 

 that the tooth-billed Scenopoeetes dcntirostris forms a con- 

 necting link, in the matter of h.abits, between the more 

 •tvpical bower-birds and the cat-birds (.-Eluredus). In place 

 of constructing a bower, the tooth-billed species merely 

 clears a space, which it decorates with leaves, usu.ally 

 placed with the under surface uppermost ; cat-birds, on the 

 other hand, neither build a bower nor cl^ar a space. 

 Special attention is directed to the bowers of Newton s 

 bower-bird (,Prionodtna ncu'toniana). some of which are 

 stated to be more than 8 feet in height, and are decorated 

 with flowers, generallv orchids. At the larger bowers 

 males alone are usually s<'en during the nesting-season, a? 

 ihe females arc engaged elsewhere. 



