526 



NATURE 



[October i, 1896 



high and low tropical regions. (2) In the question of colonisa- 

 tion, tropical temperatures and the race of the colonist play only 

 secondary rdles. (3) Colonisation on a large scale — that is 

 •colonisation of the masses — ought to he stopped. 



A NEW volume of the late Baron Uslar's great work on the 

 languages of the Caucasian mountaineers has just been issued 

 at Tiflis, by the Department of Education. It is devoted to the 

 Kyurin language. The Kyurins are a small stem, inhabiting 

 the banks of the Samur river, in the north of the Daghestan 

 plateau. For a long time they were under the rule of the 

 khans of Derbent, Kuba, or Kazikumukh ; but in the second 

 half of the last century a separate Kyurin khanate came into 

 existence, and maintained itself up to 1866, when it was con- 

 quered by the Russians. The Kyurin language, which has 

 many sub-branches, must be considered as an independent 

 (linguistic unit, while its pronunciation varies with nearly every 

 separate village. The first part of Baron Uslar's work contains 

 a description of the leading features of the language and its 

 grammar ; while the second part is a dictionary of Kyurin words- 



The current number of the Zoologist contains an interesting 

 article, by Mr. A. Holte Macpherson, on " Some Observations 

 on the Note of the Cuckoo." During the spring and early 

 summer of the present year the author took every available oppor- 

 tunity of listening to the cuckoo, and enlisted in his service many 

 friends to do the same, his purpose being to determine, if pos- 

 sible, the pitch of the bird's voice, and the duration of the in- 

 terval between the notes of its call. An analysis of the reports 

 in his hands shows that when the bird is in full song the in- 

 terval is usually greater than the minor third, and is to all intents 

 •and purposes a full major third. Not infrequently the bird utters 

 three notes. At Haileybury, on June 7, it was heard to sing E 

 flat, D C two or three times, then it omitted the middle note, 

 singing a minor third. Two other birds are reported to have 

 sung F F C and F, D flat, and C, respectively. As regards the 

 pitch, out of hundreds of recorded calls during the period when 

 the bird was in good voice, the upper note in nineteen cases out of 

 twenty was from F to E flat, and the lower note from D to B. 

 The author comes to the conclusion that the average call is E 

 •and C in the middle of the piano. 



With its current issue, our contemporary, Science Progress, 

 enters upon a new phase of its existence. It has been enlarged, 

 and will in future appear quarterly, instead of monthly, at a 

 slightly increased price. 



Bulletin No. 57 of the Experiment Station of the Kansas 

 State Agricultural College, Manhattan, is occupied by a descrip- 

 tive list of •' Kansas Weeds," accompanied by upwards of twenty 

 plates of drawings of the leaves or other characteristic organs. 



Timehri (June), the journal of the Royal Agricultural and 

 Commercial Society of British Guiana, contains the following 

 scientific contributions : " Multiple Evaporation," by W. P. 

 Abell ; "Queer Homes " (an account of nests built in peculiar 

 places), by C. A. Lloyd ; " Note on Berbice Bats," by Dr. C. G. 

 Young ; " India-Rubber Collection at Para," by J. A. Coelho. 

 In addition to the foregoing, there are a number of articles of 

 •commercial interest. 



Mr. Bernard Quaritch has sent us his catalogue, dated 

 September, containing a great many works relating to mathe- 

 matics, microscopy, mountaineering, naval sciences, ornithology, 

 paK-eontology, travels and zoology. Among the books men- 

 tioned we notice a complete set of the " Philosophical Trans- 

 actions of the Royal Society," with general indexes ; a set of 

 the" Transactions of the Linnean Society," from 1791 to 1891 ; 

 the "Proceedings and Journal of the Linnean Society," from 

 1838 to 1S95 ; a"d the " Proceedings of the Zoological Society," 

 from 1850 to 1894. 



NO. 1405, VOL. 54] 



A CATALOGUE of meteorites in the collection of the American 

 Museum of Natural History, New Vork, by Mr. E. O. Hovey, 

 has been received. The collection consists of fifty-five slabs 

 fragments and complete objects, representing twenty-six falls 

 and finds. The source of each specimen, also the dates of dis- 

 covery, and the individual weights in grams, is given in the 

 catalogue, which should be of interest and service to many 

 visitors to the museums and others. 



We have received the Bulletin of Miscellaneous Information 

 of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Trinidad, for July. Among the 

 "Natural History Notes " is a very interesting account of the 

 life-history of the parasol ants, Atta cephalotes and octospinosa, 

 with drawings of the various forms — the male, queen, soldier, 

 worker major, worker minor, nurse, and gardener. Mr. J. H. 

 Hart, the Superintendent, confirms the statement of Bell that 

 these ants carry vegetable matter into their nests, not as food, 

 but as a material on which to grow the fungi on which they 

 feed. The destruction caused by various species of parasol ant 

 in the Western Tropics is a matter of very serious importance to 

 the agricultural industries. 



We have received the Bulletin Meteorologiqiie et Seismiijtie 

 de r Observatoire Imperial de Constantinople for February of 

 this year. In this is given a list of the earthquakes observed 

 during this month in the East, and more especially those 

 occurring in the Ottoman Empire. The number seems to be 

 considerable, no less than twenty-nine being described. The 

 meteorological observations for this month are also given, the 

 Director of the Observatory, Salib Feky, adding a ri'sunu' and 

 his usual monthly revue climalologiqtie. 



The additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the 

 past week include two Bonnet Monkeys (Macacus smicus, 9 9 ) 

 from India, presented by Mrs. Strutt ; a Macaque Monkey 

 (Macacus cynoinolgus,'i) from India, presented by Mr. J. 

 Laverock ; a Ring-tailed Coati {Nasua rtifa) from South 

 America, presented by Miss M. E. Clarke ; a — — ■ Squirrel 

 (Sciurus sp. ?) from Monravia, West Africa, presented by 

 Mr. Ellis Edwards; an Orange-cheeked Amazon {Chrysotis 

 autumnalis) from Honduras, presented by Mr. Baratti ; a 

 Common Heron (Ardea cinerea), British, presented by Mr. E. 

 J. Poyser ; four Montague's Harriers (Circus cineraceus), British, 

 presented by Mr. W. J. Laidlay ; three Pin-tailed Sand Grouse 

 (Pterocles alchata) from Spain, presented by Mr. CJ. P. Torrens ; 

 six Rough Terrapins (Clemrnys punctularia) from Para, pre- 

 sented by Dr. E. A. Goeldi ; a short-tailed Wallaby (.ff«//«a- 

 tiiius hrachyurus') from Australia, deposited; two Ruffs 

 {Machetes pugnax), British, purchased; an African Lepidosiren 

 (Lepodosiren annectans) from West Africa, received in exchange. 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN. 

 The Solar Rotation. — In the August number of the 

 Astrophysieal journal there is a brief summary of the work 

 being done at John Hopkins University by Mr. Lewis Jewell. 

 These researches dealt with the question of the solar rotation, 

 and Mr. Jewell's recent work in measuring a large number of 

 lines in photographs of the solar spectrum has brought out, as 

 is stated, a new and remarkable peculiarity in the law of the 

 solar rotation. The following is a brief extract of the note in 

 question. " It is found that there is a dift'erence of several 

 days in the rotation periods of the outer and inner portions of 

 the sun's atmosphere, the period increasing as the photosphere 

 is approached. The measures also show the equatorial accelera- 

 tion to be much the greatest for the outer portions of the 

 atmosphere. At the lower levels the acceleration is small, there 

 being little difference in the periods for difierent latitudes. It is 

 further found that the carbon (cyanogen) lines and the shaded 

 portions of H and K take their rise very low down in the solar 

 atmosphere. Mr. Jewell is at present engaged upon the reduc- 

 tion of the measures." 



