Sept. 10, 1885 ] 
the trunk, from scraps like lucifer-matches to pieces which some 
men could not lift. From this state of facts Mr. Symons suggests 
some problems: Why one tree rather than another should be 
struck if it be not the tallest ? why, as in this case, the wreck of 
one tree is greater than that of the other 23 feet away? what 
produces this disruptive force? &c. A curious question is, Why 
oaks and elms are especially liable to be struck? It was stated 
in 1787 that the elm, chestnut, oak, and pine were the trees 
most often struck in America; in 1860 Mr. Symons himself 
stated, in a paper read to the British Association, that the elm, 
oak, ash, and poplar were the most frequently struck in this 
country. The last number of Das Wetter of Magdeburg con- 
tains an abstract of ten years’ records of trees injured ; 265 are 
reported, and of these 165 were oaks; the only other trees of 
which the number was more than trifling were: Scotch firs, 34; 
pines, 22; and beeches, 20. It has been suggested that the 
frequency with which oaks are struck is due to the presence of 
iron in the wood. 
Ir is strange to contrast the weather which we have had 
during the summer in England, and indeed in Western Europe, 
with that prevailing in China, Japan, and the rest of Eastern 
Asia. While here it has been exceedingly dry, with as a rule a 
hot sun during the day, in Japan it rained almost without inter- 
mission throughout June and July, and the sun was rarely seen. It 
has been in fact a season of unusually heavy rainfall ; while with 
us the reverse has been the case. When the latest mails left, 
landslips and inundations were of daily occurrence. Between 
Yokohama and Tokio the railway line was blocked in several 
places by masses of earth which had fallen, a great part of the 
country was under water; and the same reports come from Osaka 
in the south of the main island. Here the water invaded the 
line, washing away the ballast, and rendering passage imposs- 
ible ; the inundations had rendered many people homeless, and 
great distress prevailed in many places. The same story comes 
from China. In the south, in the Kwangtung province, the 
rivers which debouche at Canton had become swollen with the 
constant rains, overflowed their banks, and spread desolation 
far and wide. Whether there is any connection between the 
extreme dryness here and the extraordinary rains in the“far East, 
and whether either, as has been suggested, has any connection 
with the unusual seismic activity prevailing at present, must be 
left to meteorologists to determine ; but as this activity, whether, 
as volcanic eruptions or as earthquakes, appears impartially dis- 
tributed all over the globe, from Hungary to South America, 
from the Eastern Archipelago and Japan to Cashmere, it is not 
easy Prima facie to see how it could be the cause of, or have any 
connection with, such strikingly different phenomena in different 
parts of the Old World. 
THE Axk (vol. ii. Nos. 2, 3), published at Boston for the 
American Ornithologists’ Union by -Messrs. Estes and Lauriat, 
continues to furnish evidence of the great activity with which 
ornithology is prosecuted in North America, though the students 
of that branch of science still affect rather the particular than the 
general, much as did most British ornithologists some thirty 
years ago, and as many do now. This perhaps is only to be 
expected, and since the avifauna of North America is so enor- 
mously larger than that of the British Islands, the condition may 
very likely last longer there than here. Nearly every paper in these 
two numbers (for April and July of the present year)—reviews 
of books apart—refers only to the birds of the Nearctic Region 
or Sub-region ; but most of them seem to the eye of a European 
to be good of their kind. It looks as if the nomenclatural 
paroxysm, which lately afflicted our esteemed brethren in the 
United States, were gradually passing away, and we trust that 
they will then have time to apply their energies to more im- 
portant subjects. Dr. Stejneger, however, has a fifth series of 
NATURE 
461 
his “‘ Analecta Ornithologica.”” His views are in the main so 
entirely in accordance with what has generally been held in 
England to be orthodox, that we cannot object to his labours, 
whatever be the trouble they may cause ; and we greatly regret 
the rare occasions in which we think him mistaken. One of 
them is in his present paper (pp. 183, 184), where he strives, 
and we consider fails, to make out that the generally accepted 
name of Scofs for a genus of Owls ought to be dropped. Because 
Brinnich in 1762 turned Brisson’s Scopus into Scofs, the latter 
term was obviously not thereby established ; and the former 
being, as Brisson tells us (Ornithologie, v. p. 503), his own 
coinage from the Greek oxida (wmbra) properly a shadow, but 
taken by him to mean also the colour umber—a signification it 
seems never to ha ve possessed—it is a wholly different thing from 
the classical «xa, which has always meant an Owl of some sort. 
Thus the two words are absolutely distinct, and Briinnich can 
be only regarded as having made a misdirected attempt at gram- 
matical emendation. We therefore hold that even the ornitho- 
logists of America, who recognise Briinnich’s generic names (which 
the ornithologists of Europe in general do not), will be fullyjustified 
in retaining the name Scofs in the sense in which Savigny used 
it. Dr. Merriam has a notice (p. 312) headed ‘‘ The eggs of the 
Knot (7yinga canutus) found at last!” but we must beg leave 
to remind him that sixty-five years ago this bird was found to 
breed abundantly on the Parry Islands, and, though admittedly 
no eggs are now forthcoming in collections, it has always been 
understood that specimens were then brought thence. It does 
not now appear that Lieut. Greely brought home any, though 
we trust he may have done so; but if he did not we are much in 
the same position as before in regard to that oological desidera- 
téssimum. Mr, Ernest E. T. Seton has a letter (p. 316), admir- 
able for its common sense, on ‘‘ The popular names of Birds,” 
which in a new country, inhabited by English-speaking men and 
women, is by no means a matter to be neglected. We have to 
congratulate Mr. Allen on his promotion to the Curatorship of 
the Central Park Museum in New York City, and Mr. Brewster 
on succeeding to the appointment at Harvard University thereby 
vacated. Both these gentlemen are so well known by name to 
English ornithologists, that it is quite unnecessary to point out 
their eminent qualifications for the posts they now respectively 
hold, and we hope will long continue to enjoy. The name of 
Dr. Coues does not appear as a contributor in either of these 
numbers, which fact is, we suppose, attributable to his departure 
westward, where we trust he will continue those field-observa- 
tions for which he became distinguished so long ago. We miss 
also any important communication from Dr. Shufeldt. Migh 
we venture to suggest that the quantity of small type used in 
this excellent journal is rather trying to some eyes? It unfor- 
tunately happens that even ornithologists are not exempt from 
some of the bodily inconveniences of advancing years, however 
young they may continue mentally ; and at present the volume 
of the Aw is not so obese but that it might wax fatter without 
losing its volant powers. 
Cor. YOLLAND, C.B., F.R.S., one of the Inspectors of Rail- 
ways under the Board of Trade, died on Friday last at Baddesley 
Vicarage, Atherstone, Warwickshire. He was born in 1810, 
was admitted into the Royal Military Academy, and obtained 
his commission in the Royal Engineers in 1828. He rose by 
regular promotion until he became lieutenant-colonel in 1855, 
and a brevet colonel in the army in 1858. After being employed 
in Canada till 1835, he was employed successively at the 
Ordnance Survey at the Tower of London, at Southampton, 
Dublin, and Enniskillen. During this interval he superintended 
the publication of astronomical observations, first those made 
with Ramsden’s zenith sector, and afterwards with Airy’s, the 
latter observations being for the purpose of determining the 
latitudes of various trigonometrical stations in Great Britain and 
