Jan. 15, 18S0] 



NATURE 



251 



the bare earth, crowded together with hardly walking room 

 between them. Amongst the birds stepped a pretty Sheath-bill 

 (Chumis alba) with a quiet jaunty stride, picking what he could, 

 and apparently perfectly indifferent to the motions of the 

 penguins, who drove at him » ith their beaks as he 1 assed, but 

 never struck him. I saw him pass and repass one bird always 

 just out of reach, till the bird could stand it no longer, but 

 reached off her nest about an inch to strike him; he was still just 

 out of reach and busy with something, apparently not noticing 

 the penguin ; she reached further, he crossed her ngain, still just 

 out of reach, and this went on till he had drawn her about two 

 feet from the nest, then in one stride he was beside the e?g, had 

 punched a hole, and was sipping the contents before the slow- 

 penguin could turn and hop back to rave it ; he again led her 

 away by the same manoeuvre and increased the hole and got a 

 greater part ; a third time he led ber off and was eating the egg 

 when he was driven right away by another penguin, who was 

 wandering at liberty, the mate, I suppose, beinj on turn on the 

 egg. The proceeding on the part of the sheath-bill was a perfect 

 trap for the poor foolish old penguin. 



The other instance I will give occurred in the Pacific, wl ere 

 some albatross were circling about, and frequently settling on the 

 water in flocks ; some sharks were about, and I watched to see if 

 any albatross would be pulled down; then I noticed a cordon of 

 sentries round the flock, who were relieved at times from the 

 flock, a single bird going out and sitting near the sentry who flew 

 in. Whenever a shark's fin approached the sentry he flew in, 

 and the whole flock took up new position. Here was distinct 

 organisation. The ship was going very slowly through the water, 

 and I was able to study the whole carefully. J. P. Maclear 



If. M.S. Alert, Straits of Magellan, November 5, 1879 



The following account of an incident in the early life of a South 

 African baboon may not be out of place in your journal The 

 person who witnessed it was a very trustworthy native attached to 

 Bishopstowe, Natil, and who is employed from time to time to 

 get game for the house. He used to find it an agreeable ad- 

 dition to this duty to collect objects of natural history for the 

 cabinet as well as for the table. He was fully alive to, and took 

 a keen interest in, what went on among the animals of all kinds, 

 and was much struck with what he saw take place one day at 

 the bottom of a little iDonga, or dry watercourse, over the brink 

 of which he peeped, on the slope of a table-mountain, the grand 

 object that lies in the front of Bishopstowe, some twelve miles 

 distant. 



It was a hot day, and a number of baboons were sunning 

 themselves along the bottom of the iDonga. They lay upon 

 their backs, with half-closed eyes, rubbing their stomachs in a 

 state of placid enjoyment. Two or three young baboons had 

 wandered to a little distance down the iDonga, searching for 

 scorpions from stone to stone just below them. They were not 

 very successful, and it did not appear that their movements were 

 of much concern to their elders. Presently, however, one of 

 the young ones, turning up a stone, lit upon a particularly fine 

 and fat scorpion, which, with a furtive glance round at his 

 elders, he seized and popped into his mouth, having first pinched 

 off the sting. He at once proceeded to turn the stone over 

 again with great assiduity, as though in further unsuccessful 

 search for scorpions. He had not escaped notice, however, for 

 down the gully in a sluggish roll came a great baboon, who 

 seized the young one by the scruff of the neck, shaking him 

 vigorously until the plump morsel dropped from his pouch. 

 Having gobbled this ur>, the elder babo.m at once regained hi, 

 lounge, and all went on as before in the sleepy hollow. 



London, January 8 Francis E. Colexso 



Notes on the Papuans of Maclay Coast, New Guinea 

 The articles on the above subject which have appeared in 

 Nature, vol. xxi. pp. 204, 226, have been read by me with 

 great interest in consequence of the resemblance which certain of 

 the customs therein described have to some which have come 

 under my observation among the inhabitants of the Andaman 

 and Nicobar Islands, 



With regard to the custom of the relatives of deceased persons 

 in the Andamans ornamenting and carrying about the skulls of 

 the departed, which is alluded to in a note on p. 205, I believe 

 I may claim to have first described and figured such a skull. My 

 paper entitled "On a Visit to the Andamanese Home, Port 

 Blair, Andaman Islanls" (of which I inclose a copy), was pub- 



lished in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy for 1S71. 

 In it I mentioned, together with some other facts, that I had 

 witnessed the process of making flakes from a piece of bottle- 

 glass which I saw subsequently employed for shaving. 



An Andamanese necklace made of human clavicles and turtles' 

 ribs is now in my possession, and I believe human finger and toe 

 bones are also sometimes strung together and worn round the 

 neck. In reference to the ideograph discovered by Mr. Maclay 

 among the Papuans I would refer to a paper "On Nicobarese 

 Hieroglyphics or ricture Writing," which I communicated to the 

 pages of the Indian Antiquary (Bombay) in the year 1875. 



The screen which is figured is one out of many which I saw 

 in the Nicobar Islands. It consists of tbe scathe of a palm and 

 is covered with representations, done in vermilion, of me. (in 

 various attitudes), pigs, fish, houses, canoes, weapons, &c, .vc. 

 It would take up too much space to give details of it here, tut I 

 may state that my conclusion regarding it was that it was the 

 pictorial record of some past event. Both skull and screen are 

 described, but unfortunately not figured, in my recently-published 

 work, "Jungle Life in India." 



To any of your readers who may be specially interested in the 

 matter I shall be happy to forward, on application, copies of the 

 papers above mentioned and photographs of the screen so far as 

 the numbers available for the purpose will go. V. Ball 



37, Northumberland Read, Dublin, January 9 



The Word "Telegraph" 



The word "telegraph" appears to have been naturalised in 

 our language at a much earlier date than that given by Mr. 

 Warren de la Rue in his letter in Nature, vol. xxi. p. 226. 

 There are several references to the apparatus in the Gentleman's 

 Magazine for July, December, 1794, and the next three volumes. 

 At first the word appears in its French form with the final " e," 

 but the sign of its foreign origin scon disappears. Under the 

 date January 28, 1796, we find amongst "Domestic Occur- 

 rences" a paragraph stating that "a telegraph was this day 

 erected over the Admiralty." This, I think, was removed about 

 thirty years ago. In case your correspondent should wish to 

 verify the references in the indexes to the Gentleman's Magazine, 

 I may point out that there are two pages numbered 106 in the 

 volume for January to June, 1795, and that there is an article at 

 p. 1176 of that for July to December, 1794, not mentioned in 

 the index. 



Watt, in his " Bibliotheca Britannica," gives a still earlier 

 reference to the word in R. H. Gower's "Theory and Practice 

 of Seamanship," but there is no mention of a telegraph in the 

 first edition of that work, published in 1793. 



The word occurs many times in Dr. Thos. Young's "Lectures 

 on Natural Philosophy," 1807, and seme interesting information 

 on the subject may be found in Gregory's "Treatise of 

 Mechanics" (2nd ed ), vol. ii. p. 434 (London, 1807), where 

 several sorts of telegraphs are described. 



H.M. Patent Office, January 12 Richard B. Prosser 



Stags' Horns 



Though, no doubt, as Mr, Stokoe suggests, many antlers are 

 picked up and s old to knife-handle makers, or, if they happen 

 to be good ones, u-ed for " making up " deers' heads, yet many, 

 I believe, are really eaten by the deer themselves. I have never 

 myself seen a deer engaged in eating a fallen antler, nor, though 

 I have more than once found cast horns on the hills, did the 

 latter present any appearance of having been gnawed. 



All the hill men will tell you, however, that it is a well-known 

 fact that red-deer eat the horns that are shed every year, and the 

 late Sir Thomas Moncreiffe once told me that he watched a hind 



a cervine Delilah— gnawing the tips of the tines of the horrrs 



of a stag that was lying beside her, and which he afterwards 

 shot, fn Blair Castle there is a magnificent stuffed stag — 

 <«Tilt" — which was reared by the late Duke of Athole, who fed 

 it upon, amongst other things, ground deer-horns. As tame stags 

 often do, "Tilt" became dangerous, and had to be killed when 

 he was eight or nine years old. In size he far surpassed any of 

 the wild red-deer, and had most magnificent antlers. As each 

 year's antlers fell off they were preserved, and form an intere. ting 

 and instructive series. 



Considering how fond cows are of gnawing bones, and also 

 how they will eat any woollen garment they can get at, there 

 does not seem to be anything very remarkable in the fact of red 

 deer consuming shed horn*. F. Buchanan White 



Pertb, January 2 



