SCIENCE, 



[Vol. XVI II. No. 459 



west contains less thaa fhirty-uine per cent of species com- 

 mon to it and some one or more of the other basins, and that 

 one of them, viz., that of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, has 

 seventy-two per cent of its plants common to other basins, 

 while that of North Carolina has Bfty-two per cent, and that 

 of Virginia thirty-nine per cent. All who are familiar with 

 the evidence from fossil floras must therefore admit that it 

 is strongly in favor of the general parallelism of the four 

 eastern basins, while the minerals are too scanty to base a 

 safe conclusion upon relative to the great western area with 

 fifteen per cent of its species common to it and the eastern 

 deposits. 



Considering the subject from the second point of view 

 above mentioned, or that of the foreign distribution, it is 

 found that forty of the hundred and nineteen species occur 

 in othei' deposits of the world, while seventeen others are 

 represented elsewhere by closely related forms, giving fifty- 

 seven of what may be termed diagnostic species. Omitting 

 all details as before, it appears that the largest number of 

 these, viz., thirty-two, occur in beds that have been authori- 

 tatively referred to the Keuper of Old World nomencla- 

 ture, the Ehetic coming next, with thirty-one, followed by 

 the Lias with twenty, and the Oolite with -nineteen. , 



The general conclusion, therefore, is that, so far as the- 

 evidence from fossil plants goes, the precise horizon, rela- 

 tively to the European deposits, of our American older 

 Mesozoic plant-bearing rocks must be at the summit of the 

 Triassic system, with their nearest representatives in the 

 Keuper of Lunz in Australia and at Neue Welt near Basle, in 

 Switzerland; while there is also a close aiBnity in the types 

 to those of the Rhetic of Franconia and South Sweden. 



BIRDS IN HIGH Gy\LES. 



At first it seems difficult, says the London Spectator, 

 Oct. 31, to believe that the petrels, gifted with such powers 

 of flight that, like their first cousins, the albatrosses, they 

 make the central ocean their chosea home, should so far 

 succumb to the Atlantic storms as to fall wholly under the 

 dominion of the wind, and drift for thousands of miles to 

 unknown and inhospitable shores. But any one who has 

 watched the flight of a " lost" bird in a gale on land may 

 form some idea of the danger to which the petrels are exposed 

 when a hurricane bursts in the Atlantic. 



Near Oxford, when the last gale was at its height, the 

 77riter was watching the "centre-board" rushing up and 

 down over the floods on Port Meadow, with a strong current 

 and the wind on their quartei's; the geese were flying over 

 the flood to avoid the canoes and small craft; and the wind 

 was blowing a full gale from the soutti-west, with a brilliant 

 sun, occasionally hidden by a white, drifting cloud. Far 

 away to the north was a long-winged bird, beating up against 

 the wind. At one time it rose high in the air, facing the 

 gale; then it descended with a rapid swoop progressing 

 westwards, but at the same time " falling off" still further 

 to the north. It was a young hei'ring gull, its checkered 

 gray-and- white plumage sliowing clearly in the bright light 

 as it approached. It was easy to conjecture from the gull's 

 flight the power of storms to drive birds from the course 

 which they aim at. The bird's point was clearly westward. 

 It used every shelter and every lull of the wind to make it; 

 but the gale was two powerful, and it appeared that it must 

 either stay on the inhospitable land until the wind dropped, 

 work its way slowly to the west with a rapid drift to the 

 north, or abandon its struggle and drift veith the wind. 



But all birds seem to have an instinctive knowledge that 

 if they once surrender to the force of the wind, and allow 

 themselves to drift like leaves, there are unknown dangers 

 in store for them. They will hardly ever do so unless to es- 

 cape pursuit, and then only for a few minutes, when, their 

 pace is so marvellously rapid that, in the case of lapd-bir.ls, 

 a few minutes is sufficient to carry them out of the district 

 they know into others from which they will perhaps never 

 be able to find their way back to the fields which are their 

 native home. ' ' ) 



In the gale on Sept. 1 of the present year the writer 

 saw a successful effort made by partridges to avoid the 

 consequences of thus abandoning themselves to the gale. 

 A cove/ of very strong birds; which had been hatched on 

 the highest part of the Berkshire Downs, was flushed down- 

 wind, and, rising high in the air, the whole brood were car- 

 ried in a few seconds to the extreme edge of the hill, below 

 which was a sudden fall of some three hundred feet to |i 

 country quite unknown to these hill-birds. As they ap- 

 proached the limit of their own district, the partridges made 

 an extraordinary effort to release themselves from the power 

 of the wind, and to avoid being forced, over the hill-top. 

 Closing their wings, they sank almost to the ground, and so 

 gained the slight shelter of a low bank. This enabled them 

 to wheel, and so to face the gale. Even then they might 

 not have achieved their object had not a small thorn-bush 

 broken the force of the wind just on the edge of the down. 

 The whole covey used the respite so given, and skimming up 

 almost in single file, they alighted one by one behind the 

 bush, on the extreme limit of their native ground. But re- 

 cent, instances are not wanting in which partridges have 

 beeti carried out to sea when drifting on the wind. At 

 Sizewell, in Suffolk, nine partridges were blown out to sea, 

 and dropped in the water some four hundred yards from the 

 shore; and in another case thirteen of tfie "red-legged" 

 variety attempted the flight across the estuary of the Stour, 

 and, falling exhausted, were picked up by some hoatmen 

 fishing for " dabs," a welcome and un looked for haul. 



ASTRONOMICAL NOTES. 



The English Mechanic of Oct. 30 is authority for the 

 statement that Dr. Hind, the superintendent of the English 

 Nautical Almanac, will be succeeded by Mr. A. M. W. 

 Downing, one of the chief assistants at the Greenwich Ob- 

 servatory, of which fact mention was made in a recent num- 

 ber of Science. The change will take place at the com- 

 mencement of the coming year. 



In Knowledge for November are given reproductions of 

 four photographs, taken from a baloon by Mr. C. V. Shad- 

 bolt, in England. The several photographs were taken at a 

 height of 500, 1,500, 2,100, and 6,000 feet, respectively. We 

 understand that Mr. Shadbolt is the first to secure at these 

 altitudes a recognizable plate. 



Fathers Hagen and Fargis, astronomers connected with 

 the Georgetown, D.C., Observatory, have just published a 

 paper entitled " The Photochronograph and its Application 

 to Star Transits." The aim of these gentlemen has been to 

 secure an instrument that would photograph the transit of a 

 star across the meridian. A reproduction of the transit of 

 Sirius, as photographed, is given as an illustration of the 

 work performed. In brief, the instrument these gentlemen 

 have contrived consists of an electro-magnetic shutter, or 

 "occulting bar," which is secured to the eye-end of the tran- 

 sit instrument. The apparatus is so formed that the current 



