September 2, 1892.] 



SCIENCE. 



137 



wit, curlew, "piping the wild notes, to which the Greenlander 

 listened in June, now to the gaucho herdsman on the green 

 plains of La Plata, then to the wild Indian in his remote village, 

 and soon, further south, to the houseless huanaco-hunter in the 

 gray wilderness of Patagonia.'' Of the god wit — Limosa hudsoniea 

 — some go north in March to breed; while later in the season 

 (May) others come from the south to winter on the pampas. The 

 north-flying birds travel thousands of miles to the hundreds 

 traversed by those from the south. It is considered probable that 

 these last have their breeding-places on the as yet undiscovered 

 Antarctic continent, which they have left, after breeding, in time 

 to winter on the pampas. 



Another interesting chapter is that upon the Puma. Nunaerous 

 facts are given to show that this animal, contrary to the habits 

 of all the other wild Felidce, is a friend of man, not only refrain- 

 ing from attacking him, but actually protecting him from the 

 attacks of other animals, like the jaguar for example. One in- 

 stance of this must suffice. During the course of an extended 

 hunt one of the men fell from his horse, and in falling broke his 

 leg. His companions did not notice his loss until evening, and 

 the next morning he was found where he had fallen. He related 

 that while lying there a puma had prowled about the vicinity but 

 did not attempt to harm him. About midnight he heard the roar 

 of a jaguar, and between that time and morning he several times 

 saw the two animals engaged in fierce fights, the puma preventing 

 the jaguar from attacking the prostrate and helpless man. 



In discussing the question of fear in birds, Mr. Hudson discards 

 the idea that it is only found in those which have been persecuted 

 by man, and advances the theory that the older birds teach the 

 young ones to fear their enemies. So strong is the habit of at- 

 tending to the warning or danger note uttered by many birds, 

 that when a nestling is hammering at its shell and seeking to 

 reach the outer air, uttering meanwhile its feeble "peep." " if the 

 warning note is uttered, even at a considerable distance, the strokes 

 and complaining instantly cease, and the chick will then remain 

 quiescent in the shell for a long time, or until the parent by a 

 changed note, conveys to it an intimation that the danger is 

 over." 



Mr. Hudson is not content to record the observations he has 

 made. He seeks also to explain, sometimes plausibly, sometimes 

 perhaps not so well, many of the facts. For example, we are all 

 familiar with the, to us, absurd cackling of a hen when she has 

 laid her egg. She wants the whole world to know it. Obviously 

 it would in a wild state be a serious objection, and be decidedly 

 injurious to the species as a whole, to have all the egg-feeding 

 snakes and mammals apprised of the fact that a new egg had been 

 laid for them to seek. The author therefore contends that this 

 habit is a perversion of the original instinct, and that while it 

 now serves no purpose or a bad one, originally it was useful. He 

 finds in a certain half-wild fowl of the pampa, a habit of making 

 her nest sometimes 400 or 500 yards away from the feeding- 

 grounds. After the egg is laid the hen flies directly from the nest 

 40 or 50 yards and then, still silently, runs along to the feeding- 

 ground. Then only does she give vent to a low cackle. The cock, 

 if within hearing, answers her, runs to her, and the cackling 

 ceases. "If," says Mr. Hudson, "we may assume that these 

 fowls, in their long, semi-independent existence in La Plata, have 

 reverted to the original instincts of the wild Qallus hankiva, we 

 can see here how advantageous the cackling instinct must be in en- 

 abling the hen in dense tropical jungles to rejoin the flock after 

 laying an egg. If there are egg-eating animals in the jungle, in- 

 telligent enough to discover the meaning of such a short, subdued, 

 cackling call, they would still be unable to find the nest by going 

 back on the bird's scent, since she flies from the nest in the first 

 place." 



In a chapter on spiders mention is made of the many strange 

 and wonderful features known in connection with them. Some 

 spin a wondei'fully complex and beautiful web ; some live on or in 

 the ground : many simulate inanimate objects or death itself. Of 

 two species belonging to the same genus, one is green, while an- 

 other is like a withered or dried-up leaf. The first, when dis- 

 turbed, falls rapidly to the ground like a fresh green leaf broken 

 from a twig; but the second falls slowly like a very light, dried. 



and withered leaf. Some of the spiders are very large and will 

 chase a man from thirty to forty yards, keeping pace with a slow- 

 trotting horse. An instance is related where one ran up the lash 

 of the author's riding-whip to within three or four inches of his 

 hand, and would have bitten him had he not thrown the whip 

 away. Some rather fanciful speculations are indulged in when 

 considering how a man-like monkey would act were he to have a 

 cord permanently attached to his waist, as the spider may be con- 

 sidered to ha?e his web-making material. 



In an interesting chapter on music and dancing in nature, ac- 

 counts are given of the habit as indulged in by many kinds of 

 bii-ds. Not the least strange of these is that of the spur- winged 

 lapwing. These birds live in pairs, each pair jealously guarding 

 its own chosen ground. But frequently one of a pair will fly 

 off to visit a neighboring couple, leaving its mate to guard the 

 ground. The visitor is graciously received, and the performance 

 gone through with is described as follows: "Advancing to the 

 visitor they place themselves behind it; then all three, keeping 

 step, begin a rapid march, uttering resonant drumming notes in 

 time with their movements; the notes of the pair behind being 

 emitted in a stream like a drum-roll, while the leader utters long 

 single notes at regular intervals. The march ceases; the leader 

 elevates his wings and stands erect and motionless, still uttering 

 loud notes; while the other two, with puffed-out plumage and 

 standing exactly abreast, stoop forward and downward until the 

 tips of their beaks touch the ground, and, sinking their rhythmical 

 voices to a murmur, remain for some time in this posture. The 

 performance is then over, and the visitor goes back to his own 

 gi-ound and mate to receive a visitor himself later on." 



We have given here but a bare outline of some of the interest- 

 ing chapters of the book. The one dealing with the dying-place 

 of the huanaco attempts to explain the habit the animals have of 

 returning to a remote place in which to die. It is traced back to 

 a probable origin in ancient times when the animals herded to- 

 gether in winter for protection and warmth, and the idea is ad- 

 vanced that at present the habit is an aberrant and perverted 

 instinct which has descended by inheritance. When the animal 

 feels the pangs of approaching death, its feelings impel it to 

 the spot where long ages ago its ancestors, with their fellows, 

 found refuge and relief. Mr. Hudson thus regards the habit, not 

 as going to a place to die, so much as going to a place to recover 

 health. Other chapters deal with the odoriferous skunk, of which 

 numerous anecdotes are told; with mimicry and warning colors 

 in grasshoppers; the value and importance of the mosquito in the 

 economy of nature and the question why it possesses a blood- 

 sucking apparatus in such perfection, while scarcely one out of 

 many hundreds of thousands ever tastes blood. Tlie humming- 

 birds are treated of in another chapter, while in still another is 

 given a full account of a large family of birds known popularly 

 as "wood-hewers." The biography of the vizcacha. the prairie- 

 dog of the pampa, is given in full; while an account of certain 

 birds and animals seen once or twice and tlien lost, never to be 

 again brought to view, reminds one that disappointment some- 

 times waits upon the investigator into nature's secrets. The book 

 is an interesting one, and we believe worthy of an extended cir- 

 culation among lovers of natural objects. 



Joseph F. Jajies. 

 WashlDgton, B.C., Aug. 33. 



Mineralogy. By Frederick H. Hatch. London, Whittaker & 

 Co. 13°. |1. 



Dr. Hatch has brought together the most essential principles 

 of mineralogy, and embodied them into what is really an abridg- 

 ment of a larger treatise. He experiences the difficulty felt by 

 earlier authors of making popular conceptions of geometrical fig- 

 ui-es and relations, and relieves it so far as is possible by staling 

 the principles of their construction and by giving graphic repre- 

 sentations of the perfect solids and diagrams illustrative of the 

 crystallographic axes. There is a very n ise selection of the more 

 important figures described. Throughout the descriptions of 

 crystalline form, chemical composition, and the various physical 

 properties, including the choice of the minerals described, the au- 

 thor has shown that he knows what selection should be made in 



