November i8, 1892.] 



SCIENCE. 



291 



Sense of Direction in Animals. 



HAVrsa noticed the recent articles in Science on this subject, I 

 wish to add an item that may be to the point 



When living near Neosho Falls, Kansas, a neighbor, who was a 

 market bird-hunter, went from there to western Missouri for the 

 purpose of hunting quails and prairie-chickens in the fall of the 

 year. He took with him a favorite pointer dog. The route taken 

 was southward some fifty miles to Parsons, Kansas, by railroad 

 thence north-eastward to Fort Scott, and on into Missouri nearly 

 due east from the latter point. All went very well for a few days 

 after he began hunting, but by some means the dog became lost 

 from him. He spent two days hunting it, and as it was no use to 

 try to hunt without the dog he went home, and there found the 

 dog all right. According to the report of his family, the dog had 

 reached there within two days from the time he lost him, and, as 

 the distance was more than 75 miles, it is quite certain that the 

 dog took a near cut for home. Now if this dog had no sense of 

 direction, what had he that led him to take what we may confi- 

 dently believe to be the straight and true course for home when 

 he had passed over the other two sides of the triangle by rail ? 



Who does not know that a cat, or even a half-grown kitten, 

 taken a long way from home in a bag nearly always finds its way 

 back ? When living in northern Michigan I had a cat we were 

 tired of. I took her in a boat directly across the lake about two 

 miles and turned her loose. Although it was about six miles 

 around the end of the lake, a circuitous course, and certainly one 

 unknown to her by sight, the next morning she was back at the 

 old place. Another case is just stated to me of a cat that was 

 taken by rail fully twenty miles in south-west Missouri, and the 

 Bext day he walked in all right at his former home. 



H. E. Van Deman. 



Washington, D.C. 



A Lamentable Case. 



Perhaps another case like the one here recorded will never 

 appear in your columns. At least we may hope so. The person 

 referred to, and whose name will not be mentioned, from the re- 

 spect in which I held him, was a true lover of nature and an ob- 

 server. I first knew him, over a score of years since, when to 

 my boyish view he presented the prime features of a country 

 naturalist's existence. He was a poor man and not well educated, 

 but he was a lover of my pm-suits, and he read excellent books. 



Long years after, and upon returning from a residence in 

 another quarter, I inquired about my nature-loving friend, and 

 found that he was cared for at the County House. I went to call 

 upon him and found that he was dead. One line in the poor- 

 house register was all I could find concerning the blameless man, 

 for the present proprietor came after he was gone and knew 



nothing of him. There it was : , aged — years, 



died . 



In my fancy I compared him to Thoreau, and he undoubtedly 

 had similar thoughts and feelings. 



How lov'd, how honour' d once, avails thee not, 



To whom related, or by whom begot ; 



A heap of dust alone remains of thee ; 



' Tis all thou art, and all the proud shall be ! 



M. G. 



Flight of Archippus. 



On the morning of October 32, between eight and nine o'clock, 

 I witnessed the largest flight of Danais archippus I have ever 

 .«een, and the only one I have observed in Texas. The morning 

 was cloudy with little or no breeze. The du-ection of the flight 

 was southward. The butterflies were not in such close masses as 

 I have seen them previously, and were flying at various eleva- 

 tions from twenty feet to as great a height as the eye could 

 reach. I counted one hundred passing a given line in less than 

 ■ one minute. After watching them for some time I drove across 

 the line of flight a quarter, or perhaps one-third, of a mile and 

 then northward with the line of flight for more than a mile. 

 'Over the whole distance the butterflies were fully as numerous as 

 ■when I first saw them. E. T. Dumble. 



Austin, Tex., Nov. 1. 



Codling-Moth Statistics from Oregon. 



The following points have been determined here this season, 

 and may be of interest to the entomological readers of Science. 

 Average life of moth, 10-15 days; egg-laping taking place during 

 the latter part of that time. Time required for incubation, 4-10 

 days; length of life of larva in apple, 4 weeks (about); time passed 

 in cocoon before emergence of moth. 23 days. 



This tallies very closely with Riley's observations made a num- 

 ber of years ago in the East; but he makes the life in the cocoon 

 considerably longer. 



The first moths were observed here May 16, and the last egg 

 noted, apparently fresh, on a pear September 19. The moth is at 

 least four-brooded in Oregon. F. L. Washbuen. 



State Esperiment Station, Corvallis, Ore., Oct. 25. 



Action of Electric-Light on Plants. 

 In various reports of the effects of electric-light upon the 

 growth of plants I have noticed nothing upon the, to me, inter- 

 esting question of whether the effect of electric-light is to keep 

 open at night flowers like the lily and evening primrose, which 

 ordinarily close at departure of daylight. If this point has been 

 discussed, can you kindly give me reference to such discussion? 



C. H. Ames. 



Boston, Mass., Nov. 8. 



Chemical Nomenclature. 



Would you kindly correct an error which inadvertently crept 

 into my article on the " Spelling and Pronunciation of Chemical 

 Terms'" in the current issue? On page 273, column 1, line 16 

 from the top, instead of " by an American chemist " read " from 

 a North American mineral." T. H. Norton. 



Cincinnati, Nov, la. 



The Humming-Bird's Food. 

 Doctor Morris Gibbs's article recalls an observation which 

 suggests that the humming-bird may find, in spring, an important 

 supply of food in the sap of certain trees — particularly before 

 flowers are abundant. In the case observed it was taking the 

 sap of Quercus rubra. Other trees would furnish a more agreeable 

 repast, doubtless. H. L. Bruner. 



BOOK-KEVIEWS. 

 Manners and Monuments of Prehistoric Peoples. By the Mar- 

 quis de Nadaillac. Translated by Nancy Bell. Illus- 

 trated. 413 p. New York, G. P. Putnam's Sons." $8. 



The author of this work is already favorably known in this 

 country by his excellent "Prehistoric America," and in France 

 he ranks among the most active and respected of the students of 

 prehistory. In this volume he endeavors to present a faithful 

 and vivid portraiture of the life of man during the Stone Age, 

 especially in Europe, though by no means confined to that conti- 

 nent. He does not undertake to assign a definite length to this 

 phase of civilization, recognizing that it is not so much a period 

 of diu'ation as a stage in culture. He concedes, however, that 

 it was in ancient Europe of great length, " countless centuries." 



During the greater part of it man depended upon hunting, 

 fishing, and the natural products. But even then his arts had 

 begun. He made weapons and tools, he used clothing, pleased 

 himself with ornaments, was acquainted with fire, dug canoes 

 from trees, and at times produced creditable artistic sculptures 

 and drawings. The origin and growth of these arts are illus- 

 trated by numerous examples drawn from a surprisingly wide 

 familiarity with the literature of the branch. 



An interesting chapter is devoted to the kitchen-middens, 

 caves, pile-dwellings, and stone buildings, which served to pro- 

 tect the ancient natives. He describes the magalithic monu- 

 ments, such as the dolmens, menhirs, and cromlechs, which have 

 excited so much discussion, but declines to assign them to any 

 known people. Yet if, as he intimates, many of those in France 

 were constructed during the Bronze Age, it is difficult to avoid 

 the conclusion that they were by the peoples whom Csesar men- 

 tions as living there at the time of his conquest of Gaul. 



