November 4, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



625 



image at all produces an elongated image, 

 whose intensity is compared with difficulty 

 with the circular stellar image. The pho- 

 tometric magnitude is 12.70 ± 0.08, which 

 implies, when compared with the visual 

 magnitude, that the color of the planet is 

 redder than that of the comparison stars. 



Professor Pickering notes that the planet 

 offers opportunity for the examination of 

 several photometric problems : 



" First, the approximate diameter may be 

 determined by comparison witli the brighter 

 asteroids and satellites, assuming that the 

 reflecting power is the same. Secondly, the 

 great variation iu the distance of this object 

 from the earth will afford an excellent test 

 of the law that the light varies inversely as 

 the square of the distance. The existence 

 of an absorbing medium in the solar system 

 will thus be tested. Thirdly, owing to the 

 proximitj^ of this object to the earth at op- 

 position, its phase angle will vary by a large 

 amount. It will, therefore, afford an excel- 

 lent test of the law connecting this angle 

 with the variation in brightness which has 

 been found by two or three observers inde- 

 pendently." 



THE ANDROMEDA NEBULA. 



Suspicions of change in this nebula have 

 been recently announced, but lack confirm- 

 ation. Mr. A. A. C. Merlin, British Vice- 

 Consul at Volo, Greece, telegraphed August 

 29th that a star near the nucleus of the 

 nebula was visible in an 8-inch refractor. 

 This information was not cabled to this 

 country, because observations at Hamburg, 

 Bamberg and Bonn, on August 30th and 

 31st, failed to confirm the observation. But 

 the Observatorij for September announced 

 publicly the alleged discovery, and added 

 that observations at Greenwich, August 

 31st, showed nothing unusual. On Septem- 

 ber 20th a despatch was sent from Kiel to 

 this country and distributed announcing 

 that " Seraphimofif, of Pulkowa, confirms a 



stellar condensation in the center of the 

 Nebula in Andromeda." Photographs at 

 Harvard Observatory on September 20th 

 and 21st, when compared with those taken 

 in 1893, 1894, 1895, 1896, failed to confirm 

 the confirmation, and the evidence of the 

 suspected change seems to be decidedly in 

 the negative. 



WiNSLOw Upton. 

 Bkown Univeesity. 



ZOOLOGICAL NOTES. 

 another specimen of notoenis. 



Fourteen years ago, in referring to the 

 capture of the third living Notortiis, the 

 great flightless water-hen of New Zealand, 

 the writer took occasion to remark that " it 

 is by no means impossible that other speci- 

 mens may be added to the three already 

 known, since the localities at which these 

 were taken were some 90 miles apart in a 

 region little known." This expectation has 

 recently been realized and the capture of a. 

 fourth Notornis is recorded at some length 

 by a correspondent of the London Times. 

 The species was based by Owen on some 

 bones, including an imperfect cranium, col- 

 lected by Walter Mantell so long ago as 

 1847, and as the remains were associated 

 with those of Moas it was naturally sup- 

 posed that, like them, Notornis was extinct. 

 The discovery of a living bird in 1849 

 showed that fortunately this supposition 

 was incorrect and that this, the largest 

 member of the Eail family, had escaped be- 

 ing ' eaten off the face of the earth by 

 gluttonous man.' It may be said here 

 that Dr. Meyer, and doubtless correctly, 

 considers the fossil and living species of 

 Notornis as distinct species, the former bear- 

 ing the original name Notornis mantelli, while 

 the latter is called Notornis hochstetteri. 



The first living Notornis was taken on the 

 shores of Dusky Bay by some sealers who 

 followed its tracks through a light snow, 

 and a second was caught three years later on 



