lO 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XXII. No. 544 



hair. This is a peculiarity of many of the crosses between Indian 

 and African. I need but mention the Cafusos, who, according to 

 Tyler, "are remariiable for their hair, which rises in a curly 

 mass, forming a natural ppvlwis. which obliges the wearers to 

 stoop low in passing throus;]! their hut doors."' 



The word playa is not mentioned in the Century Dictionary, 

 although, according to the Popular Science Monthly, vol xxii., p. 

 381, it "has been adopted by geologists as a generic term, under 

 which the various desiccated lake-basics of the West may be 

 grouped." 



Although the cese, or platinum-needle or loop, is the most im- 

 portant tool of the bacteriologist, both of these words have been 

 omitted. The word oese is, of course, German, but is now much 

 used in English books. 



The common names, and often the scientific names, of well- 

 known plants have been omitted. The Amorphophallus titanwn, 

 a vegetable wonder of the Arum family, discovered in Sumatra 

 in 1878 by Beccari, is not mentioned under its generic or common 

 East Indian name of Krubut, although both of these appear under 

 Rufflesia, the generic name of a remarkable plant which grows 

 with it. 



The word noctilucent is defined in the Century Dictionary, 

 but the word noctilucence, Ji term sometimes applied to the light 

 emitted by the Noctihica, is omitted, although phosphorescence is 

 the more common, but perhaps less accurate, term. 



Many of the definitions are inaccurate and unsatisfactory. 

 From the following definition of Canb, one would conclude that 

 they are all of a " native race " and that none are living in the 

 Caribbean Islands at the present time: '' One of a native race in- 

 habiting certain portions of Central America and the north of 

 South America, and formerly also the Caribbean Islands." Ac- 

 cording to the latest Handbook, in British Honduras, there are 

 2,200 Caribs who, "although to all appearance of true African 

 origin, being a black and woolly-headed people, are a mixed race 

 of the aboriginal Caribs, with a large percentage of African blood." 

 A few true Red Caribs and some Black Caribs still live in the 

 Windward Islands. The true Caribs are not natives of Central 

 America. They inhabited the northern part of South America 

 and the Caribbean Islands, and, according to Dr. Brinton, their 

 original home was south of the Amazon. John Gipford. 



Swarthmore College, Pa. 



A Peculiar Occurrence of Beeswax. 



In Science for, June 16, 1893, Mr. George C. Merrill, of the U. 

 S. National Museum, has a request for information under the 

 above heading concerning some beeswax forwarded to him from 

 Portland. Oregon. He describes it as having all the elements 

 and characteristics of beeswax, but says, " such it would have 

 unhesitatingly been pronounced but for certain stated conditions 

 relat^g to its mode of occurrence." 



He says it occurs in the sand along the beach, at quite a depth 

 in places, and In a fragment of sandstone, etc., and further says: 

 "Tradition has it that many hundred years ago a foreign vessel 

 (some say a Chinese junk) laden with wax was wrecked off this 

 coast. This at first thought seems plausible, but aside from 

 the difficulty of accounting for the presence in these waters and 

 at that date of a vessel loaded with wax, it seems scarcely credi- 

 ble that the material could have been brought in a single cargo 

 in such quantities nor buried so deeply over so large an area." 



The first difliculty Mr. Merrill seems to encounter is the pres- 

 ence of a vessel of that supposed nation on our coast at so early a 

 date. This should give him no difficulty whatever, for Hon. 

 Horace Davis, of California, in an article before the American 

 Antiquarian Society, April, 1892; Charles Walcott Brooks before 

 the California Academy of Sciences, March 1, 1875, and Pro- 

 fessor George Davidson, of the U. S. Coast Survey, for thirty 

 years or more last past, have all been calling attention to the 

 hundreds of known wrecks of Japanese (not Chinese) junks cast 

 on the American shores, from Behring Sea to Peru, by the " Kuro 

 Shi wo," or black stream of Japan 



In both the articles mentioned above you will find an account 

 of the ''beeiiwax jiink " and so much information concerning it 



that Mr. Merrill's doubts will be dissipated; if not. Professor Da- 

 vidson, in the "Coast Pilot of California, Oregon and Washing- 

 ton Territory," 1869, describes this very junk and the very bees- 

 wax in question. 



Mr. Merrill's infortaanf, however, seems to have fallen into an 

 error as to the quantity and locality of this wax; for no such 

 quantities were ever found as those mentioned in Science; in 

 fact, the story is this: At some recent — but prehistoric — time 

 a Japanese junk loaded with beeswax was thrown ashore at 

 or near Clatsop beach, Oregon, and the cargo was scattered 

 along the sands and buried therein, where it is found even to- 

 day in small quantities and that is all. 



Mr. Merrill's letter to Science is published, he says, "in the 

 hope of gaining more information on the subject," and I will be 

 fully repaid if through the instrumentality of this note he shall 

 have obtained that information. 



Many Japanese wrecks have been thrown ashore on our coast, 

 of which we have authentic information, all the proof of which 

 has largely been collected by the eminent gentlemen quoted above. 



James WiCKERSM^ivt. 



Tacoma, Washington, June 26. 



Color Perception : A Correction, 



I HASTEN to send this note of correction to my paper on " Dis- 

 tance and Color Perception by Infants" in Science, April 28 — an 

 error brought to my attention by a friend. In Tables I. and II. 

 of that article (p. 231)1 have taken the proportion of "accep- 

 tances" to the entire number of cases ( the ratio — ) after add- 



\ JV/ 



ing up the simple numbers for each color at all the distances. It 

 is evident that the resulting percentages are vs rong as representing 

 comparative results for the different colors, since there are not an 

 equal number of cases for each same color at different distances, 

 nor for the different colors at each same distance. The proper 

 method is, of course, to compound the percentages representing 

 the rela.tive attractiveness of each color at each distance. This 



gives the values (for — ^ in Table I. : Blue, .78 ; red, .75 : white, 



.78; green, .68; brown, .43; and in Table II.: Newspaper, .76; 

 color, .71. This brings white up to the level of blue and red. The 



B 



same correction should be made for the values 



but in the re- 



sult it is immaterial. 



I wish to add, also, that I do not consider the results relative to 

 the individual colors of much value, since the cases are so tew. 

 The experiments had to be broken off unexpectedly. I published 

 the tables mainly to illustrate the working of the method of ex- 

 perimenting. For this reason I did not enter in my article into 

 side considerations, such as color-brightness, fatigue, etc., which 

 were duly provided for in the experiments themselves. I hope to 

 discuss such points in the fuller treatment of the monograph on 

 the infant's active life which I am preparing. 



J, Mark Baldvtin. 

 Princeton, N.J., June 30. 



Birds that Sing in the Night. 



I have read with a great deal of interest the notes under this 

 head as they have appeared in Science from time to time. While 

 some species have been mentioned that I have not heard, there 

 are also some not mentioned which are night singers in central 

 Iowa, where I have spent many yeirs studying the birds in their 

 various moods and conditions. 



The first in point of beauty of execution is the wood-tbrushi 

 (Turdus mustelinus) . Not only does he sing in the night,^hut 

 his song is given at shorter intervals and more earnestly tbenj 

 than during the day. It is rarely that he sings at high noon, un- 

 less the day be dark and wet. Nor does he sing all night long; 

 from midnight until after two, there is only an occasional^burst 

 of song or none at all. 



Second in point of regularity and persistence is dickcissel 

 {Spiya americai^a). Not only does he sing at short intervals all 



