May 5, 1893.] 



SCIENCE. 



247 



glad to forward, in the name of the individual donor, any con- 

 tribution toward this homage from all the enlightened world to 

 one of the foremost names in " the pedigree of human thought." 



Geokqe Beuce Halsted. 

 2407 Guadalupe Street, Austin, Texas. 



settled as they might be; but he does not propose to believe a 

 man because he poses as an ignoramus. 



Edward H. Williams, Jk. 



Bethlehem, PenD., April 14. 



Nesting of the Road-Runner. 



This very peculiar long-tailed bird is common here throughout 

 the year. It inhabits mainly the broad arroyos covered with 

 chapparal thickets and scrub-oaks, as here is found its principal 

 food, small snakes and lizards. The breeding season is from 

 the middle of March to the last of July. The number of eggs 

 laid varies in this locality from three to nine, though usually 

 four to seven. The eggs are pure whitp, covered with a thick 

 chalky coating which is often found partly scratched off. 



The nests are built in thick chapparal bushes or scrub oaks, 

 from two to Ave feet from the ground. They are composed of coarse 

 sticks placed roughly across the supporting branches to the 

 thickness of about two inches and a diameter of ten inches. Over 

 this platform is placed a layer of sage leaves and twigs, forming 

 a shallow, saucer-shaped depression. Then last, but invariably, is 

 placed in the depression a small amount of dry horse-manure 

 broken into small pieces. I do not know the reason of this last 

 addition but it is nevertheless an invariable constituent of the 

 Road-Runner's nest 



The nest of the Burrowing Owl presents the same peculiarity, 

 though with an apparent reason. The nest cavity of the Bur- 

 rowing Owl is always partly filled with green horse-manure. In 

 this case the decaying vegetable matter probably forms heat 

 enough to carry on the incubation. But in regard to the Road- 

 Runner's nest I do not see the necessity of the dry horse-manure. 



I would be pleased to hear from any one who is acquainted 

 with the nesting habits of the Road-Runner. Joe Grinnell. 



Pasadena, Cal. 



Ad Ignorantiam. 



The calumniators of Professor Wright have been fully met, 

 and an animus for their attack suggested. There are some critics 

 remaining who have used an argument not found in logic, — that 

 " ad ignorantiam," — with freedom, and, to the users, with telling 

 effect. A few words as to this argument may not be inopportune. 



A. can neither recognize the peculiarly shaped pinnacles on the 

 top of a glacier from day to day, nor can he remember the names 

 of the people who are introduced to him at the receptions to 

 which he goes. B, can do both readily, and states liisabilitytodo 

 so. Thereupon C. jumps up and says that it is impossible to B. to 

 speak the truth, as it is notorious that A. can do neither, and A. 

 is an authority on all subjects. A. finds it impossible on Monday 

 to stake out the surface of a slippery sidewalk, and publishes the 

 fact. On Tuesday B. comes along with knit socks over his 

 boots and makes that sidewalk look like a dress-maker's pin- 

 cushion. When this fact is published, the ubiquitous C. springs 

 up and tells how often the frame of A. subsided in the attempts, 

 and therefore B. never did what he claims to have done. 



A whole tribe of A's fail to 6nd Truth at the bottom of the well — 

 all old authorities to the contrary notwithstanding — and thereupon 

 dogmatize to the effect that she is not there or, if there, is a pal- 

 impsest edition, introduced by ex-Olympian means. When B. 

 shins down the rope and brings up the damp and coy dame, he is 

 met by shrieks of C, to the effect that he carried herdown in his 

 pocket, because all the A's., aided by the strongest microscopes, 

 could not locate her within seven rows of apple trees of the 

 place. 



It may strike people as rather funny for men who have said 

 that certain things do not exist, to prove that they do not exist by 

 failing to find them. It is not their business to find them, or, 

 rather, it would seriously hurt their business to find them. 

 They cannot adduce their ignorance.or inability against the knowl- 

 edge and power of others who have done what they have failed 

 to do, and what they wished to fail to do. 



The writer does not think many of the questions as fully 



Color in Flowers. 



In reply to the inquiry on p. 179 will say that the preservation 

 of colors in flower is fully explained in Professor Bailey's "Horti- 

 cultural Rule Book.'' F. H. Plumb. 



Springfield, Mass., April 20. 



BOOK-REVIEWS. 



Idle Days in Patagonia. By W. H. Hudson. New York, D. 

 Appleton & Co. VIII. 350 p. 8". 



The author of " The Naturalist in La Plata," reviewed on a 

 previous occasion in these columns, has given us in the present 

 volume another interesting book. At first sight the title seems 

 somewhat misleading, inasmuch as the author met with an acci- 

 dent a few days after his arrival in the country and was confined 

 to the house for a considerable period. As, however, he says the 

 book would probably never have been written if the original in- 

 tentions in visiting the country had been carried out, we may 

 consider the accident a lucky one. His "Idle Days" gave him 

 ample time for thought, and in this as in the previous volume 

 we have many original ideas. The most of the time was spent 

 in the valley of the Black River, and in his chapter upon the 

 valley we note a fact that may be of interest at the present time 

 in view of the controversy going on in relation to palaeolithic 

 man in America. In wandering along the banks of the stream 

 he found many arrowheads on the ancient village sites. They 

 were of two widely different kinds, "the large and rudely fash- 

 ioned, resembling the palseolithic arrowheads of Europe, and the 

 highly-finished, or neolithic arrowheads of various forms and 

 sizes, but in most specimens an inch and a half to two inches 

 long. Here there were the remains of the two great periods of 

 the Stone Age, the last of which continued down till the discovery 

 and colonization of the country by Europeans. The weapons 

 and other objects of the latter period were the most abundant, 

 and occurred in the valley : the ruder and more ancient weapons 

 were found on the hillsides, in places where the river cuts into 

 the plateau. The site where I picked up the largest number had 

 been buried to a depth of seven or eight feet; only where the 

 water after heavy rains had washed great masses of sand and 

 gravel way, the arrowheads with other weapons and implements 

 had been exposed. These deeply buried settlements were doubt- 

 less very ancient." 



He found that to the inhabitants of the valley, the river was all 

 in all. Beyond its banks spread the gray, desolate desert; 

 within the valley's bounds were light and life. Just as all things 

 were mirrored in its waters, so was the stream reflected in the 

 minds of the people. "Even the European colonists," says he, 

 " have not been unaffected psychologically by the peculiar con- 

 ditions they live in, and by the river on which thay are de- 

 pendent. When first I became cognizant of this feeling, which 

 was very soon, I was disposed to laugh a little at the very large 

 place ' the river ' occupied in all men's minds, but after a few 

 months of life on its banks it was hardly less to me than to 

 others, and I experienced a kind of shame when I recalled my 

 former want of reverence, as if I had made a jest of something 

 sacred. Nor to this day can I think of the Patagonian river 

 merely as one of the rivers I know. Other streams, by compari- 

 son, seem vulgar, with no higher purpose than to waterman and 

 beast, or to serve, like canals, as a means of transport." So 

 powerfully did the river impress the native minds that they be- 

 came incapable of imagining any place to be habitable without 

 it. 



In one chapter we have an account of the habits of several 

 breeds of dogs. A Scotch collie was found to take kindly to the 

 wild life in the desert and soon became the leader of the ordinary 

 dogs. But four pure-breed grayhounds, when tired of moping 

 about the house, would take to the desert and course on their own 



