1881.] J. C. Douglas— On the Wallcing Pace of Man. 57 



of the body, and the soft under- surface and sharp nails of the toes prevent- 

 ing slipping are sufficient to explain how a bird is enabled to sleep perch- 

 ed, just as a horse or a bird sleeps standing on a plane. 



III.- — The Wallcing Pace in Man. 

 Previous observers have assumed that the path traversed by man in 

 walking is a straight one, that each step is alike, and that in natural walk- 

 ing, the complementary motions are evoked regularly and symmetrically. I 

 have made a great number of observations, and have surveyed and plotted 

 out natural paths across an extended plain, and I find the natural path is a 

 wavy line. If the pace be slow, the deviation from the straight line is 

 greater than if the pace be quick, and this deviation is greatest when the 

 walk is very slow. The sinuous walk of a man slightly intoxicated, is an 

 exaggeration of the normal walk ; the difficulty of walking slowly beside a 

 second person without occasionally coming against him, unless touch be 

 kept in some way, is a matter of common observation. It appears that tha 

 adoption of sinuous paths in laying out gardens, with a view to imitate 

 nature, is an unconscious imitation (often exaggerated) of the foot paths 

 formed naturally, whenever an extended plain has to be crossed by persons 

 on foot, and this sinuosity is a consequence of the natural walk of man 

 being in a sinuous path, probably by reason of the equilibrium being imper- 

 fect, and the movements not strictly symmetrical. 



7. List of Diurnal Lepidoptera inhahiting the Nicooar Islands. — By J. 

 Wood-Mason", Deputy Superintendent, Indian Museum, and L. De 

 Nice'ville. 



(Abstract.) 

 In this paper which willappear in the Journal, Part II, the authors 

 state, that in Mr. F. Moore's paper on the Lepidopterous Fauna of the 

 Andaman and Nicobar Islands, only 23 species of rhopalocerous Lepidop- 

 tera are recorded from the Nicobar group. 



The Museum has recently received from Mr. F. A. De Kcepstorff a 

 collection of Nicobar butterflies consisting of thirty- four species, twenty-five 

 of which are recorded, in the present paper, for the first time, and two are 

 described as varieties of known forms. 



This paper will appear in the Journal, Part II. 



