346 The Bidunculus, or Little Dodo. 



5. " Tho faculre are the result of the appearance on the 

 sun's surface of substances that are more luminous, or endowed 

 with a more considerable power of radiation. The conditions 

 inherent in the roseate envelope of the solar globe, may also 

 combine to give the surface the nocculent and uneven (pom- 

 melee and moutonnee) appearance which it presents. 



6. " The acceleration noticed in the rotation of the spots 

 situated near the sun's equator, is the result of the exterior 

 action of atmospheric pressure on the liquid surface, combined 

 with that of the inferior layers of the mass in fusion. As for 

 the accidental irregularities, ascertained to exist in the move- 

 ment of the spots, whether in latitude or longitude, they 

 arise from the want of equilibrium, both physical and chemical, 

 existing between the different components of this mass, which 

 cause frequent whirlpools, both in the interior of the globe and 

 in its atmospheric envelope." 



THE DIDUNCULUS, OK LITTLE DODO. 



BY W. B. TEGETMEIEK. 



The extinction of several species of the lower animals through 

 the agency of man is a fact that, unfortunately for the interests 

 of science, admits of no dispute. "Within the recent period of 

 twenty years that most interesting water bird the Garefowl, or 

 Great Auk, has been persecuted from off the face of the earth ; 

 and sixty-three or sixty-four stuffed and dissected specimens 

 arc all that remain to prove the existence of one of the largest 

 and most powerful of our diving birds. 



The British Museum sample was shot in tho Orkneys in 

 1813, and the last known specimens were captured in 1844, 

 and are preserved in tho Museum at Copenhagen. Yet within 

 the memory of old men now living, numbers of these birds 

 existed nil the I 'enguin Islands, near Newfoundland, but they 

 Avero destroyed for tho sake of their feathers. Now that this 

 wanton destruction has been effectod every effort is made to 

 procure mutilated skeletons, or even a single bone of a bird in 

 whose causo no hand was held out whilst it was alive ; and tho 

 lew specimens of tho eggs that exist in our collections are 

 valued at Iheir weight in gold. 



Those of tho younger readers of the Intellectual Observek 

 who may be desirous of saying in their old ago that they have 

 Been a living specimen of an animal which will then no longer 

 exist, should haste to the gardens of tho Zoological Society to 

 see there a bird that is the first, and will in all probability be 



