A CAPITAL annotated catalogue of the mammals collected by Dr. W. L. Abbott in the Kilima-Njaro region, East Africa, has been prepared by Mr. F. W. True, and printed in the Proceedings of the fifteenth volume of the U.S. National Museum, with several plates. Dr. Abbott has presented to the National Museum many African collections; but none of them, according to Mr. True, is of more interest than the collection of mammals. The specimens have been prepared with much care, the skins being almost invariably accompanied by the skulls and furnished with labels giving the locality and date of capture, sex, and other data. In determining the species Mr. True has found it necessary to depend almost exclusively on the literature, on account of the lack of specimens for comparison, but the identifications have been made with much care, and may, he thinks, on the whole, be relied upon. Several species apparently new are represented in the collection: Dendrohyrax validus, Mus aquilus, Dendromys nigrifrons, Sciurus undulatus, Cephalophus spadix. On one who has studied the North American mammalian fauna in detail, Mr. True says, the thought impresses itself that the condition of species, as regards variation, is different in the Ethiopian and Nearctic regions. In North America individual variation seems far less extensive than in Africa, while geographical variation appears to be more extensive and constant. In Dr. Abbott's collection great individual variation is especially apparent in the genera Galago, Genetta, and Canis. It is true that the species of the last-named genus everywhere present much individual variation, but in North America its chief variations appear to be geographical in character. The known range of several species is considerably extended by Dr. Abbott's labours. AN important contribution to spectroscopy appears in No. 10 of Wiedemann's Annalen in the shape of a paper on the infrared emission spectrum of the alkali metals, by Benjamin W. Snow. The method is distinguished by the adoption of a modi. fied form of the bolometer and a very delicate galvanometer The fibre, supplied by Prof. with quartz fibre suspension. Boys, was 40 cm. long. With a scale at a distance of 3m., a bands reaching up to λ 20620, the principal less refrangible 7000 and 7700 7850 and 8600 9000 and 10000 10750 and 11600 13700 and 15000 These were made up of innumerable fine lines. It was also observed that the carbon spectrum vanished in comparison with the metallic spectrum as soon as the latter was brought into play. Of the five metals investigated, viz., sodium, potassium, rubidium, lithium, and cæsium, the two rarest were found to be |specially rich in infra-red lines. Sodium showed maxima at 8182, 11270, 12400, and 18360, potassium at 7670, 10820, 11580, 12250, and 14610, lithium at 8070, rubidium at 7910, 9980, 13120, and 14760, and cæsium at 8380, a large one at Kayser and 8820, and others at 9980, 13270, and 14530. Runge's empirical law for the alkalies was confirmed for the infrared of lithium and sodium, but not for the other three metals. MR. ELLIOTT COUES, of the Smithsonian Institution, defends 66 once a in Science the rule, in biological nomenclature, synonym, always a synonym," for the form of which he believes himself to be in some degree responsible. He illustrates the real meaning of the aphorism in the following way. Let there be a genus Smithia in botany. Let a genus Jonesia then be named. Let Jonesia then be found to be the same genus as Smithia. Then the name Jonesia "lapses into synonomy," and cannot be thereafter applied to any other genus in botany. That is all that is meant by the saying "once a synonym always a synonym." In other words, if Jonesia is not good for what it originally meant, it is good for nothing; it is to be deleted absolutely, and cannot come into re-existence by transfer Mr. Coues shows that the same principle to any other genus. holds for all specific names within their respective genera. Example: Let there be a Rosa Smithi. Let some one then name a Rosa Jonesi. Let R. Jonesi be considered to be the Then there can never be a R. same species as R. Smithi. Jonesi; that is to say, no other species of Rosa can be specified as Jonesi. But, of course, if any one discovers, after this reduction of Jonesi to a synonym of Smithi, that what had been called R. Jonesi is a good species, then Jonesi revives as the name of that species; and the fact that it had been (erroneously) regarded as a synonym of Smithi is no bar to its use in its original sense. THE Geological Survey of America has published a paper, by Mr. J. S. Diller, on the Geology of the Taylorville region in the Sierra Nevada, California, immediately north of the fortieth In this region there are eighteen sedimentary formaThe former have a total parallel. tions and seventéen eruptive masses. thickness of 24,500 feet; 17,500 feet are probably Paleozoic, Among the sedimentary rocks, and 7000 feet are Mesozoic. one horizon in the Silurian, two in the Carboniferous, three or more in the Trias, and five in the Jura have been definitely Among the eruptives there is great recognized by fossils. variety. Their extravasation, beginning early in the Paleozoic, recurred vigorously in the Triassic and at the close of the Jurassic, and, finally, also in the Neocene and Pleistocene. The dioritic rocks of the region are a portion of the great granitoid mass of the upper Sierra Nevada, and are evidently eruptive, with well-defined contact phenomena in Triassic formations. Their eruption is certainly post-Triassic, and may have taken place immediately at its close or after the deposition of the Jurassic. There are at least four unconformities in the geologic column of the Taylorville region. During the greater part, if not the whole, of the Paleozoic, the sea covered the region now occupied by the northern portion of the Sierra Nevada. The great disturbance at the close of the Carboniferous may have been accompanied by an uplift, forming land during the early Triassic; but if so, it subsided and was ready to receive the deposits of the upper Triassic. The disturbance at the close of the Triassic formed no land in the northern Sierra region, but that which closed the Jurassic was accompanied by a great upheaval, excluding the sea to the western base of the Sierras. The general structure of the Taylorville region involves a synclinal and two limiting anticlinals. After the folds were overturned toward the north-east, the Grizzly anticlinal was affected by an overthrust fault in the same direction. The throw along this fault in the older strata is so much greater than in those of Jurassic age as to suggest that a large part of the displacement took place at the close of the Triassic, and was followed by movement on the same plane at the close of the Jurassic. MR. STANFORD has issued an interesting and valuable contoured map of the county of London. The scale is three inches to a mile. The contour lines or lines of equal altitude are drawn at 25 feet intervals. The lowest contour is 25 feet above the level of the sea, ordnance datum, which is 12 feet 6 inches below Trinity high water. The whole of the alluvial flat lying below the lowest contour, or at a less altitude than 12 feet 6 inches above the river Thames (Trinity high-water mark), is covered by a dark brown tint. THE third volume of reports upon the fauna of Liverpool Bay and the neighbouring seas has been issued. The reports have been written by members of the Liverpool Marine Biology committee and other naturalists, and edited by Prof. W. A. Herdman, F.R.S. MESSRS. GURNEY AND JACKSON have published the Zoological Record for 1891. It is the twenty-eighth volume of the series. Mr. D. Sharp, F. R. S., has acted as editor, and has had the co-operation of many able zoologists. It is intended that in future the volume shall be published in August or September. PHOTOGRAPHERS will read with great interest an admirable paper by Captain Abney, in the November number of the Journal of the Camera Club, on "shutters," which he describes as "a piece of apparatus which is the very joy and toy of the photographer's existence." The paper is fully illustrated. THE REV. L. A. Walker sends to the current number of the Entomologist some statistics of the entomology of the Hague, where he acted as chaplain during July. The entomology of Holland seemed to him very disappointing in number of species, and also in individuals in the great majority of cases; less productive, in fact, than the ordinary run of country places at home. AT the meeting of the Linnean Society of New South Wales on September 28, Mr. R. Etheridge, junior, exhibited seeds of the "Bean-tree," possibly an Erythrina, from Macdonald ranges, Central Australia. The seeds are strung and used as necklaces by the aborigines, who use the wood of the same tree for producing fire by friction, and also for shields, on account of its lightness. A COMPOUND of gold and cadmium of the composition AuCd has been isolated by Messrs. Heycock and Neville, and is described by them in the November number of the Journal of the Chemical Society. During the course of a series of experiments last year upon solutions of gold and cadmium in melted tin, it was observed that the amount of lowering of the freezing-point of the tin by the simultaneous introduction of gold and cadmium was considerably less than the sum of the effects which each of the two latter metals would produce alone. It was surmised that this difference must be due to combination between the gold and the cadmium. Moreover, the product o this combination appeared to be only sparingly soluble in tin, for a considerable quantity of a crystalline precipitate was pre duced, but owing to the difficulty of freeing it from the tin whic solidified over it upon removal, the compound was not obtaine. in a state of sufficient purity to enable a definite conclusion co cerning its composition to be arrived at. Messrs. Heycock an Neville now announce that they have succeeded in preparing the compound in an entirely different manner, and in isolating in a state of comparative purity. The following is the be mode of procedure :-A piece of the hardest combustion tubing is sealed at one end and slightly bent in the middle so as to for a V-tube of very large angle. A quantity of pure gold is place: in the sealed limb, together with three or four times its equivalen of cadmium. The open end is then drawn off so as to enable the tube to be exhausted by means of the Sprengel pump. high a vacuum as possible should be obtained, and the tube subsequently sealed. The apparatus is then arranged upon a combustion furnace in such a manner that the excess of As The cadmium when liquefied may run away from the alloy. When the cadmium first melts it is advisable to vigorously shake the tube so as to diffuse the gold well among the cadmium. combination then occurs suddenly, accompanied by bright incandescence of the gold. When the larger excess of cadmiam has been allowed to run away from the compound, the end of the tube containing the latter is heated for about five hours to a temperature about that of the softening of glass, when the remainder of the excess of cadmium distils regularly off, until towards the expiration of the five hours no further condensation The product thus left behind was found in three successive experiments to contain about 637 per cent. of gold, the percentage required for a compound of the composition AuCd. The compound of gold and cadmium thus obtained presents a silvery greyish-white appearance, is very brittle, an:. exhibits a crystalline fracture. The action of acids upon it is somewhat singular. Cold acids appear to be without materia! action upon it, but hot nitric or hydrochloric acid attacks it with great energy, the cadmium passing into solution and the gob. being left in the shape of the original ingot. occurs. THE additions to the Zoological Society's Gardens during the past week include a Purple-faced Monkey (Semnopithecus les coprymnus) from Ceylon, presented by Mrs. Elgee; six Shorttailed Voles (Arvicola agrestis) from Scotland, presented by Mr. J. E. Harting, F.Z.S.; two Laughing Kingfishers (Dactio gigantea) from Australia, presented by Mr. J. W. Hornsby; s Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaëtus) from Labrador, presented by Mr. J. G. Baxter; a Jackdaw (Corvus monedula) British, pre sented by the Rev. H. W. Reynolds; three Geck (Gecko verticillatus) from Burmah, presented by Mr. W. (r. Bligh; two American Darters (Plotus anhinga), a Comr Boa (Boa constrictor) from South America, four Bar-taile Pheasants (Phasianus reevesi 8 8 9 ) from China, purchased It may be mentioned that an Astronomische Nachrichten circular note contains rather a modified edition of the above places deduced from observations made on October 16, 20, and 25. Thus for the 13th, the R. A. is given as 20h. 54m. 24s. (app.), and declination (app.) + 1° 54'5; and for the 17th, R.A. (app.) 21h. 6m. 39s, and declination (app.) + 0° 46′4. COMET BROOKS (AUGUST 28).-Owing to the rapid brightening of Comet Brooks, we give the following ephemeris continued from the same source as mentioned last week (Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 3125). Name. R.A. Decl. 1892. h. m. S. Nov. 11... 9 56 50 I 8 5 29 9.52 + 30.8 12...IO 13... 14... 2 24'6 o 0985 ... 9.9861 ... 15:61 ... 390 392 2163 113 1167 106 480 2509 1054 -O 22'9 OCCULTATION OF MARS AND JUPITER BY THE Moon.— Prof. Barnard communicates his observations of the occultation of Mars and Jupiter by the moon, which occurred in one week during last September, to the Astronomical Journal, No. 276. The instrument used was the 12-inch equatorial and the seeing was defined as being very fine on both occasions. At the disappearance of the former planet, which took place at the dark limb of the moon, nothing very striking was noticed, the moon's limb at that point being sharp and not dusky, as had been previously seen in an occultation of Jupiter. The times of disappearance and appearance (Mount Hamilton mean time) MOTION OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM.-The question of the exact position of the point in the heavens to which the sun with his system is travelling has been the object of much research and computation, and the present co-ordinates are now considered as being about R. A. 267° and declination + 31°. The determination under consideration (Astronomical Journal, No. 276) has been undertaken by Prof. J. G. Porter, and is based on the proper motions of 1340 stars, contained in the Publication of the Cincinnati Observatory, No. 12. The method employed for computing the co-ordinates of the apex of the sun's way is that of Prof. Schönfeld; the stars were grouped in four divisions, Division I. including those whose yearly proper motion was less than o"30 and contained 576 stars; Division H., motion from o":30 to 0" 60, containing 533 stars; Division III., motion from o" 60 to 1" 20, con'aining 142 stars; and lastly, Division IV., the motion exceeding 1" 20, 70 stars being included. From these four groups the following values have been deduced, where σ and represent the co-ordinates of the apex of the sun's course and the velocity of the sun's L. Struve Stumpe... Porter SOME REMINISCENCES OF THE MAORIS. MR. W. COLENSO, F.R.S., has often been asked to record some of his reminiscences of the Maoris, whom he has for very many years had opportunities of studying. This he has now done in a paper printed in the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute (vol. xxiv.), some extracts from which may be of interest for various classes of readers. He says: Of the Mako Shark.-Fifty years ago (to go no further back) a Maori chief would be known by wearing certain emblems or insignia indicative of rank, one of which was the tooth of the mako as an ear-pendant; and, as such were plentiful, though distributed, the thought often occurred to me in my early travelling days, What a number of the fish mako there must have been captured or obtained by the Maoris to yield such a large number of teeth! Moreover, on inquiry I invariably found that all the teeth I saw were prized heirlooms, and had descended to the present possessor through several generations, and (as far as I could learn) none had been recently acquired. And while, when travelling along the sea-coasts for many a league on both sides of the North Island during several years, and always on foot, I had both seen and heard of a number of large sea-animals (fishes and mammals) that were driven on shore on the sandy beaches in severe gales from the sea, I never knew of a single mako shark, nor had the Maoris resident on those shores ever heard of one being cast up. In replying to my numerous inquiries by letter respecting the mako, made many years ago, an intelligent aged Maori chief living on the east coast wrote as follows (or, rather, he being of the old school, and unable himself to write, a young adherent did so at his dictation). I give a literal translation of portions of his letter : "You ask, did I ever see a mako fish? Yes; and it is a very large creature, the biggest of all the sharks (mango)—in length 2 fathoms measured (erua maro whanganga nei), and in thickness I foot. It is a true shark, but called by us a mako on account of its teeth. You also inquire concerning its fat or oil, and the edible qualities of its flesh, whether considered choice by us Maoris. Now, there are many kinds of shark, as the mako, the karaerae, the pioke, the ururoa, the uatini, the tahapounamu, the taiari, the tatere, and the mangotara, and I have not eaten of them all, and therefore I do not know how nice or how fat they all are; and so of this one, the mako. But, my friend, this fish was never desired as an article of food-never so used by us Maoris. The only part of it that we sought and greatly desired to have was its head, and this solely on account of its teeth. When caught out at the deep-sea fishing-grounds its body was never hauled into the canoe, but the head was cut off while it was still in the sea and alongside of the canoe (ka tapahia moanatia te upoko): this done, and the head secured, the body was left to drift away on the sea. The head was also immediately wrapped up securely in a clothingmat (kahu), lest it should be noisily wondered at by those who were strangers or unacquainted with it (koi umeretia e nga tangata tauhou). You also ask what instrument was used for cutting off the head of the mako. What, indeed! Why, the saw made of the teeth of the tatere shark firmly fixed on to a wooden blade (he niho tatere, he mea hohou ki runga ki te rakau). You further inquire respecting the number of its teeth. There are eight-that is, large ones from within-and also eight smaller ones of them outside. Besides those there were several much smaller ones in front or outside (o waho rawa), but these I never counted, and therefore cannot give their exact number." He also wrote (in another and subsequent letter) in answer to my further inquiries: "There are four very large teeth from the beginning, or within. These are called rei, and are kept for ear-pendants. Altogether there are eight teeth-that is, four very large ones, and four smaller, making eight in all. The outside teeth resemble those of the tatere shark, and are only termed teeth (niho); these have no other name, but those that are kept for ear-pendants are called au rei. Then, you wish to know how the mako was captured by us Maoris in the olden times. Listen. This fish was never taken as other sharks (mango) were, with hook and bait none of our fish-hooks would be strong enough to hold it, they would soon be broken. Now, when the fishing-canoe was out fishing, and had been a long time there catching fishes of various kinds, suddenly a mako would be seen coming leisurely along on the surface of the water (e hara mai noa ana i te kiri o te wai, ara i te kare o te wai). Then the man who saw it would shout out to his companions in the canoe,Haul up our land' (Hutia mai to tatou whenua), not naming the fish; and when the mako was pretty near to the canoe, about three yards off, then the big tempting bait was let low down before it, and on the mako seeing the bait it would bend down its head to seize it (ka tupou te upoko), when its tail would be upraised above water. Then a noosed rope would be flung over its tail (lasso-fashion) and quickly hauled tight, which would secure the tail within the noose hard and fast. And away would speed the canoe at a fleet rate towards all sides of the sea and sky, being continually turned about in all directions by the fish, the man who had noosed it always holding on to the rope. At last, being exhausted, the mako died; then it floated, when its head would be cut off, as I said before. This was our common manner of catching the mako fish (kotona hii tonu tenei o tenei ika o te mako), often also called by us a monster (taniwha); and hence arose the term of monsterbinding (heretaniwha), owing to it being securely noosed and bound with a rope flung over its tail." Here ends the interesting narration of my worthy old Maori correspondent, who died soon after. I have never seen a mako fish, and I am in doubt whether it is yet fully known to science. It is evidently one of the deep-water fishes. The first mention of it by skilled scientific observers that I have noticed is in Sir James Ross's "Voyage to the South Seas," wherein it is stated that on nearing the Chatham Islands, in November, 1841 (within a week after leaving their winter quarters and anchorage in the Bay of Islands), "the long-snouted porpoises were particularly numerous. One of these creatures was struck with a harpoon, and in its formidable jaws we found the teeth which the NewZealanders value highly as ornaments, and which had puzzled us greatly to ascertain to what animal they belonged" (vol. ii., p. 134). Those Antarctic Expedition ships had spent several months in the Bay of Islands, and the officers had frequent opportunities of seeing and examining the teeth of the mako, and very likely had purchased some from the Maoris, as they were diligent in acquiring natural specimens, and curios and ornaments of all kinds. Professor Hutton, in his " Catalogue of the Fishes of New Zealand" (published by the Government in 1872), considered the mako to be the "Lamna glauca = tiger-shark;" but he says, "The shark from which the Maoris obtain the teeth with which they decorate their ears is probably this species, but I have seen teeth only (l.c., p. 77). Subsequently Professor Julius von Haast (in 1874) read a paper before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury (Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. vii., p. 237) on the mako of the Maoris, which, he says, is Lamna cornubica, the porbeagle shark, and not L. glauca as had been supposed by Professor Hutton. But Professor von Haast had only a small young specimen (or, rather, its skin) to examine, which two North Island Maoris, then engaged at Christchurch Museum, pronounced to belong to a young mako, and informed him that this fish in its adult state was about 12ft. long. The animal to which the skin belonged was 4ft. 1oin. long. Professor von Haast also gives much in formation relative to the teeth of his small specimen (differing widely from my Maori friend's description given above), their number, form, and size, the colour of its skin, &c. Still, as I take it, there are reasonable doubts as to that specimen being a true mako; I think it is highly probable that his two Maori inform ants had never seen a real mako shark. Couch, in his celebrated work on "British Fishes," in his account of the porbeagle shark, gives a drawing of it from nature, and also others of its teeth and jaws, which appear to be different from those of the mako, being much more slender, and semi-terete, undulate, and sharply pointed (vol. i., pp. 4144). My object in writing this notice of the mako shark is mainly to relate the ancient Maori mode of capturing it. Of the Preparation of Black Pigment for Tattooing.—The ancient Maoris had more ways than one of obtaining the black substance used in tattooing, which colouring-matter also varied in quality, partly owing to what it was made from; that for the countenance being superior to that used for the lower parts of the body. One way of obtaining the best kind was as follows:First, two proper careful men were selected for the work. This, too, was done with ceremony, they being (for the time) tapu (i.e., under the laws of taboo)-rigidly set apart. A small kiln-like furnace (ruangarchu) was excavated in the side of a hill suitably situated. The substances to be used in burning for their soot-kauri-resin (kapia) and the resinous veins of white pine wood (kapara)-were got ready; a net made from the wharanui flax leaves finely split, composed of very small and close meshes, and beaten well, so as to be rough and scabrous from long broken fibres, in order the better to catch and retain the soot (awe), which was intended to adhere only to the network: this net was fixed properly and securely over the top opening or chimney of the kiln, and above it were placed thick mats and such like, to prevent the escape of the burning soot and smoke. All being ready, a very calm fine night was chosen for the firing of the kiln-a night in which there should not be the least breath of moving air; and, the kiln being fired, those two men remained all night at their post, attending to their work, carefully feeding the fire. When all the resinous substances were burnt up, and the kiln cold-the calm weather still continuing-the soot was carefully collected and mixed up with the fat of birds, and then given to a Maori dog to eat, which dog had also been early set apart for this work-tied up, made to fast, and kept hungry, that it might perform its part and eat the prepared morsels with avidity. After devouring the mixed food the dog was still kept tied up, and not allowed to eat any other aliment until it had voided the former. the fæces were evacuated they were carefully gathered, and mixed up and kneaded with bird's oil and a little water, and, when this mixture became dry and hard, it was put up securely into a large shell, or into a hollowed pumice or soft stone, and laid by carefully, buried in the earth, for future use. It is said to have possessed no disagreeable odour when dry (though i had while fresh), and, though long kept, it did not become bad nor spoil through keeping, which, on the contrary, was said to improve it, and it was very much prized. == When It was this pigment, so put up and kept, that was the origin of one of their proverbs, "Puritia to ngarahu kauri" = Keep to thyself thy kauri-resin-soot pigment. This saying was used when a person was unwilling to give what was asked, the same being some common thing, and not at all needed by the ava ricious owner. But there is a double meaning here in this simple sentence (proverb)-namely, "You may never require it, or live to use it." (See Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xii., p. 145Of the Manufacture of their Long Spears.-Some of thei spears were very long. Of these there were two kinds. One kind was made of hardwood, rimu (Dacrydium cupressinum) This was used in defending their forts and stockades before the introduction of firearms, being thrust through the palisades a close quarters against the legs and bodies of the invaders. The other kind was much lighter, though longer, being made of the light wood of the tawa-tree (Beilschmiedia tawa), and usea only for the spearing of pigeons when they were sitting on the top of a high tree. This spear was tipped with a flai serrated bone 3 inches-5 inches long, usually coarsely barbed on one lateral edge, and sharply pointed; the bone being humar. and a portion of that of the arm or leg, and, of course, of their deadly enemies. Seeing that these long spears were always be forgotten, in considering their ancient laborious and heavy It took The First, a straight, tall, and sound tawa-tree was selected in the Its head and forest. This was felled with their stone axes. branches having been lopped off, it was dragged out into the open ground, and split down the middle into two halves. If it split easily and straight, then it would probably serve for two The next spears, if each half turned out well in the working. thing was to prepare a long raised bed of hard tramped and beaten clay, 35ft.-40ft. long-longer than the intended spearthe surface to be made quite regular and smooth (like a good asphalte kerb town walk of the present day). On to this clay bed the half of the tawa-tree was dragged, and carefully adzed down by degrees, and at various times, to the required size and thickness of the spear. It was not constantly worked, but it was continually being turned and fixed by pegs in the ground, to keep it lest it should warp and so become crooked. a considerable time-about two years-to finish a spear. last operation was that of scraping with a broken shell or fragment of obsidian, and rubbing smooth with pumice-stone. When quite finished and ready for use a suitable tall and straight tree was found in, or on the edge of, the forest; its trunk was trimmed of branchlets, &c. ; the long spear was loosely fixed to run easily through small round vertically to it, so as -horizontal loops girt to the tree, and placed at some distance from each other; the tip of the spear concealed, yet protruding near the topmost branches of the tree; and, as the pigeon is a very thirsty bird (especially, I should think, after feeding on the large fruits of the tawa and of the miro-Podocarpus ferrugineatrees, which are hot and piquant), the Maoris made small corrugated vessels of the green bark of the totara tree that would hold water, and fixed such on the top of the tree to which the long spear had been lashed, and by-and-by, when the bird was settled above after drinking (for it is a very quiet bird, sitting long after feeding), the spear was gently pulled down by its owner below on the ground, and sent up with a jerk into the body of the pigeon. I have seen the fixed spear thus used in the forests, and have eaten the bird so captured. I may here mention that I have also seen those totara-bark dishes, with water in them, fixed high up on the big branches of trees in the woods in the Urewera country, having flax nooses so set over the water as to catch and hold fast the pigeon in its drinking. I have seen pigeons so caught, the Maoris climbing the trees naked with the agility of monkeys to secure their prizes. From the large amount of labour and the time consumed in the making of a long spear, and its great beneficial use when made, arose a good proverb among them relative to industry in tillage, &c., and to being prepared-" Kahore he tarainga tahere i te ara" You cannot hew a bird-spear by the way. Meaning: Without timely preparation you may die from want of food, though the pigeons are plentiful in the forests near you. Of the Fine Smelling-sense and Taste of the Ancient Maoris for Perfumes.-I have already more than once, and in former papers read here before the Institute, touched on the superior powers of sight of the ancient Maoris; 1 and it has often occurred to my mind that they also possessed a very keenly developed sense of smell, which was largely and quickly shown whenever anything sweetly odoriferous, however fine and subtle, had been used as eau de Cologne, essence of lavender, &c. Indeed, this sense was the more clearly exhibited in the use of their own native perfumes, all highly odorous and collected with labour. Yet this sensitive organization always appeared to be the more strange when the horribly stinking smells of two of their common articles of food-often, in the olden times, in daily use-are considered: rotten corn (maize, dry and hard, in the cob) long water to soften it; and dried shark. The former, steeped in 1 Trans. N. Z. Inst. vol. xiv. p 67, &c. however, has long been abandoned; yet at one period every village at the North had its steeping-pit. 66 In a paper I read here at our June meeting I mentioned some of the very small Hepaticæ (Lophocolea and Chiloscyphus species) as being used for perfume by the Maoris, who called them piripiri. Their scent was pleasant, powerful, and lasting. Hooker, in describing those plants, has mentioned it from dried "often "odour sweet;" of another, L. novazealandia, and old specimens. Of one species, Lophocolea pallida, he says, a handsome stronglyfragrant;" of another, L. allodonta, "odour strong, aromatic;" of another, Chiloscyphus fissistipus, scented species: and he has further preserved it to one of them in its specific name, C. piperitus, "odour of black pepper." There were also two or three ferns-viz., Hymenophyllum sanguinolentum, a very strong-smelling species, hence too its specific name; dried specimens not only retain their powerful odour, but impart it to the drying papers: Folypodium pustulatum, having an agreeable delicate scent: and Doodia fragrans, a neat little species; this last was so far esteemed as sometimes to give name to the locality where it grew, as Puke mokimoki, the little isolated hill which once stood where the Recreationground now is in Napier; that hill having been levelled to fill in the deep middle swamp in Monroe Street. 1 One of the Pittosporum trees, tawhiri (P. tenuifolium), also yielded a fragrant gum; but the choicest and the rarest was obtained from the peculiar plant taramea (Aciphylla colensoi), which inhabits the alpine zone, and which I have only met with near the summits of the Ruahine Mountain-range, where it is very common and very troublesome to the traveller that way. The gum of this plant was only collected through much An old tohunga (skilled man, and labour, toil, and difficulty, accompanied, too, with certain ceremonial (taboo) observances. priest) once informed me that the taramea gum could only be got by very young women-virgins; and by them only after certain prayers, charms, &c., duly said by the tohunga. There is a sweet little nursery song of endearment, expressive of much love, containing the names of all four of their perfumes, which I have not unfrequently heard affectionately and soothingly sung by a Maori mother to her child while nursing and fondling it : Taku hei piripiri, My little neck-satchel of sweet-scented moss, My little neck-satchel of odoriferous gum, : My sweet-smelling neck-locket of sharp-pointed taramea.2 Here I may observe that to the last one of the four the word kati is prefixed this word-meaning, to sting, to bite, to puncture, to wound sharply and painfully-is added to indicate the excessive sharpness of the numerous leaves and leaflets of the tiramea plant (hence judiciously generically named by its early discoverer, Forster, Aciphylla needle-pointed leaf), and the consequent pains, with loss of blood, attending the collecting of its prized gum, thus enhancing its value. This natural and agreeable little stanza, one of the olden time, has proved so generally taking to the Maori people that it has press delight and satisfaction-pleasurable feelings. And somepassed into a proverbial saying, and is often used, hummed, to exvoice, I have known a whole company of grey-headed Maoris, times, when it has been so quietly and privately sung in a low men and women, to join in the singing: to me, such was always indicative of an affectionate and simple heart. How true it is, "One touch of nature makes the whole world kin "|3 In the summer season the sleeping-houses of their chiefs were often strewed with the large sweet-scented flowering grass karetu (Hierochloe redolens). Its odour when fresh, confined in a small house, was always to me too powerful.* 1 Mokimoki Hill, from mokimoki, the name of that fern. 3 It is pleasing to notice that the observant artist Parkinson (who was with Sir Joseph Banks as his botanical draughtsman, and Cook on his first voy"The age to New Zealand) makes special mention of those little satchels in his Journal, saying of these Maoris who came off to the ship in their canoes, principals among them had their hair tied up on the crown of their heads with some feathers, and a little bundle of perfume hung about their necks" (Journal, p. 93). Captain Cook, also, has similar remarks respecting the young women. 4 Sir J. D. Hooker thus writes of this fine, sweet-smelling grass in his "Flora Nova Zelandia": "A large and handsome grass, conspicuous for its delicious odour, like that of the common vernal grass (Anthoxanthum) of England, that gives the sweet scent to new-made hay "(.c., vol. ii., p. 300). A closely-allied northern species (H. borealis), which was also supposed to |