There was an astronomer of very great skill, who lived about the same time as Copernicus, who thought that a mean might be struck between the theories of Ptolemy and Copernicus, by which the favourite idea of a celestial revolution round the earth might still be retained, and so concession might be made both to the growing authority of science, and to the persuasion of men's senses. This astronomer was Tycho Brahé, who was born in 1546, at Knudstrup, in Denmark. The system advocated by him, and which is named from the inventor the Tychonic system, is represented in the annexed diagram. In this system, which was published about the year 1586, the Sun is considered as a centre, round which five of the planets revolve; namely, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn; while at the same time, the Sun himself, with all those planets, revolves round the Earth. It certainly appears strange that a man of such eminent abilities as Tycho was, should have preferred this ponderous arrangement to the more simple theory advocated by Copernicus. After the death of Tycho, his theory gradually sank in the estimation of philosophers, who found, in the arrangement advocated by Copernicus, the means of explaining celestial phenomena by less complex reasonings than by the theories either of Ptolemy or of Tycho Brahé. Here, then, we arrive at an important part of our subject; that there are, as we shall hereafter show more clearly, immense bodies revolving in orbits which measure millions of miles across. The appearances presented to the eye lead to an opinion that these bodies revolve round the earth; but a further inquiry into the accompanying circumstances, have led men universally, at the present day, to conclude that the earth and the other planets revolve round the sun. What then can keep these splendid bodies in motion? How did they first begin to move? And why do they revolve round the sun instead of moving in a straight line? These questions naturally occur to our minds, for our humble faculties can give us but a faint idea of the powers necessary to keep such immense masses in motion. If we see a carriage passing with great rapidity along a railway, we can account for its motion, by tracing the action of steam-pressure upon a piston; which, by connecting machinery, makes the axles of the wheels revolve, and thus sets the whole vehicle in motion. If we see a carriage passing along the street, we can assign a cause for its motion, by the muscular efforts of the horse which is attached to it. If a ball be shot from a cannon, its flight is so rapid as to render it invisible to us, but we can account for its motion by considering that a quantity of gunpowder, small in bulk, suddenly enlarges to about two thousand times its former dimensions, by being converted into gas, when heat is applied; and that the endeavour to obtain two thousand times as much room as it before occupied, acts with such pressure against the ball as to force it out with fearful velocity. All this we can understand, because we can trace the progress of the occurrences step by step. But when we turn to the heavens, we are lost in wonder! Our means of judging admit of no such details of comparison as those which before assisted us; and we are brought to the conclusion that the Almighty, for his own wise purposes, impressed upon the heavenly bodies those motions which we know they possess,-which we can calculate and measure,—but the origin of which we can here never know. But ought this circumstance to prevent us from studying the nature and extent of the motions impressed upon these glorious bodies? Is it presumptuous in us to endeavour to become acquainted with the laws which, once known, will give us additional proofs of the wisdom and power of the Divine architect of the heavens? Assuredly not! The origin of those movements we know not, but the study of the nature and direction of them is a noble and fitting employment for the human mind. In the century following the age of Copernicus and Tycho Brahé, there sprang up a genius, who was destined to add more to the amount of human knowledge in this path than any one, perhaps, who had previously existed. This was Sir Isaac Newton, who was born in 1642, at Woolsthorpe, in Lincolnshire. This distinguished man displayed from boyhood an ardent love for the study of the natural phenomena around him. When a child, he made clepsydras, or clocks which told the hour by the descent of water through an orifice at the bottom of a vessel. He also constructed a windmill, which was worked, in part, by a mouse placed inside. As he grew towards manhood, his soaring mind directed itself to the sublime phenomena presented by the heavens, and to the nature and composition of light. That part of his career which more particularly concerns us at present, we will now consider. When Newton was about twenty-three years of age, he was forced to leave Cambridge where he had been residing, on account of the appearance of the plague at that town. He retired to Woolsthorpe, where, sitting one day in his garden, he saw an apple fall from a tree at his feet. The falling of an apple might have been noticed often enough ; but Newton's searching mind directed itself to this inquiry: Why does the apple fall, when it is loosened from the tree?" Some may laugh at such a question,-some have laughed at it, and yet the only answer which the laughers 66 could give, would be, "Because it is the nature of things to fall, when unsupported." This vague explanation did not satisfy the sagacious Newton. He set himself to consider the nature of the occurrence which had attracted his notice, and of others similar to it, and he finished by framing that train of opinions which, under the name of the Theory of Gravitation, laid the foundation of all correct knowledge of the motions of the heavenly bodies, and which is now received by all who deserve the name of philosophers. All intellectual eye, our solar round First gazing through, he by the blended power The whole in silent harmony revolve.-THOMSON. We shall here find it convenient to consider the nature of this force of gravitation, and will endeavour to do so in the simplest way possible. Every particle of matter in the creation has a tendency to attract, or draw towards itself, every other particle, however distant it may be. We know not what this attraction is; we can therefore only judge of it by its effects. This attraction is of different degrees of force according to the size or density of the attracting body. A small loadstone or magnet will take up a little key, whereas a larger magnet will take up a larger key: so it is with attraction; a lump of lead weighing one pound only, attracts a distant body with half the force which is exerted by another piece of lead weighing two pounds. Again, the force of this invisible agency is subject to variation with respect to the distance between the attracting and attracted bodies. If a mass of lead be the attracting body, and two equal-sized bodies be at some distance from it, the one which is the nearer of the two will be attracted with greater force than that which is further removed. The diminution of attractive power from increase of distance is much more rapid than from the lessening of the size of the attracting body. For instance, if any mass of matter attract another mass with such force as to make it move through twenty feet in a second of time; then, if the first mass be removed to double its former distance, the strength of the attraction will be so much weakened, that the second body will move only five feet in a second, or with one-fourth of its former rapidity. These simple principles, when applied to such immense bodies as the planets, produce results of a gigantic kind. It may be asked, "If a pound of lead will attract a piece of cork more strongly at the distance of one than of two feet, how is it that we cannot see the proofs of such a fact in practice?" The reason is, that the earth itself forms such an enormous mass of matter that it completely neutralizes the effects of the comparatively small bodies at its surface. In strict truth, if an apple be suspended from the branch of a tree, it tends to attract the earth upwards to meet it; but the attraction of the earth for the apple is so incalculably more powerful, that the moment the apple is loosened from the tree, the earth draws it down to meet it, and that is what occurs when we say that the apple falls. Suppose that, instead of an apple, a mass of lead weighing a thousand pounds, were for a moment suspended in the air; the lead would tend to attract the earth upwards towards itself with much greater force than the apple had done; but still the earth's attraction would so completely overpower the lead, that it would be drawn down to the earth; while the latter would rise to meet it by a quantity, wholly inappreciable by mortal sense, though not by computation. But let us now suppose a body placed in the universe, equal in size to the earth, but at some distance from it. Here we perceive that there is no reason why the earth should attract the other body more strongly than the latter attracts the earth; accordingly, if they were both free to move, they would naturally approach towards each other, each one moving through half the distance which separated them. If, therefore, we were to suppose that the universe contained many such bodies, each as large as the earth, each one would attract all the others, with a force varying only as the several distances varied. But if one body were very much larger than any of the others, it would attract each of the others more powerfully than itself could be attracted; and would not, therefore, have to move through so great a distance to meet any of the other bodies, as they would have to move through, in order to meet it. All this admits of being impressed upon the mind with tolerable clearness, so long as we consider the bodies to be in the first instance stationary, and then receiving an impulse. But how can we explain the curved path which each of the heavenly bodies describes in its progress through space; and why do not all the planets get close together by virtue of the attraction which draws them one to another? These questions we cannot answer without a previous attention to other particulars, which we must shortly explain. If we stand at the top of a high tower, and throw a stone forward to the ground, we shall find that the stone will not proceed on in a straight line, but that it will soon assume a bending path and approach towards the earth. The direction in which this bending occurs, is such as to bring the stone to the earth in a more perpendicular direction than it had when it set out. Now the reason why the stone is thus forced to change the direction in which it first began to move, is, because the earth attracts it and hastens its descent. If we suppose it possible that a hole could be bored through the earth from side to side, we should find the mass of matter would be more accumulated in the direction which passes through the centre of the earth than in any other direction; and as bodies attract other bodies in proportion to their mass of matter, we see reason to believe that a falling stone is attracted more powerfully towards the central direction of the earth, than towards any other part. When, therefore, the stone has left the hand, it gradually tends to a direction perpendicular to the surface of the earth, or it gets into a direction which, if continued, would lead to the centre of the earth. Now if there were no such force as gravitation, the stone would proceed in the same straight line in which it was first propelled. If it were thrown upward from the surface of the earth, it would continue to travel upwards, without ever again descending to the earth. Here we should remember that there is in nature no such thing as up and down; but that up means simply a departure from the centre of the earth, down an approaching towards that centre. We all know with what amazing velocity a cannon-ball moves, after it has left the mouth of the cannon; yet it soon begins to decline towards the earth, whether it be originally shot from the cannon in a horizontal or in an upward direction. But still the curvature of its path towards the earth is much less rapid than in the case of the stone, because the latter moved so much more slowly. The mortar in St. James's Park can propel a bomb to a distance of about four miles, before it will fall to the earth; whereas a stone thrown by a very powerful arm would certainly fall to the ground within a few hundred yards. Suppose, now, that it were possible to increase to an indefinite extent the velocity with which a cannon-ball would move; say that it should travel ten or twenty miles before it touched the ground; a greater velocity would carry it one hundred miles before it fell: and we may go on in the same train to any extent we please, always bearin mind that, the quicker the body moves, the greater distance will it travel before it falls to the ground. Now, if we assume such a velocity that the ball would travel twenty-five thousand miles before it fell to the earth, we shall arrive at a very curious result. The diameter of the earth is almost eight thousand miles, which gives, for the circumference, about twenty-five thousand miles. The ball would, therefore, have gone completely round the earth before it fell to the ground. If the velocity were still greater it would not reach the ground at the completion of this circuit, but would go on to describe part of another revolution round the earth. When this condition is once attained, the ball might, by a due increase of the projectile force, continue to revolve for ever about the earth, and we should thus have a cast-iron satellite moving around us. Let not the reader smile at the absurdity of supposing a cannon-ball to travel twenty-five thousand miles; for it will lead us to important results. If we suppose that the sun were stationary in the universe, and that a body very much smaller than the sun were to be projected with immense velocity in a direction at right angles to a line joining the sun and the other body, then the latter (which would proceed in a straight line if the sun were not present) is drawn by the sun into a curved path, the concave or hollow side of which is always towards the sun. If the velocity with which this body were propelled were below a certain limit, it would move in a spiral which would gradually end at the sun himself, to which, therefore, the body would fall: if the velocity were beyond a certain limit, the body would describe a spiral round the sun, but gradually receding from it, and the body would continue through infinite ages to recede farther and farther from the sun: but if a certain velocity, of a corresponding ratio with the attractive power of the sun, were imparted to this body in the first instance, it would move constantly round the sun, arriving at every revolution at the point from whence it started. We are now in a condition to explain in some degree how we are to regard the motions of the planets round the sun. When the Almighty had created the various bodies which compose the universe, he exercised his infinite power and wisdom by imparting to them various velocities of motion. The sun being made very much larger than all the planets put together, exerted a more powerful attraction on them than they could exert on him; consequently, the planets were drawn towards the sun out of their original paths, and made to revolve round the larger body. But how shall we sufficiently admire the exquisite skill with which the various velocities were adapted to the size of the various bodies! What parallel can we find in the poor and imperfect works of man, to that surpassing power of adjustment by which the velocities of the planets are regulated! The earth moves some hundreds of thousands of miles in a single day; and yet, if her velocity were to deviate by a small fraction, either more or less, the earth would, in the first case, gradually recede from the sun, and never again approach near him; and in the second case, it would approach to, and fall upon, the sun. It is when such results as these are obtained, that science enables us to appreciate the striking truth, that man's efforts even in his proudest moments, are but poor and humble attempts to follow after, or to imitate, that which the Great Being performs with such boundless perfection. We applaud, and we give rewards to the man, who can make a chronometer which will be accurate within a few seconds in the year; and well may we do so, for it is a signal instance of human industry and ingenuity to produce such an instrument. Yet a mere fraction of such an error in the movements of the bodies composing the solar system, would be fatal to its stability. Truly wonderful, indeed, is it, that the eleven planets should revolve round the sun in periods differing greatly one from another, and at such various distances from him; and yet, that each one should have a velocity so exquisitely adjusted to its size and position as to bring it precisely round to the same point after every entire revolution round the sun. The sun, then, the golden magnet which thus draws all the other planets towards itself, is surrounded with whirling worlds, which borrow their light from him and share it with one another. Well might the poet of the seasons exclaimThou, O sun! Soul of surrounding worlds! in whom best seen As with a chain indissoluble bound, FORM OF THE ORBITS OF THE PLANETS. OUR remarks hitherto have been so expressed as to lead to the conclusion that the planets move in perfect circles round the sun at all times, and under all circumstances. Such, however, is not strictly the case. The paths which they describe are oval or elliptical. Most persons know the form which is meant by the term oval. If we hold an egg in the hand, and look at its outline, it will give a near approach to this form: and, indeed, the word oval is derived from ovum, the Latin for an egg. Such, then, is the form of the paths in which the planets move. Now we may inquire whether the sun is exactly in the middle of this oval, or near either end of it. To this it must be answered that the sun is not precisely in the middle, but that he is a little nearer to one side than the other. It will be useful to give an idea of the position which the sun occupies. Suppose A B represent the orbit or path in which a planet (such as the earth) moves round the sun. (We have made this a larger oval in proportion than the earth's orbit really is, in order that our meaning may be more conspicuous.) There are two points F and s (called foci, plural of the Latin word focus, signifying a fire-place), which have peculiar properties. If we stick a pin in each of the points F and s, and fasten the two ends of a bit of thread to them, (taking care that the thread is just long enough to reach to any one part of the circumference, as at P,) we shall find that we shall be able to make the thread exactly touch every other part of the oval, by stretching it out; but * Thomson had written this before the year 1730; and the planet Uranus was not discovered until 1781. that we cannot make it extend beyond the oval in any direction. Now it is in one of such points Fs that the sun is situated, in the earth's orbit. The oval, if we could possibly see it at once with the eye, would scarcely appear to us to deviate from a cirele: it being rather a round, not a long oval. We here speak only of the earth's orbit, but the same remark applies to the orbits of all the planets, which orbits are all more or less oval. We use the term oval in preference to the term elliptical, because it is more familiarly known; the meaning of each is, however, the same. We may now be asked, whether the planets move equably in every part of their orbits,-that is, If a planet move at the rate of so many miles in an hour at one part of its orbit, will it move with the same velocity at another part? This question, on account of the oval form of the paths in which the planets move, must be answered in the negative. They do not move equably in different points of their orbits. Suppose that in the following figure, the point s were like the axle of a wheel, and that twelve equidistant spokes, or radii, reached from it to the boundary of the oval, then the earth, in passing by the end of each spoke during her revolution, would not pass from one to another in exactly equal times, but would take a longer time to pass from spoke to spoke at one part of her revolution than at another. But now let us suppose, that the time which the earth takes to revolve round the sun be divided into twelve equal parts, and that we draw a spoke from the axle, or the point s, to the boundaries between all the twelve spaces respectively passed over by the earth in those equal times; then it will be found that the open space between any two adjoining spokes, measures exactly the same number of square miles at every part of the orbit. The spokes towards the end A will be closer together than those towards B, but they will at the same time be longer, so that the excess of length precisely compensates for the deficiency in width. Here is another instance of the the greater is the difference between the lengths of the spokes towards the two ends. Yet in every case, a disagree nient in length is made up by a reverse disagreement in the openings between them, so that these areas or openings are all equal. We have been anxious to avoid every appearance of scientific difficulty in these details; but we will just mention that those who may be able to consult larger works on Astronomy, will find this law thus expressed; that" a planet always describes equal areas in equal times." Those fleeting and transient visiters, comets, are too seldom in sight to afford the means of making such correct observations of the nature of their orbits, as have been made with respect to the planets. We shall, by-and-by, have to speak individually of several comets, which have appeared at various times, but we now merely refer to their motion generally. It is now believed, from the best observations which have been made, that the comets move in exceedingly long oval orbits, by which means they are at one time very near to the sun, and at other times at an immense distance from him; still, however, the same general resemblance to the orbits of planets is to be noted, and, in addition, that the elongation of the form of the cometary orbit is frequently excessive. We shall hereafter have to show, that the four largest of the planets have moons, or satellites, revolving round them, of which our moon, the earth's satellite, is the one which attracts a larger share of our attention than any of the others. Now it is interesting to observe, that the moon of itself describes an oval orbit round the earth, in a similar manner as the earth does round the sun. But here a singular effect results:-if the earth were stationary, the moon's orbit would be found, as in the case of the planets, could gi of t rec 128 THE SATURDAY MAGAZINE. for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years; and earth restes round the sun, and, of course, carries the heaven, to divide the day from the night; and let them be to be an oval with respect to the earth; as, however, the He has said, let there be lights in the firmament of their made to them great lights. To all of them he has given Near and complicated curve,-it is a zig-zag circle let them be for lights in the firmament of heaven, to give the sun to rule the day; and to many of them has he run the sun, with several indentations and as many pro-light upon their earth; and it was so. moc with it, the real path of the latter becomes a very tuberances. Thus then do we form some general idea of the manner And God has also in which the planets are situated, with respect to one another given moons to rule the night. To them he has made the and to the sun, It will be useful to recapitulate a few points before we proceed further. stars also. And God has set them in the firmament of in the centre of a moving system; that there are eleven darkness; and God has seen that it was good. planets revolving round him in the following order, begin- "In all these greater arrangements of Divine wisdom, we can see that God has done the same things for the Vesta, Juno, Ceres, Pallas, Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus; accommodation of the planets that he has done for the that these planets describe paths which are not quite cir- earth which we inhabit. And shall we say, that the re cular but oval, and that the sun in one focus of the ellipse or oval. The motions of the planets we have like- observe it? Shall we say, that this scene of magnificence These general Wise found are not uniform, but that their velocities vary according to their distances from the sun. semblance stops here because we are not in a situation to has been called into being merely for the amusement of a few astronomers? Shall we measure the counsels of heaven sun, velocities of motion, influence upon one another, appa- empire of nature; that the greater part of creation is an the planets individually, their dimensions, distances from the ceive, that silence and solitude reign throughout the mighty details will qualify us to enter upon the consideration of all by the narrow impotence of the human faculties? or con interest to the admirers of the works of God. When that to be found through the wide extent of yon vast and imrent size as seen from the earth, and many other points of empty parade; and that not a worshipper of the Divinity is inquiry shall have been completed, we shall enter upon the measurable regions? which depend upon the rotation of the planets on their when, from the growing perfection of our instruments, we consideration of those very beautiful and important results, axes, a species of motion to which we have not hitherto alluded. "It lends a delightful confirmation to the argument, can discover a new point of resemblance between our Earth and the other bodies of the planetary system. It is now We cannot better conclude this portion of our subject ascertained, not merely that all of them have their day and than by presenting the reader with the eloquent words of a pious and eminent divine, in connexion with the sublime seasons, and that some of them have their moons to rule subject which has thus far occupied us. The world in which we live, is a round ball of a determined magnitude, and occupies its own place in the firmaexplore the unlimited tracts of that space which is everywhere around us, we meet with other superior magnitude, and from which our balls of equal or earth would either be invisible, or appear as small as any of those twinkling stars which are seen on the canopy of heaven. Why then suppose that this little spot, little at least in the immensity which surrounds it, should be the exclusive abode of life and intelligence? What reason to think that those mightier globes which roll in other parts of creation, and which we have discovered to be worlds in magnitude, are not also worlds in use and in dignity? Why should we think that the great Architect of nature, supreme in wisdom, as He is in power, would call these stately mansions into existence and leave them unoccupied ? When we cast our eye over the broad sea, and look at the country on the other side, we see nothing but the blue land stretching obscurely over the distant horizon. We are too far away to perceive the richness of its scenery, or to hear the sound of its population. Why not extend this principle to the still more distant parts of the universe? What though, from this remote point of observation, we can see nothing but the naked roundness of yon planetary orbs? Are we therefore to say, that they are so many vast and unpeopled solitudes; that desolation reigns in every part of the universe but ours; that the whole energy of the Divine attributes is expended on one insignificant corner of these mighty works; and that to this earth alone belongs the bloom of vegetation, or the blessedness of life, or the dignity of rational and immortal existence? "But this is not all. We have something more than the mere magnitude of the planets to allege in favour of the idea that they are inhabited. We know that this earth turns round upon itself; and we observe that all those celestial bodies which are accessible to such an observation, have the same movement. We know that the earth performs a yearly revolution round the sun; and we can detect, in all the planets which compose our system, a revolution of the same kind, and under the same circumstances. They have the same succession of day and night. They have the same agreeable vicissitude of the seasons. To them light and darkness succeed each other; and the gaiety of Summer is followed by the dreariness of Winter. To each of them the heavens present as varied and magnificent a spectacle; and this earth, the encompassing of which would require the labour of years from one of its puny inhabitants, is but one of the lesser lights which sparkle in their firmament. To them, as well as to us, has God divided the light from the darkness, and he has called the light day, and the darkness he has called night. night, and that all of them have their vicissitudes of their night and alleviate the darkness of it; we can see of one that its surface rises into inequalities, that it swells into mountains and stretches into valleys; of another, that it is surrounded by an atmosphere which may support the respiration of animals; of a third, that clouds are formed and suspended over it, which may minister to it all the bloom and luxuriance of vegetation; and of a fourth, that a white colour spreads over its northern regions, as its Winter advances, and that, on the approach of Summer, this whiteness is dissipated, giving room to suppose, that the element of water abounds in it, that it rises by evaporation into its atmosphere, that it freezes upon the application of cold, that it is precipitated in the form of snow, that it covers the ground with a fleecy mantle, which melts away from the heat of a more vertical sun; and that other worlds bear a resemblance to our own, in the same yearly round of beneficent and interesting changes. 66 Who shall assign a limit to the discoveries of future ages? Who can prescribe to science her boundaries, or restrain the active and insatiable curiosity of man within the circle of his present acquirements? We may guess with plausibility what we cannot anticipate with confidence. The day may yet be coming, when our instruments of observation shall be inconceivably more powerful. They may ascertain still more decisive points of resemblance. They may resolve the same question by the evidence of sense, which is now so abundantly convincing by the evidence of analogy. They may lay open to us the unquestionable vestiges of art, and industry, and intelligence. We may see Summer throwing its green mantle over these mighty tracts, and we may see them left naked and colourless after the flush of vegetation has disappeared. In the progress of years or of centuries, we may trace the hand of cultivation spreading a new aspect over some portion of a planetary surface. Perhaps some large city, the metropolis of a mighty empire, may expand into a visible spot by the powers of some future telescope. Perhaps the glass of some observer, in a distant age, may enable him to construct the map of another world, and to lay down the surface of it in all its minute and topical varieties. But there is no end of conjecture; and to the men of other times we leave the full assurance of what we can assert with the highest probability, that yon planetary orbs are so many worlds, that they teem with life, and that the mighty Being who presides in high authority over this scene of grandeur and astonishment, has there planted the worshippers of His glory."— CHALMERS, Astronomical Discourses. LONDON: JOHN WILLIAM PARKER, WEST STRAND. PUBLISHED IN WEEKLY NUMBERS, PRICE ONE PENNY, AND IN MONTHLY PARTS, I'RICE SIXPENCE. THE figure we have given above of this singular bird, has been copied, by permission of the author, from the last part of Mr. Gould's splendid work on the birds of Australia. The scientific world were indebted, in the first instance, for their knowledge of the Apteryx, to the late Dr. Shaw, by whom it was figured and described in the Naturalist's Miscellany. This specimen was presented to the doctor by Captain Barclay, of the ship Providence, who brought it from New Zealand in the year 1812. At the death of Dr. Shaw, this, at that time unique, example passed into the possession of the present Earl of Derby. In consequence of no public collection containing a specimen, the naturalists of the Continent were slow in believing in its very existence. M. Temminck considered that, like the dodo, it was an extinct species; while others, among them M. Lesson, believed it was altogether fabulous, and that its description was founded on the remains of the dodo preserved in the British Museum. Within these few years, the existence of the Apteryx has been well established; its native place is New Zealand, where it is known by the name of kiwikiwi. It is hunted at night by the natives, who employ VOL. XII. lights to deceive the birds, and dogs to destroy them, the feathers, which are extremely soft, being in high estimation in the manufacture of cloaks of ceremony; "a mat ornamented with them is the most costly dress a chief can wear." So highly prized is a garment of this description, that a European, who had resided in New Zealand for six years, had an opportunity of seeing but one cloak made of these feathers, and no consideration could induce the owner to part with it. Several specimens of the skins of this singular bird have been lately presented to the Zoological Society of London by the New Zealand Association, and its peculiar characters have been better ascertained, although as yet little is known of its habits. It has been stated, that the natives decoy the Apteryx from its lurking place by breaking the dead branch of a tree, the sudden snapping sound produced causing it to start from its concealment. The peculiar structure of the Apteryx, the length of its bill, the strength of its feet, and the almost entire absence of wings, caused it to be a difficult task to assign it to its proper place in the system. The bill of the Apteryx, being long and slender, at 370 |