100 YEARS AGO

I send you a photograph of probably the most extraordinary heron's nest ever discovered in this or any other country. During a gale it was blown from the top of an elm tree in the heronry on Stoke Hall estate in Notts, the seat of Sir Henry Bromley, Bart. It is of unusual size, and almost exclusively composed of wire of varying lengths and thickness; the centre, or “cup,” alone being composed of fine twigs, grasses and feathers. ⃛ The other curious feature of the Stoke Hall phenomenon is that there is not, and never has been, any lack of ordinary building material, and that all the wire used must have been carried a great distance.

An interesting observation upon the development of a taste for honey by starlings is recorded by Mr. W. W. Smith in the Entomologist (April). In a previous note referring to some enemies of humble-bees in New Zealand, Mr. Smith stated that he had observed the newly-introduced starlings killing and conveying humble-bees to their nests to feed their young. ⃛ this bird now frequents the flax-flats and sucks the honey from the richly mellifluous flowers. It appears probable that the eating of the humble-bee's honey-sac by the starlings developed, or is now developing, the taste for honey in these birds.

From Nature 7 April 1898.

50 YEARS AGO

In 1941 we published a theory which provided, among other things, an explanation of seasonal and latitude variations in the thickness of atmospheric ozone. From this theory we were able to predict ozone thicknesses in latitudes for which, as yet, there are no direct observations — for example, in polar regions. Furthermore we have shown that near the poles the ozone thickness should be practically zero soon after the winter solstice. Now routine measurements of ozone thickness, carried out by E. Tönsberg and K. L. Olsen in Tromsö, have shown values so low as 0.05cm. in December. It may be assumed that these occurrences are due to the movement of air masses from higher latitudes, so that the results afford good confirmation of our theoretical predictions.

From Nature 10 April 1948.