Littell's Living Age/Volume 125/Issue 1617/Miscellany
The expedition to the Island of St. Paul to observe the transit of Venus will bring back some interesting observations for the naturalists. At least there appear to have been some very interesting observations made on a tribe of great birds, — so far like ducks that they are much more agile in the water than on land, but without wings half as efficient as ducks, — called the Sphemiscus, whose wings are rather fins than wings, and which climbs very laboriously from the sea to the plateaus six hundred feet high, where villages of its nests are built, by the help of legs and beak and wings (or fins) all used in combination. The track up which the males return to the nests is, in fact, worn by constant use into a sort of road, and the birds always keep to it in their ascent. The fishermen on the spot call this bird — which shows no fear of man — "the magistrate," from its grave and weighty appearance. Clearly, this is another of the remarkable links between species of very different habits and instincts.Spectator.
The article in the new number of the Quarterly Review, on "Indian Missions" is by the Rev. Dr. Caldwell, the well-known Orientalist. It is likely that it will be republished as a pamphlet by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, and be also disseminated by the Church Missionary Society, for all such bodies have greatly at heart the principal thesis which Dr. Caldwell supports, that Hindus who have turned Christians in India, have by no means morally deteriorated. Dr. Caldwell — an LL.D. for many years of Glasgow University — was made the other day a D.D. of Durham by diploma — a step considered somewhat rare, as honorary D.D.s are much more common than D.D.s by diploma. It is understood Dr. Caldwell will, if certain technical difficulties can be removed, be shortly appointed to be the first bishop of a new Indian see, where he will have control over many of the chief Hindu pastorates of Southern India.Athenæum.