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NOTT NOTTINGHAM 519 or four days, it was killed, and its flesh found delicious ; the skin was sent to England, where a description was made by Mr. John Gould, confirming entirely the opinion of Owen based upon the bony structure. The bird had the aspect of a large porphyrio in the bill .and the color, but had the moderate feet of tribonyx, with the rudimentary wings and tail of an os- trich. The length was 26 in., the bill to gape 2|, the wing 8, and the tarsi and tail each 3^ ; the bill was shorter than the head, much com- pressed on the sides, with the culmen elevated and arched, extending on the forehead as far as the posterior angle of the eye ; wings very short, rounded, slightly concave ; the primaries soft and yielding, the first short, and the third to the seventh equal and longest ; feathers of tail soft and loose ; tarsi powerful, almost cy- lindrical, very broad in front and defended by wide scutellaa ; anterior toes large and strong, shorter than the tarsus, with powerful hooked nails ; hind toe short, strong, rather high up, with a blunt hooked nail. The head, neck, breast, upper part of abdomen and sides pur- plish blue ; back, rump, upper tail coverts, les- ser wing coverts, and tertiaries dark olive green tipped with verditer green ; on the nape a band of rich blue separating the purplish blue of the neck from the green of the body ; wings rich deep blue, the greater coverts tipped with ver- diter green ; tail dark green ; lower abdomen, vent, and thighs bluish black ; under tail cov- erts white ; bill and feet red. From the thick- ness of the plumage, and the great length of the feathers of the back, it is believed that this bird inhabited marshy places and coverts of damp ferns ; it was essentially terrestrial, yet probably able to swim ; though unable to fly, it was a very rapid runner ; it was doubtless very shy, keeping concealed, naturally or to avoid enemies, in the darkest and thickest re- cesses of the islands. NOTT, Eliphalet, an American educator, born in Ashford, Conn., June 25, 1773, died in Schenectady, N. Y., Jan. 29, 1866. He studied theology, and at the age of 21 was sent as a domestic missionary to central New York. On passing through Cherry Valley, he accepted a call to the pastorate of the Presbyterian church there, and he also became teacher in the academy. Soon afterward he was called to the Presbyterian church at Albany, where he preached his celebrated sermon on the death of Alexander Hamilton. In 1804 he was chosen president of Union college, Schenectady, which place he held until his death. More than 3,700 students graduated during his presidency. In 1854 its semi-centennial anniversary was cele- brated, when several hundred of the men who had graduated under him assembled. Besides occasional addresses and discourses, Dr. Nott published "Counsels to Young Men" (1810, often republished), and "Lectures on Tem- perance" (1847). He gave much attention to physical science, especially to the laws of heat, and obtained about 30 patents for inventions in this department; among the most notable of these was the first stove for burning anthra- cite coal, which bore his name, and was for many years extensively used. NOTT, Josiah Clark, an American ethnologist, born in Columbia, S. C., March 31, 1804, died in Mobile, March 31, 1873. He graduated at the South Carolina college in 1824, took the degree of M. D. in Philadelphia in 1827, and was for two years demonstrator of anatomy to Dr. Physick, when he returned to Columbia and commenced practice. In 1835-'6 he studied medicine, natural history, and the kindred sci- ences in Europe, and after his return practised medicine in Mobile. Besides contributing many articles on professional and similar topics to medical journals, he published several ethno- logical works. Among these are " Two Lec- tures on the Connection between the Bibli- cal and Physical History of Man " (8vo, New York, 1849); "The Physical History of the Jewish Race" (Charleston, 1850); "Types of Mankind" (4to, Philadelphia, 1854); and "In- digenous Races of the Earth " (4to, Philadel- phia, 1857). The last two were prepared in connection with Mr. George R. Gliddon. The object of these works is to refute the theory of the unity of the human race, by showing that the present types of mankind lived around the Mediterranean 3,000 years B. C., and that there is no evidence that, during the last 5,000 years, one type has been changed into another. In 1857 Dr. Nott was called to the chair of anat- omy in the university of Louisiana, but in 1858 established a medical college in Mobile, which was made a branch of the state university. NOTTINGHAM, a town of England, capital of Nottinghamshire, and a county in itself, situated on the river Leen near its junction with the Trent, and on the Nottingham canal and the Midland railway, 108 m. N. K W. of London; pop. in 1871, 86,621. The suburban villages dependent upon Nottingham have a population of about 40,000. The town is built on the side of a steep hill, and many of the streets rise in terraces. On the summit of a precipitous rock 133 ft. above the surrounding meadows are the ruins of "the castle," a large mansion built by the duke of Newcastle in 1674, on the site of a fortress erected in the time of William the Conqueror; it was burned in the reform riots of 1831. In 1872 there were 77 places of worship, of which 23 belonged to the church of England. There are five lunatic and blind asylums, hospitals, several libraries, and a mechanics' institute. The principal man- ufactures are lace, which was here first made by machinery, cotton and silk hosiery, and ale. Nottingham is a place of great antiquity, and derives its name from the Saxon Snotingaham, which is descriptive of its position as a retreat in rocks, since there were formerly many cav- erns in the soft rock on which its castle was built, of which a few remain. During the wars of the barons the castle was attacked and taken by the earl of Derby, and after the deposition