Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 22.djvu/681

 S.U N S U N 653 either in wave-like or zigzag forms as somewhat to resemble curtain motlis. The bay colour forms two conspicuous patches on each wing, and also an antepenultimate liar on the tail, behind which is a subtenninal band of black. The irides are red ; the bill is greenish olive ; and the legs are pale yellow. As in the case of most South- American birds, very little is recorded of its habits in freedom, except that it frequents the muddy and wooded banks of rivers, feeding on small fishes and insects. In captivity it soon becomes tame, and has several times made its nest and reared its young (which, when hatched, are clothed with mottled down ; 1'rw. /.mil . Society, 1866, p. 76, pi. ix. fig. 1) in the Zoological Gardens (London), where examples are generally to be seen and their plaint- ive piping heard. It ordinarily walks with slow and precise steps, keeping its body in a horizontal position, but at times, when ex- cited, it will go through a series of fantastic performances, spreading its broad wings and tail so as to display their beautiful markings. This species inhabits Guiana and the interior of Brazil; but in Colombia and Central America occurs a larger and somewhat differently coloured form which is known as E. major. For a long while it seemed as if Ennjpyga had no near ally, but, on the colonization of New Caledonia by the French, an extremely curious bird was found inhabiting most parts of that island, to which it is peculiar. This the natives called the Kagu, and it is FIG. 2. Kagu (Rhinochetus jubatus). the Rhinochetus jubatus of ornithology. Its original describers, JIM. Jules Verreaux and Des Murs, regarded it first as a Heron and then as a Crane (Rev. ct Mag. de Zoologic, 1860, pp. 439-441, pi. 21 ; 1862, pp. 142-144) ; but, on Mr George Bennett sending two live examples to the Zoological Gardens, Mr Bartlett quickly de- tected in them an affinity to Eimjpyga (Proc. Zool. Society, 1862, pp. 218, 219, pi. xxx.), and in due time anatomical investigation showed him to be right. The Kagu, however, would not strike the ordinary observer as having much outward resemblance to the Sun-Bittern, of which it has neither the figure nor posture. It is rather a long-legged bird, about as large as an ordinary Fowl, walk- ing quickly and then standing almost motionless, with bright red bill and legs, large eyes, a full pendent crest, and is generally of a light slate-colour, paler beneath, and obscurely barred on its longer wing -coverts and tail with a darker shade. It is only when it spreads its wings that these are seen to be marked and spotted with white, rust-colour, and black, somewhat after the pattern of those of the Sim-Bittern. Like that bird too, the Kagu will, in moments of excitement, give up its ordinary placid behaviour and execute a variety of violent gesticulations, some of them even of a more extraordinary kind, for it will dance round, holding the tip of its tail or of one of its wings in a way that no other bird is known to do. Its habits in its own country were described at some length in 1863 by M. Jouan (Mem. Soc. Sc. Nat. Cherbourg, ix. pp. 97 and 235),and in 1870 by M. Marie (Actcs Soc. Linn. Bordeaux, xxvii. pp. 323-326), the last of whom predicts the speedy extinction of this interesting form, a fate foreboded also by the statement of Messrs Layard (Ibis, 1882, pp. 534, 535) that it has nearly disappeared from the neighbourhood of the more settled and inhabited parts. The internal and external structure of both these re- markable forms has been treated in much detail by Prof. Parker in the Zoological Proceedings (1864, pp. 70-72) and Transactions (vi. pp. 501-521, pis. 91, 92 ; x. pp. 307-310, pi. 54, figs. 7-9), as also by Dr Murie in the latter work (vii. pp. 465-492, pis. 56, 57), and the result of their researches shows that they, though separable as distinct Families, Eurypygidx and Rkinochetidae, belong to Prof. Huxley's d'muwmorphfe, of which they must be deemed the relics of very ancient and generalized types. Their inter-relations to the Rallidee (RAIL, vol. xx. p. 222), Ptophiidse (TRUMPETER, q.v. and other groups there is not space here to consider, any more than there is to specu- late on the bearings of their geographical position. It is only to be remarked that the eggs of both Em-t/iw.t and Rhinochetus have a very strong Ralline appearance stronger even than the figures published (Proc. Zool. Society, 1868, pi. xii.) would indicate. (A. N.) SUNDA ISLANDS, the collective name of the whole series of islands in the East Indian Archipelago which extend from the peninsula of Malacca to New Guinea. They are divided into the Great Sunda Islands i.e., Sumatra, Java, Borneo, Celebes, Banco, and Billiton, with their adjacencies and the Little Sunda Islands, of which the more important are Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Flores, Sandalwood Island, Adanara, Solor, Savu, Pantar, fcc. SUNDA STRAIT is the channel separating Sumatra from Java, and uniting the Indian Ocean with the Java Sea. It is 15 miles broad between the southmost point of Sumatra and the town of Anjer in Java. Eight in the middle is the low-lying well-wooded island of Dwars in den Weg, otherwise Middle Island or Sungian. In 1883 Sunda Strait was the scene of the most terrific results of the eruption of Krakatoa, a volcano on the west side of the strait. The greater part of the island of Krakatoa was destroyed and two new islands, Steers Island and Calmeyer Island, were thrown up. SUNDARBANS. See GANGES, vol. x. p. 68. SUNDAY, or THE LORD'S DAY (*} TOV rjiov r^fpa, J/V.v Solis ; f/ Kvpuucr) ri/^pa, dies domiin'ca, dies dominicus 1 }. According to all the four evangelists, the resurrection of our Lord took place on the first day of the week after His Crucifixion (>} fiia. [TWV] o-a^arwv : Matt, xxviii. 1, Mark xvi. 2, Luke xxiv. 1, John xx. 1 ; TrpuTi] o-a/3/^aroi) : Mark xvi. 9), and the Fourth Gospel describes a second appear- ance to His disciples as having occurred eight days after- wards (John xx. 26). Apart from this central fact of the Christian faith, the Pentecostal outpouring of the Spirit, seven weeks later, described in Acts ii., cannot have failed to give an additional sacredness to the day in the eyes of the earliest converts. 2 Whether the primitive church in Jerusalem had any special mode of observing it in its daily meetings held in the temple (Acts ii. 46) we cannot tell ; but as there is no doubt that in these gatherings the re- currence of the Sabbath was marked by appropriate Jewish observances, so it is not improbable that the worship on the first day of the week had also some distinguishing feature. Afterwards, at all events, when Christianity had been car- ried to other places where from the nature of the case daily meetings for worship were impossible, the first clay of the week was everywhere set apart for this purpose. Thus Acts xx. 7 shows that the disciples in Troas met weekly on the first day of the week for exhortation and the break- ing of bread ; 1 Cor. xvi. 2 implies at least some observ- ance of the day ; and the solemn commemorative character it had very early acquired is strikingly indicated by an incidental expression of the writer of the Apocalypse (i. '10), who for the first time gives it that name ("the Lord's day ") by which it is almost invariably referred to by all writers of the century immediately succeeding apostolic 1 The Teutonic and Scandinavian nations adopt the former designa- tion (Sunday, Sonnt<j, Siiiidag, &c.), the Latin nations the latter (Dinianche, Domenica, Domingo, &c. ). 2 From an expression in the Epistle of Barnabas (c. 15), it would almost seem as if the ascension also was believed by some to have taken place on a Sunday.