bètes bipunctatus, and the Nèpa cinèrea, in ponds or ditches; the Salpíngus róboris, Coccinella humeràlis, and Dròmius quadrimaculatus, under the bark of trees; and, perhaps, may meet with the Geómetra primària and brumària moths in hedges. - J. M. Dec. 23. 1828. This is the Snike MAC ART. VII. Queries and Answers. Infe THE Heatherbluiter of the Scotch (p. 297.) is the common bittern, misedrum, or marsh-boomer (Ardea stellàris Linn.); and the sound of the bird is so very common, that every child is familiar with it, though the birds, from being shy, are not often seen. The poet Thomson seems to have had a very erroneous notion of the manner in which the bird produces the noise, when he says, "So that scarce The bittern knows his time, with bill engulpht, To shake the sounding marsh." Seasons. On the contrary, I have repeatedly remarked that the bittern usually booms while flying high in the air. Its lofty spiral flight, indeed, is a matter of common remark. "Swift as the bittern soars on spiral wing." Southey. A line which, I may remark, is not very ornithological; inasmuch as neither the bittern, nor any other bird, has spiral wings. Southey, however, seems to be well acquainted with the boom of the bittern. "At evening, over the swampy plain, The bittern's boom came far." und so Scott: * J. Rennie. Edible Lizards. (p. 391.)-Is not a large species of lizard eaten, and reckoned a delicacy, in Jamaica? M. [Yes; the fact is well known.J. R.] Bulla lignària. Sir, Will you favour me, in one of your succeeding Numbers, with a few remarks upon the gizzard of the Búlla lignària. I am anxious to know whether the inhabitant of this shell is endowed with any peculiar digestive power, or whether this organ may be met with in any other species of shell fish. A little information on this subject will greatly oblige, Sir, &c. C. S. July 18. 1828. Parrots in Van Diemen's Land. A friend, residing in Van Diemen's Land, has asked me if I can suggest any means of preventing parrots from destroying seed when first sown; and I ask you or any of your correspond- A Subscriber. London, August 11. 1828. ents. Organisation of Plants.—I take a great interest in the physiology of botany, and have often lamented the insufficiency of microscopes to enable me to ascertain the organisation of plants From a number of the Library of Useful Knowledge, I learn that this enquiry is facilitated, by plunging the parts to be examined in a phial of nitric acid, placing the phial in boiling water, and keeping it at the boiling point for 12 or 15 minutes. I have tried this, but cannot succeed; the contents of the phial, when taken out, were merely the acid, and a portion of pulp totally disorganised, and in a state of effervescence that would admit of no examination, had there been anything to examine. I tried it with half the boiling, but, even then, the parts were one confused mass, from which nothing could be understood. Can you give me any information about this; or, if not, will you put a query to that effect in the Magazine? — E. K. August 3. 1828. L L 4 and the Bittern sound his grupn, But the ART. VIII. Retrospective Criticism. FOOD of the Lapwing. Under Art. Zoology, p. 374., on the mistakes of instinct in animals, it is said that "the lapwing, when it cannot find a sufficiency of slugs, pats the ground with its feet, to bring forth earthworms." That the lapwing devours slugs is enough to propitiate the farmers in favour of the bird, however averse they may be from the land they frequent. I have often tried to discover what the food of these birds was, but never could be satisfied on this point. Within the last month I desired a gamekeeper (Nash, gamekeeper to G. Farley, Esq., Crowle House, Worcestershire) to shoot a couple, out of hundreds which frequented a field of fallow then sowing with wheat. I saw them opened. The gizzard contained small stones, and morsels of green vegetable matter. which the gamekeeper called the trail, was charged with a thick mucus, in which were small stones, pieces of the élytra of small beetles, and seeds of some species of Polýgonum; but no slugs (though the field swarmed with them), earthworms, wheat (of eating which the birds were accused by the bailiff), nor any other matter which could be distinguished. The vessel I have often observed that the lapwing finds some part of its food a little way below the surface of the ground, as the moist sides of the furrows are full of perforations made with their bills. At the same time, I have noticed very little hills of fine earth, resembling those of the little ground bee, thrown up out of round cavities or cells, each of which contains the larva of some insect of the beetle tribe, as they are in colour like those of the ladybird, but in shape and size very like the Lepísma saccharìna. These Jarva, I suspected, might be the prey of the lapwing; but this I never could determine. M. Foreign Migratory Birds. (p.576.)—On the notice respecting the introduction of foreign or migratory song birds, J. R. seems to doubt whether redbreasts would take to strange eggs, because, he says, they readily forsake their own, if touched." J. R. ought to have known, that, though redbreasts, as well as other birds, will forsake their eggs and nests, if disturbed in the early part of the season, or while they are laying, they seldom do so after they have begun to sit. Mr. Anderson only stated facts. — M. J. R., in reply to these remarks, professes his ignorance of the circumstance that birds seldom forsake their nests after beginning to sit, and is certain of many particular facts authorising a contrary opinion. Many birds will forsake their young, much more their eggs, of which the domestic pigeon is a well-known example. Biography of J. Templeton, Esq. (p. 403.) — Sir, The biography of the before, a circumstance, which, in consequence, I suppose, of the manuscript 1828. INDEX TO BOOKS REVIEWED AND NOTICED. THE GENERAL SUBJECT. AAARSBER AARSBERA ETTELSER framsteg, 176, om Vetenskapernas Audouin and Dumas's Annales des Sciences Bainbridge's Fly-fisher's Guide, 173. Cuvier's Révolutions de la Surface du Globe, Dictionnaire Classique d'Histoire Naturelle, Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles, 63. 367. Fée's Productions Naturelles de Java, 175. Fontenelle's Bibliothèque Physico-E'conomique, Gill's Technological Repository, not., 169. 363. Hogg's Natural History of Stockton on Tees, Humboldt's Tableaux de la Nature, 64. Jameson's Philosophical Journal, not. 170. 364. Lempriere's Lectures on the Study of Natural Meyer's De Houttuynia atque Saurureis, 175. Proteus's Zeitschrift für Naturlehre, 64. Stark's Elements of Natural History, not., 62. Verhandlungen der Allg. Schweizer, Gesell- Waterton's Wanderings in South America, no- ZOOLOGY. Aaarsberaettelse om nyare Zoologiske, &c., 176. Bory de St. Vincent's Résumé d'Erpetologie, Bowdich's Fishes of Great Britain, noticed, 53. VOL. I. No. 5. Desvoidy's Organisation des Crustacés, &c., 367. Floyd's Observations on Dog-breaking, noticed, Griffith's Animal Kingdom, reviewed, 275. Horsefield's Lepidopterous Insects, &c., noticed, Jardine's Illustrations of Ornithology, not., 62. Lesson's Complément de Buffon, 174. 367. Mencke's Synopsis Methodica Molluscorum, &c. Roux's Iconographie Conchyliologique, 64. Selby's Illustrations of British Ornithology, 62. Svensk Zoologi, 368. [LL 4] Descourtils's Flore Pittoresque et Médicale des | Tenore's Flora Virgiliana, 176. Antilles, 63. Desvaux's Flore de l'Anjou, &c., 175. Edwards's Botanical Register, noticed, 59. 165, Examen de deux Mémoires de Physiologie Vé- Flora Brasília Meridionalis, 367. Flore, ou Gazette Botanique, 175. Girardin and Juillet's Manuel de Botanique, 368. Goeppert's De Hydrocyanici Acidi vi, &c., 368. Gussone's Floræ Siculæ Prodromus, 368. 360. Maund's Botanic Garden, noticed, 61. 168. Redouté's Choix des plus belles Fleurs, 64. Sweet's British Flower-Garden, noticed, 61. Sweet's Cistineæ, noticed, 58. Sweet's Flora Australásica, noticed, 61. 167. 360. Tenore's Geografia Fisica e Bottanica del Re- Tussac's Flore des Antilles, 63. Weberi's Novitia Flora Holsatica, &c. 360. GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. Bischof's Chemische Untersuchungen, &c., 175. Buckland's Valley of Kingsclere, reviewed, 249. Engelspack-Larivière's Essai geognostique de Fries's Ursachen der Erdbeben, &c., 174. Glocker's De Gemmis Plinii, 368. Hinsinger's Mineralogische Beschreibung, &c., Joseph's Modifications de la Terre, 367. Kreysig's Gebrauch der Mineralwässer, no- Martin's Geological Memoir of Western Sussex, Mitchill's Catalogue des Fossiles, &c., 176. Odolant's Précis de Minéralogie moderne, 64. Steiner's Gebirgshoehen des Salzkammerguthes, Steinmann and Reuss's Saidschitzer Bitterwas- METEOROLOGY. Fellens's Manuel de Météorologie, 367. INDEX. Abdomina, in insects, 423. Abyssinia, exploring of, by Edward Ruppel, 286. Aerial spider, on the, by John Murray, Esq. African bull, lateral hoofs of, 114; peculiarity Air, to ascertain the course of, 384. Alligators, remark on their swallowing stones, Altaic mountains, tour to, 73. Ampúlla, from ampulla, a bottle, 28. Animal and vegetable remains, and rocks, col- Animal kingdom, basis for the four grand divi- Animals and vegetables, on the distinctive cha- Animals, metamorphoses undergone by all, 103. Anther described, 232. 474. Babington, C. C., Esq., rare insects found in Baboon, a dog-faced one figured and described, Bainbridge's Fly-fisher's Guide, &c. noticed, 173. Bakewell's Introduction to Geology, reviewed Baltimore Orioles, 47. 418. Bánksia, from Sir Joseph Banks, 362. Bottersly, Mr. W., notice of Ellis's work on Beavers on the Severn, 394. Belfast botanic and horticultural garden, 85. Bennet's Fishes of Ceylon, &c., No. I., for June, Berberile, description of, 140. Bernárdus, from St. Bernard of Menthon, 26. Biography of J. Templeton, 403. Biography of plants, on the utility and enjoy- Bird-catchers in the vicinity of London, evils Antholýza, from anthos, a flower, lyssa, rage, Birds, foreign, introduction of, 376; Linnean Antirrhinum Linària, 379. Aphýlleæ, from a, prívative, and phyllon, a leaf, Arcana of Science, notice of, 467. Argùtor, from argutor, to make a shrill noise. 55. Ascent of the spider into the atmosphere, 157. Aster, mistake respecting the Italian, 232. Audouin's Annales des Sciences Naturelles, &c., Audubon, John James, Esq. F.L.S. &c., on the Audubon's Birds of America reviewed by W. Aviary, notice of Mr. Sweet's, 81. arrangement of, 122; Pennant's arrangement Birds of passage, arrival of the summer ones in Birds, rare, observed in the neighbourhood of Biscacho described, 285. Bischof's Chemische Untersuchungen, &c. 175. Blackwall, John, Esq., manners and economy of Blocks and boulders, erratic, 485. |