plants: still, the intermediate varieties which he finds, throw some doubts on the permanency of his distinctions. Sir James Smith regards the O. arachnìtes of Kent, and fuscífera, as furnishing good specific characters, and as being identical with the foreign specimens bearing those names. Whether it really be so may still be doubtful; but, in so interesting a tribe as the insectiferous Orchideæ, even the ordinary observer will be grateful to him for his laboured observations.

Another discovery of this "fine-nosed herbalist," as Wordsworth would call him, is Orobanche caryophyllacea of Sir James Smith, which was supposed to be confined to the Apennines and Siberia. It is allied to O. màjor, but is, no doubt, a better species than some others of this intricate genus.

The trefoils and medicks have attracted the author's particular attention; and he adds the Medicàgo denticulata Willd. to our native list. His woodcut of the spines of the legume of several species, though an after-thought, deserves attention.

Ray's plant, Limònium mìnus, the author elevates to the rank of a species under the name of Státice cordata, in which he seems to be fully warranted by the practice of modern botanists. He also directs attention to a remarkable variety of Lathræ`a squamària, which, he thinks, may prove distinct.

The observations on the mode of impregnation in Rúppia marítima deserve to be repeated by one so favourably situated for the purpose as Mr. Gerard Smith is. He does not agree with Dr. Hooker's theory that the impregnation takes place beneath the water, and within the sheath of the leaves, before the flower-stalks are elongated, but thinks that Sir J. Smith abandoned his own opinion, and adopted that of Dr. Hooker, too hastily. If we were disposed to find fault with an author who really has shown great acuteness and quickness of observation, we might, perhaps, remark that he appears to be too ready to adopt species, which, unless they be well established, are the bane of science. He might also be censured for being occasionally too sentimental and pictorial in his composition, when treating of trivial matters; a fault, alas! which time will correct soon enough, and which we willingly screen, and think abundantly redeemed by the ardour of which it is characteristic.

ART. III. Literary Notices.

THE Gardens and Menagerie of the Zoological Society delineated; being Descriptions and Figures in Illustration of the Natural History of living Animals in the Society's Collections. Published, with the Sanction of the Council, under the Superintendence of the Secretary and ViceSecretary of the Society. This work will appear in 8vo parts, monthly. "At the request of the Council, the Secretary of the Society, N. A. Vigors, Esq., has in the kindest manner consented to charge himself with the task of superintending the execution of every department of the work. The descriptions and anecdotes in illustration of the natural history of the animals represented will be furnished by E. T. Bennett, Esq., the Vice-Secretary. The whole of the drawings will be made by Mr. William Harvey, who has already given so many proofs of his talent in this department of his art; and the engravers, Messrs. Branston and Wright, will exert their utmost skill to do justice to the efforts of his pencil."

We have seen a specimen of the first part, than which, in the way of engravings on wood, we have seen nothing superior.

Agenda Geognostica. The veteran mineralogist, Leonhard, is about to publish Agenda Geognostica, or a Manual for Travellers in Mountainous Districts.

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PART III.

COLLECTANEA.

ART. I. General Subject.

ACTIVE Molecules. — Fifteen years ago, Dr. Drummond, now Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in the Belfast Academical Institution, detected these bodies in the choroid coat of a haddock's eye, and published an account of the discovery, at that time, in his thesis De Oculi Anatomia Comparativa. He described them as long and spicular, various in size, and with the glitter of polished silver, so intense, that, when viewed in sunshine, the eye could scarcely bear its brightness. Multitudes revolved continually round their axis, while other and larger particles, after lying motionless for a little time, described three or four semicircles, and then sank into their former quiescence. These they repeated at short intervals, when they vanished to reappear in the same spot after the lapse of two or three minutes. This singular movement was only observable in the larger corpuscles, the smaller glittering in perpetual revolution around their axis. The motion could not have proceeded from evaporation, for whether the fluid were compressed between plates of glass, or covered with oil, it continued; nor from electricity, for neither attraction nor repulsion was exhibited; nor from the agitation of the water, for then the other molecules should have shown a similar motion. "To suppose these particles," says the Doctor, "possessed of vitality may appear repugnant to reason, but I can conjecture no other way in which the phenomenon can be explained." The above-mentioned thesis was published in 1814, and a more detailed account was given in the Transactions of the Edinburgh Royal Society for the same year, in a paper “On certain Appearances observed in the Eyes of Fishes ; a title by no means inviting, which may perhaps account for the little attention which the communication received.

To these spicula, as he afterwards ascertained, the metallic colour of fishes is owing; and to observe them in a very simple manner nothing more is necessary than to scrape some of the scales off a salmon or herring, where the metallic or silvery tint is brightest; put them into a wine-glass with a tea-spoonful or two of water, and stir them so that the silvery film which is attached to the under surface of the scales may separate. That film is composed of the moving spicula; and when it has whitened the water in the slightest degree, put a drop of the latter on any black or very dark surface in the sunshine, the stronger the light the better, and, with the naked eye, thousands of brilliant particles may be observed as busy as motes in the sunbeam. In the microscope also the light must fall on them; for they seem to be very opaque, and it is only by reflected light that they can be observed. -¶

ART. II. Zoology.

THE Cuckoo. Sir, Reading what you say relative to the cuckoo in your Magazine of Natural History, I beg to inform you that about fifteen years ago I obtained a cuckoo from the nest of (I think) a hedge sparrow, at Old Brompton, where I then resided. It was rather curious, as being

within ten yards of my house, Cromwell Cottage, and in a narrow and much frequented lane, leading from near Gloucester Lodge to Kensington. This bird I reared and kept alive till late in January; when it fell suddenly from its perch, while feeding on a rather large dew worm. It was buried but I had, long afterwards, strange misgivings, that my poor feathered favourite was only choked by his food, or in a fit of some kind his apparent death was so extremely unexpected from his health and liveliness at the time. I assure you that I regretted my loss much, my bird being in full plumage and a very handsome creature. He was quite tame, for in autumn I used to set him on a branch of a tree in the garden, while I dug worms for him to dine upon, and he never attempted more than a short friendly flight. During the coldest weather, and it was rather a sharp winter, my only precaution was, nearly to cover the cage with flannel; and when I used to take it off, more or less, on coming into my breakfast room in the morning, I was recognised by him with certainly not all the cry "unpleasant to a married ear," but with its full half "Cuck! Cuck!". the only sounds or notes I ever heard from my bird. Though trifling, these facts may be so far curious as illustrating the natural history of a remarkable genus, and I have great pleasure in offering them for your excellent Journal.-W. Jerdan. Brompton.

*

Nuthatch.-Sir, In confirmation of the account by your correspondent H. S. (Vol. I. p. 328.) of the persevering exertions of the nuthatch to escape from confinement, I beg to offer you a corroborating instance, which fell under my own observation. When a boy I occasionally amused myself, like other youths, with setting traps for birds, constructed, according to the ordinary method employed for that purpose, of four bricks, one of which was propped up in an oblique position, ready to fall down and secure the bird on its entering the trap. In one of these traps I ensnared a nuthatch. How long it might have remained in confinement, I cannot at this distance of time exactly state, but most probably not more than a few hours. On taking the bird from the trap, I was struck with the singular formation of the beak, so unlike that of any other bird I had ever seen. It was blunt at the end, and presented the appearance of having been truncated in an oblique direction i. e. as if the natural beak (fig. 69. b), had been cut off in the direction of the line (a). Having never before examined a specimen so closely, I at first thought this apparent truncation constituted the natural conformation of the beak; but I soon perceived that it had been fairly ground down to about two thirds of its original length, by the bird's pecking at the bricks in its efforts to escape from the trap.

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As your correspondent does not enter much upon the habits of this amusing bird in its natural wild state, it may not be uninteresting to notice the expertness it occasionally exhibits while engaged in the operation of piercing the shells of nuts, &c. The bird fixes the nut in a chink or crevice of the bark of a tree, or the like, and commences a vigorous attack upon the shell by forcibly and repeatedly striking it with its beak. This knocking (as your correspondent observes from White) may be heard to a considerable distance. During the operation, it sometimes happens that the nut swerves from its fixture, and falls towards the ground; it has not descended, however, for the space of more that a few yards, when the nuthatch, with admirable adroitness, recovers it in its fall, and replacing it in its former position, commences the attack afresh. The fall of the nut in the air, and its recovery by the bird on the wing, I have seen repeated several times in the space of a few minutes. Whether the nuthatch seizes the falling nut with its beak, or, as is more probable, with its grasping feet, I am not able positively to determine.-W. T. Bree. Nov. 15. 1828.

* The learned and witty editor of the Literary Gazette.

Developement of the Eggs of Spiders. In spiders' eggs, M. Harold hasobserved a membrane corresponding to the shell of those of birds, also the white or albumen and the yolk and scar. But the yolk has no proper membrane, though it passes into the intestinal canal. The scar is also observable, and disperses itself in granules; and the white, instead of being absorbed by the young animal, as in birds, is the matter out of which is formed all its members, a circumstance that constitutes the principal difference between the eggs of birds and spiders.

The eggs of spiders, which are laid in the autumn, remain throughout the winter enclosed in a silken web; on the approach of summer they gradually change into their active perfect form. The progress of this transformation has been M. Harold's study, and his observations are detailed with great perspicuity in his Unters. über die Bildungsg. der Wiebellosen Thiere im Eie. The eggs, in their dormant state, every body knows, are very small (fig. 70. a); magnified (b), the scar or germ is discernible (c). The first change is this germ dispersing its granules into the albumen, which attach themselves to the vitellus, or yolk; and, after being expanded in this manner, it assumes the figure of a comet in the interior of the mass. When the albumen becomes as it were saturated with these grains from the germ, or vital principle, it is theu called colliquamentum; and, when sufficiently coagulated, is for the present called cambium. This cambium becomes divided into two unequal parts: the smaller portion (fig. 71. a) being uppermost, is called the cephalic cambium, it being that from which the head of the animal is afterwards formed; and the greater portion (b), situated below, is called the thoracic cambium, from which the body is composed. Soon after this division of the cambium, it is seen marked with the rudiments of the limbs and other parts, eyes, breast, &c.; next, the lower extremities become moulded from that portion of the cambium called the abdominal. In process of time all the parts of the frame have gained form and consistence, the animal secre

tions commence, and the actions of the legs and palpi begin by throwing off the thin skin which enveloped the whole mass. (fig. 72.) Some time passes before the young spider is very active; he feels a kind of torpor until his frame is sufficiently fitted for his wandering predatory life. It was on the eggs of the Aranea diadema that M. Harold made the observations, from which the foregoing is a brief extract. -J.M.

Musical Snails. As I was sitting in my room, on the first floor, about nine P.M. (4th of October last), I was surprised with what I supposed to be the notes of a bird, under or upon the sill of the window. My impression was, that they somewhat resembled the notes of the wild duck in its nocturnal flight, and, at times, the twitter of a red-breast, in quick succession. To be satisfied on the subject, I carefully removed the shutter, and, to my surprise, found it was a garden snail, which, in drawing itself along the glass, had produced sounds similar to those elicited from the musical glasses. Sam. Woodward. Diana Square, Norwich, April 3. 1829.

Developement of the Eggs of the Common Crab (Cáncer Pagurus, L.)In a late number of his Zoological Researches, Mr. J. V. Thompson of Cork has given some additional particulars relative to the animal of the supposed genus Zoèa, which he considers as the larva of the common crab,

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having hatched it from the eggs of the latter. His notes are accompanied by a magnified representation of the minute creature (fig. 73. a, antennæ ; f, feet; s, one of the lateral spines) together with a second figure, of the natural size, for comparison (between s and f). He states that, after numerous fruitless attempts, he at length procured, in 1827, examples of the crab with spawn apparently ready to hatch, and succeed. ed in protecting one individual until young burst from their envelopes, and swam about in myriads, under the exact form given in the plate. In this stage, he adds, they are colourless, and transparent as glass, except the dark central part of each eye, and a blackish dot on each side every abdominal segment, the dorsal spine exhibiting a pale pink tint, for nearly half its length, from the point downwards.

We cannot but recommend the example of Mr. Thompson to our other friends on the

sea-coast, some of whom will, we doubt not, be stimulated by his success, as well as assisted by the clue which he has afforded, in the investigation of this highly interesting subject. As several forms of Zoèa have now. been described and figured, it is perhaps but fair to presume that they are the young of as many forms of Decapodous Crustacea; and it may not be too much to imagine that the whole order will be found, on examination, to be subject to the same laws of metamorphosis which regulate at least one of its species. At all events, here is an ample field of study opened for the careful observer. - E.

ART. III. Botany.

DRYING Plants. As one main object of your Magazine is to assist the tyro in natural history, I do not hesitate to send you some details of the process of drying plants, which I have, from time to time, adopted, and can, from pretty long experience of their efficacy, safely recommend. Í entirely approve, and have long practised, the principle stated in Mr. Bree's letter (Vol. I. p. 298.), of frequently changing the papers as they become moist, but have satisfied myself with replacing them by others thoroughly dry without heating them. Heated papers will, no doubt, shorten the process and more effectually preserve the colours. I would, therefore, advise their being always employed; and what follows is little more than a detail of the principle laid down in the letter above alluded to. Always gather the root with herbaceous plants, and, if possible, select a specimen with part of the head in seed as well as in flower. Clear away the soil, &c., and when quite dry place the plant between the papers, holding down the parts adjusted with the left hand while regulating the remainder, and taking care to display any particular part which marks the generic or specific character. Instead of employing only two sheets of paper, lay three or four both above and below the plant to absorb a greater portion of the moisture, and place detached pieces of soft paper, folded into the required shape, size, and thickness, on each side the stem and more prominent parts, and, if necessary, over the petals and leaves. This will equalise the pressure, and add much to the beauty of the specimen. Different plants require different degrees of pressure, accordingly as their texture is more or less firm; and a less degree of pressure should always be used the first two or three days of the process, than as they approach desiccation, to prevent extravasation of