dow sill, securing the stand by a bradawl; and hardly had I done so before the robin resumed the war by settling on the head of his unconscious foe, digging and pecking at it with such ferocity and violence, that, had I not interfered, the utter destruction of my poor specimen must have ensued. The experiment, of course, was not renewed; but the robin, during the rest of the day, kept watch in the immediate neighbourhood, and was singing even in the shade of the evening. Kent. Dover, Jan. 5. 1837.

Preservation of Zoological Specimens. I have often noticed with regret, both in some public and private museums, in this country, that the damp was making fearful inroads among the zoological specimens; and, as I learned, while in France, some time since, a most simple and efficacious remedy for that evil, I beg to submit it to you for the benefit of your readers and the public.

A glazed flower-pan, of the size of a dessert plate, placed in the cases, at intervals of 8 ft. or 10 ft., and filled with quicklime, will rapidly imbibe all damps, and will only require renewing when it is found that the lime is completely saturated.

As a preventive to moth in museums, I have seen used, and have used myself with great effect, the huile de pétrole, put into glass vessels like shallow finger-glasses; and four or five in a case of 20 ft. long will produce so powerful an effluvium, that it is necessary to have as many watchglasses, with small portions of musk in them, to make it bearable. But this, in good air-tight cases, is of little consequence. Kent. Dover, Jan. 5. 1837.

Occurrence of Hèlix virgata in vast Numbers. I noticed, in your valuable and entertaining Magazine for October an account of a "Congregation of Moths in the Interior of a Tree." I have now, Mr. Editor, for the information of your readers, to record almost as curious an accumulation of shells. In passing through Wymondham, in my way to Norwich, while my horse was baiting, I strolled into the churchyard of that place, for the purpose of examining the church, which I had previously been informed was worth looking at. I had not been two minutes there before my feet trampled upon, and were crushing, a number of very small snails; and, taking a few of them in my hand for examination, found them to be specimens of Hèlix virgàta of Dr. Turton. (See Turton's Manual.) They were of various sizes, and in different stages of growth. Some were crawling up the steeple to a great height; some sticking to the trunks

of the trees; some on the gravel walks, and many apparently feeding on the blades of grass, to which they adhered by a thin pellicle. Upon extending my walk further, I found they had also migrated to the neighbouring fields and gardens of the cottagers. As I had never met with anything of the kind before, I was naturally surprised at the immense quantities that were accumulated there. I am certain there were millions. It seemed as if they had dropped from the clouds. Upon reaching home, I consulted Turton's Manual, one of the latest works upon the subject, and there found some elucidation upon the subject.

After describing the species and its varieties, he observes (p. 41. and 42.), – "In autumn these shells are often suddenly collected in such great numbers as to give rise to the popular notion of their having fallen from the clouds; and, in very hot weather, the young, both of this species and the H. cingénda, may be found in clusters adhering to the stalks of various plants." I have sent with this a few specimens, and will give some of them to any of your conchological friends. George Hubbard, Surgeon. Bury St. Edmunds,

November, 1836.

Sphinx Atropos. That this large and beautiful insect has become more abundant of late years in England, and especially since the increase of the cultivation of the potato, seems certain; but whether from increased propagation, or emigration, may, perhaps, be questioned. That, at least, it is capable of the will to cross the Channel, the following incident will show; while its powers of flight leave but little doubt of its capacity to cross in safety: Sept. 29. The wind strong from the east. The death's-head sphinx flew on board a fishing boat, at about the distance of three leagues from the east coast of Cornwall, and, knocking itself against the mast, it fell to the bottom. After being sufficiently examined, it was left to itself; when it again took flight, and, though not in the direct course of the wind, flew away seaward. Jonathan Couch. Polperro.

Award of the Woolaston Medals. The council of the Geological Society of London has this year awarded the Woolaston Medals to Captain Proby Cautley of the Bengal Artillery, and to Dr. Falconer of the Bengal Medical Service, for their geological researches, and their discoveries in fossil zoology in the sub-Himalayan Mountains. (Proceedings of the Geological Society, Feb. 1837.)

ART. I. Notice of the Teeth of Carcharias megálodon occurring in the Red Crag of Suffolk. By EDWARD CHARLESWORTH, F.G.S.

THERE are, perhaps, no fossiliferous beds, the history of which, at the present time, involves points of greater interest, than the tertiary formations bordering our eastern coast; and in noticing several of the more remarkable fossils from these deposits, and the conditions under which they occur, it is with the hope of imparting some information respecting them, which may facilitate the researches of others who may feel disposed to enter upon the same field of geological investigation.

Palæontologists will readily recognise in the annexed figure a well-known Maltese fossil, and, perhaps, feel some surprise at the announcement of its occurrence in this country. Within the last few years, however, many specimens of these extraordinary teeth, belonging to a species of the genus Carcharias, probably of gigantic size, have been found on the shore and in the red crag of Suffolk. No other portion of the skeleton has yet been observed, by which we might ascertain how far the general dimensions of the animal correspond to the proportions exhibited by the teeth; nor is it probable that future discoveries in the crag will throw any light upon this point, since the preservation of the dental structures is the only record of the presence of cartilaginous fish during the formation of that deposit. The remains of fish, and of chelonian and saurian reptiles, which are often found in a very complete state in the tertiary strata of Harwich and the Isle of Sheppey, usually owe their preservation to the nodules of indurated clay which have formed around them. Nothing at all analogous to these nodules occurs in VOL. I.-No. 5. N. s.

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the crag; and, from the very slight consolidation of the beds, and the general lithological character of the deposit, the discovery of connected skeletons can never be expected. All the information that we can acquire, respecting the vertebrated animals whose remains are there embedded, must be derived from the examination of detached bones and teeth. These latter, belonging to various species of the shark tribe, occur in abundance; but, with the exception of the genus Carcharias, all the forms may be identified with those in the London clay; from which deposit it is highly probable that many of them have been removed. The circumstance, however, of specific agreement would not alone lead to the above supposition, since, throughout the whole tertiary series, and even in the more recent secondary rocks, many of the squaloid fish appear to have closely resembled existing types.

This affinity is, perhaps, most strongly marked in several species of the genus Lámna, the teeth of which are abundant in the crag and London clay, and are even occasionally met with in some of our lacustrine deposits, associated with fluviatile and land shells. In the coralline beds, and in those marine strata containing the bones of land animals, which have been usually regarded as a part of the crag formation, the teeth of the Čarcharias megálodon have not been detected; and they would, therefore, appear to be characteristic of that deposit which extends from Walton, in Essex, along the south coast of Suffolk. As this species has a vertical range from the secondary to the more recent supercretaceous formations, its fossilised remains afford the geologist no assistance in the identification of particular strata, if separated by great horizontal distances. Similar teeth are figured by Dr. Moreton, in his synopsis of the cretaceous fossils of the United States; and they are there said to occur in deposits both of the secondary and tertiary periods. The finest specimens that I have seen are in the Hunterian collection, belonging to the College of Surgeons, from the well-known beds at Maestricht; and along with these there is one which has been recently brought over, by Mr. Darwin, from South America. In the Island of Malta, the teeth of this shark have been procured in the greatest abundance; but I am not aware that we possess any definite information respecting the geological relations of the beds in that locality, throughout which these fossils appear so plentifully distributed.

The foreign specimens are usually in a very perfect state; but those from the crag have lost their covering of enamel and serrated edges, probably depending upon the attrition to which they have been subjected. William Colchester, Esq., of Ipswich, whose collection of crag fossils is one of the choicest extant, has in his possession the tooth from which the accompanying figure was made. Specimens are also in the Ipswich Museum, and in the hands of other collcetors in Norfolk and Suffolk.

ART. II. Climbing and Gallinaceous Birds of Devonshire. By E. MOORE, M.D. F.L.S., Secretary to the Plymouth Institution. To pursue my catalogue of Devon birds, I send those of the two succeeding orders, Scansòres and Gallìnæ.

It is very possible that the race of the black cock may soon become extinct in Devonshire, as the cultivation and enclosure of great part of Exmoor, and other causes, depend