who, guided by reason and facts, differed from him? The truth is, 1st. That, with regard to its northern range, Mr. Stephens, as heretofore, is incorrect in his assumption; as it extends in Prussia to the parallel of York, and in Russia to that of Edinburgh. 2dly. That those who were personally acquainted with the late Dr. Abbot do not entertain a doubt of the truth of his having taken the specimen that I possess, as stated in the preface to Lepidoptera Britannica (1803); and, 3rdly. It is presumed that Mr. Stephens is too wary to doubt the integrity of the gentleman who took the specimen figured by Mr. Curtis. J. C. Dale. Dec. 12.-1836. "P.S.-From 'a slip of Mr. Stephens's pen' (?), his answer (No. 68. p. 643.) to mine (p. 599.) is dated Oct. 31. 1836; whereas No. 67. (containing my notice) is posterior to that; viz. Nov. 1836. Another proof of his usual correctness." Mr. Gray's Genera of Máctrada. It is always desirable to publish the characters of new species and genera as soon as they are determined; since the time of their appearance in print is referred to as deciding the right of priority when different naturalists have described the same things. We have therefore given below the genera into which Mr. Gray divides the Máctrada, being obliged to postpone his paper on that family owing to the cuts, with which it will be illustrated, not being finished.-Ed. 1. ScissoDE'SMA Gray. 2. MA CTRA 3. SPI'SULA Gray 4. LUTRA RIA 5. MULI'NIA Gray 6. GNATHODON Gray · Ligament external, in a slit. a. Hinder lateral teeth double and single. a. Lateral teeth simple. b. Front lateral tooth hatchet-shaped. Entomological Instruction in France.-M. Victor Audouin, professor of entomology at the Jardin des Plantes, commenced a course of lectures upon the natural history of insects on April 10. last, continuing it three times each week; in which he particularly illustrated the natural history of those insects which are obnoxious to agricultural productions, to forest trees, and to horticulture: he also described the habits of the various species which attack domestic animals, and man himself; closing his lectures with those species which are useful on account of the various products which they yield in medicine, agriculture, or the arts. This course of lectures, so much more interesting than the ordinary routine of entomological lectures, attracted a great number of persons engaged in horticultural and other similar pursuits, as well as many amateurs of insects, who were delighted at finding that the subject was capable of being made so full of instruction and interest.-J. O. W. Suggestion of Improvement in Hooker's Icones Plantarum. — As a subscriber to Sir W. J. Hooker's Icones Plantarum, now in course of publication, I am induced to suggest an improvement. Is it not a pity that the plates are uncoloured? The value and utility of the work would be incalculably advanced if this was the case; and, to render it still what it was intended (a cheap work, within the reach of all), I would propose that the plates should be partially coloured, like those in the Companion to the Botanical Magazine. This, I presume, would not increase the expense very materially; and surely no one would object to pay an additional price for such a great acquisition to the value and utility of the work. -C. May 18. 1837. Preservation of Sheppey Fruits. Several questions have been brought forward, in former Numbers of the Mag. Nat. Hist., by some of your correspondents, as to the best method of preserving from decomposition the fossil fruits and wood of the London clay found at Sheppey; and various methods have been proposed with a view of attaining that object (Vol. VI. p. 280., and Vol. IX. p. 550.). At. p. 490., Vol. IX., it is suggested, that, after washing with turpentine and lamp-oil, a thin coating of isinglass in solution may be advantageously employed. On the 20th of last September, a friend brought me some of these fossils from Sheppey in pyrites, of which one specimen in particular was more affected by decomposition than the others. I immediately, after cleaning, gave them a dressing of turpentine and lamp-oil, recommended by Mr. Hill (Vol. IX. p. 380.), and laid them in the open air to dry; but, in only two days after this, I found decomposition beginning afresh, the sulphate of iron forming upon them. I removed them into the house, wiped the lamp-oil clean off, and then gave them a coating of dissolved isinglass and spirits of wine; and, at the end of seven months after this simple process, I find that they are perfectly free from the slightest appearance of decomposition; and have every reason to conclude that, for the purposes of the cabinet at least, this process for their preservation will be found sufficient. applying the lamp-oil, I found it of little or no use in this instance: it will not dry, it fills up the fibrous appearance on the outside of the fossils, and almost destroys their beauty. The quality of the isinglass obviates this completely; and it dries almost instantaneously. John Brown. Stanway, near Colchester, April 19, 1837. On OF NATURAL HISTORY. JULY, 1837. ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. ART. I. Observations on Woodcocks and Fieldfares breeding in Scotland. By GEORGE FAIRHOLME, Esq. In a paper signed W. L., in the Number for March last, of your instructive Magazine, I find some remarks upon the breeding of woodcocks in Selkirkshire, and in other parts of Scotland. Having had an opportunity of occasionally making some observations on the habits of these birds during the breeding season, I beg to place at your disposal the following notes upon the subject. It seems very certain, that some change has taken place within the last twenty years, either in the countries towards the north, where woodcocks usually breed, or in our own climate; as we can now no longer, as we used to do, attribute a summer woodcock to the accidental circumstance of its having been disabled at the usual season of migration, and having been thus forced to act contrary to its natural migratory instinct; for in some parts of Scotland they are becoming not at all uncommon in summer. I spent the greater part of 1835 in Aberdeenshire, where occasional instances have long been known of woodcocks in summer, but not in such numbers as may now be seen. In the woods of Moneymusk and Castle Forbes, nests have from time to time been found. It was at the latter place, and during a late evening walk in an extensive oak wood, with hazel and other brushwood, that my attention was first particularly called to this subject. It was quite in the dusk when I heard, at intervals, a low croaking so much like that of frogs, that, attributing it to that cause, I took no further notice of it: but on a subsequent evening I found that, instead of on the ground, this croaking was over head, and proceeded from a bird on the wing. The flight was so heavy and slow, that VOL. I.- No. 7. N. s. CC I at first imagined it was an owl or a goatsucker, the former being commonly, and the latter occasionally, seen in that wood. I afterwards found, however, on seeing several of these birds at an earlier hour in the evening, that they were woodcocks, and that four or five couple of them circled the wood every evening, being on the wing for an hour or two at a time, with a varied flight; sometimes rapid and pursuing each other, uttering a sharp, but not very loud, whistling note; and sometimes slow and flapping, when an incessant low croaking was kept up by each individual, often not unlike the purring of a cat, or the noise of a spinning wheel. From this time, throughout the summer, I could on any evening, between five and nine o'clock, see several cocks rise, generally from the lower and moister parts of a large wooded hill, of which a high peak in the centre overlooks the whole. The notes gradually ceased, as the season advanced; and I rather imagine that these circular flights also gradually ceased, though, in the course of our walks, cocks were often flushed, until the more usual season arrived, when they no longer excited so much attention. I have often seen these woodcocks approaching me, in low covered walks, and so little alarmed as almost to brush my hat with their wings, as they quietly passed over my head. This seemed to me to be the hour of feeding on the wing, at least their flight so much resembled that of night birds which feed on moths, &c., that the probability of this occurred to me, although I am aware that their usual food is found upon the ground, amongst damp leaves and moist grass. It is by the knowledge of this low flight of the woodcock in the covered alleys and walks of the forest, that the foreign poacher takes such numbers of them in nets set for the purpose; and I could often have caught them in a common hoop-net, as they passed me. I have long been acquainted, as a sportsman, with the usual peaceful habits of the woodcock, during its winter residence in our climate; but I never, at that season, heard any sound but that of its wings on being flushed. I imagine, therefore, that the low croaking and the occasional whistle are peculiar to the period of incubation, like that singular noise made by the snipe in spring, as it descends rapidly in the air, during its circuitous flight over its native morass. With regard to the nests of the woodcocks to which I have alluded, I never took any trouble to search for them, not wishing to disturb them, and because I had already more than once seen both eggs and young ones. I have no doubt whatever of the fact mentioned by your correspondent W. L., of the old birds occasionally carrying their young in their claws. I once flushed an old woodcock and three young ones, in the woods at Dunkeld; and, observing the old one carrying something in its claws, I gave a shout, supposing that it was a hawk, for the purpose of making it drop what I then took for its prey. It had the desired effect: the object fell, and I immediately ran and picked up a young and ill-fledged woodcock, which, like some poor sickly infant, had become but the more anxious mother's more anxious care. She alighted and rose repeatedly around me, with that wonderful and admirable instinct (so like the reasoning power) which is displayed by wild ducks, partridges, and some other birds, pretending to be wounded, to withdraw my attention from her young. It is highly probable, that woodcocks may thus gradually become naturalised to our summer climate, especially if, like salmon, swallows, and many other creatures, they form a predilection for their native districts, and return to them at the breeding season. While upon this subject, I may add that the woodcock is not the only migratory bird that now occasionally breeds in this kingdom. For several years past fieldfares have bred in Scotland, a circumstance, I believe, altogether unheard of amongst old observers of nature. In the spring of 1835, while walking in the park of Mr. Scott of Gala, in Selkirkshire, I was surprised on seeing, so late in the season, a large flock of fieldfares chattering from tree to tree; when a gentleman who was with me, and who is remarkable for his acute observations on the habits of birds, asked me if I had ever seen their nests; offering to show me several within a very short distance. I gladly availed myself of this opportunity of seeing what was to me a new object, but which my friend had observed in that district for two or three years preceding. The nests were all placed in the clefts of trees, often at a considerable height from the ground, and very different from the situation spoken of by the poet who, in describing the blanched bones of the battle field, makes the human skull a fitting hollow for the fieldfare's nest. It is a fine object, to observe the female of this large bird seated fearlessly on her nest, her long tail projecting upwards, and her large and mild black eye watching confidently the movements of those at hand. We stood for several minutes, in admiration of one in the cleft of a low dwarf apple tree in the garden; and, being desirous of seeing the nest and eggs, it was not without almost pushing her off her nest, that I could induce her to quit it for a few minutes, to gratify my curiosity. I have, since, seen a nest of the same bird in Kent: but, in districts where the large mistletoe thrush is found, it requires care to distinguish between the two; for both birds. some |