banks of the Guadalquivir river, which runs near Seville (if I recollect rightly, Seville is about 80 miles from Cadiz); they added, that it was generally supposed these birds breed in the sandy inaccessible islets at the mouth of the Rhone. In the month of July of the same year, I was at Arles, far down towards the mouths of that river, and there I heard the same account they are not, however, seen near that place. Perhaps some reader of this Magazine may favour you with a more perfect and satisfactory account of this interesting subject, as I consider it, and inform you if flamingoes are ever seen in the long range of coast intermediate between the Rhone and the Guadalquivir. I have visited many parts of it, and never saw or heard of them: where from, and where going, seem the extraordinary points in the circumstances. I was at Tangier and Tetuan, in Barbary, in the month of January of the same year, and neither saw nor heard of them; and being, at that time, a zealous collector in ornithology, I did not fail to make enquiries on all subjects connected with that point. I submit these observations, with diffidence, to more experienced heads. I am, Sir, yours, &c.-H. B. Blois, Nov. 9. 1832. The White-bellied Swift (Cypselus alpinus Temminck) shot in Norfolk. Sir, The following notice has been communicated to me, and I forward it to you, in the prospect of its proving interesting to your readers: -"About the middle of September, 1831, a bird was shot near New Buckenham church, Norfolk, of the swift kind, but larger, and of a lighter colour, and having the belly as well as the throat white; the neck and upper part of the breast have a collar of grey brown rather darker than the head and back. The bird was stuffed, and is now in the possession of a gentleman at Old Buckenham; and, judging from the bulk of the bird, now it is stuffed, it must have weighed, at least, twice as much as our common swift. Its length is rather more than 8 in., and the breadth, from point to point of the expanded wings, 20 in.: they have a copper-coloured reflection in one light, and a green one in another. Its general colour is a dusky black, with the edges of the feathers paler; the quill feathers remarkably strong and pointed, darker than the back, and having a faint shot green cast: the tail consists of exactly ten feathers; the legs are stout, and feathered down to the toes, which are flesh-coloured. Is this the Hirúndo Mélba and alpinus of Linnæus, &c.?"-Daniel Stock. Bungay, July 2. 1832. The swift described is, without doubt, the Hirúndo alpinus, L., Le martinet à ventre blanc of French authors, and the Cypselus alpinus of Temminck. It is figured on the same plate with the common swift (Cypselus muràrius Temminck) in Part II. of Gould's Birds of Europe, whence we learn as follows:-"Mr. Selby has, in the Transactions of the Northumberland Natural History Society, noticed the occurrence of the C. alpinus in Britain, and an individual has been killed on the estate, and is now in the possession, of R. Holford, Esq., Kingsgate, near Margate. "The natural habitat of the C. alpinus is more exclusively limited to the middle of the southern districts of Europe, particularly its alpine regions, and the shores of the Mediterranean: being very abundant at Gibraltar, Sardinia, Malta, and throughout the whole of the Archipelago; and to these may be added the northern parts of Africa. In its manners, it closely resembles our well-known swift (C. muràrius), but possesses, if possible, still greater powers of flight. It would appear that the clefts of rocks, and high buildings, are the sites which this bird chooses for the purpose of nidification; the female laying three or four eggs, of a uniform ivory white. The sexes of this species present but little difference, the colour of the female being rather less decided; in the male, a uniform greyish brown is spread over the whole of the upper surface, which descends across the breast in the form of a band, along the flanks, and over the inferior tail coverts; the throat and the middle of the belly are of a pure white, the tarsi covered with brown feathers, and the irides brown. Length, from 9 in. to 10 in." (Gould's Birds of Europe, part ii.) Has any one observed the under-described Act in the Great Black Ant?-I shall consider myself very much obliged if any reader will inform me if he has ever observed the following curious movements in the economy of that most interesting creature, the ant. I have been for many years an attentive observer of them, but never, until this instance, remarked a similar occurrence. Resting myself, a few days ago (a fine warm sunny day), on an old wooden bridge near the forest, and near to which was a large nest of the great black ant; my attention was arrested by numbers of them passing to and fro, and all of them having something in their mouths. To discern what it could be, I took one of them in my hand, when, to my surprise, I found that each ant, so employed, had one of its fellows in its mouth, but so rolled up as to appear like a ball, held by its forceps, and on its back, forming a complete round, and quite motionless; there was no attempt to get away; and when released by my fingers, the one so held made no attempt to get away, but remained still in my hand, seemingly not at all disturbed by its late conveyance. I tried many of them in this way, and all exhibited the same appearance. It was a fine day for the time of year, and quantities of them were moving to and from the nest in this singular manner: they did not move far, but merely from one end of the bridge to the other, upon the wooden bars of it.-H. B. Blois, Dec. 1. 1832. Mr. Robert Mallet, jun., Capel Street, Dublin, in describing the incidents of a tour which he has recently made on the Continent, thus speaks of some ants which he met with in passing from Martigny, through the Tête Noir, into Chamouni: "Proceeding along the side of the torrent, for a considerable distance, by a nearly level path, after a steep and long descent, and having crossed a rude wooden bridge, the Tête Noir itself, the stupendous precipice from which the pass takes its name, at once opposes itself to view: a mighty mass of solid unbroken rock, it stands, projecting into the valley, in sheer descent above six hundred feet. . . . . I sat down on the planks of the rude wooden bridge, to sketch the noble outline of the Tête Noir, and was soon surrounded by numbers of huge ants, which came out of, and retreated into, innumerable small holes in the pine timber of the bridge. These ants infest dead pine timber in the south of Europe, and are nearly as great a destruction to it as the lion ant of tropical climates is to every other kind of wood. It is the Formica herculanea, I believe its colour is a very dark chestnut, sometimes nearly black. The male is nearly seven eighths of an inch long, the female larger, and does not sting when about the person, as our ants do it feeds, apparently solely, on the dead timber of pine trees, and seems less inclined to attack timber under cover than when exposed to the sun and air. Like our own ants, it has an acrid taste, owing to its containing formic acid. The nests of this species of ant are composed of dry leaves, of the pines chiefly, heaped together to about 15 inches in height, and in the centre is contained the nursery of young ones." (From a Communication to the Gardener's Magazine, not yet published.) Instruments in the Ovipositor of the A'crida verrucívora.-In the ovipositor of the A'crida verrucívora there are two instruments, one to each division of the ovipositor, on the use of which I should be glad to receive information. The instruments are flat, end in a sharp point, and each is enclosed in a groove. E. S. T. March, 1833. In Kirby and Spence's Introduction, vol. iv. p. 152, 153., are remarks on the structure of the ovipositor of the "Acrida and cognate genera;" but it is not clear that they answer the query of E. S. T.: this it is hoped some entomologist will do. J. D. THE MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. JULY, 1833. ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. ART. I. On certain recent Meteoric Phenomena, Vicissitudes in the Seasons, and prevalent Disorders, contemporaneous, and in supposed connection, with Volcanic Emanations. By the Rev. W. B. CLARKE, A.M. F.G.S. "As if in close committee on the sky, And finds a changing clime a happy source Of epidemic throats, if such there are, And coughs, and rheums, and phthisic, and catarrh." Sir, THE title of this paper may be startling to those who consider speculation as great an evil in science as in commerce; nevertheless, I venture to put it forth, as exhibiting some singular coincidences in juxtaposition, which, if unconnected as parts of a whole, are yet interesting in their individual character. I have been led to this undertaking by the peculiar nature of the late mild winter, and present backward spring; which have been remarkable for unusual mutations, not of local, but of universal, extent. One curious feature I have already alluded to in this Magazine (Vol. VI. p. 157.), viz. the extraordinary appearance of the toad. The date there assigned is the 5th of February; but I have since ascertained that the lanes in this vicinity were filled with toads so early as the 1st of February. Now, in the table of indications of spring, published by my friend Mr. Taylor (in Vol. II. p. 128.), the earliest occurrence of the toad, between 1750 and 1771, is VOL. VI.-No. 34. U marked Feb. 20., and the medium time of 57 years is assigned to March 30. 1763. If we may, therefore, admit this fact as a proof, the present spring commenced at a particularly early period. It has, however, till recently, been retarded by an inroad of wintry weather, as remarkable for its violence and duration, as for its unexpected arrival; and, notwithstanding the occurrence of particular symptoms, it is not till within a few weeks that the spring may be said to have actually returned. The following memoranda demonstrate the period of these changes; and, though not essentially valuable, yet, as local data, and in connection with the present subject, may not be altogether useless. 1833. February 1st to 5th, Toads appeared. 6th, Heard blackbirds. 10th, 11th, and 12th *, Dreadful winds with rain from S. W. 13th*, Gale continued. 14th, Wind and lightning from ten P.M. to four A. M. on the 15th, 15th, Snow and rain; the former melted as it fell. 17th, Rain. 21st, Honeysuckle in leaf; primroses in blossom; periwinkle in flower in hedgerows about Sturte. 22d*, Heavy gale; trees and chimneys blown down. 24th, Rain. 25th, Hail in the night. 26th, Gnats appeared in great abundance. 27th, High wind. From 15th to 27th, very cold. March 4th, Very warm; Gonépteryx rhámni appeared; Vanessa ro (peacock butterfly) appeared. 5th, Bees on the blossoms of laurustinus. 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th, Snow in squalls; melted as it fell. 13th, Very warm. 16th, Heavy rain. 19th, Fine clear weather. 21st, Snow. 22d, *During the prevalence of these gales, greater mischief was done to all the parks and woods along the western road than ever was remembered. The Chesil Bank was kept bare of pebbles for some time, and many Spanish dollars found, supposed to be part of the specie aboard the Hope, of Amsterdam, which was wrecked there on January 16. 1748. (of which event there are some interesting particulars in Hutchin's History of Dorset, vol. i. p. 545-6.) After the gale of the 22d, the windows of my house, which faces the south, were found covered with particles of salt, and the brass rapper on the door was corroded by the same cause. The distance from Poole Harbour is not more than half a mile; but, on account of the nature of the situation, I do not believe that the spray from the harbour brought this salt: I am inclined to think it came much farther. The sea lies about two miles to the left, open and visible; before us is the opening in the Chalk Downs at Corfe Castle, and behind that the high land of Kimmeridge, the distance from which place, as the crow flies, is about eleven miles. Í think the spray in question came from the main sea behind Purbeck; the wind driving furiously from that quarter between Kimmeridge or Lulworth and Weymouth. There are on record, in the Philosophical Transactions for 1704, accounts of "salt storms" in November and December, 1703, by which it appears, on the evidence of numerous credible witnesses, that the salt of the sea spray was left on all the trees, hedges, fields, &c., for twenty miles' distance from the sea. (An abstract is given in Polehampton's Gallery of Nature and Art, vol. iv. p. 157.) The Rev. P. W. Jolliffe, A. M., of Poole, informs me that, after a storm from seaward, a similar effect is witnessed at Downton, in Wiltshire, which place is certainly sixteen miles from the nearest sea, at Christchurch, in Hants. |