QUESTIONS IN ORNITHOLOGY. 233 



plants are disposed to be very luxuriant. Just water enough 

 . to keep them growing must be given daily, but no more. I 

 surely need not add, that in such heavy rains as sometimes 

 fall here after the summer solstice, they must have no water 

 at all ; but rather, if possible, be protected from their vio- 

 lence by a glass light. 



X. 



Some Questions in Ornithology. In a Letter from a Cor- 

 respondent, 



To Mr. NICHOLSON. 

 SIR, 



.S I know not where an inquirer will be more likely to Queries re- 

 meet with information on any points of natural history than "pec*" 1 * 

 from the many scientific readers of your valuable Journal, 

 I should take your inserting the following as a favour, and 

 would be much obliged to any of your readers, who would 

 be so kind as to elucidate the point in question. 

 I am, Sir, 



Your obedient Servant, 



S. N. 



In an account of the Feroe islands, written by a Danish the irober 

 clergyman, a translation of which is given in Dr. Aikin's g° ose * 

 elegant work the Athenaeum, 1 rind the following passage. 

 " The imber, or ember goose, colymbus immer, is one of 

 the most beautiful birds in Feroe. It is as large as a com- 

 mon goose, and lives constantly on the dry land ; and al- 

 though it has been often seen with grown up young, no per- 

 son has ever yet found its nest. As it has a large hole under 

 each wing, many have imagined, that it there hatches its 

 eggs. The change in regard to the beautiful ring around 

 the neck observed in some of these birds is in all probabi- 

 lity a consequence of their different ages." 



This large hole under each wing I do not find mentioned p ccu ii a nt* 

 by any ornithologist I have at hand ; I should be glad to mentiouedL 



know 



