' %oology. 377 



Mr. Anderson, of the Chelsea botanic garden, who has furnished this 

 account, thinks that this trial was not a fair one, because their translocation 

 should be gradual, progressing farther and farther north, in succeeding 

 years ; and, were such a method practicable, he thinks it might succeed in 

 course of time, being persuaded, from what he has noticed of this bird, that 

 they choose their breeding-place as much from convenience, as from any 

 constitutional delicacy compelling them to fear either the want of warmth 

 or want of food. Mr. Anderson adds that he has had nightingales' eggs 

 hatched by redbreasts, in the Chelsea garden ; and thinks that some of the 

 young returned the following year, but were soon caught by the vagrant 

 birdcatchers in the neighbouring gardens. The unfledged nightingales, he 

 observes, are also, more than other birds near towns, liable to be destroyed 

 by cats, from their noisy clamour for food, as soon as it is light in the morn- 

 ing, and thus calling the cat to their nest. No bird is so easily caught by a 

 trap as the nightingale ; and great numbers of them are so taken every year 

 in the neighbourhood of London, a practice much condemned by the inha- 

 bitants of the surrounding villas. 



To this account we have only to add, that we think Mr. Sweet's manner 

 of keeping and breeding tame birds, would sooner furnish a suppjy of wild 

 ones than any other mode. 



Negroes. — Blumenbach gives a most entertaining account of a little 

 library which he possesses of works written by negroes, from which it ap- 

 pears, that there is not a single department of taste or science, in which 

 some negro has not distinguished himself. {Scotsman, Dec. 29.) 



Faculties of Brutes. — The dog is the only animal that dreams ; and he 

 and the elephant the only animals that understand looks ; the elephant is 

 the only animal that, besides man, feels ennui; the dog, the only quadruped 

 that has been brought to speak. Leibnitz bears witness to a hound in 

 Saxony, that could speak distinctly thirty words. {Medical Gazette.) 



Men and Plants are equally under the Influence of Climate. — Where the 

 spruce and Scotch pines and where bushes will not succeed, the nature of 

 man seems equally defective. He sinks in the struggle with necessity. and 

 the climate. — {Von BucW s Lapland.) 



The Marmot (ilfus Marmota Lin.). 170 



i^flg. 1 70.) — These beasts, in the strict- 

 est sense, make hay ; they bite off 

 the grass, turn it, and dry it in the 

 sun. It is reported that they use an 

 old she marmot as a cart. She lies 

 on her back, the hay is heaped on 

 her belly, and two others drag her 

 home. {London Medical Gazette.) 

 The Alpine marmot, or mountain- 

 mouse, inhabits the highest summits of 

 the Alps and Pyrenean mountains, in 

 dry places without trees. It is social, living in societies of from five to four- 

 teen, who, when basking in the sun, place a sentinel in advance, who 

 whistles on the approach of danger, when the marmots retire into their 

 holes. These holes are lined with moss and dry grass. About the end of 

 September they retire into them, and stop up the entrance with earth, and 

 there they remain in a torpid state till March. They are generally taken 

 by digging out during winter. Their flesh is tender and delicate, their 

 skins valuable, and the Savoyards esteem their fat medicinal. They live on 

 insects, roots, and vegetables, and are fond of milk. The Savoyards expose 

 them as shows in various parts of Europe. Even in a warm climate, they 

 are said to fall into a state of torpidity in winter. 



Curious Duck. — Sir, Your Prospectus encourages me to send you a 

 trifle, which you may perhaps find room for in your " collection of facts." 



