378 Miscellaneous, 



plumage has a mottled appearance, caused by the feathers being cen- 

 trally black and broadly edged with cinereous. In the middle of the 

 back is a perceptibly greenish gloss. The only examples I have seen 

 of this as of the former species are in the British Museum, where 

 Mr. G. R. Gray's uniform kindness affords me every opportunity of 

 studying the collection under his care. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Bohemian Forests and Peat-bogs. By Dr. Hochstetter*. 



The primitive forests on Prince Schwarzenberg's domain, viz. at 

 Krumau, Winterberg, and Stubenbach, may at a considerable distance 

 be easily distinguished from the cultivated and regularly cut forests 

 by their irregular and angular outlines ; whilst the cupola-shaped 

 summits of the firs rise considerably above the pyramidal pine-tops. 

 Seen from an elevation, the diiference between the primitive forest, 

 with its withered tops and somewhat scattered trees, and the compact 

 and verdant cultivated forest, is still more striking. 



In some localities in the interior of the forests, the trees stand in 

 straight lines of 150 to 200 feet [= 155-5o to 207-4 English feet] 

 in length, as if planted so. Wherever the seeds do not find in the 

 deep vegetable soil a site favourable for germination, their growth is 

 exclusively confined to the roots and prostrate stems in a state of de- 

 composition. Long after these stems have completely rotted away, 

 their original length and situation are visible from the rectilinear 

 arrangement of the younger trees, growing in the mouldering sub- 

 Stance of the decayed veterans. This growth of the young plant on 

 the decaying roots and stems serves also to explain the frequent 

 occurrence of trees supported above the ground by means of exposed 

 columnar roots, and, as it is termed, "standing on stilts." 



The age of the pines and the firs in the primitive forests reaches as 

 much as 200 to 500 years ; the pines grow occasionally to 200 feet 

 in height, and contain 1900 cubic feet [= 2118*5 English cubic 

 iett] of wood in their stem alone. One of the finest of the firs, 30 

 feet [=31' 11 English feet] in circumference at a man's height, 

 stood in the Brandelwald, near Unter-Muldau ; it was lately blown 

 down, and it is estimated to contain 30 klafters [= 3012*03 English 

 cubic feet] of fire-wood. Besides pines and firs, the forests in ques- 

 tion contain beeches, maples, elms, birches, willows, and some, but 

 very few, yew trees. 



At present the extent of Prince Schwarzenberg's primitive forests is 

 estimated at 30,000 Austrian acres [=42,560 English acres] ; and the 

 quantity of wood in them at Q\ millions of klafters [= 652,600,500 

 English cubic feet] . A large portion of the wood from these forests 

 is consumed in the neighbourhood for the use of the glass-furnaces, 



* From the Proceedings of the Imperial Geological Institute of Vienna, 

 Jan. 23, 1855. Translated and communicated by Count Marschall. 



