Miscellaneous. 213 



wings, a blue-backed gull, and a curlew. The plovers are often seen 

 with the buzzard sitting in the midst of them, showing no signs of 

 caution or apprehension, but seem as if they were listening to a lec- 

 ture delivered by him. The gull frequently retires into the garden- 

 house, probably to enjoy the society of the buzzard. The garden is 

 not the garden of Eden, and yet these birds, of different natures, 

 habits and dispositions, appear to live in perfect harmony, peace and 

 good fellowship with each other. G. J. F. 



Newton-by-the-Sea, Aug. 29, 1845. 



P.S. — I have had three living specimens of the Honey Buzzard 

 in my possession, not one of them in plumage at all resembling the 

 other. One of the three never could be induced to take any food, 

 and after living about a fortnight, died, I believe, from pure inani- 

 tion. Besides the plaintive cry above-mentioned, the Honey Buz- 

 zard has another and more varied note apparently of alarm. — From 

 the Transactions of the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, vol. ii. p. 173. 



LARUS EBURNEUS. 



On Monday last Michael Roberts of Penzance, who devotes a 

 considerable portion of his time and attention to the subject of orni- 

 thology, succeeded in shooting, off the pier head, a very excellent 

 specimen of the ivory gull {Larus ehurneus) . We believe that the 

 first specimen of this species obtained in the United Kingdom was at 

 Balta Sound, Shetland Islands, in the winter of 1822. The length 

 of these birds varies from 16 to 18 inches, depending upon age and 

 sex. Captains Sabine and J. C. Ross represent this species as com- 

 mon on the coast of Greenland, Davis' Straits, Bafl&n's Bay, Port 

 Bowen and Hecla Cove. Dr. Richardson mentions these birds as 

 having been seen breeding in great numbers in the high perforated 

 cliffs which form the extremity of Cape Parry, in lat. 70°. — Cornwall 

 Royal Gazette. 



FOSSIL HUMAN BONES. 



At a Meeting of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia 

 (Oct. 6, 1846), Dr. Dickeson exhibited a large and remarkably varied 

 series of fossil bones, obtained by him from the vicinity of Natchez, 

 Miss. The collection embraces the entire head and half of the lower 

 jaw of the Megalonyx Jeffersoni *, now for the first time discovered ; 

 together with many parts of the skeleton, and indeed of several ske- 

 letons of that animal, sufficient to enable its complete osteological 

 reconstruction. The stratum that contains these organic remains is 

 a tenacious blue clay that underlies the diluvial drift east of Natchez, 

 and which diluvial deposit abounds in bones and teeth of the MaS' 

 todon giganteum. 



* Dr. Dickeson originally suggested, from partial comparisons, that this 

 cranium belonged to the Megalonyx, and not to the Mylodon as others had 

 supposed ; his opinion was fully confirmed by M. Agassiz on a recent exa- 

 mination ; and this distinguished naturalist has proved the Megalonyx la- 

 queatus of Harlan to belong, not to Megalonyx, but to some other nearly 

 alHed genus. 



