346 ^ Remarks on the Locomotion 



observe hundreds of black martens skimming over the tops of 

 the trees, after their usual manner while eager in pursuit of 

 their prey. No old building or castle was nearer than thirty 

 miles, and Inverness was more than forty ; the only place,^ 

 indeed, from which I could suppose such an unusual number 

 of these birds to proceed. Whilst trying to digest the im- 

 probability that the parents should leave their young at such 

 a distance, and considering if it could be at all possible that, 

 with all the remarkable power of wing peculiar to the bird, 

 they should be able to fly back and forward in time to supply 

 their wants, the noise of a woodpecker, labouring for its suste- 

 nance after quite a different manner, drew an observation from 

 one of my friends resident in the neighbourhood, that is, 

 some ten miles off- He remarked that the loud* tapping 

 sound was not so often caused by their searching the bark 

 for insects, as by their boring holes in the large decaye4 

 trees in which they made their nests ; and that it was said 

 they never made use of an old hole, but took the trouble 

 of perforating a new one every time they hatched. It imme- 

 diately occurred to me that the presence of such a prodigious 

 number of swifts could be more easily accounted for than by 

 supposing them to come either from the old monastery at 

 Beauly or from Inverness, to hawk for flies thirty or forty 

 miles from their young: I forthwith requested that one of 

 the shepherds who had most turn for enquiry anent such sort 

 of matters might be set to examine whether the swifts did not 

 occupy the deserted holes of the woodpeckers ; and I was 

 gratified by being assured, some time afterwards, that this w^as 

 found to be the fact. 



Selkirkshire^ November^ 1830. W. L. 



Art. XI. Remarks on the Locoynolion and Habits of the Limpet. 

 By Frederick C. Lukis, Esq. 



Sir, 



The opinion that the common limpet (Patella vulgata) is 

 stationary, and that the animal remains in the same place, 

 only raising its shell for the purpose of catching food from 

 the surrounding element, has frequently been advanced by 

 superficial observers, who have been deceived by the circum- 

 stance of the same individual being seen for days, and even 

 years, attached to the same spot. 



The principal object of these remarks is to point out some 

 facts connected with this shell, which may lead to further 



