27G Retrospective Criticism, 



very unfortunate in his speculations. He thinks the question of the 

 " goatsucker's foot-comb " is " set at rest," because he discovers that 

 these birds are infested with vermin. Does he not know that it would be 

 difficult to name any land bird which is without such parasites ? If he 

 doubts this fact, let him examine the heads of all our native birds ; or, 

 what is better, let him go to the British Museum and ask to see Dr. 

 Leach's collection of these extraordinary insects. To suppose that nature 

 has given to one or two families of birds the exclusive power of freeing 

 themselves from an enemy which in like manner infests all birds is pre- 

 posterous. I can, moreover, assure him that the Australian Podargus is 

 so tormented, since some of the empty nits still adhere to the feathers 

 of my specimens. Is Mr. Rennie now satisfied ? Wilson in general is 

 remarkably accurate, but he also must, in this instance, give place to our 

 White. — 5m;. Feh. 1831. 



Formation of Wax hy the Bee. — Most practical men think Professor 

 Rennie (p. 185.) wrong, notwithstanding the authorities that he has in his 

 favour. I have been taught to believe that the farina of flowers is the 

 material of the wax, and that it is cemented by a glutinous secretion 

 of the insect. Wasps scrape or bite off the soft down-like pile which is 

 generally found on the surface of oak boards or posts that have been 

 exposed to the weather, and mixing it with a gluten which they secrete, 

 form a kind of paste or paper of which they construct their cells. Hornets 

 make use of rotten wood instead of the scrapings of oak boards to form 

 the paper for their nests ; and I observe by the Bulletin Universcl that a 

 gentleman in France has taken out a patent for the same thing. — J. W..Xj. 

 London, March, 1831. 



The " Flora of Richmond as compared ivith that of Thirsky^ contained m 

 your Magazine (p. 24.), exhibits a few inaccuracies which I wish to rectify, 

 and some opinions which I feel inclined to oppose. 



It seems to me that one of the plans the most conducive to the advance- 

 ment of the science upon which your Magazine treats, is that of the inha- 

 bitants of particular counties or districts transmitting to you an account of 

 their discoveries, stating to you their remarks, and the inferences they 

 draw from the data they possess : still this system, useful as it is, with- 

 out it is conducted with caution and fidelity, will prove futile, and tend 

 to mislead the enquiring naturalist. In making some remarks upon 

 the peculiarities of the woods about Richmond, the author of the paper 

 before me says, that, " ascending the higher grounds, the woods, if any, are 

 principally fir." Now, I conceive that this is not peculiar to Richmond, 

 since where firs are not of spontaneous growth, in all elevated situations 

 where the soil is barren and unprofitable, the proprietors usually plant fir trees, 

 as affording the best crop which they can procure from soil of that nature ; 

 and this I conceive to have been the origin of the plantations near Richmond. 



May I ask the author of this paper, did he not mean to write metalliferous, 

 when he wrote carboniferous, limestone ? I believe coal is scarcely found 

 within many miles of Richmond (a peculiarity of the mountain limestone 

 series), though the metals galena, zinc, and copper are found in abundance ; 

 from which fact this limestone is denominated by geologists metalliferous. 

 Mountain limestone totally prevails at Richmond, though your more 

 cautious correspondent says only generally. The town of Richmond 

 stands upon a rock of limestone, and the same stratum forms the bed and 

 banks of the river Swale. As to the cavernous fissures which T. E. L. 

 mentions, I can assure him I know them well, and in the days of my 

 youthful enterprise, equipped with tinder-box and candle, I have tra- 

 versed their depths with the adventurous spirit of a Quixote, and returned 

 to the daylight soiled and bemudded as much as ever mining practitioner 

 was. As to T. E. L.'s assertion, that the mountain limestone series is 

 "generally" full of fissures, I feel too dubious upon the subject to hazard 



