50 Transmission of 



North Cape. The expense will be defrayed by the French 

 government. 



The Prussian traveller, M. Moritz, having been prevented 

 by a revolution, which broke out on the Upper Oronoko, from 

 continuing his journey down that river, to Rio Nigro and Va- 

 rinas, after waiting several months in the missionary stations 

 on the river Carani, has returned to Europe, by Angostura and 

 St. Thomas. He has brought with him an extensive zoolo- 

 gical and botanical collection, which has been added to the 

 Museum and Botanic garden at Berlin. 



M, Hedenborg, a Swede, who has travelled seven years in 

 Africa, and is said to have penetrated farther into that conti- 

 nent, by Egypt, than any of his many predecessors, has ar- 

 rived in Alexandria ; where he intends remaining some time, 

 to recruit his health, before returning to his own country. — 

 His collections in the different branches of Natural History, 

 are said to be extremely rich and important. 



The collections of Baron Hugel, the result of his long and 

 distant travels through Asia and Australasia, are now exhi- 

 biting in Vienna. 



The collection of the late Prof. Afzelius, consisting of natural 

 and other curiosities from Africa, has been bought by H.R.H. 

 the Prince hereditary of Sweden, for the University of Upsala. 



Death of Professor Nitzsch, of Halle. — On the 16th of Au- 

 gust, the University of Halle lost one of its most distinguished 

 members, Mr. C. L. Nitzsch, Professor of Natural History, 

 and Director of the Zoological Department. He was a very 

 successful cultivator of several branches of the science, espe- 

 Entomology and Ornithology. 



SHORT COMMUNICATIONS. 



Transmission of experience in birds, in the form of instinc- 

 tive Knowledge. — I have seen lately a brief notice of Sir 

 Thomas Andrew Knight's paper on the transmission of he- 

 reditary propensities in animals, read before the Royal Society 

 in August last. I hope the following instance may be thought 

 sufficiently interesting, as proving, that the collective expe- 

 rience of many generations of animals has a much more pow- 

 erful influence on their behaviour, than their individual 

 experience. The Bustard is one of the wariest birds ; like 

 the wild geese, it always is guarded by one or more sentinels, 

 according to the number of the flock, whilst the latter is 

 feeding, and through uncommon caution the flocks of this 



