402 Queries and Answers. 



as for the •* 



" non ilia feris incognita capris 

 Gramina, cum tergo volucres haes^re sagittae," 



I let that pass, as I was taught it at school, requiring no evidence to prove 

 its truth, but admitting that a mass of classical authority is in favour of it, 

 and of the skill in simples manifested by animals in general. I should greatly 

 delight in idling away some days in a good library, and sending you a real 

 paper on this subject, instead of a hurried scrawl, despatched even uncor- 

 rected. Can you tell your readers what is the Linnean name for a fish 

 (caught on the coast of North Carolina, I believe) called by the natives 

 " Devil Stingai-ree. It has a long tail like a coach whip, and a barbed bone 

 about 4 in. long, which it strikes into an opponent. — W. April 24. 1829. 



Various Questions. — Where can I procure lives or memoirs of the fol- 

 lowing naturalists, Buffon, Jussieu, Ray, Pennant, and Azara? Is there, any 

 translation oi Azara* s Memoirs in English, and if so, is it from the French or 

 original Spanish edition ? Where can I procure plates and descriptions of 

 the blindworm, and which is the best treatise on the Simm tribe ? The 

 General Gazetteer, speaking of Devonshire, mentions that " In the western 

 parts there is a bird so very small, that it is reputed to be a humming-bird, 

 and, like that bird, builds its nest on the extreme branches of trees." Pray, 

 Sir, can you, or any of your correspondents, inform me what bird is here 

 meant? — When, Sir, do you intend to notice the menageries of the King's 

 Mews and the Tower ? Might you not also give some account of the tra- 

 velling collections, for the instruction of your country readers ? I am, Sir, 

 &c. — Perceval Hunter. June 4. 1829. 



Effects of Salt Water on some ]\Iarine Animals^ and Scientijic Descriptions 

 of these Animals. — Sir, In your useful and entertaining Journal (p. 121.), 

 there is an excellent paper by Dr. Drummond, on the effects produced by 

 fresh water on some marine animals and plants. The facts which he has 

 adduced are very curious, and having witnessed the same, or very similar 

 ones, I have no doubt whatever of their accuracy. On dropping, for exam- 

 ple, the Polynoe imbricata {ZooL Journ.y iii. 3J2.) into a glass of fresh 

 water, it instantaneously casts off its scales, and drops dead to the bottom. 

 The same is the case with the Lycori;? margaritacea of Dr. Leach. These 

 are worms, and belong to the class Annelides of modern zoologists ; but 

 fresh water is no less poisonous to some molluscous animals. The Tritonws 

 pinnatifida and the Eolida papillosa are immediately killed by it, and lose 

 their branchial processes. 



My object in addressing you at present, however, is not to corroborate 

 Dr. Drummond's facts, but to solicit from him a scientific description of 

 two of the animals on which his experiments were made. The first is the 

 Aphrodita squamata. The descriptions of this given by British authors are 

 quite insufficient to enable any one to tell what they intend, and it would 

 be doing a good service to our Fauna to have it correctly ascertained. Is 

 it the Polynoe squamata of Lamarck, or is it not rather the P. imbricata 

 above mentioned ? What is the Nereis cajriilea of Linnaeus, the second 

 animal experimented on ? The descriptions of Linnaeus and of Pennant, 

 and the figure of the latter, are good for nothing ; and I very much sus- 

 pect that Pennant intended to figure what is now called hycons margari- 

 tacea, and of which Dr. Leach is presumed to be the discoverer. Dr. Drum- 

 mond will, I trust, excuse me for soliciting an answer to these queries. — 

 G.J. May 14. 1829. 



Active Molecules, — About Christmas last I placed, for preservation, in a 

 small phial (filled with an equal mixture of hollands and water), a dead 

 fleshy grub of the Musk Beetle (Cerambyx moschatus Lin.) found on wil- 

 lows. The animal had experienced some injury, part of the skin near the 



