514 Miscellaneous, 



side, coiled at the end into 2^-3 turns within a minute and a half. 

 The motion began after an interval of several seconds ; and fully half 

 of the coiling was quick enough to be very distinctly seen. After a 

 little more than an hour had elapsed, it was found to be straight 

 again. The contact was repeated, timing the result by the second- 

 hand of a watch. The coiling began within four seconds, and made 

 one circle and a quarter in about four seconds. It had straightened 

 again in an hour and five minutes (perhaps sooner, but it was then 

 observed) ; and it coiled the third time on being touched rather 

 firmly, but not so quickly as before, viz. 1^^ turns in half a minute. 

 I have indications of the same movement in the tendrils of the grape- 

 vine ; but a favourable day has not occurred for the experiment since 

 my attention was accidentally directed to the subject. I have reason 

 to think that the movement is caused by a contraction of the cells 

 on the concave side of the coil, but I have not had an opportunity 

 for making a decisive experiment. — Proceedings of the American 

 Academy of Arts and Sciences^ vol. iv. p. 98, Aug. 1858. 



On the Habits of the Scythrops Novse Hollandise. 

 By George Bennett, Esq. In a Letter to J. Gould, F.R.S. &c. 



" I send you a few notes on the Scythrops Novce HoUandicBj or 

 Hornbill Cuckoo of the Colonists, which, perhaps, you may think 

 worth bringing under the notice of the Zoological Society. 



" A few years since, a fine female specimen was shot in the Bota- 

 nical Garden at Sydney ; and from the notes I took at the time I find 

 that the peculiarity of its mode of flight induced me to mistake it for 

 a Hawk ; for it wheeled about, occasionally hovered very high in the 

 air, and then gradually descending, continued its flight close to the 

 tops of the lofty Eucalypti^ CasuarincCy and other large trees, as if 

 for the purpose of capturing insects, more especially the Tettigonia 

 or Locust, which at that season of the year (January) were very 

 numerous. It also whirled round the trees in circles and from 

 branch to branch, apparently to capture the Tettigonias and other 

 insects during their flight; and I further observed that it often 

 darted down and took its prey among the foliage and on the 

 trunks of the large Eucalypti, occasionally making a screaming 

 noise and hovering with its wings expanded to the utmost, at a short 

 distance above the trees, precisely as a hawk does. After making 

 these various evolutions and securing its morning meal, it quietly 

 perched itself on the very lofty branch where it was shot. On 

 examining the stomach, it was found to contain Gold Beetles {Ano- 

 plognathus) and Tettigonice in great numbers. A young specimen 

 formerly in the possession of Mr. Wall, the Curator of the Austra- 

 lian Museum, and now in the well-arranged and extensive aviary of 

 Mr. Alfred Denison at Government House, Sydney, is in excellent 

 health after recovering from a broken wing and broken leg. 



** I observe you mention in your * Birds of Australia * that a spe- 

 cimen was presented to you by Lady Dowling, being one of two 



