460 Miscellaneous. 



not mentioned, I believe, in any work on British ornithology to 

 which I have access ; but in Dr. Latham's * General History ' it is 

 described as the Perdix Gibraltarica, with which my specimen appears 

 to agree. The bird was shot by the gamekeeper on the Cornwell 

 estate in this county, about three miles from hence, and has been 

 kindly presented to me. It was found in a field of barley, of which 

 kind of grain, by the by, hundreds of acres are still standing, with 

 no prospect of being harvested in a proper state. Before I proceeded 

 to preserve the bird, I took the measure of its various parts, the co- 

 lour of its eyes, bill and feet, its weight, &c, after which I found its 

 description in the work above alluded to. It was shot on the 29th 

 of October last, since which time another has been killed near the 

 same spot by the same person, but its head was shot off, and other- 

 wise so mutilated as to be unfit for preservation : this might probably 

 complete the pair, mine being a male bird. It had in its gizzard two 

 or three husks of barley, several small seeds similar to charlock, 

 some particles of gravel, and was very fat. It was considerably in- 

 jured by the shot, but I have set it up in the best manner I could, and 

 consider it a valuable addition to my small collection of British birds. 

 Should this prove to be the only known instance of the capture of 

 the bird in Britain, I shall feel glad in having saved it from oblivion. 

 I am, Gentlemen, your obedient servant, 



Chipping Norton, Oxon, Nov. 11, 1844. Thos. Goatley. 



[The bird in'question is the Hemipodius tachydromus of Temminck, 

 which is figured in Mr. Gould's ' Birds of Europe,' vol. iv. plate 264. 

 Mr. Gould, to whom we have shown Mr. Goatley's letter, considers 

 this one of the most interesting additions to the British fauna that 

 has occurred for many years. — Ed.] 



ELATINE HYDROPIPER. 



Mr. W. O. Newnham of St. John's College, Cambridge, has found 

 this very rare plant in two ponds near Farnham, Surrey, on op- 

 posite sides of the town, namely, Frensham Pond and Cuck Mills 

 Pond : in both places it was accompanied by E. hexandra. It is a most 

 interesting addition to the flora of the south of England, and the 

 young naturalist by whom it has been discovered deserves great 

 credit for accuracy of observation. The only recorded localities are 

 in Anglesea and Ireland. — C. C. B. 



HURA CREPITANS. 



A fruit of Hura crepitans from which the seeds had been removed 

 (probably by cutting them out), and which had been kept by M. 

 Poncet in a glass for ten years, suddenly burst with a noise like the 

 report of a pistol, and its divisions with the fragments of the glass 

 were scattered about the room. M. Schlectendal informs us that 

 he once left a perfect fruit of this plant on the corner of a stove, and 

 was in the next room, when it burst with a noise as if a quantity of 

 china had fallen to the ground, and its valves and seeds were scat- 

 tered to the extremities of a room twelve feet square. — Botanische 

 Zcitung, Nov. 8, 1844. 



