110 Mermaids. 



visiting them ; for on the following day I ascertained the 

 young birds had taken their departure from the nest. 



The coolness of the past season, as compared with the two 

 preceding, apparently, had more effect (if the weather has 

 any influence) upon the migration of the swifts; for, up to 

 August 19., there did not appear to be any very great dimi- 

 nution of their numbers, being ten days or a fortnight later 

 than the two former years before they began to disappear. 

 The following day (20th), being very wet, evidently hastened 

 their departure; for on the 22d only a few pairs were to be 

 seen; and on the 27th I saw only a solitary pair, being the 

 last that came under my notice for this season. 



The procrastinated period of nidification of the pair of 

 swifts in the year 1835 naturally calls forth some few re- 

 marks on such an unusual occurrence. Probably the delay 

 arose in consequence of their nest, with several others con- 

 taining eggs, being unavoidably destroyed about June I., 

 owing to some necessary repairs at the place they unfor- 

 tunately had selected for nidification. Several pairs of the 

 old birds, after this disaster, still pertinaciously adhered to 

 the same situation ; and I have no doubt the majority suc- 

 ceeded in rearing their broods in sufficient time to take their 

 departure with the main body, at which time the pair pre- 

 viously noted could scarcely have commenced the task of 

 incubation ; for it will be observed that on September 3. their 

 young were, apparently, only a week old, which would give 

 rather an unusual time for so small a bird, a period of three 

 weeks for incubation, from the time their companions com- 

 menced leaving this district. And we find so great was the 

 instinctive propensity of these poor birds to increase their 

 species, that they actually deferred their usual period of mi- 

 gration, and remained nearly seven weeks in this country after 

 all their associates had departed. — J. D. Salmon. Thetford, 

 Dec. 3. 1836. 



Two Mermaids caught in the river Gabon, Africa. {Ex- 

 tracted from Mr. HerajmtKs Railway Magazine.) — It ap- 

 pears that this is not the first fish of the kind taken in the 

 river Gabon. The natives had informed Captain Herapath 

 of such things in a former voyage; and his treating the in- 

 formation lightly was their reason now of sending for him to see 

 it. He has not spoken of the tail; but, from what I learned in 

 conversation with him, it appears that the fan of the tail is 

 one undivided fin; and the plane of it, when the fish is 

 swimming, horizontal, not vertical, like that of other fish. 



"Gabon, August 16. 1835, p.m. I received intelligence 

 that a native residing at Sam's Town had taken a singularly 



