142 Miscellaneous, 



By way of conclusion I may be allowed to ftotice that albino va- 

 rieties of the stormy petrel sometimes occur. Mr. Miller has one 

 which is altogether of a dirty white, except those parts which are 

 white in the common variety, and which are here clearly distinguish- 

 able by their brightness. Mr. J. Smith of this place has also an albino 

 variety ? of the furze chat {Saxicola Ruhetra), and I have seen spe- 

 cimens of the common grey linnet nearly white. — Thos. Paine, Jun. 



ON THE INSTRUMENTS OF PERFORATION IN THE CICADA. 



M. Doyere has published some remarks on the ovipositor of the 

 Cicada, ' Ann. Sc. Nat.' t. vii. p. 193. tending to show that Reaumur's 

 notion, according to which the perforation is effected by the up and 

 down motion of the two lateral parts which are serrated at their apex, 

 and that the middle piece serves merely to hold together the side 

 pieces, cannot be correct ; as in the first place, the serratures of the 

 lateral pieces are too blunt, and on the other hand, the whole in- 

 strument would want a point of support, as the whole weight would 

 fall on the anterior portion of the body only. He therefore brjings 

 forward the view that th-e lateral pieces are employed rather i • 

 pincers and serve as a point of support to the borer, and that the 

 process might perhaps be the following : the pincers are at each time 

 inserted into the small aperture made by the middle piece, and these 

 are then extended in such a manner that the middle piece, again ad- 

 vancing, forces them, after the manner of a wedge, one from the 

 other. As the Cicada, according to Reaumur, only use withered 

 twigs for piercing holes for their eggs, would the strength of the 

 ovipositor be sufficient for this process? — Erichson's Report on En- 

 tomology in Wicgmanns Archiv, Part V. 1838. 



OCCURRENCE OF CAREX RUPESTRIS, WAHL. 



I was so fortunate as to discover this very rare plant on the edges 

 of rocks at Inchnadamff^, Sutherlandshire, in the early part of Sep- 

 tember 1838, growing with C capillaris and Dry as octopetala at an 

 inconsiderable elevation. — Charles Churchill Babington. 



BLACK VARIETY OF THE COMMON HARE. 



At a recent meeting of the Cambridge Ray Club a specimen of 

 the alpine swift, Cypselus alpinus, Temm., which had been killed 

 between Cambridge and Granchester in September 1838, was exhi- 

 bited by its possessor Mr. C. Sawle ; and at another meeting the 

 Rev. i. ^. Smith exhibited a totally black variety of the common 

 hare lately shot at Shortgrove in Cambridgeshire. — C. C. B. 



