24: 



tyt (tarist. 



In "The Naturalist" for November, I noticed your query with regard to the 

 autumnal tone of the Rook. I, too, have been struck with the peculiarity 

 of that tone, and have stated my impression of it in a little poem entitled 

 "Frank Sylvan." I send you along with this the volume in which the 

 poem is published; and I beg you will do me the honour and kindness to 

 accept it with my best wishes. I have just read the sixth volume of 

 your "History of British Birds," and I cannot refrain from expressing to 

 you my admiration of the masterly manner in which you have completed 

 your charming work. — Thomas Aird, Dumfries, November 18th., 1857. 



The following is the passage referred to, and a good passage it is, as 

 is another on the flight of the Cushat, on the following page. 



"Has not the Eook a harvest cry? a slight 

 Percussive breathing through her usual note; 

 A chuckle? that's too strong; well call it then' 

 The halitus of a spirit crowding through 

 Her feeble voice, like thanks for God's good corn. 

 Is this a fancy, or is this a fact?" 



F. 0. MORRIS. 



I think you quite right about the notes of birds. The seasonal variations 

 in the case of the Rook are very discernible. — R. P. Alington, Swinhope 

 Rectory, November 27th., 1857. 



The Cockchaffer, (Melolontha vulgaris.) — On the 17th. of November last, 

 a workman was removing the earth heaped on the side of a gravel-pit 

 I had opened here, for the purpose of excavating further, and under the 

 soil, and on the grass on the former surface, he found two specimens of 

 the common Cockchaffer alive. I never before knew this insect alive except 

 in the height of summer. Was it an early or late hatch from the chrysalis? 

 Had they lain there since they first came out, or had they burrowed in 

 there since? And is it a usual or even an unusual circumstance for these 

 insects to go under ground for the winter? — F. 0. Morris, Nunburnholme 

 Rectory, December 14th., 1857. 



Animalcules.— For some time past I have observed in a brook in thi3 

 neighbourhood, patches of Animalcules, of a blood colour, on the surface 

 of the mud. On examining some of the mud into which they sink 

 upon being touched, I found it to contain reddish worms, of about the 

 thickness of a pin, and three-quarters of an inch in length. Could any 

 of the readers of "The Naturalist" favour me with the name of them, 

 and also any other information respecting them. — Henry Buckley, Cal- 

 thorpe Street, Birmingham, November 25 th., 1857. 



