158 MISCELLANY. 



cloth, the cement must be heated to the boiling point, and well stirred. The 

 best mode of applying it is with a piece of old linen fastened to the end of a 

 stick. Sometimes the luting, by penetrating the cork, makes the spirit of wine 

 evaporate and burst the surface ; this forms small openings, which are stopped by 

 passing a second coat of luting over the first, having previously allowed it to 

 cool. If the phials are small, their necks may be plunged into the luting, and by 

 repeating the process two or three times it acquires the proper degree of thickness. 

 From what little experience I have had, I find that a mixture of half water and 

 half spirit answers the purpose equally well, and I have been told that a mixture 

 of salt and water will suffice, and it is of course much more economical. — T. B. 

 Hall, Woodside, Liverpool, Feb. 1, 1838. 



Occurrence of Apis mellifica on Dec. 31. — On the last day of the year 1837 

 a Bee flew very briskly by me, which must have been at a considerable distance 

 from its hive. The weather was beautifully fine, and the thermometer in the 

 shade stood at 46°. — Peter Rylands, Bewsey House, Warrington, Feb. 3, 1838. 



The European Goatsucker {Caprimulgus Europceus) near the Sea-coast. 

 —This bird is found upon the moors in the neighbourhood, and is occasionally 

 seen in the evening hawking for food in sheltered situations near the sea-coast. — 

 Patrick Hawkridge, Scarborough, Aug. 7, 1837. 



Helobia brevicollis, var. Portlandica. — Every specimen I take in Portland is 

 much narrower across the thorax than those I take here, and I think it is as 

 good a species as H. Marshallana, being apparently intermediate between that 

 and H. brevicollis, but I am inclined to think that all the Helobice are but one 

 species, varying from locality and other circumstances. — J. C. Dale, Glanville's 

 Wootton, Dorsetshire, July 7, 1 837. 



Crambus lamellus. — Norfolk, Rev. J. Burrell, Parley Heath, West Hume, 

 Ramsdown, Catherine Hill, Christ- church Head, and New Forest, in very fine 

 order, from Aug. 14 to Sept. 6. — J. C. Dale, Glanville's Wootton, Dorsetshire, 

 July 9, 1837. 



The Common Seal (Pkoca vitulina, Linn.). — Pennant, in his British 

 Zoology, mentions the occurrence of this species on the coasts of Caernarvonshire 

 and Anglesea. The fishermen also have several times informed me of its occur- 

 rence. I have never, however, succeeded in obtaining or seeing one. Mr. Bell, in 

 his History of British Quadrupeds, p. 2C3, mentions, on the authority of Prof. 

 Nilsson, that the oblique position of the teeth is a constant character in this 

 species. It is, however, one which appears to vary with the age of the animal. 

 In the cranium of a specimen in my collection, obtained in Scotland, and of 

 whose habits, when alive, some account was published in the first number of this 

 Magazine, the two posterior molars are not oblique, and the third only slightly 

 so. The fourth and fifth are, however, as represented in Mr. Bell's work, p. 268. 



