160 MISCELLANY. 



The Siskin {Carduelis spinus) near Scarborough. — Several specimens were 

 procured from a small flock found in the plantation at Barrow Cliff; and some 

 others in the Fir plantation leading from the Mill Cottage to the Bridlington- 

 road. — Patrick Hawkridge, Scarborough, Aug. 7, 1837. 



Sayings and Doings of Skaters. — We have had more skating than even Mr. 

 Murphy gave us reason to expect, and more, in fact, than is often obtained in 

 this country. Consequently persons who had never before been on the ice in 

 their lives now flock to the frozen lakes and meres in all directions, and scarce an 

 old man or an urchin barely able to walk but has his daily slide, or his uncouth 

 rusty skates. It is amusing to witness the infinite variety of these instruments, 

 from the highly-finished guinea patent skates down to the blade of an old knife 

 stuck into an equally rude piece of wood, and bound round the feet of the sturdy 

 skaters with rotten straps, cordage, or other delectable contrivances. If the im- 

 plements are thus diverse in character, of course so also are their wearers. 



To such a degree has the " professional skater " become inured to his art or 

 science — call it which you please — that he is out the first thing in the morning 

 and the last at night. A " general observer" is all amazement at him, when he 

 speaks of the intense heat of rooms icy cold to every one else, when he hears that 

 his skating friend has been out eight or nine hours every day, when an exercise 

 of four or five hours in the twenty-four constitutes with him a "day of rest" 

 when the skater not only dreams of his craft at night, but almost fancies himself 

 skating across the carpet in broad day-light, and when, finally, he declares that 

 he can scarcely keep on his legs save when perched upon his darling skates. 



Such are the feelings of this " active animal." We know we have many 

 zealous skaters amongst our readers, in various parts of the kingdom. May they, 

 each and all, live to skate many a day and many a year as in 1838 ! — Ed. 



BOTANY. 



Species of Nuts indigenous to Britain. — At p. 169 of the second volume 

 of The Naturalist the Rev. F. 0. Morris has a query respecting the British 

 species of Nuts indigenous to this country, and asks if the Filbert is not 

 indigenous. The Common Hasel-nut of our hedges {Corylus avellana) is the 

 only one enumerated in our Floras as indigenous in this country, but of this 

 species in Loudon's Hortus Britannicus there are enumerated the following five 

 varieties, — alba, rubra, grandis, glomerata, and crispa, which are natives of this 

 country, and found in woods. There are four which are natives of Spain, viz.> 

 Barcelonensis, variegata, ovata, and pumila. There are also the following five 

 additional species, C. tubulosa, native of the south of Europe ; C. Americana, 

 C. humilis, and C. rostrata, natives of North America, and C. colurna, from 

 Constantinople. C. mongolica has been very lately discovered in Russia by 



