MISCELLANY. 437 



Occurrence op Velia rivulorum, Jan. 5, 1838. — On Jan. 5, this year, I 

 observed two specimens of this interesting little insect, swimming about quite 

 briskly in a small stream here. — Henry Buist. Lavs Park Cottage, March 12, 

 1838. 



The Nightingale to the North of DoNCASTEit.^-Almost all ornithological 

 works concur in informing their readers that Doncaster forms the northern limit 

 of the Nightingale in England. This, however, is incorrect. We have ourselves 

 heard it near Campsall, and in a wood adjoining Owston Hall, both several miles 

 north of Doncaster. Wm. H. Rudston Read, Esq., of Frickley Hall, in this 

 county, informs us that several of these nocturnal choristers visit Hooton Pagnell 

 Common; and Charles Waterton, Esq., of Walton Hall, near Wakefield, that 

 they occur in his beautiful park every spring. It has been seen near York ; and 

 lastly, Mr. Yarrell notices its occurrence so far north as Cumberland. — Ed. 



Singular Locality for the Nest of the Robin Redbreast. — A few days 

 since, at Londsborough Park, near Market Weighton, Yorkshire, on the premises 

 of James Matthison, Esq., there was found an old tea-kettle exposed on bare 

 ground, and on examination it was found to be inhabited by a Robin Redbreast, 

 with four young ones, which are all doing well. — York Herald, May 24, 1838. 



In the garden of Mr. Evans, florist, of Rotherham, a Eobin Redbreast built 

 her nest in an old tin tea-kettle, in which she has laid six eggs, and young ones 

 will undoubtedly appear in a few days, as she has been sitting more than a week . 

 — Sheffield Iris, April 24, 1838. 



Lophius piscatorius. — When walking along the Sands one day last spring, I 

 observed a large fish lying at the mouth of a small fresh-water stream, the 

 Swelkin-burn. Its appearance struck me so much at the time that I took a 

 sketch of it, and afterwards, on procuring Yarrel.l's invaluable work on British 

 Fishes, I discovered it to be the fish there named Lophius piscatorius, the " Sea 

 Devil." — Henry Buist, Law Park Cottage, St.Andrews, March 12, 1838. 



Remarks on Bats. — M. de Blainville comes to the following conclusions 

 concerning Bats, in a memoir recently laid before the French Academy of Sciences : 

 — 1st, that they existed before the formation of the tertiary strata of northern 

 countries, as they are found in the gypsum of the neighbourhood of Paris ; 2nd, 

 that these Cheiroptera were, very probably, cotemporary with Anoplotherium 

 and Palaeotherium ; 3rd, that they have continued to exist from that time to the 

 present without interruption, as they are found in the diluvium of caverns, and in 

 osseous breccia ; 4th, that the ancient Cheiroptera differed but little from the 

 species now inhabiting the same countries. — Athenceum, June 2, 1838. 



New Herring found on the Coast of Iceland. — Among the natural curi- 

 osities brought last summer from Iceland by Mr. Proctor, Sub-curator to the 

 Durham University Museum, is a fish belonging to the abdominal Malacoptery- 



VOL. III. — NO. XXIII. 3 M 



