REVIEW. 143 



Hill. The colour was of a rich brown, with black spots, and a speck in each 

 of the spots. . The common Warty-Newt, {Triton cristatus,) is not unfrequently 

 met with near this tOAvn, in ponds of stagnant water; and I have taken them 

 upon Blagdon and other places. The colours are very brilliant, and of great 

 variety: I could not keep them long alive, and the colours soon faded when 

 put in spirits. I have never met with any specimen of the Common Smooth 

 Newt in this neighbourhood. — J. Garland^ Dorchester, Dorset, June dth, 1851. 



Mode in which the Pholas dactylus makes its Crypt. — Having while residing 

 here, opportunities of studying the habits of the Pholas dactylus, I have 

 endeavoured, during the last six months, to discover how this mollusc makes 

 its hole or crypt in the chalk; whether by a chemical solvent, by absorption, 

 by ciliary currents, or by rotatory motion. My observations, dissections, and 

 experiments, set at rest all controversy in my own mind. Between twenty 

 and thirty of the creatures have been at work in lumps of chalk, in sea -water, 



tin a finger-glass and a pan at my window for the last three months. The Pholas 

 dactylus makes its hole by grating the chalk with its rasp-like valves, licking 

 it up when pulverized with its foot, forcing it up through its principal or 

 branchial siphon, and squirting it out in oblong nodules. The crypt protects 

 the Pholas from conferva?, which, when they get at it, grow, not merely 

 outside, but even within the lips of the valves, preventing the action of the 

 siphon. In the foot there is a gelatinous spring or style, which, even when 

 taken out, has great elasticity, and which seems the mainspring of the motions 



^of the Pholas dactyliis. — John liohertson, 48, Queens Head, Brighton, June 1 'dth., 



rl851. 



Delayed appearance of the Emperor Moth, (Saturnia Pavonia-minor.) — My 

 brother desires me to say that a crysalis of the S. Pavonia-minor, which he 

 lad since the summer before last, gave birth the other day to the Moth:' it 

 was a male, but imperfect. The rest of the same year's productions all came 

 out this time last year, as usual: they were both males and females. The 

 specimens were collected on Goatfell, AiTan. — W.Ferguson, (in a letter to the 

 Editor,) Glasyow, May 29i/i., 18ol. 



Favonrite Song Birds, containing a pfopvlar description of the Feathered Songsters 

 of Britain, with an account of their habits, haunts, and characteristic traits, 

 interspersed with choice passages from the Poets, and ipiotations from eminent 

 Naturalists. With tioelve colotired illustrations. Edited by H. Q. Adams. 

 London: W. S. Ore and Co., 1851. p.p. 196. 



The little book before us is one of those laudable attempts to popularize 

 Natural History, which we must always hail with pleasure, when, as in the 

 present instance, accuracy is not sacrificed at the shrine of popularity. We 

 believe such sacrifice to be entirely unnecessary, and are convinced that the 



