136 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 250. 



Myrtte Bee (Vol. ix., p. 205. &c.). — In re- 

 ference to the above subject, I beg to observe, 

 that I inspected a specimen of the hawk-moth a 

 few days since at the British Museum ; and far- 

 ther to assure Mk. W. Hazel that no two animals 

 are more dissimilar than it and the myrtle bee — 

 the one being distinctly an insect, and the other a 

 bird ; in fact, due allowance being made for dis- 

 parity in size, no more similarity exists than be- 

 tween a butterfly and blackbird. The cause of 

 my having so minutely inspected the so-called 

 myrtle bee is stated in Vol. ix., p. 205., to which 

 I beg Mr. Hazel's attention. At that time it was, 

 and still is, out of my power to answer Mb. Sal- 

 mon's Query, as to its size compared with the 

 golden- crested wren, — never having had one in 

 my hand, or even seen one ; yet, strange enough, 

 I ara informed that it is common within two miles 

 of this place (Egham, Surrey) ; and as soon as I 

 procure a specimen I shall reply to Mr. Salmon's 

 ■ Query, being desirous of affording all the inform- 

 ation in my power on the subject. C. Brown. 



I was staying at the house of a friend at Uff- 

 culme, near Cullompton, in July last year (1853) : 

 and one day as I was standing near the porch, 

 which was overgrown with honeysuckle, my atten- 

 tion was attracted by the appearance of a humming- 

 bird, as it appeared, hovering over the flowers. 

 It visited different blossoms in succession, hover- 

 ing near them, and extracting the honey without 

 alighting, by means of a long proboscis, as un- 

 doubted humming-birds are described to do. I 

 have seen humming-birds in North America, but 

 not so small as this, which was no larger than the 

 minute kinds of the torrid zone. The body of it 

 may have been about an inch and a half long. 

 Being anxious to secure so great a prize before it 

 should leave the spot, I approached cautiously, 

 and made a blow at it with the stick I held in my 

 hand. I struck it hard and full ; for I felt the 

 blow I gave, and heard the sound. It fell upon 

 the path ; but it instantly darted away sideways a 

 yard or more into a flower-bed. For half an hour 

 I hunted diligently, and was assisted by others 

 who witnessed the occurrence ; but although the 

 search was assiduously made, and renewed after- 

 wards, we never could find the little creature. 

 The whole circumstance only occupied a few 

 seconds, so that there was not much time for ob- 

 servation. To the best of my recollection, it was 

 dark brown in colour — that is, the upper part, 

 which alone is what I remember seeing ; the beak, 

 or proboscis, tapering away from the head, and 

 about two-thirds the length of the body. I thought 

 I heard the sound of the wings, and the tone ap- 

 peared to resemble that of the whirr produced hj 

 feathered animals — such, for instance, as that of 

 sparrows in their flight. This peculisir whirr im- 

 pressed me with the idea that the little creature 



was a genuine bird, covered with feathers ; but I 

 may have been mistaken. Query, What could 

 this have been ? Was it a humming-bird, or the 

 hawk- moth ? Pjeter Hutchinson. 



NOTES ON BOOKS, BTC. 



Every student of Shakspeare will feel grateful to Mr. 

 Lettsom for the addition which he has made to the nu- 

 merous works already existing devoted to the illustration, 

 of the poet's writings, by the publication of Shakspeare'a 

 Versification and its apparent Irregularities, explained htf 

 Examples from Early and Late English Writers, by the late 

 William Sidney Walker. The object of this work is a 

 very simple one, but one for which the late Mr. Walker, 

 from his profound classical knowledge, deep poetical 

 feeling, and discriminating intellect, was peculiarlv fitted 

 to accomplish. Mr. Walker assumes that the reader is 

 familiar with the rules of modern English verse, and then 

 enumerates the points of difference between Shakspeare 

 and his cotemporaries on the one hand, and their successors 

 on the other. He considers in sixty distinct articles the 

 essential characteristics of the old versitication, and when 

 the latter differs from that to which we are accustomed, 

 he explains how far such differences may be attributed to 

 the custom of the age, how far to changes' in pronunciation, 

 and how far to corruptions of the text. This brief de- 

 scription of the book and its object will be sufficient to 

 awaken attention to this little volume, which is one " lack- 

 ing which " no Shakspearian library can be complete. 



The History of Magic, by Joseph Ennemoser, translated 

 from the German by William Howitt; to which is added an 

 Appendix of the most remarkable and best authenticated 

 Stories of Apparitions, Dreams, Second Sight, Somnambu- 

 lism, Predictions, Divinations, Witclicraft, Vampires, 

 Fairies, Table- turning, and Spirit-rapping, selected by 

 Mary Howitt, is the title of two volumes recently issued 

 by liohn in his Scientific Library, in which the author 

 treats of those remarkable phenomena and uncommon 

 effects which have certainly hitherto been looked upon as 

 mere phantoms, or belonging to a sphere quite uncon- 

 nected with nature, but which nevertheless are a portion 

 of history, and on that, as well as on other and higher 

 grounds, of universal interest. It says something for the 

 better spirit in which works which treat of the marvel- 

 lous and inexplicable are now received, that the present 

 volumes should tind a place in a scientific library. 



By the publication of the eighth volume, which is de- 

 voted to the life of Queen An?ie, who is obviously very 

 far from a favourite with her biograplier, Mr. Colburn 

 has completed his cheap edition of Miss Strickland's Lives 

 of the Queens of England. We might indeed speak of 

 this edition as the best as well as the cheapest : for it has 

 not only been carefully revised, but is accompanied by a 

 most full and well-arranged Index, which gives great 

 additional value to the work. 



Books Rp:ceived. — Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the 

 Roman Empire, edited by Dr. William Smith. The fourth 

 volume of this handsome library edition of Gibbon, form- 

 ing this month's issue of Murray's British Classics. — 

 Messrs. Longman's Traveller's lAbrary, Parts LXV. and 

 LXVL, are devoted to Laing's Notes of a Traveller on the 

 Social and Political State of France, Russia, Switzerland, 

 Italy, and other Parts of Europe during the present Century, 

 in which this observant and intelligent traveller has 

 attempted to collect materials for the future historian of 

 the new social elements in Europe which are springing 

 up from and covering the ashes of the French Kevolution. 



