89^ Scieiit'ific Intelligence, — Zoology, 



what was my surprise, in observing several small warblers hop- 

 ping about the deck and riggings. These poor little strangers, 

 exhausted as they were, were soon caught and brought to me. 

 The following is a list of the species : — 1. Sylvia Trochilus ; % 

 Sylvia erithacus. Lath. (Tithys, Temm.); 3. Sylvia suecica, or ra- 

 ther a similar species, which I have already received from Egypt 

 and Barbary ; 4. A species new to Europe, and perhaps even 

 a nondescript, having the plumage of an anthus, and whicl», I 

 think, belongs (as Sylvia cisticola and others) to the hitherto 

 African genus Malurus. This, however, must rest undecided, 

 my specimen having lost its tail, which had been pulled oft' by 

 the sailor who caught the bird."" — Extract Jrom the Min. Book 

 of Linn, Soc. vol. xvi. part iii. p. 754 



4. On the Habits of some Land Shells, by John Curtis, Esq, 



F,L.S. " Grove Place, ^d May 1831.— Dear Sir, On 



my return from France, I brought home some land shells, which 

 I collected near the celebrated fountain, of Petrarch at Vaucluse, 

 on the 8th of last July, at which time they were close packed 

 in a pill-box ; and from the high temperature of that part of 

 France, and being kept for several weeks in my trunk, and af- 

 terwards in a dry place at home, they appeared, as might be ex- 

 pected, quite dead. I was induced, however, a few days since, 

 to try if they could be reanimated, although I almost thought it 

 an useless experiment. I put the shells into an earthen vessel 

 close covered, and containing some wet moss, when, to my as- 

 tonishment, in less than twenty-four hours, these little animals 

 were reanimated and crawling about, after having been shut up 

 without food or moisture for nine months. The shells appear 

 to be the Pupa tridens and the Clausilia rugosa, which renders 

 it more remarkable, since they are species destitute of opercula. 

 I observed that only one of the shells was adhering to another, 

 and the others were quite loose in the box. — It is not only the 

 extraordinary fact of these little animals being able to remain so 

 long in a torpid state, that has induced me to request that you 

 will do me the favour to lay these observations before the Lin- 

 nean Society ; but I think it may be of service to those who 

 collect shells, to know that the species inhabiting the land may 

 be preserved for so long a period ; for it may in many instances 

 enable those conchologists who wish to describe and draw the 



