MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES. 105 



most brilliant contrast. Lastly, there are what we will style the Plant-like Corals, 

 or the family of Sertulariidce, as the more scientific term them; their polypary 

 growing in the shape of a plant rooted at its base, and variously branched, 

 makes them appear to the uninitiated like sea- weeds. They are both beautiful 

 in their appearance, and peculiar in their structure; their branches composed 

 of a flexible horny material, are hollow, studded in regular rows with little 

 cells, which arc each inhabited by a Hydra-like Polype. Some idea may 

 be formed of the vast numbers of these small animals, from a statement in 

 Dr. Johnstone's "British Zoophytes," in regard to one of the species of this 

 family, {Plumulana cristata,) from the observations of Mr. Lister. "Each 

 plume," says he, "might comprise from four hundred to five hundred 

 Polypi," "so that a specimen of twelve plumes contains no less than six 

 thousand Polypes, and single specimens of P.falcata, or Sertularia argentea, 

 may consist of eighty thousand or one hundred thousand individuals." 



In the words of an old author, I conclude this cursory history of the 

 Polype tribe: — "Verily, for mine owne part, the more I looke into nature's 

 workes, the sooner am I induced to beleeve of her even those things that 

 seem incredible." 



Knapp's Green, Alverstoke, November V^th., 1852. 



BikFllattfflits Matins. 



In August, 1846, one of my father's gamekeepers reported to me a pack of Black Game on 

 the edge of a moor bordering his preserves at Avon, in Hampshire, and at the end of August 

 I endeavoured to get some of them. I found the birds feeding with a number of Pheasants on 

 some buckwheat; and so peculiar was their appearance, that, in spite of the keeper's protestations 

 as to their parentage, thinking them young Pheasants, I let one or two go by me without a 

 shot. At last however I killed a couple of them, and found them to be a hybrid, produced 

 by a Greyhen and a cock Pheasant, as she lived in a wood with a number of the latter, whilst the 

 keepers knew that there was no Blackcock in the neighbourhood. Tlie birds I killed were rather 

 like the bird figured by Yarrell, in vol. ii., page 311, especially about the tail; but although 

 a most game-looking bird, and standhig very high on the leg, I considered they were not in 

 full plumage. The keeper reported the pack to consist of seven, but it is singular that none 

 of them were ever seen or killed afterwards. One of them I have now stuffed, and the other 

 I sent to Lord Malmesbury, for his collection of British Birds at Heron Court, where it now is. 

 Tlie Greyhen never gratified us with another brood, although slie stayed in the same wood 

 another breeding-season, and then disappeared. — Fkederic Fane, Corfe Mullen, Wimborne, 

 March 29th., 18;}3. 



The Quail, (Cotumix vulgaris.) — I have thought it singular that, with one exception, the 

 only occasion on which I have had opportunities of killing Quail, birds supposed to leave 

 England for the winter months, have been in the months of December and January, in Lin- 

 colnshire, Hampsliire, and Dorsetshire. "Were those wounded birds, or were they acclimatized 

 and contented with their winter quarters? In this county they are very rare; and although 

 the extensive and liighly-cultivated plain, called Fordington Field, near Dorchester, is reported to 

 produce a bevy or two every year, I have not killed half-a-dozen in my life, although I shoot 

 almost every day in the season in many different parts of this county and the neighbouring 

 ones. — Idem. 



Montagu's Harrier, (Circus Montagui.) — Last spring one of my father's keepers, at Avon, in 

 Hampshire, brought me a fine specimen t)f Montagu's Harrier, which I have had preserved. A 

 VOL. III. P 



