Dec. 17. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



593 



and Drummond of Hawthornden uses it perpetually. 

 One instance of it may be given : 



' When Nature now had -n-onderfully wrought 

 All Auristella's parts, except lier eyes : 

 To make those twins, two lamps in beauty's skies, 

 The counsel of the starry synod sought. 

 Mars and Apollo first did her advise, 

 To wrap in colours black those comets bright, 

 That Love him so might soberly disguise, 

 And, unperceived, wound at every sight ! 

 Chaste Phoebe spake for ])urest azure dyes ; 

 But Jove and Venus green about the light, 

 To frame, thought best, as bringing most delight, 

 That to pined hearts hope might for aye arise. 

 Nature, all said, a paradise oi green 

 Placed tliere, to make all love which have them seen.' " 



' Giffbrd's J'ranslation of Juvenal and Persius, 



3rd edition, 1817. 



Gifford's quotation from Romeo and Juliet 

 (errors excepted) is to be found in Act III. Sc. 5. 



C. Forbes. 

 Temple. 



" Isabelle etait un peu plus agee que Ferdinand. 

 EUe etait petite, mais bien faite. Ses cheveux, au 

 moins tres blonds, ses yeux verts et phins de feu, son 

 teint un peu olivatre, ne Tempechaient pas d'avoir un 

 visage imposant et agreable. {Revolutions d'Espagne, 

 torn. iv. liv. viii. ; Mariana, Hist. d'Espagne, tom. ii. 

 liv. XXV.; Hist, de Ferdinand et d' Isabelle, par M. I'Abbe 

 Mignot, &c.)" — Florian, Gonzaive de Cordque, Precis 

 Historique sur les Maures d'Espagne, quatrieme epoque, 

 note t. 



E. J. M. 



Hastings. 



THE MYRTLE BEE. 



(Vol. vlii., pp. 173. 4r>0.) 



Allow me to thank C. Brown for the reply he 

 has sent to my inquiries on this subject. I slinll 

 certainly avail myself with pleasure of the permis- 

 sion he has given me to communicate with him by 

 letter ; but before doing so, I hope yon will allow 

 me to address him this note through the medium 

 of your pages. The existence of the Myrtle Bee 

 as a distinct species has been denied by ornitholo- 

 gists, and as I think the question is more likely to 

 be set at rest by public than by private corre- 

 spondence, I trust C. Brown will not consider that 

 I am presuming too much on his kindness if I ask 

 him to send me farther information on the follow- 

 ing points : What was the exact size of the bird 

 in question which he had in his hand ? Wliat was 

 its size compared with the Golden-crested AVren ? 

 Was it generally known in the neighbourhood he 

 mentions, and by whom was it known ? By the 

 common people as well as others ? From what 

 source did he originally obtain the appellation 

 " Myrtle Bee," as applied to this bird ? It has 



Vol, VIII. — No. 216. 



been suggested to me that the bird seen by C. 

 Bkown may have been the Dartford Warbler 

 (^Si/loia provincialis,Gme\.), wings short, tail elon- 

 gated (this, if the Myrtle Bee is the Dartford 

 AVarbler, would account for its "miniature phea- 

 sant-like appearance ") ; a bird which, as we are 

 informed in Yarrell's Hist, of British Birds, 1839, 

 vol. i. p. 31 1. et seq., Ifaunts and builds among the 

 furze on commons ; flies with short jerks ; is very 

 shy ; conceals itself on tlie least alarm ; and 

 creeps about from bush to busli. This description 

 would suit tlie Myrtle Bee. Not so the colour, 

 which is chiefly greyish-black and brown ; whereas 

 the bird seen by your correspondent was " dusky 

 light blue." Nor again does the description of 

 the Dartford Warbler, " lighting for a moment on 

 tiie very point of the sprigs" of furze (vid. Yarrell 

 ut sup.), coincide with the account of the bird seen 

 by C. Brown, who " never saw one sitting or 

 light on a branch of the myrtle, but invariably 

 flying from the base of one plant to that of ano- 

 ther." In conclusion I would venture to ask 

 whether your correspondent's memory may not 

 have been treacherous respecting the colour of a 

 bird which he has not seen for twenty-five years, 

 and whether he has ever seen the Dartford 

 Warbler on Chobham or the adjacent commons? 



W. R. D. Salmon. 



(Vol. viii., pp. 290. 344.) 



The first mention I remember of the place from 

 whence tin came, is in Herodotus (lib. iii. c. 115.). 

 He there says : 



" But concerning the extreme parts of Europe to- 

 wards the west, I am not able to speak certainly. For 

 I neither believe that a certain river is called Eridanus 

 l)y the barbarians, which flows into a northern sea, and 

 from which tiiere is a report that the amber is wont to 

 come, nor have I known (any) islands, being Cassite- 

 rides (^KaaaiTepiSas ioucras), from which tlie tin is wont 

 to come to us. For, on the one hand, the very name 

 Eridanus proves that it is Hellenic and not Barbaric, 

 but formed by some poet ; and on the other, I am not 

 able, though paying much attention to this matter, to 

 hear of any one that has been an eye-witness that a sea 

 exists upon that side of Europe. But doubtless both 

 the tin and the amber are wont to come from the ex- 

 treme part of Europe." 



Kaaalrepos, according to Damm, is so called 

 because it is more ready to melt than other 

 metals, i. e. Kavc^irepos, from (cai'co, to burn ; this de- 

 rivation agrees with tliat given by Mr. Crosslet 

 of tin, " from the Celtic tin, to melt readily ;" and 

 it receives some support from Hesiod (D. G. 861.), 

 where he speaks of the earth burning and melting 

 as tin or as iron, which is the hardest of metals. 



But I own I doubt this derivation. First, be- 



