NOTICES OF SERIALS. 129 



to the side, by means of mud, for the purpose of illuminating its dwelling. Mr. 

 Layard will not vouch, from personal observation, for this fact, but suggests that 

 the patch of mud which the bird places on each side of its perch, may be used for 

 the purpose of sharpening its bill ; and that, perhaps, the husks of seeds, or the 

 wing-cases of a stray beetle, left sticking upon it, may have given rise to the idea 

 which the natives entertain. (Leighton, Rev. W. A.) Monograph of the British 

 Graphideae (continued) ; (Sedgwick, Rev. Professor) A reply to two statements 

 published by the Palaeontographical Society, in their volume for 1853 ; the one 

 appearing to accuse the University of Cambridge of illiberality in the administration 

 of the Museum ; the other reflecting on the character of Professor M'Coy. This 

 dispute arose from a passage in one of the publications of the Palaeontographical 

 Society, in which the editors — MM. Edwards and Haime — would lead their readers 

 to infer that " they had personally made an application for certain Palasazoic fossils 

 in the Cambridge Museum, which had been rejected ; that this rejection was in 

 disadvantageous contrast with the liberal conduct of all other public bodies to which 

 they had applied ; that their loss on account of this rejection was the less because 

 Professor M'Coy had (since) published and figured {First Cambridge Fasicules, 

 May, 1851) nearly all the species of which they were anxious to have the loan ; 

 that the Professor had made an unfair use of their first part of British Fossil Corals 

 {i.e., Tertiary and Cretaceous Corals, as published in 1850) ; and to cover his 

 plagiarisms, he had misdated a portion of his own labours, and virtually stated what 

 was not true." These are grave charges, which we have stated in Professor Sedge- 

 wick's language, and to which the letters of Professors Sedgwick and M'Coy are in 

 answer to. (Greville, R. K.) Notice of the occurrence of Desmarestia Dresnayi 

 on the coast of Ireland. This alga, the occurrence of which was already noticed 

 by us, was collected towards the close of last year, near the mouth of Lough Foyle, 

 in the north of Ireland, by William Sawyers and Morrison, Esqrs., and com- 

 municated by the former gentleman to Professor Balfour, by whom specimens were 

 placed in Mr. Greville's hands for examination. Dr. Montague pronounced it to 

 be identical with the alga found by him at Port St. Sebastian, in 1823, and pub- 

 lished by him in M Annales des Sciences Naturelles," for 1842, p. 251, t. 7, f. 2, 

 under the name Desmarestia pinnatinervia. Dr. Montague obtained only a 

 single specimen, scarcely more than four inches high, fully two inches wide, 

 and truncate. M. Crouan has likewise met with it, but rarely, at Brest, and 

 regards it as a variety of Desmarestia Dresnayi of Lamouroux, described 

 and figured in the " Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles," torn, xiii., p. 105. 

 Professor J. Aghard, the most recent authority, in his Species, Genera et Ordines 

 Algarium, refers both alga to varieties of Desmarestia liguilata ; but still in- 

 cludes D. pinnatinervia among his " Species inquirendas." The Irish plants, now 

 described, would appear to form an intermediate link between these two forms. 

 They have a slender, well-defined stipes, half an inch long or more, a linear 

 lanceolate front, from 12 to 18 inches long, and 2 to 4 inches broad ; margin more 

 or less sinuous or dentate. A very fine but perceptible nerve runs from base to 

 apex, from which lateral ones, opposite and frequently forked, are given out at 

 intervals of half an inch ; these, which in dried specimens are somewhat incon- 

 spicuous, terminate in the marginal denticulations ; colour, in fresh state, that 

 of a Lamminaria, but with a thinner substance. (Williams, Thomas) On the 

 Mechanism of Aquatic Respiration, and the Structure of the Organs of Breathing 



