PERIODICAL PHANOMENA OF ANIMALS AND VEGETABLES. 329 
_ sons and certain years; that the offspring of the common hare is not always 
equally well developed ; that several Rodentia increase in one year in a certain 
locality, whilst the following year barely the normal number isto be found there; 
the stag and the roebuck shed their antlers at a period which is not invaria- 
bly the same each year: to cite a few more examples only, readily compre- 
hended, do we not see the common partridge bring up its numerous family 
with various success; the swallow, the martin, and the nightingale arrive in 
our countries, and leave them, at an earlier or later period of the year? the 
caterpillar and the common cockchafer alarm us sometimes by their num- 
bers in our plantations? Our object should be, to observe the degree of con- 
nexion subsisting between the animal, the plant, and the atmospheric air,— 
to show, by continued and accurate observations, the influence to which these 
beings are subjected from the medium in which they live, and to attempt, 
by this method, to explain in a positive manner such phenomena as those 
we have mentioned above. In animals (in the wild state), the period of 
coupling, or the season of love, that of birth, that of moulting, whether 
double or single, that of migration, that of becoming torpid and of awaking, 
that of the first appearance, the rarity or the remarkable abundance of any 
species, are the points which should be observed and indicated with exactness, 
conjointly with meteorological observations. Unity of time and place, two 
_ indispensable conditions, should exist between these two kinds of observa- 
tions, because it is from the data afforded by these observations that general 
consequences are to be deduced. 
Each observer should form a table of his observations, and enter in it 
in technical terms, as far as possible, the animals which he has observed. 
It is the result drawn from these partial tables that will form the starting- 
point of the inductions or corollaries serving to establish some of nature’s 
laws. It will be seen therefore that these tables should be made up with 
the greatest exactness. It cannot be denied that many difficulties attend 
such researches, but it must not be lost sight of that the first attempts in 
every science are always difficult, especially when they require the co-opera- 
tion of a Jarge number of persons. 
In order to render the mode of the semultaneous observations uniform, 
we shall now enumerate some of the principal points to which we consider 
we ought to call the especial attention of observers, reminding them that 
the most common species, and such as exist in the greatest number of coun- 
tries, must for several reasons inspire the greatest interest, and that the most 
important observations will be such as are made in the country. 
Mammalia.—-1. Appearance and retreat of the bats. 
2. Frequency or rarity of some Insectivora ( Talpa europea, mole ; Sorex, 
{ shrew mouse; of some Rodentia of the genera Mus and Arvicola). 
f 3. Commencement and termination of the lethargic sleep of the dormouse ° 
(Myoxus). 
4. Moulting of the genus Mustela of the Carnivora. Appearance and re- 
tirement of the badger (Meles taxus, after its hybernation). 
Reptiles.—Retirement, reappearance and pairing of the Batrachia (frogs, 
tree-frogs, toads, salamanders and efts). 
Mollusea.—The period at which the land and fresh-water gasteropods quit 
their retreat, the former to creep on the soil, the latter to swim on the surface 
of the water. 
That at which cases of poisoning by muscles occur*. 
_Insects.— Appearance of the following species. For thése see the amended 
List at the end of this Report, as recommended by the Committee. 
q _ * In the preceding remarks we have followed the indications of Professor Cantraine. 
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