18290 



Varieties. 



463 



mistress. The two insects are something 

 similar in their general form, but very 

 differently marked : the male exhibitor is 

 known by its four glossy satiny white wings, 

 bordered with buff; the lady reposer has 

 her upper wings of a tawny yellow, spotted 

 and banded with deep brown. They are 

 very inert creatures, easily captured, and 

 their existence appears to be of very short 

 duration, as we soon cease to observe them 

 either in action or at rest. From its singu- 

 lar flight in the twilight hour, liaunting, as 

 it were, one particular spot, the fancy of 

 some collector, considering it as a spectre- 

 like action, named it the ghost moth. 



T/ie Mole Foreign naturalists have 



been much occupied of late with the mole. 

 From the recently published observations of 

 one of them, ]\I. Flourens, it ajipears, that 

 this animal, as its organization indicates, is, 

 if not exclusively, at least essentially, carni- 

 vorous. It very soon dies if only roots be 

 given to it ; and if it destroy so many roots 

 of vegetables, it is not for the purpose of 

 eating them, but to seek among tliem for 

 worms, insects, and particularly for the 

 larvae of insects which harbour there. They 

 may be kept alive for a long time upon any 

 animal food. Ten or twelve liours are 

 nearly the longest time they can live with- 

 out food. Like all animals wliich feed 

 upon blood and flesh, the mole is always 

 very thirsty. 



. Orniiliology We are led to reflect upon 



the extensive injury that may be produced 

 by the agency of a very insigniticant instru- 

 ment, in observing the operations of the 

 common bunting, emberiza nivalis ; a bird 

 tliat seems to live principally, if not entirely, 

 upon seeds, and has its mandibles constructed 

 in a very peculiar manner to aid this esta- 

 blished appointment of its life. In the 

 winter season it will frequent the stacks in 

 the farm-yard, in company with other birds, 

 to feed upon any corn that may be scattered 

 about ; but little inclined to any association 

 with man, it prefers those situations wliich 

 are most lotiely and di-^tant from the village. 

 It would hardly be supposed tliat this bird, 

 not larger thf:n a lark, is capable of doing 

 serious injury ; yet an experienced natu- 

 ralist witnessed a rick of barley, standing in 

 a detached field, entirely stripped of its 

 thatching, which this bunting effected by 

 seizing the end of the straw, and deliberately 

 drawing it out to searcli for any grain the 

 car may yet contain ; the base of the rick 

 being entirely surrounded by the straw, one 

 end resting on the ground, the other against 

 the mow as it slid down from the sunnuit, 

 and regularly placed, as if by the iiand ; 

 and so coni))leteIy wa.s tlie thatching jiulled 

 off, that the immediate removal of the corn 

 became necessary. Tlie sparrow and otlier 

 birds burrow in the stack and jjilfer tlie 

 corn; but tlie deliberate operation of unroof- 

 ing the edifice api)ear»to be the liabit of tliis 

 bunting alone. 

 New Metal. — M. Ouann has announced 



his having discovered a new metal in the 

 ore of Russian platinum, to which he has 

 given thename of pluvaiiiiim. hike osmium, 

 it is not soluble in nitro-muriatic acid, 

 but differs from it in its fineness and other 

 properties. Bcrzelius seems also to have 

 recli;oned it as a new substance. 



Longevity of Trees — The ficus indica, 

 whicli grows on the banks of the Ncrbudda, 

 covers an extent of ground 2,000 feet in 

 circumference. It is supposed that this is 

 the same tree described by Nearchus. If 

 so, it is at least 2,500 years old ; and it is 

 worthy of remark that, according to an 

 ancient tradition, this tree covered with its 

 shade an amiy of full 7,000 men. An old 

 oak at Oxford, near wliich IMagdalen Col- 

 lege was built, was cut down in 1789, and 

 was supposed to have been planted at the 

 time of the Norman conquest. Strutt, in 

 his ISylva Britaunica, mentions a walnut 

 tree, called by Camden the great walnut of 

 Tamworth, regarded as tlie oldest and 

 largest tree in England ; even in the time 

 of King Stephen, who mounted the throne 

 in 1135, it was considerable for its size, and 

 served as a boundary to the parish of Tort- 

 worth, in Gloucestershire. It is said that 

 this tree requires 300 years to attain matu- 

 rity, and the one in question was probably 

 more than a thousand. In Lombardy is the 

 celebrated cedar of Soma, eleven Milanese 

 cubits in circumference, and the roots of 

 which are said to extend under great part of 

 the town. It existed, of the very same size, 

 in the sixteenth century ; and faith may be 

 placed in the tradition that it was growing 

 when Ca;sar visited this country. 



Coloured Blow-pipe Flame — its use as a 

 Test — This test depends upon the colour 

 given to the blue part of a blow-pipe flame 

 by the introduction of several substances. 

 It is necessary that the conical blue flame, 

 and the vapour sunounding it, should be 

 distinctly seen ; for which purjiose the wick 

 is to be cut obliquely, the higher part placed 

 on the riglit hand, and the wick divided for 

 the stream of air from the point of the 

 blow-pipe. The oil used should be such as 

 has not been purified by sulphuric acid, for 

 then it always retains a little acid, and chars 

 the cotton. The wick should be of un- 

 bleached cotton ; that which is bleached 

 often contains a little lime, which affects the 

 colour of the flame. The experiments are 

 best made out of ordinary daylight. The 

 piece of substance to be tried should be sup- 

 ported in platina forceps ; and the blue 

 flame being well defined, should be intro- 

 duced from below, upwards, into the exter- 

 nal vapour, just before the blue point. The 

 form of the fragment may be wedge shaped, 

 aeiciilar, or scaly. If the matter be in 

 powder, it may be mixed into a paste in the 

 hand, extended on charcoal, moulded into 

 form, and then dried by a sufficient heat. 

 When the trial piece is first introduced into 

 the blue vapour, the latter immediately be- 

 comes of a reddish yellow colour, varying 



