Zoology and Botany. 401 



Botanic Garden, read a short communication from Archdeacon 

 Vignole?, relative to bog timber, from tlie county of West- 

 meath, accompanied by specimens from a bog eighteen feet deep. 

 It is remarked in the communication, that there are in several 

 of the bogs three layers of trees, with a stratum of peat between 

 each layer, from three to five feet in depth ; that as the trees in 

 the different layers had arrived at maturity, they could not have 

 been coexistent ; ihat in most cases the timber bears marks of 

 fire ; and that the roots are rarely attached to the trees. Mr 

 Mackay remarked, that these specimens of bog wood appeared to 

 belong to the Pinus sylvestris, but that it is supposed that the 

 Pinns pinaster was formerly very abundant in the south of Ire- 

 land. Many of the woods are useful in building, and for do- 

 mestic purposes ; and the fir, when split up, is used for can- 

 dles. Reference was made to the work of Colonel Colby on the 

 subject. Colonel Sykes remarked, that he had observed similar 

 arrangements in the bogs of Scotland ; that they contained 

 three distinct layers of trees, the first layer a foot from the sur- 

 face, quite fresh; then a layer of peat; next a layer of wood, 

 slightly carbonized ; under that a layer more carbonized, and 

 slightly bituminised. 



4. Colonel Sykes read a paper, entitled " Notices of the Geo- 

 graphical range of certain species of birds common to India, the 

 Cape, and Europe." The common sparrow, stonechat, sand- 

 piper, snipe, golden plover, and coot, were amongst the nume- 

 rous examples in his collection, and that of the Royal Museum 

 of Edinburgh. In conclusion, he thought it might bear upon 

 the question of the necessity of applying artificial heat in our 

 vivariums, and stated that it suggested the possibility of fossil 

 tigers, elephants, &c. having lived in a temperate climate. Cap- 

 tain James Ross had remarked, that the stonechat, whitethroat, 

 and golden plover, were inhabitants of Hudson's Bay ; that 

 the raven occurs also in the arctic regions,' and,, if it 'be the' same 

 species as that of India, extends over a range of 130°: this 

 however, has the bill differently formed. The plumage of the 

 raven, he has observed, never varies in the northern" regions, 

 although the same individual birds were subject to a variation 

 of between 80° and 90° of temperature. 



5. Mr Nicol read a paper on the structure of the horizontal 



