New Publications. 397 



in regard to a new species of Swan, by Messrs Wingate and Sel- 

 by, which prove that the bird in question is fully entitled to be 

 considered a new species. It is named Cygnus Bewickiij in ho- 

 nour of the late admirable artist Bewick. The following is 

 the specific character : Cygnus, albus, fronte genisquejerrugi- 

 neo maculatis. Rostro basi tubercido Jlavo, pedibus nigris. 

 Cauda cuneata, rectricibus octodecim. The second article is a 

 notice of that rare bird the Honey Buzzard, shot in the county 

 of Northumberland by the Hon H. T. Liddell. Dr Johnston 

 of Berwick gives a notice and drawing of the specimen of a 

 whale, cast on the coast near Berwick. This notice is also 

 interesting, but it leaves room for inquiry as to the particular 

 species here dehneated. Mr J. Alder's account of the land 

 and fresh water shells found in the vicinity of Newcastle, is 

 an acceptable contribution to this department of zoology. We 

 hope ere long these much neglected tribes will be more at- 

 tended to than at present. Mr Turner's notice in regard to the 

 spider is worthy of being recorded. The botanical paper, by 

 a good practical botanist, Mr Winch, contains " Remarks on 

 the Disfribution of the Indigenous Plants of Northumber- 

 land and Durham, as connected with the Geological Struc- 

 ture of these Counties." We think favourably of such papers, 

 and hope Mr Winch will continue bis investigations in this 

 difficult and important department of botany. Mr Buddie's 

 Notice of the Whin Dike in the Benwell Colliery, will be use- 

 ful to those connected with the collieries, and to the surveyors 

 who may be engaged in collecting materials for the geological 

 map of Newcastle. Mr Forstei-, in a notice on the effects of a 

 basaltic dike at Butterknowle Colliery, near Cockfield, states 

 distinctly the effect of the plutonian rock on the coal, but we 

 much doubt if the rock is true basalt. Mr Hutton's notes 

 on the new red sandstone of Durham, below the magnesian 

 limestone, are creditable to him as a geological observer, and in- 

 teresting, by proving the identity of its arrangement with that of 

 similar sandstones in many and widely extended districts in 

 other countries, thus further illustrating the truth of the views 

 of Werner and Friesleben. Mr Trevelyan's notice of the bed 

 of whin at Stanhope, in Weardale, and Mr Forster's observa- 

 tions on the geology of the Ratcheugh Crag, near Alnwick, arc 



