Miscellanies. 217 



also the difference of cleavage in the two directions. (See Alger* this 

 Journal, vol xlvi, p. 233, and Dana's Mineralogy, p. 324.) The°formuIa 

 is an improbable one, as Delesse admits; the excess of silica may be me- 

 chanical : in other respects the composition is that of Heulandite. 



9. Sismondine—a new mineral— This species, instituted by Delesse, 

 occurs in chlorite slate, associated with garnets, titanic iron and pyrites, 

 and presents the following characters: 



Massive with a very easy cleavage. Scratches glass, but is scratched 

 by steel. Specific gravity 3565. Lustre brilliant. Color deep green. 

 Streak-powder clear grayish green. No action on the magnetic needle, 

 either before or after calcination. Fracture uneven. Changes to pinch- 

 beck brown before the blowpipe, but does not fuse. In a tube yields wa- 

 ter. With salt of phosphorus it dissolves with difficulty, and with borax 

 affords the reaction of iron. 



Composition, according to M. Delesse, 

 s 'l'ca, 24 1 Oxyd of Titanium, 76 



Alumina, 432 Water. trace 



Protoxyd of iron, 238 



WW* 



+5AI 



w «ich is the formula for diaspore. M. Delesse suggests that sismondine is 



awed to chloritoid, a mineral occurring in the Ural associated with dias- 

 pore. 



••« ••# •*• 



The analysis above may afford nearly the formula Fe 3 Si+Al 3 Si-|-3H, 

 ^"ich is perhaps more probable than that given by Delesse, and differs 

 bu t little from the formula of chloritoid, as obtained from Bonsdorffs 

 an %sis. (See Dana's Min. p. 557.) 



jf Birds' Nests of 



>f 



Ward Hitchcock to the Editors, dated Amherst, Mass., Dec. 22, 1843. 

 Id lecturing on the huge footmarks of sandstone in the Connecticut 

 u " e y> I have been in the habit for many years of reading to my 



classes 



i 



>f 



48 



^specting enormously large birds and birds' nests. As some of 

 GSe statements are manifestly fabulous, it never occurred to me till 

 °* da y, to inquire whether any of them were true. I was led to make 

 e l nquiry probably by the astonishing discoveries of Prof. Owen re- 

 jecting the danger bird of New Zealand ; and the result is, that I 

 Jj Ve alr nost persuaded myself, that with the help of Captains Cook and 

 renders * 'w»e found the nest of the Dinarnis on the coast of New 

 and. These navigators have given the following statements in 



01 slvii, No. L-Apirl-June, 1844. 28 



