242 Miscellaneous. 



Had this been so, I could not have forgotten the circumstance. 



The Messrs. Newton called on me at the British Museum, in 1868, 

 for the purpose of examining the bones of the Dodo; and the time at 

 my command was spent in showing them those remains in one of 

 the basement storerooms. 



If this has escaped Prof. Newton's recollection, any incidental 

 mention of the Solitaire's bones on that occasion, the only one in 

 which I was favoured by their visit, may well have escaped mine. 



The 'impression that no such inquiry had been made by the 

 Messrs. Newton was fixed by their making no mention of such in- 

 quiry in their paper in the Philos. Trans, of 1863, from which I 

 first learnt their interest in the subject, and satisfied it to the best 

 of my knowledge ; in giving which information (Zool. Trans. 1871, 

 p. 519) no imputation of carelessness was made or intended. 



RiCHAED Owen. 



Argas reflexus s. Rhynchoprion columbse. 



Though I know not that this Arachnid has yet appeared in the 

 British fauna, it occurs rather plentifully at Canterburj-, where 

 some of the vergers consider the creature " an insect peculiar to 

 Canterbury Cathedral." Professor Westwood, having seen a speci- 

 men that my son took lately to Oxford, determined it as above; 

 and perhaps that eminent entomologist may favour us with a com- 

 plete account of this species from specimens that I hope to send 

 him for this purpose. Meanwhile a notice of it will be sent by my 

 son for the information of the East-Kent Natural-History Society, 

 at Canterbury, where these curious creatures are locally interesting. 

 Two of them that we kept in a tin box for upwards of five months, 

 quite without any sort of food, were lively all the time, and would, 

 when touched, " play 'possum," shamming death, like veritable 

 spiders. — Geoege Gfllivee. 



Habits of Tropic Birds. By the Earl or Pemeeoke. 



" For our own part, not believing in our queen Moe as implicitly 

 as we ought to have done, we began shooting the tropic birds as they 

 flew over us ; but we soon gave it up, for two reasons : — first, that 

 we found that if we got a rocketer, the chances were ten to one 

 that we cut the scarlet feathers out of his tail; and, secondly, because 

 we discovered that, by diligent peering under the bushes, we might 

 pick up as many live uninjured specimens as we liked. I never saw 

 birds tamer or stupider, which tjimcness or stupidity may be ac- 

 counted for by the extreme smallness of their brain, which is really 

 not larger than that of a sparrow. They sat and croaked, and 

 pecked, and bit, but never attempted to fly away. All you had to 

 do was to take them up, pull the long red feather out of their sterns, 

 and set them adrift again. Queen Moe was right. On Tubal you 

 may pick up tropic birds as easily as a child picks up storm-worn 

 shells on the sea-shore. 



