344 MISCELLANEOUS OBSERVATIONS 



A friend of mine put a Newt (Salamandra aqua- 

 tica ?) into some brandy, and it lived ten minutes. 

 Leeches are lively after being repeatedly frozen. 

 Newts, lizards, and some other amphibia are pro- 

 vided with lungs, and, therefore, capable of utter- 

 ing sounds, but they are perfectly mute. 



"If field-fares come, as people say they do, 

 6 ventis vehementer spirantibus/ they have no ad- 

 vantage of that kind, for the Autumn (177$) has 

 been remarkably still. '** 



Mr. White remarks, that all quadrupeds that 

 prey on fish are amphibious. This is not the 

 case. Dogs, in Greenland, feed on fish, and watch 

 for it on the sea-coast. The Polar bear, also, 

 dives after fish, and yet cannot be called an amphi- 

 bious animal. The distinction seems to be this. 

 6 The otter, seal, &c. have a remarkable deposition 

 in the eye, through which they are enabled to 

 elongate or shorten the axis of the organ at plea- 

 sure, and by that means to see equally well in two 

 media of very different density, viz. water and air/' 

 I am indebted to Blumenbach for the latter ob- 

 servation. 



I am always pleased with anecdotes of the affec- 

 tion of animals towards each other. A gentleman 



* Mr. White's MSS. 



