74 Miscellaneous. 



Mr. S. P. Woodward. Having since had an opportunity of exami- 

 ning the teeth of Peronia mauritiana, I find them similar to those 

 of Oncidium, HelicidcB, &c. I am convinced that the shde so named 

 must have been taken from a Testacellus, which Mr. Woodward now 

 considers probable : the number attached to the specimens from 

 which it was taken may have been misplaced, and there were both 

 Peronia and Testacellus in the lot of animals examined by Mr. Wil- 

 ton. The family Peroniadce must therefore be abolished. This ob- 

 servation is interesting, as it gets rid of the apparent anomaly of the 

 teeth of two allied genera being different. 



Mr. Alder has most kindly sent me a series of drawings of the 

 teeth of British MoUusca to examine ; among other interesting speci- 

 mens is that of Otina of is, which he describes as having " about ten 

 rows of sixty teeth in each row." From the similarity of these teeth 

 to those of other Pulmonata, I have little doubt that this mollusk, 

 which has been placed in various parts of the system and in different 

 families, will prove to be a marine species of Auriculidee, like Voluta 

 alha and V. bipHcata. — J. E. Gray. 



HABITS OF BIRDS. 



In all works on Natural History, we constantly find details of the 

 marvellous adaptation of animals to their food, their habits, and the 

 localities in which they are found. But naturalists are now beginning 

 to look beyond this, and to see that there must be some other prin- 

 ciple regulating the infinitely varied forms of animal life. It must 

 strike every one, that the numbers of birds and insects of different 

 groups, having scarcely any resemblance to each other, which yet 

 feed on the same food and inhabit the same localities, cannot have 

 been so differently constructed and adorned for that purpose alone. 

 Thus the goatsuckers, the swallows, the tyrant flycatchers, and the 

 jacamars, all use the same kind of food, and procure it in the same 

 manner : they all capture insects on the wing, yet how entirely dif- 

 ferent is the structure and the whole appearance of these birds ! The 

 swallows, with their powerful vdngs, are almost entirely inhabitants 

 of the air ; the goatsuckers, nearly allied to them, but of a much 

 weaker structure, and with largely-developed eyes, are semi-nocturnal 

 birds, sometimes flying in the evening in company with the swallows, 

 but most frequently settling on the ground, seizing their prey by 

 short flights from it, and then returning to the same spot. The fly- 

 catchers are strong-legged, but short-winged birds, which can perch, 

 but cannot fly with the ease of the swallows : they generally seat 

 themselves on a bare tree, and from it watch for any insects which 

 may come within reach of a short swoop, and which their broad bills 

 and wide gape enable them to seize. But with the jacamars this is 

 not the case : their bills are long and pointed — in fact, a weak king- 

 fisher's bill — yet they have similar habits to the preceding; they sit 

 on branches in open parts of the forest, from thence flying after in- 

 sects, which they catch on the wing, and then return to their former 

 station to devour them. Then there are the trogons, with a strong 

 serrated bill, which have similar habits : and the little humming- 



