Miscellaneous. 447 



Lepadidae, with which they so constantly live associated, to be 

 essentially pelagic. The position which they invariably occupy in 

 drift-wood proves that they have attacked the wood while it has 

 been in a floating position ; for as the wood floats in the water it will 

 be found that the entrances to the tubes of the shipworms are always 

 on the upper portion, where they are frequently brought into direct 

 contact with the atmosphere, while the more deeply immersed angle 

 of the log is hung with vast masses of barnacles. If the grounds 

 on which those Teredines frequently found living in floating timber 

 drifted to our shores by westerly winds are excluded from our fauna 

 be valid and just, then, all we have to say is that Mr. Jefireys has 

 established a precedent which, if followed out in other branches of 

 science, would lead us to refuse to admit into our fauna all occasional 

 ornithological visitants, the lanthincs, Salpa, many oceanic Crusta- 

 cea, Physalia, Velella, Diphyes, &c., and all the Lepadidae except 

 Scalpellum vulgare. We commend to Mr. Jeff'reys's notice the 

 following observations of Mr. Darwin upon the genus Lepas, which 

 presents us with an exact parallelism to Teredo : — " The species 

 abound over the Arctic, temperate and tropical parts of the Atlantic, 

 Indian, and Pacific Oceans, and are always, or nearly always, attached 

 to floating objects, dead or alive. The same species have enormous 

 ranges ; in proof of which I may mention that, of the six known 

 species, five are found nearly all over the world, including the British 

 coast, and the one not found on our shores (the L. australis) appa- 

 rently inhabits the whole circumference of the Southern Ocean." 



In conclusion, we will only add that the more we see of ' British 

 Conchology,' the more. do we recognize the value of the work both 

 to conchologists and Tertiary palaeontologists, and the more confi- 

 dently are we able to commend it to our readers. And now, Mr. 

 Jeff'reys, we shall for the present wish you good-bye, looking forward 

 with especial interest to the appearance of your next volume, and 

 anxious to learn what you are going to do with those horribly tor- 

 menting Odostomice, over the study of which we poor conchologists 

 have so often strained our eyes, and racked our brains, and scratched 

 our heads in the agonies of perplexed doubt ! We will not say, 

 " Woodman, spare that tree," but rather, " Don't be afraid of the 

 pruning-knife." 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Capture of Muscicapa parva at Scilly. 



To Br, J. E. Gray, F.R.S. ^c. 



Sir, — It may be interesting to you to know that another example 

 of Muscicapa parva, very nearly in the same state of plumage as its 

 predecessor at Scilly, was captured on Sunday week, at Trescoe Isle, 

 Scilly. The variation in its plumage consists in the scapularies and 

 wing-coverts being more decidedly bordered with rufous. This, I 

 think, shows it to be a bird of the year. I expect it breeds in 

 Britain, Yours obediently, 



Penzance, Nov. 14, 1865. Edward Hearle Rodd. 



