426 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1708. 



200, or more miles distance, should be discovered to come sooner or later, we 

 might conclude, that accordingly they came from eastward, westward, or other 

 point, especially if about the same time the winds seemed to favour their flight. 

 These are all the migratory birds I have seen as yet this year. But for a further 

 sample I shall annex my observations of last year, viz. the swallow came 

 March 31, making a great outcry at his approach, as if he saw something 

 strange. April 1, the jynx first yelped here. April 4, I first espied the ruti- 

 cilia or redstart. The 5th I saw the niartin. The 6th, the nightingale first 

 sang with us. The 7th, the cuckow, I was told, was heard, and the Qth I 

 heard it myself. The 17th, I heard the swift or black martin squeek in a hole 

 in my house, in which he has quietly built for several years: but it being cold 

 weather, he did not fly abroad till some days after. 



Microscopical Observations on Red Coral. By Mr. Anthony Van Leuwenhoeck, 



F.R.S. N°3i6, p. 126. 



I had formerly several times slit, both in length and thickness, pieces of 

 blood coral, that were very fair, and of a shining redness ; and cut off as thin 

 scaly particles as possible, that I might discover the vessels in it ; in doing 

 which, I fancied that sometimes I could perceive some very small orifices of the 

 said vessels, but so exceedingly minute, that I could make no certain observa- 

 tions of them, though I could easily perceive, that in the parts which I had 

 cut through across, there ran such fibres from the centre to the circumference, 

 as are found in roots ; and notwithstanding all my endeavours I could not find 

 any pores in them, at least so as to say any thing certain of them ; but it 

 seemed as if most of the coral consists of roundish particles, such as some fruits 

 are composed of; but their roundness was such, that they were in a manner all 

 of different figures, such as might best suit with all the rest, and so as to leave 

 no vacuity in them ; and thus the sap, which is not in the vessels, is conveyed 

 from one of those round parts to the other, and so they serve for canals. 



In order to account for those pieces of blood-coral that are preserved as 

 rarities, and resemble little trees with their branches, fastened to stones or other 

 substances, I suppose that coral^ while growing at the bottom of the sea, is 

 very .soft ; and that those plants of coral, or the branches, being broken off by 

 the Coral fishers, the thick ends of them may accidentally fall upon a stone, or 

 some other substance ; and by reason of the said softness, and of a glutinous 

 matter with which it is endued, might be fastened to the stone, &c. I haue 

 two pieces of coral no thicker than a hen's quill ; one of these I broke into 

 several pieces, and found in three places cavities, that occupied more than half 



