442 PHILOSOPHICAL TKANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1773. 



of being improved to the purposes of a new manufactory, as either that near 

 Bologna, or those of Germany and Bohemia. And it is perhaps worth men- 

 tioning, that something of this sort has actually been attempted, with good suc- 

 cess, in Peru; for we are told by P. Feuillee (who made several curious observa- 

 tions in South America, both phisiological and astronomical, in 1700), that he 

 saw many statues and beautiful vases, or holy water pots, in the churches at 

 Lima, which were simply cast in moulds, by means alone of a petrifying water 

 near Guankabalika, or Guankavelika. And this circumstance is also mentioned 

 in a Description of Peru, published in 1748, a great part of which is taken from 

 Feuillee's account. 



6thly. This block of marble takes a very fine polish, as appears by the speci- 

 men, the sections of which are polished: and if casts of medals, or other things, 

 were taken in smooth moulds, well formed, their surfaces would therefore pro- 

 bably appear well polished, as those of the medals did, which came from 

 Bologna. 



7thly and lastly. Dr. Pococke, in his Travels, describing a very curious grotto 

 in the island of Candia, or Crete, which exceeded all others that he ever saw in 

 beauty, and the slendemess of the pillars, one of which is near 20 feet high, 

 and even transparent, says, " As I had seen stones of this kind hewn out of a 

 rock at Mount Lebanon, which were used as white marble, and appeared to be 

 alabaster, this made me imagine, that when these sorts of petrifactions are hard 

 enough to receive a polish, they then become the oriental transparent alabaster 

 which is so much valued, and of which there are 2 curious columns at the high 

 altar of St. Mark in Venice." 



XXXI. Experiments and Observations on the Singing of Birds. By the Hon. 

 Dairies Barrington, V. P. R. S. p. 249. 



To chirp, is the first sound which a young bird utters, as a cry for food, and 

 is different in all nestlings, if accurately attended to; so that the hearer may 

 distinguish of what species the birds are, though the nest may hang out of his 

 sight and reach. This cry is very weak and querulous; it is dropped entirely as 

 the bird grows stronger, nor is afterwards intermixed with its song, the chirp of 

 a nightingale, for example, being hoarse and disagreeable. 



The call of a bird, is that sound which it is able to make, when about a 

 month old; it is, in most instances, a repetition of one and the same note, is 

 retained by the bird as long as it lives, and is common, generally, to both the 

 cock and hen. The next stage in the notes of a bird is termed, by the bird- 

 catchers, recording, which word is probably derived from a musical instrument, 

 formerly used in England, called a recorder. This attempt in the nestling to 

 sing, may be compared to the imperfect endeavour in a child to babble. This 



