Miscellaneous. 461 



dered to our shores ; and on seeing how numerous in some cases 

 they are, one cannot refrain from the feehng that it is far from 

 impossible that we might now own some of these birds as established 

 settlers had the treatment they received at our hands been reversed. 

 The passion for collecting British-killed birds, so prevalent at the 

 present time, has much to answer for. 



In his introductory chapter, Mr. Harting has analyzed the occa- 

 sional visitants to show the origin whence they came. It is not a 

 little surprising to see how large is the proportion of American 

 species which again and again find their way to these shores. He 

 finds it extremely difiicult to believe that the non-aquatic species 

 have actually performed unaided this journey of, at least, 1700 miles ; 

 but of the powers of sustained flight possessed by birds we, as yet, 

 know very little indeed, and the task may not, under favourable cir- 

 cumstances, be so difficult as it would appear. 



In reading Mr. Harting's book we detect some errors perhaps 

 unavoidable in a work of the kind ; but there are others we hardly 

 expected to see, such as the mistake about the Grouse and Ptar- 

 migan in the Introduction (p. xvii). We are not aware that the 

 distinctness of the Ptarmigan of Scotland from the continental bird 

 has ever been advocated ; whilst the validity of the Grouse of the 

 British Islands to be considered a species distinct from the Willow 

 Grouse has been a bone of contention for years. Then, too, Gilbert 

 White's account of the Honey Buzzard breeding in Selborne Hanger 

 is overlooked, and also the fact of the Harlequin Duck breeding 

 regularly in considerable numbers in Iceland. Mr. Harting records 

 it as of accidental occurrence in Europe. 



But we are not disposed to criticise too severely a book which 

 will prove of undoubted service. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



The, Bell Collection of Reptiles. 



To the Editors of the Annals and Magazine of Natural History. 



Museum of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, 

 Cambridge, Nov. 22, 1872. 

 Gentlemen, — My attention has been drawn to the letters of Prof. 

 Westwood and Dr. Gray in the ' Annals and Magazine of Natural 

 History ' for November 1872, respecting Mr. Bell's collection of 

 reptiles. I beg to be allowed to make the following statement. 



The whole of that gentleman's museum was purchased by my 

 late father. Professor Clark, in 1856, who thus describes the acqui- 

 sition in the preface to the ' Catalogue of the Osteological Portion of 

 Specimens contained in the Anatomical Museum of the University of 

 Cambridge ' (Cambridge, 1862) : — 



" In 1856 I had the pleasure of increasing the Collection by 

 adding to it the osteological collection of Professor Bell, F.R.S., &c. 



