Preservation of Zoological Specimens. 223 



dow sill, securing the stand by a bradawl ; and hardly had 

 I done so before the robin resumed the war by settling on 

 the head of his unconscious foe, digging and pecking at it 

 with such ferocity and violence, that, had I not interfered, 

 the utter destruction of my poor specimen must have ensued. 

 The experiment, of course, was not renewed ; but the robin, 

 during the rest of the day, kept watch in the immediate 

 neighbourhood, and was singing even in the shade of the 

 evening. — Kent. Dover, Jan. 5. 1837. 



Preservation of Zoological Specimens. — I have often noticed 

 with regret, both in some public and private museums, in this 

 country, that the damp was making fearful inroads among the 

 zoological specimens ; and, as I learned, while in France, 

 some time since, a most simple and efficacious remedy for 

 that evil, I beg to submit it to you for the benefit of your 

 readers and the public. 



A glazed flower-pan, of the size of a dessert plate, placed 

 in the cases, at intervals of 8 ft. or 10 ft., and filled with 

 quicklime, will rapidly imbibe all damps, and will only re- 

 quire renewing when it is found that the lime is completely 

 saturated. 



As a preventive to moth in museums, I have seen used, 

 and have used myself with great effect, the huile de petrole, 

 put into glass vessels like shallow finger-glasses ; and four 

 or five in a case of 20 ft. long will produce so powerful 

 an effluvium, that it is necessary to have as many watch- 

 glasses, with small portions of musk in them, to make it 

 bearable. But this, in good air-tight cases, is of little con- 

 sequence. — Kent. Dover, Jan. 5. 1837. 



Occurrence of Helix virgdta in vast Numbers. — I noticed, 

 in your valuable and entertaining Magazine for October an 

 account of a *' Congregation of Moths in the Interior of a 

 Tree." I have now, Mr. Editor, for the information of your 

 readers, to record almost as curious an accumulation of 

 shells. In passing through Wymondham, in my way to 

 Norwich, while my horse was baiting, I strolled into the 

 churchyard of that place, for the purpose of examining the 

 church, which I had previously been informed was worth 

 looking at. I had not been two minutes there before my 

 feet trampled upon, and were crushing, a number of very 

 small snails ; and, taking a few of them in my hand for 

 examination, found them to be specimens of Helix virgata of 

 Dr. Turton. (See Turton's Manual.) They were of various 

 sizes, and in different stages of growth. Some were crawling 

 up the steeple to a great height ; some sticking to the trunks 



