1 96 Miscellanies. 



young measured each 3i inches in length and 3 inches across the wings. 

 The old was a light yellow, and the young about the color of the chin- 

 chilla, of S. A. I immediately prepared the three for my cabinet, and 

 while so doing, noticed that the stomachs of the young were remarkably 

 distended with milk. 



Before I close this article, allow me to add that I have observed the 

 red wing (Icterus Phceniceus) to be carnivorous. No writer that I have 

 seen makes any mention of flesh in describing the food of the red wing, 

 A friend assures me that while riding out the first week in June last, he 

 saw a female bird of this species feeding very intently on the ground, and 

 as he passed near she laid hold of something nearly as long as her own 

 body, and made several unsuccessful attempts to rise with it in her bill. 

 It proved to be the skeleton of a bird completely cleaned of flesh, which 

 by a few of the primaries attached to the wings, appears to have been the 

 semi-palmated Ringed Plover. 



18. Malaria. — Thomas Hopkins, Esq., at the conclusion of a me- 

 moir read before the Lit. and Phil. Society of Manchester, England, 

 Nov. 15, 1838, presents the following summary of the effects of wa- 

 ter in generating malaria. 



It may be presumed that in those parts of the world which have a 

 high tempei-ature, malaria will be found, and especially when the air 

 has been sometime stagnant, in the following situations, viz : 



1. Over the open sea. It will be mild here, because the tempera- 

 ture is not very high. 



2. Over slowly moving rivers. They will be somewhat more heat- 

 ed by the sun than the sea is, and will therefore evaporate more freely. 



3. Over meadows and woods. The great extent of moist surfaces 

 admits of great evaporation from these. 



4. Over shallow stagnant water. The temperature of the water 

 will be high, and evaporation consequently great. 



5. Over tide sands and muds. These become very hot, and con- 

 sequently evaporate copiously. 



6. Over marshes. These combine great heat, extensive surface for 

 evaporation, and abundant moisture. 



The author proposes that hygrometrical, barometrical and thermo- 

 metrical tables should be kept at various places, in order to judge 

 how far moisture and heat with variations of pressure aftect the pro- 

 duction of malaria. He gives the following table of mortaUty to il- 

 lustrate local agencies on health. 



" A Table of the Deaths per 1000 of Strength, and the portion of those 

 who died of Fever, per An7ium, of the White Troops in the West 

 Indies, being the average of the returns for the Twenty Years 



