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Queries cmd A?is^ers» 



consisted of undulating oscillations, introrsum et extrorsum, and rendored 

 more evident by the margin of the cup being furnished with fine waving 

 fimbriae. The animal gradually thickens from the margin down to the cen- 

 tre, and the movements are effected by gentle contractions and dilatations, 

 which, when swimming, are alternately stronger on either side as the direc- 

 tion of the animal requires, the contractions having rather a spiral inclina- 

 tion. The whole is perfectly transparent, at least interrupted only by distant 

 tendinous-looking lines rising vertically from its centre. On bringing it to 

 the surface it commenced a retreat to the margin of the tank, swimming 

 slowly, with its concavity inclining forwards, and then settling at the bottom ; 

 on raising it again, and turning up its convex side, it righted itself and sank ; 

 on touching it, when at the bottom, it shrank from the touch, and moved 

 forward a few inches. Any information on this subject in your interesting 

 Magazine will oblige. Yours, &c. — John Brown^ F.L.S. Boston L.y Aug. 22. 



Whether a Fish called the Samlet ever becomes a Salmon or not, is a ques- 

 tion not yet satisfactorily answered. I think I could give circumstantial, 

 if not positive, proof that it does. William V. Ellis, Esq., of Minster- 

 worth, near Gloucester, who has a very extensive fishery on the river 

 Severn, is of opinion, from information received from fishermen under 

 his direction, that the samlet does ultimately become a salmon, in confirma- 

 tion of which, he says, one of the fishermen thrust a wire through the tail of 

 a samlet, and in process of time (notwithstanding the corrosion and action 

 of the fresh and sea-water on the wire) the same was again taken with the 

 wire in its tail after that it had become a salmon. — Thomas Hawkins. The 

 Haw near Gloucester, Oct. 21. 1829. 



Whether the Botcher, the Gillion, and the Salmon are merely varieties or 

 the same fish, or (as the fishermen here thin/c) distinct species, is a ques- 

 tion I should wish solved. I do not know whether these distinctive 

 names are local or general, but, by whatever name they are called, I think 

 they will be understood as distinct. My own opinion is, that they are the 

 same fish at a distant period or stage of growth, or varieties only, and that 

 the renovating influence of the sea-water is the only difference ; but if I am 

 wrong, I should wish to be better informed. — Id. 



A Nidus attached to a Reed. — Sir, I shall be obliged by your giving me 

 the name of the wonderful architect whose work is represented by the follow- 

 ing sketch, {fig. 19.) It was found attached to a reed, in the inside of the 

 roof of a barn at Crimplesham, in Norfolk. The sketch is of the natural size 



19 



and colour [grey]. Besides the two coats seen in it, there is a third in the 

 centre, but not so deep as either of the others ; and within that six or seven 

 hexagonal cells, like those of the honey bee (v4 pis mellifica), but not, I 

 think, quite so large. The material of which" this curious nidus is formed, ap- 



