2a4? Trait m the Habits of the Weasel, 



a spectral blue, precisely similar in hue to the colour pro- 

 duced on the hand when held before a blue glass, as seen in 

 the windows of chemists. Their motions were exceedingly 

 slow, and they always firmly attached one leg to whatever 

 substance they could reach, before they let go with the other. 

 The creatures did not feed more than once in three or four 

 days ; and they would never catch any of the beetles with a 

 hard covering, many species of which I collected in my walks, 

 and exposed to them in the tin vessel. Several times I lost 

 them, and was afraid to step about the room, lest, from their 

 variety of colour, I should tread on them ; but I generally 

 found them in the folds of the curtains, always on the blue 

 lining, and not on the chintz pattern. During the long time I 

 kept them, they had alvine secretions, of a pale yellow colour, 

 and in rounded conjoined lumps, not more than four times. 

 I have often seen one side of the creatures, more especially 

 the larger one, nearly stone colour, and the other a black 

 green ; and the changes of hue were always very rapid, and 

 accompanied with either elevation or depression of the ribs. 

 The skin of the creatures I should resemble to an infinite num- 

 ber of facets of a certain determinate figure ; and I think the 

 changes of colour depended on the power of the animals to 

 elevate, alter, and depress the faces or angles of these facets 

 (I am not much of a philosopher, and 1 scarcely know if I 

 have rendered myself intelligible in this last sentence), and 

 the consequent difference of angle at which the light was 

 received. 



At the request of Lieut. Davies I gave them to him, with a 

 view to his continuing observations on their habits and eco- 

 nomy; and, therefore, it is probable that that gentleman, in 

 whose possession they were for several weeks, will favour you 

 with his remarks. 



Soon after Lieut. Davies's departure for Ireland, the ani- 

 mals died from the effect of cold, and are now in the museum 

 .of the Institution here. I am, Sir, &c. 



IIO* High Street, Portsmouth, Henry Slight. 



March 18. 1830. 



Art. IV. Trait in the Habits of the Weasel, with Notes on the 

 Water Shrew and the Thrush, By W. L., Selkirkshire. 



; Sir, 



The following story is told in Selkirkshire : — "A group 

 of haymakers, while busy at their work on Chapelhope mea- 

 dow, at the upper end of St. Mary's Loch (or rather of the 

 Loch of the Lowes, which is separated from it by a narrow 



