Classification. 1955 



letters of an alphabet, may be not inaptly likened to the combination 

 of those letters in composing words whose meanings differ in extent), 

 in advancing towards correct achievement, continually require more 

 votaries to share the increasing amount of study necessary, unite their 

 labours in one common end, and, by heaping scattered knowledge in- 

 to generalizations more easy to the comprehension, the well-directed 

 labour of each individual renders a higher amount of knowledge at- 

 tainable by every one, — just as in science itself, which is the entire 

 investigation of Nature's truths, every newly-discovered law makes 

 an intricate accumulation of recorded facts more clearly understood, 

 at the same time opening out new and more extensive regions to be 

 explored, inviting the co-operation of more investigators ; while each, 

 in seeing how little his unassisted labour would suffice, feels deeper 

 still his close dependence on the rest ; and were it the only benefit 

 that science yields to man, to know our mutual interest in each other, 

 the effect produced upon our conduct, by a general appreciation of 

 this moral truth, would make us quite another, and a happier, race of 

 beings. H. N. Turner, Jun. 



1 , Upper Belgrave Place, Pimlico, 

 September 29, 1847. 



Ornithological and other Notices in Norfolk, for the months of July, August and 

 September, 1847. — Early in the month of July, a specimen of the plain bonito (Auxis 

 vulgaris) of Mr. Yarrell (Brit. Fishes, 2nd ed.) was captured off Yarmouth, and is now 

 in the Museum of the Cambridge Philosophical Society. The measurements and 

 description of this specimen almost exactly corresponded with those given by Mr. 

 Yarrell, but we could not discover more than seven finlets behind the dorsal fin, 

 whereas that gentleman makes eight : the number behind the anal fin is also seven. 

 One of the peculiarities by which this fish as well as others of its tribe are distin- 

 guished, is the grooves and depressions into which the fins, when not erected, are re- 

 ceived, and thus brought almost to the same level as the surrounding parts of the 

 body. This fish has been previously taken off Yarmouth. We have been informed 

 that a shoal of grampuses were seen near Lynn during this month, but have not been 

 able to authenticate their appearance. On the 30th of August a curious variety of the 

 chaffinch was killed at Brooke, by H. K. Tompson, Esq., by whom it has been pre- 

 sented to Mr. J. H. Gurney. The bird is a young male : the ground colour of its 

 plumage is white, but pervaded throughout with a delicate canary yellow colour. This 

 tint is strongest on the back and rump (especially the latter), on the edges of the quill 

 feathers of the wings and of the tail feathers. The eyes are of the natural colour; 

 and the bird altogether bears a most striking resemblance to the variety of the very 

 nearly allied species, the brambling, which was killed at Melton in 1844, and is 

 described and figured in the Account of the Norfolk Birds (Zool. 131 1). An example 

 of the osprey (male) was killed near Cromer on the 3rd of September. We have seen 

 four specimens of the red-necked phalarope which were killed at or near Salthouse, 

 during the month of September : two of these, which were killed about the beginning 



