KIDD'S LONDON JOURNAL. 



187 



explanation is called for. Entomologists, of 

 whom I am one, give little credit to the assertion 

 of "B.," Burnham, Bucks. Surely it is a fiction? 

 Can he, and will ho describe the character of the 

 butterflies he and his friend saw, so as to give us 

 some idea of the name? — Veritas, Oxford. 



[The particulars furnished us, had all the ap- 

 pearance of authenticity ; and our contemporary, 

 the Times, copied them ; as did also many other 

 journals. We must in future decline the inser- 

 tion of any contributions, unless the name of 

 the writers in full are sent us in confidence. 

 Science is materially injured, when assertions are 

 put forth which are not founded on fact.] 



THE RING OUZEL. 



It is not often, unless in mountainous dis- 

 tricts, that the lover of the feathered tribe 

 has an opportunity of admiring this rare and 

 beautiful bird. When accidentally met with, 

 he is of so shy and unsociable a disposition 

 as to afford but hurried and distant glimpses 

 at his plumage. 



Living amidst the Downs of North Hants, 

 I have for many years remarked the regular 

 appearance of a few ring ouzels on their ver- 

 nal and autumnal migrations. They have 

 arrived about the last weeks in March and 

 September, and, after remaining on the hills 

 a few days, have taken leave, and pursued 

 their route. I have never heard them sing, 

 but in their flight ; and in the notes of alarm 

 they utter when disturbed, they resemble 

 the fieldfare rather than the blackbird, 

 mounting higher in the air than the latter. 



Towards the close of summer last year, I 

 had a very pleasing visit, which enabled me 

 to see much of these passing strangers. I 

 have in my garden a large mountain ash, 

 which was thickly covered with pendant 

 clusters of bright coral berries. Being at- 

 tracted by an unusual note, I observed one 

 morning (the 31st August) a ring ouzel fly 

 from the tree, and soon discovered that no 

 fewer than five of these unusual guests had 

 taken up their temporary abode in my garden. 

 Laying aside their wild habits, they soon al- 

 lowed me to stand near the tree, and watch 

 them closely. From dawn until dark, unless 

 disturbed, they scarcely quitted the scene of 

 their repast, and seemed to be employed 

 almost without intermission in gormandiz- 

 ing these favorite berries. When driven 

 off, they would make a circuit high in the 

 ah-, and quickly return to their tree; and 

 on more than one occasion I had the pleasure 

 of seeing them, from my window, picking up 

 worms and sporting with blackbirds on" the 

 lawn, chasing and being chased. From the 

 white crescent, I judged one of them to be 

 an old male ; the rest, birds of the season ; or, 

 probably, one of those marked with less vivid 

 white might have been the parent hen. In 

 the course of a week my tree was entirely 

 denuded of its fruit. The berries w«re gone ; 



positively not a cluster remained. And, with 

 the berries, disappeared my pretty visitors. 

 Looking for them on the morning of the 8th 

 September, they were missing; and I saw 

 them no more. H. H. W. 



Combe Vicarage, Feb. 24, 1852. 



OBITUARY. 



Mr. W. Thompson, of Belfast. 



The Athenceum of the 21st ult., records the 

 sudden death of this distinguished writer on 

 natural history. The melancholy event took 

 place in London, where Mr. Thompson had been 

 visiting for the purpose of making arrangements 

 for the approaching meeting of the British Asso- 

 ciation in Belfast, of which he had been appointed 

 by the council a vice-president. Mr. Thompson 

 was well known as a writer on various branches of 

 natural history. He devoted himself principally 

 to zoology — though all branches of natural his- 

 tory and comparative anatomy received a share of 

 his attention. Science is indebted to him for the 

 ardor with which he investigated the zoology of 

 his native country, and the large number of his 

 papers in the annals and magazines of natural 

 history attest his great diligence in this respect. 

 He was an early friend of the British Association 

 for the Advancement of Science, and at the meet- 

 ing held at Glasgow delivered in a report on the 

 Fauna of Ireland. He constantly attended its 

 meetings ; and subsequently to his report in 1840 

 he contributed many papers on the natural history 

 of Ireland. It was owing to his efforts, that the 

 Natural History section was so remarkably suc- 

 cessful when the association met at Cork. His 

 investigations on the Zoology of Ireland were 

 subservient to a great work which he had planned 

 on the natural history of that island, and which, 

 had his life been spared, there is no reason to 

 doubt he would have completed. " The Birds 

 of Ireland" was the first part of this work ; and 

 we understand that Mr. Thompson has left the 

 larger portion of a work on the Fishes of Ireland 

 ready for the press. His loss will be deeply felt 

 at Belfast, in the institutions of which city he 

 took deep and active interest. Mr. Thompson 

 was President of the Natural History Society of 

 Belfast. He died in the forty-seventh year of 

 his age. 



IMPROVEMENTS IN PHOTOGRAPHY, 



A new patent has been recently specified, for 

 "Novel Improvements in Photography," — the 

 discovery of Mr. Fox Talbot. 



These novelties have for their object the pre- 

 paration of plates so sensitive to the action of 

 light, that a momentary brilliant flash, such as an 

 electrical discharge, shall be sufficient to impress 

 the scene or image illuminated by the flash, dis- 

 tinctly and perfectly on the prepared plate, improv- 

 ing upon the methods adopted in the experiments 

 made at the Royal Institution during last June, 

 when a printed paper, affixed to a rapidly- rotat- 

 ing wheel, was copied on a photographic plate, 

 during the really inconceivable space of time 

 whilst the revolving print was illuminated by the 

 electrical flash, at the precise angle at which its 



