58 KIDD’S OWN JOURNAL. 
tinents it is likewise widely dispersed. In this 
country it is universally, though nowhere nume- 
rously, diffused. It is a splendid bird, its irides- 
cent colors varying according to the light they 
are seen in, from bright turquoise blue to the 
deepest green in some parts of its plumage, and 
in others the darker colors of copper and gold. 
When dead, however, much of its beauty is gone ; 
and one writer has imagined that even alive it 
has, when perceiving that it is observed, the 
power of dimming the resplendency of its plu- 
mage, as if conscious how marked an object it 
otherwise was; and I fancy that some idea of 
the sort has before now occurred to myself. In 
Yorkshire, this bird is as frequently to be met 
with as in other parts of the country; but, 
speaking of the neighborhood of Huddersfield, 
Mr. W. Eddison writes to Mr. Allis—“ The de- 
structive plan of snaring them, or catching them 
with birdlime, will shortly place them in the list 
of rare birds ;’’ and Mr. Richard Leyland, to the 
same, says— In autumn, an assemblage of them 
in some of the narrow glens or cloughs, as they 
are called about Halifax, takes place; probably 
the river, swollen by the autumnal rains, renders 
the acquisition of their food difficult, and conse- 
quently compels them to seek it in shallow 
water.’’—Morris’s History of British Birds. 

Motion of Plants.——Mr. Robson has given us 
a very interesting account of the movements he 
observed in the scarlet Clathrus, which is here 
transcribed in his own words. It is interesting 
to notice how an unbiassed observer uses the very 
terms to designate the movements of a plant which 
would have been minutely descriptive of those of 
an insect. ‘At first I was much surprised to 
see apart of the fibres that had got through a 
rupture in the top of the Clathrus, moving like 
the legs of a fly when laid on his back. I then 
touched it with the point of a pin, and was still 
more surprised when I saw it present the ap- 
pearance of a little bundle of worms entangled 
together, the fibres being all alive. I next took 
the little bundle of fibres quite out, and the 
animal motion was then so strong as to turn 
the head halfway round—first one way and 
then another, and two or three times it got out 
of the focus. Almost every fibre had a diffe- 
rent motion, some of them twined round one 
another, and then untwined again ; whilst others 
were bending, extending, coiling, waving, &c. 
The seeds appeared like gunpowder finely granu- 
lated.” Instances from other authors abound. An 
Helvella Inflata, on being touched by me once, 
threw up its seeds in the form of a smoke, which 
arose with an elastic bound, glittering in the 
sunshine like particles of silver. ‘‘The Vibrissea 
truncorum, taken from water, and exposed to the 
rays of the sun, though at first smooth, is 
goon covered with white geniculated filaments 
which start from the hymeniwm, and have an 
oscillating motion.” The Pilobolus, of which 
so accurate an account has been given us by the 
great Florentine mycologist, casts—as its name 
imports—its seed into the air. These also escape 
with a strong projectile force from the upper sur- 
face of Pezizas, the anfractuosities of the Morel, 
and from the gills of Agarics.—Treutise on the 
Lisculent Funguses of Englund. 


A 


The Horse-hair Hel.—Sir,— In your Turrp 
VoLumE you raised a question, through a corres- 
pondent, as to whether the hairs in a horse’s tail 
were gifted with life. The reasons for your cor- 
respondent’s inquiry were, I admit, very curious. 
With reference to this same doubt, [have observed 
in an old newspaper the following : In Shakspeare’s 
‘‘ Antony and Cleopatra,” we find a simile made 
use of by the Roman conqueror, who says— 
“¢ Much is breeding, 
Which like the courser’s hair hath yet but life, 
And not a serpent’s poison.” 
Shakspeare here gives utterance in poetry to a 
common error, which is alluded to in Hollinshed— 
“A horse-hair laide in a full pale ofthe like water, 
will in a short time stirre and become a living 
creature. But sith the certainty of these things 
is rather proved by few.” This superstition stall 
prevails in many parts of the country; and well 
we remember the period in our short history, when, 
with a desire as great as that which possessed 
Mr. Cross, we anxiously panted after the produc- 
tion of life. The unfortunate horses, whose tails 
were made to yield of their abundance to satisfy 
our curiosity, had no notion of the honor which 
was intended them. Certain it is, that the hairs 
were extracted with what are called the roots, and 
these, tied into a bundle, were allowed to swim in 
a running stream for the mystic space of nine 
days. We cannot tax ourmemory with ever having 
produced eels in this manner. The failure of the 
attempt was easily explained, by our not having 
pulled the hairs out properly, and hence the horse 
was subjected to repeated suffering. There is an 
animal called the horse-hair eel, however, which 
we have often seen in running waters, which is 
apparently without the power of locomotion, and 
in every respect resembles a horse-hair. Its color 
is dark brown, approaching to black; without fins, 
and the smallest possible appearance of a head. 
The animal seems to be carried about by every 
eddy in the current where it exists, and but for the 
constant motion of what may be called the tail, 
might easily be mistaken for a horse-hair. A 
recent author mentions this superstition as still 
prevalent in Scotland, and also that the animal is 
common in Inverness-shire. The superstition is 
very likely to have arisen from some mountebank 
wishing to inspire the rustics with a proof of his 
supernatural power, which he could easily do by 
taking the animals from the water when still re- 
taining life. They love the power of motion, which 
is regained by their being again immersed in their 
native element. I have transcribed the above ; and 
send it to you without further comment. Selfexis- 
ting life inthe hair of a horse’s tail does seem rather 
questionable—AtexanDrEr G., Oxford. 

The late Professor Adrien de Jussieu.—Advices 
from Paris mention the decease of this distinguished 
botanist, upon whom the mantle of his great 
ancestors may be said to have fallen. Among the 
most conscientious and exact of systematical 
writers, he also ranked high as. a physiologist, as 
his well-known elementary work has shown the 
world. For many years his health had been 
delicate, and of late had become deplorable. By 
his decease a vacancy occurs in the President’s 
chair of the French Institute, in that of Professor 


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