
KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 
* 
may have been often observed before, but I never 
saw it in print; and not knowing whether or not 
it has been so, I give it you just as it occurred. I 
was rather later in rising than usual : it was about 
five o’clock. I could not, however, help tarrying 
in bed a few minutes just to admire the evolutions 
of a host of flies which were darting backwards and 
forwards, upwards and downwards, in every pos- 
sible direction. Their movements were as graceful 
as their buzzing was mirthful. I was struck, how- 
ever, by seeing something drop from the ceiling, 
and remain suspended at about eighteen inches 
distance. Reaching my spectacles, I perceived it 
was a spider, ae up like a little ball, and 
making himself appear quite lifeless—a master- 
piece of treachery this! The flies continued 
their amusement; but no sooner did one come 
within reach, than Sir Araignée darted out all 
his claws with wonderful velocity, and with equal 
velocity was a ball of apparent innocence resumed ! 
It so happened, however, that some of these flies 
in their flittings, struck against Sir Araignée’s 
suspension thread, and this madé him very wrath. 
He absolutely tumbled head over heels four or 
five times! At length, he would stand it no 
longer; and suddenly, by jerks, he lowered his 
poisonous body to within an inch of the carpet. 
After a few seconds, finding this ‘‘a weak inven- 
tion,’ he commenced winding himself up to his 
former position. Hncore, patience! It was all 
of no use. He then rose to the ceiling, moving 
about two feet in a better position (as he thought), 
down again. Five minutes more, but no better 
success. The flies continued their annoyance. 
Down again dropped the enemy on the carpet ; 
soon, however, he flew up again, and this time at 
once to the ceiling. He now changed his position, 
and went two feet in another direction, and 
became soon again suspended. Another moment, 
-and an unfortunate fly, approaching too near, was 
hugged in the irresistible embraces of his cunning 
enemy, who actually ate him for breakfast whilst 
hanging from the ceiling! Afterwards, he coolly 
wound him up, and dragged him away—where, I 
know not, as I had already stopped in bed too 
long to admit of my further watching this adven- 
ture. | have since seen the same process repeated 
in my bed-room ; whether by the same spider or 
Bal lreally cannot say.—Bomsyx Atuas, Tbiten- 
AN 
femarkable Echoes—I read, recently, your 
very delightful remarks about the echo near 
Hammersmith Bridge. Connected with the sub- 
ject, about which you appear so interested, I send 
you the following, recorded in the diary of 
Madame de Genlis—‘ There is a remarkable 
echo near Rosneath, a fine country-seat in Scot- 
land, situated to the west of a salt-water lake 
that runs into the Clyde seventeen miles below 
Glasgow. The lake is surrounded by hills, some 
of which are barren rocks, others are covered 
with trees. A good trumpeter, standing on a 
point of land that gives an opening to the water 
towards the north, has played an air and stopped ; 
the echo repeated the air faithfully and distinctly, 
but not so loud; this echo having ceased, another 
has done the same; and a third, as exactly as the 
two former, with no difference but that of becom- 
The same experiment, several 
ing more feeble. 


times repeated, had still the same success. There 
was formerly in the Chateau de Simonette a 
windowed wall, whence what was said was forty 
times repeated. Addison and others, who have 
travelled in Italy, mention an echo which would 
repeat the report of a pistol fifty-six times, even 
when the air was foggy. In the memoirs of the 
Academy of Sciences at Paris, for the year 1692, 
mention is made of the echo at Genetay, two 
leagues from Rouen, which has this peculiarity, 
that the person who sings does not hear the echo, 
but his voice only; and, on the contrary, those 
who listen do not hear the voice, but the echo, 
and that with surprising variations; for the echo 
seems sometimes to approach and sometimes to 
retire. Sometimes the voice is heard distinctly ; 
at others, not at all. Some hear only a single 
voice, others several; one hears to the right, 
another to the left, &c. This echo still exists, 
but is not what it was, because the environs have 
been planted with trees, which have greatly hurt 
the effect.”” I am as anxious as yourself, my 
dear sir, to investigate the true cause of these 
echoes, which seem to puzzle all our philosophers. 
—Hegartseaseé, Hants. 

The“ Provincial” Names of Birds.—A full 
and explanatory system of nomenclature is neces- 
sary to the dissemination of knowledge in all 
branches of science ; in none, perhaps, is it more 
essential than in natural history, where the 
popular names of plants or animals may be dif- 
ferent in various parts of the same country. Mr. 
Yarrell, in his book on British Birds, has shown 
a due appreciation of this by adding, in many 
instances, the popular names of the birds de- 
scribed. In one instance, however, he does not 
seem to be aware of the popular names given, in 
several parts of this country, to two well-known 
birds; these are the redwing and the fieldfare. 
The former is called the fieldtfare by the peasantry, 
and even by some of the farmers and sporting 
gentry ; although, when reminded of the mistake, 
they acknowledge the distinction. The other bird 
is, in the same manner, misnamed the pigeon-felt, 
or pigeon-fieldfare. I have ascertained this fact 
beyond question, and have found that the error 
prevails in Kent, Cambridgeshire, and the Lake 
Counties. It appears also that the fieldfare is 
known in Wiltshire as the blue-tail ; and the red- 
wing is called swinepipe in some parts of the north. 
It would therefore, perhaps, be as well, in so widely 
prevalent an error, that the above popular names 
should be added in scieutific books on the subject. 
The learned naturalist cannot prosecute his re- 
searches successfully without aid from the un- 
learned ; and any new facts which may be learnt 
about the two birds I have named will not be 
understood, unless an ornithologist should be 
aware of the popular error as to their names, or 
those of any other birds about which he may have 
to correspond. Country people may be equally 
misunderstood from the same cause.—V. Hour, 
Bromley, Kent. 
The New Tax on Dogs.—By the new Assessed 
Taxes Act, lately passed, a new tax is to be 
levied on all dogs. From the 5th of April next, 
for every dog, of whatever description or denomi- 
nation the same may be, the annual duty is to be 


