PLATE LXX. 



Pennant fays it builds it's nefr. on the ground among reeds, and 

 lays three or four white eggs of an elliptical form ; rather lefs than 

 thofe of a hen. 



Ancient writers have aflerted that the left foot is fubpalmated ; 

 many refpeclable Naturalifts of late years have followed this opi- 

 nion, and indeed the authority of Linneus had almoft finally fanc- 

 tioned this error. Pennant contradicts this opinion, and gives a 

 faithful defcription of the bird, and Latham has added a very cu- 

 rious and interefling note to his account of it # , which is cer- 

 tainly an apology in fome meafure for the miftake in the firft 

 inftance \ fince a bird perfectly according with the defcription given 

 by early writers may have occurred. We cannot fuppofe, without 

 fome good authority in ancient writers, Linneus would have adopted 

 their errors. 



* " I do not believe," fays Mr. Latham, " that there is either bird or quadruped, 

 in which each fide of the body does not correfpond in fize and fhape, in a natural 

 flate, though the contrary is fometimes feen in the infett tribe." He further adds, 

 «* In refpeft to winged infeds, it is obferved that even the marks of the wings exactly 

 correfpond on each fide. Indeed a Angular circumftance occurs in one of the Blatta 

 ox Cockroach gems {Blatta theteroclita *) which I believe is the only one recorded, at leaffc 

 obferved by me. In this fpecies, one of the elytra, or wing-cafes, is marked with four 

 white fpots, and the other with three only j which holds good in every fpecimen of it 

 I have yet feen. 



" As to Lujus Natura, they are far from being uncommon ; fuch as a duck without 

 webs to the toes, which I have often feen j a common fnail with the fpiral turns of the 

 mell reverfed, one of which was found in my garden a few years fince $ alfo a flounder 

 having the eyes and lateral line on the left fide inftead of the right f, &c. 



" Thefe, and an hundred fuch which might be mentioned, muft be reckoned as 

 Angularities happening now and then, but by no means to be fet down for permanent 

 diftindtions of fpecies." 



* Linneus defcribes this InfecT: Caffida petiveriana^ — -Caffida 7 guttata nigra, coleoptris 



maculis feptem albis. Syji. Ent. 90.26. — Linn, Syfi. Nat. 2. 577. 19. Fabricius, Blatta 



p&lveriatta nigra, elytris maculis quatuor fiavefcentibus. Syfi. Ent. 27 2. 11. — Spec. Jnf, 



J« 343- 13- 



•f Br. Zeol, vol. 8. p. 293, 



PLATE 



