90 



The Naturalist. 



Yarrell and other ornithologists, it is performed apparently without much 

 labour, is easy and buoyant, but not rapid, and generally within a few 

 feet of the surface of the ground. — James Yarley, Almondbury Bank, 

 Huddersfield, December 11th. 



Albino Pheasant, &c., at Huddersfield. — A perfectly white and 

 beautiful specimen of the common pheasant {Phasianus colchicus) was 

 shot by one of Lord Dartmouth's party when shooting in Roydhouse 

 Wood on the 27th September last, I was present at the time, and had 

 the bird in my hands. The woodcock {Scolopax rusticola) was shot in the 

 same wood the previous day. About a week later an owl was shot by 

 Edward CuUey about a mile away. — Edward Taylor, Almondbury, 

 Huddersfield, December 1st. — [Was the owl the short-eared species 1 We 

 are told several of it have recently been killed in the district. — Eds. Nat] 



Bradford Naturalists' Society. — Meeting Nov. 28th, Mr. J. Firth, 

 V.P., in the chair. — An interesting lecture on astronomy was given by 

 Mr. B. lUingworth, which was illustrated by diagrams, and was followed 

 by an interesting discussion. — J. W. W. Brook, Hon. Sec. 



Goole Scientific Scciety. — A meeting of this Society was held on 

 Dec. 6th, when the president, Mr. E. Hunter, read a paper on " The 

 Phos;^hates of Commerce." The author said that the phosphates of 

 commerce were derived from two classes of sources — animal and mineral. 

 Guano, which contained a considerable proportion of phosphates, although 

 especially valuable on account of the nitrogenous matters which it con- 

 tained, occupied an intermediate position, consisting as it did of the 

 partially decomposed droppings of sea-birds. It was remarkable for the 

 large number of diatoms which it contained, and by which the different 

 kinds might be distinguished. Phosphorus was first obtained from human 

 urine, but the chief animal source of phosphates at the present day was 

 bone. Bone contained about two-thirds of its weight of mineral matter, 

 chiefly tricalcic phosphate. Bones were exhibited from which the mineral 

 matter had been removed by acid ; they were soft and flexible. The 

 mineral sources of phosphoric acid were chiefly the native phosphates of 

 lime — phosphorite, apatite, coprolites, and rock phosphate ; native 

 phosphates of iron and magnesia were also found and occasionally made 

 use of. Phosphorite was distinguished by its property of phosphorescing 

 with a golden green light, like fluor spar, when thrown upon a hot iron ; 

 it was found in Spain. Apatite was a valuable mineral found in the 

 Silurian rocks of Norway, and also in company with iron pyrites in the 

 Laurentian rocks of Canada ; it contained sometimes as much as 90 per 

 cent, of tricalcic phosphate. Coprolites, strictly speaking, were fossil 

 dung, and some of the phosphatic nodules so-called were no doubt of that 



