156 



THE NATURALIST. 



Altlioiigli Ills piiblislied works may appear j 

 to be small, they represent only a portion, of 

 the original work that he performed ; many 

 of the results he arrived at mnst have died 

 with him, but others remain in the form of 

 carefully prepared manuscripts, which his 

 brothers entertain the hope of publishing. 

 It may be a matter of surprise that he did 

 so little in making known the results of his 

 investigations ; but for the last twenty 

 years of his life he suffered from chronic 

 asthma, which eventually became so dis- 

 tressing as to awaken the^sympathies of all, 

 and caused msmj to marvel at the energy 

 he displayed in research and conversation 

 during intervals of release from pain. 



Tongue of a Toad. — Fifteen months ago 

 Mr. Gamble gave us an account of a cock 

 cherishing feelings of revenge, I have found 

 that my toads and frogs sometimes entertain 

 a similar passion, though the peculiarity is 

 not like the cock, in the length of time 

 for which they retain the feeling, but in 

 the instrument with which they give vent 

 to it, viz. : — the tongue. When angry 

 they hit one another with their sling-like 

 tongues ; which, being so to speak, loaded 

 at the end, must be rather formidable wea- 

 pons.— W. E. Tate, 4, Grove Place, Den- 

 mark Hill, London. 



Flight of Migrants. — Shortly after day- 

 break this morning a grand migration of 

 Swallows and Meadow Pipits passed over 

 the ship, all flying steadily in a south- 

 easterly direction. This flight continued 

 until past ten o'clock and then gradually 

 ceased. Sometimes there were many hun- 

 dreds of birds visible at once, and at others 

 perhaps not more than a dozen. The 

 Meadow Pipits flevf high, in little compa- 

 nies of five or six, and constantly uttered 

 their sharp tweet, tweet." The greater 

 part of the swallows also flew high, although 

 a few of them skimmed the surface of the sea, 

 a& if feeding as they flew. It was a delight- 

 ful morning, and so calm and unruffled 



j was the sea, that it appeared, if one rftay 

 use the expression, as if it still slept. With 

 these birds I also noticed two small families 

 of wagtails ; at ten o'clock a solitary bird 

 approached and seemed attracted by the 

 ship, as it flew several times backwards and 

 forwards between the masts as if hesitating 

 whether or not to alight on one of the 

 yards. The note of this bird was a peculiar 

 one and entirely puzzled me, although I 

 flatter myself I am pretty well acquainted 

 with the notes of most of our British birds. 

 The only bird I can in any^vay compare its 

 note, flight, or size to, is that rarity, Anthus 

 Bichardi.—G. F, Mathews, Assistant Pay- 

 master, E.K, F.L.S., Memb. Ent. Soc : 

 London, H.M.S. Terrible, Spithead, 17th 

 September, 1865, 



Small specimen of P. JVapi. — I took an 

 exceedingly small example of the above 

 insect while on a stay at Torquay, Devon- 

 shire. — I give the incidents of my capture 

 as briefly as possible : — Kambling, net in 

 hand, down one of those green lanes for 

 which Devonshire is so remarkable, I sud- 

 denly came to a damp, marshy piece of 

 ground, caused by the overflow of a stream 

 of water, and there I observed a small 

 white butterfly going through its gyrations, 

 and occasionally settling to sip the moisture. 

 On account of the locality, and the size of 

 the insect I at once set it down to be the 

 white variety of P. Phlceas, mentioned by 

 Mr. ISTewman in his Butter tlies," as being of 

 common occurrence on the Continent, but 

 scarce in England, and fancied I had come 

 across a rarity. After a succession of twirls 

 and misses I at last got the supposed prize 

 safely in the net, when, to my astonishment 

 and I may say chagrin, I saw it was not a 

 Copper but a Green Yeined White. On 

 account of its unusually small size (measur- 

 ing about one inch four lines from tip to 

 tip of wings when expanded) I set it and 

 gave it a place in my cabinet, where I re- 

 gard it, if not as a rarity, certainly as a 

 curiosity. — F. YfiLKiNSON, Stamp Office, 

 Market Harborough, September 8th, 1865. 



