124 
NATURE NOTES. 
for loss by evaporation, should be introduced drop by drop, to 
avoid the injury easily inflicted by alteration in density. We 
must remember that seaweeds live mostly in a constant low 
temperature, with little light and in a medium that hardly 
changes in density. The deep water forms can only be success- 
fully moved on a cloudy day and with the help of ice. A big 
earthenware jar makes a good aquarium, and it is best to have 
a few pebbles at the bottom, and always to bring the specimens 
with the stone, or a piece of it, to which they are attached. 
Detached specimens will very soon die. 
If you wish to make periodical observations on particular 
forms, much the easiest way is to suspend them in a basket from 
a moored buoy in the sea, and haul them up from time to time. 
In this work all the shining virtues of the young brother will be 
called forth. He will think no more of it than of hauling up a 
lobster pot or “ getting ” a boat anchor. It has the added 
pleasure of being rather more sloppy. Dredging and “tow- 
netting ” are the work of special students, and directions for 
their proper undertaking can hardly be written down — not that 
the language is unparliamentary, though when spoken it tends 
in that direction only too frequently, but they can be given 
only on the spot. Two things may be said, however: use an 
ordinary oyster dredge, and see that your tow-nets are, one on 
the surface and the others at different depths, and that they stay 
there. Unless you are used to the ways of the sea and the 
management of a boat w'ith the dredge down, do not attempt it 
without the aid of a skilled boatman. You may lose your life or 
even a valuable dredge. Even if you try all the other things 
and do not succeed, you wall be the better for trying, both in 
mind and in bod}'. 
George Mr kray. 
STUDIES OF BLACKBIRDS. 
ITH no conceit let me say it, few persons are better 
fitted to w'rite of blackbirds, their tempers, speech, 
songs, and w'ays, than my unscientific self. They 
have gradually surrounded me, forcing themselves on 
my attention, w'hether with song so exquisite that angels in 
passing might lend an ear, or with domestic quarrels so fierce 
and loud that we are occasionally obliged to go to disperse the 
combatants, and so restore order for a time ; or with wild sounds 
of alarm that announce the dreaded approach of sparrow-haw’k, 
jackdaw, or cat, and that disturb our peace of mind at many an 
otherwise peaceful meal-time, and send us flying to their abodes, 
regardless of digestion and conventionalities — all this and much 
more — an environment of blackbirds seems to have encompassed 
me about. When first Ave came here nearly four years ago, 
