i 882.] 
Notes. 
53 
or stationary, according as they occupy for breeding stations the 
northern or southern portion of the common habitat ; failure of 
food induces a return towards warmer regions (this is not the 
case with the swift, which leaves England in August, when its 
food is plentiful) ; that the return to the breeding station is 
prompted by the recurrence of the breeding season ; that they 
pursue certain routes guided by inherited experience, and that 
they discern approaching meteorological changes. 
H. D. Minot (“ American Naturalist ”) makes some very inte- 
resting notes on the migration of birds. Thus in case of some 
species a single pioneer bird has been known to arrive about a 
week sooner than his fellows, and to depart southwards again. 
The most favourable haunts are the first revisited. The general 
character of a season has a great influence on the time of arrival, 
whilst temporary heat or cold has little save upon water-fowl. 
The order of species is uncertain, even amongst near allies. 
According to Mr. W. E. D. Scott, of the Nuttall Ornithological 
Club (“ American Naturalist ”) migratory birds, when travelling 
by night, fly at elevations of from i mile to 4 miles above the 
earth’s surface, and in clear nights can thus recognise the leading 
features of a very wide sweep of country. 
The Anti-ViviseCtion craze will find no countenance in France. 
The new Minister of Education, M. Paul Bert, is himself a man 
of Science. 
The “ Revue Spirite ” and “ Light ” give the following incident 
under the heading “ A Pathological Phenomenon ” : — “ A girl of 
sixteen has been ill here for eight months. For the last twenty 
days she has been without food or substantial liquid. During 
the latter time she predicted that at a certain hour or a day she 
would have a fit, and would be thought dying ; but that at a cer- 
tain hour she would wake up and ask for food. The prediction 
proved true. When she woke she was ravenously hungry, and 
ate without inconvenience. Her abdomen had been in her illness 
tympanitically distended. Part of her prediction was that the 
distention would disappear, and it did very rapidly. From the 
time of her leaving off food she spoke several languages of which 
she knows nothing in her ordinary state ; knew persons whom 
she had not seen before, and what they had about them ; knew 
their thoughts ; knew those who talked of her, and what they 
said ; and putting her hand upon an open book she knew the 
page and contents of it ; the time of day without the clock, &c. 
She had not been magnetised.” This narrative is dated Campan, 
Upper Pyrenees, August 28th, 1881, and is signed by D. Adorret. 
According to the “ Boston Journal of Chemistry ” a “ malarial 
wave ” is extending over New England. 
The same journal revives the tradition of spider’s web, or 
preferably an entire live spider, being a permanent cure for ague. 
