Analyses of Books . 
46 
[January, 
tions water, and perhaps iron and bismuth. One other body at 
least may be added. Pure tin in the solid state floats upon 
melted tin just as ice does upon water, and the same is said, 
though with some degree of uncertainty, concerning zinc. 
Among the questions we note one which may mislead or 
puzzle. On p. 140, No. 41, we read: — “A nugget weighs 
45 grms. Its specific gravity is 5-87 ; that of the quartz is 6*49. 
How much gold does it contain ? The specific gravity here 
ascribed to quartz must be either a clerical or a typographical 
error. 
The Field Naturalist and Scientific Student. Nos. 6 and 7, 
November and December, 1882. Manchester : Abel Hey- 
wood and Son. 
These two numbers contain a good store of interesting matter. 
In an extract from a work by Mr. J. A. Froude, here quoted, we 
find a strange statement concerning the violent thunderstorms 
of South Africa : — “ To a white man, they say, there is no dan- 
ger while he has a black at his side, the latter being the better 
conductor. When one is struck another must be immediately 
substituted.” 
Mr. P. Percival communicates a paper on the Devil’s Coach- 
Horse ( Gcerius olens), but he does not notice the good service 
which it renders to man by its raids upon earwigs, and by an 
occasional in-door visit in search of cockroaches and crickets. 
Mr. Cuthbert Oxendale gives a description of a “ Lancashire 
Gullery ” on Pilling Moss, near Garstang, where about ten to 
twelve thousand of the black-headed gull ( Larus ridihundus) live 
and increase under the protection of Lord Winmarleigh and 
Captain Bird, the owners of the adjoining estates. Well do they 
deserve protection, for they clear the fields of larvae, &c., for 
miles around. 
There is an interesting note on the intelligence of cats, taken 
from the “ Manchester Guardian.” The writer very justly says 
that this animal shows a power which can only be distinguished 
from reason by a process of verbal refining which is almost 
puerile. 
A Mr. Brierley, in reply to a question put by a “ North Lin- 
colnshire Vicar,” states that he never heard of a robin being 
killed by its own young. 
