Scientific Intelligence. 
covered in, and it was furnished with a long neck or passage, 
through which the birds entered and came out. It resembled 
a longitudinal section of a Florence oil flask. This nest having 
fallen down after the young birds had quitted it, the same pair, 
as he is disposed to believe, built again on the old foundation in 
the month of February following; but he remarked on this oc- 
casion an improvement in the construction of it, which can hard- 
ly be referred to the dictates of mere instinct. In building the 
first, the birds were satisfied with a single opening, but this one 
was furnished with an opening -at each side ; and on watching 
their motions, he observed that they invariably entered at one 
side, and came out at the other. One object obtained by this 
improvement, was saving themselves the trouble of turning in 
the nest, and thus avoiding any derangement of its interior eco- 
nom}^ But the chief object appeared to be, to facilitate 
their escape from the attacks of serpents, which harbour in the 
roofs of thatched houses, or crawl up along the walls, and not 
unfrequently devour both the mother and her young. 
29. Discovery of Human Skulls in the same formation as that 
which contains remains <f Elephants, Khinoceri, ^c. — Some 
years ago Admiral Cochrane presented to the British Museum 
a human skeleton, incased in a very compact alluvial aggrega- 
tion of coral and other similar matters. This curious specimen 
was at first considered as a true Secondary limestone, and there- 
fore as afibrding evidence that the human species had been call- 
ed into existence during the formation of the Secondary strata. 
Geologists pointed out the inaccuracy of this opinion, and proved 
that the inclosing mass was not a portion of the older strata of the 
crust of the Earth, but merely a portion of one of those calca- 
reous formations daily taking place on the shores of the West 
India islands. It is well known to geologists, that several ex- 
tensive tracts in Germany are covered with a deep deposit of 
calcareous tulfa, which contains fossil remains of the mastodon- 
ton, megatherium, Irish elk, (Alci gigantea, Blum.), and ele- 
phant (Elephas primigeni), and other colossal animals, which are 
now considered as extinct. In this very ancient alluvial forma- 
tion, human skulls have been discovered ; and if the statements 
given in regard to this interesting discovery, at Meissen in Sa- 
xony, be correct, we have obtained a proof of the co-existence of 
