Natural History.— -Zoology, 201’ 
decks of ships at sea, I have not been able to trace a single in- 
stance, either of a woodcock having recourse to such an aid, or 
that it has been enumerated among the thousands of birds that 
have from time to time been found drowned on the shores of 
the ocean. F urther, the period for the appearance of the wood- 
cock in England, does not seem to be retarded by either a long 
series of calm, moderate, or tempestuous weather, or from the 
long prevalence of the wind in any particular quarter : hence it 
may be inferred, that the woodcock is favoured by nature with 
an instinct peculiar to its species ; which, during its transit from 
one country to another, however distant, insures its safety. This 
may give some weight to the hypothesis of the existence of cur- 
rents in the higher regions of the atmosphere, which set in the di- 
rection convenient for the transport of the woodcock, both in its 
approach and retiring from this island ; and that the extraordi- 
nary instinct to which I have alluded, enables this bird in the 
outset to soar to such a height as to avail itself of their influence; 
which being gained, it is conveyed away with a rapidity of 
which we may form some idea, when the fact is stated, of bal-, 
loons being propelled or hurried along from forty, to a rate 
exceeding eighty miles an hour. The great accuracy with which 
the woodcock is enabled to drop on an island, (however small), 
in the ocean, at a great distance from the main land, and in the 
darkest night, may proceed from the marked change in the air 
over the land which the bird feels even at an immense altitude.” 
IV. GENERAL SCIENCE. 
31. Chinese Year. — Mr Davis has shewn that the Chinese 
year is a lunar year, consisting of 12 months of 29 and 30 days 
alternately, with the triennial intercalation of a thirteenth month, 
or rather an intercalation seven times in nineteen years, to make 
the year correspond more nearly with the sun’s course. It has 
not been ascertained why they fix upon the 15th degree of 
Aquarius as a rule for regulating the commencement of their 
lunar year ; but they have an annual festival about the recur- 
rence of this period, which resembles the deification of the bull 
Apis. See Phil. Trans. 1823, p. 94. 
32. Introduction of Vaccination into China. — Mr Davis, in 
the paper just quoted (p. 92), mentions the following curious 
VOL, X. NO. 19 . JAN. 1824. O 
