158 
MISCELLANY. 
cloth, the cement must be heated to the boiling point, and well stirred. The 
best mode of applying it is with a piece of old linen fastened to the end of a 
stick. Sometimes the lilting, by penetrating the cork, makes the spirit of wine 
evaporate and burst the surface; this forms small openings, which are stopped by 
passing a second coat of luting over the first, having previously allowed it to 
cool. If the phials are small, their necks may be plunged into the luting, and by 
repeating the process two or three times it acquires the proper degree of thickness. 
From what little experience I have had, I find that a mixture of half water and 
half spirit answers the purpose equally well, and I have been told that a mixture 
of salt and water will suffice, and it is of course much more economical.—T. B. 
Hall, Woodside , Liverpool , Feb. 1, 1888. 
Occurrence of Apis mellifica on Dec. 31.—On the last day of the year 1837 
a Bee flew very briskly by me, which must have been at a considerable, distance 
from its hive. The weather was beautifully fine, and the thermometer in the 
shade stood at 46°. —Peter Rylands, Bewsey House , Warrington, Feb. 3, 1838. 
The European Goatsucker ( Caprimulgus Europceus) near the Sea-coast. 
—This bird is found upon the moors in the neighbourhood, and is occasionally 
seen in the evening hawking for food in sheltered situations near the sea-coast.— 
Patrick Hawkridge, Scarborough , Aug. 7, 1837. 
Helobia brevicollis , var. Portlandica. —Every specimen I take in Portland is 
much narrower across the thorax than those I take here, and I think it is as 
good a species as H. Marshallana , being apparently intermediate between that 
and H. brevicollis , but I am inclined to think that all the Helobice are but one 
species, varying from locality and other circumstances.—J. C. Dale, Glanvilles 
Wootton , Dorsetshire , July 7, 1837. 
Crambus lamellus. —Norfolk, Rev. J. Burrell, Parley Heath, West Hume, 
Ramsdown, Catherine Hill, Christ-church Head, and New Forest, in very fine 
order, from Aug. 14 to Sept. 6.—J. C. Dale, Glanvilles Wootton , Dorsetshire , 
July 9, 1837. 
The Common Seal ( Phoca vitulina , Linn.).—Pennant, in his British 
Zoology , mentions the occurrence of this species on the coasts of Caernarvonshire 
and Anglesea. The fishermen also have several times informed me of its occur¬ 
rence. I have never, however, succeeded in obtaining or seeing one. Mr. Bell, in 
his History of British Quadrupeds , p. 263, mentions, on the authority of Prof. 
Nilsson, that the oblique position of the teeth is a constant character ip this 
species. It is, however, one which appears to vary with the age of the animal. 
In the cranium of a specimen in my collection, obtained in Scotland, and of 
whose habits, when alive, some account was published in the first number of this 
Magazine, the two posterior molars are not oblique, and the third only slightly 
so. The fourth and fifth are, however, as represented in Mr. Bell’s work, p. 268. 
