NATURALISTS CALENDAR. 
45 
PART III. 
NATURALISTS CALENDAR 
OR 
OBSERVATIONS ON NATUR.E, FOR JANUARY. 
Several of our native plants now put forth their blossoms in defiance of the 
cold. It is highly probable that these and others which bear severe weather, 
have the power of generating organic heat, for many of them are so delicate 
in texture, that no plausible supposition could be made respecting the rigidity 
of their fibres, or sap vessels. Some plants, indeed, manifest a degree of heat 
enough to affect the thermometer: and all vegetables are some degrees warmer 
than the surrounding air, a circumstance which enables them to resist the cold of 
winter. [Notes of a Naturalist, Times Telescope.'] Amongst the plants in per¬ 
fection this month may be found on walls and rocks, Tortula rigida, (fig. 7, I) of 
a dark green colour, growing about three quarters of an inch high; also the 
Hypnum murale (4) in patches of a light 
green colour, about an inch and a half 
high. In peat bogs may be seen in dark 
green loose tufts about three inches high, 
the Dicranum flexuosum (2) and in 
nearly all situations in pale green tufts 
one and a half inch high, grows the Fu- 
naria hygrometrica (3). Upon moist 
rocks in broad patches about two inches 
high may be found a good supply of 
Ma.rchanta polymorpha (5). 
0 
Birds. —“The experiments of Spallanzani and Reeve, render it very impro¬ 
bable that any species of bird should become torpid. The rapidity of the cir¬ 
culation of their blood is a circumstance which strongly opposes the supposition 
of torpidity occurring amongst them, a slow circulation being one of the most 
indispensable conditions. Few naturalists of any note, now believe in the sub¬ 
mersion of swallows under water during the winter, a circumstance not loug ago 
believed by naturalists of the highest name. Their physiological structure ren¬ 
der it impossible for them' to ex st for many months under water; and it is con 
trary to all analogy in the class of birds; for not even the sea-fowl, which live 
constantly in the Avater, are able to remain any time submerged. Our European 
swallows have been repeatedly seen crossing the Mediterranean towards Africa at 
their autumnal departure.” During November and December we were visited by 
large flocks of Siskins or Aberduvines (Carduelis spinus) in the high peak of Der¬ 
byshire. The first flock we observed was in the beginning of November. During 
the pres nt month the Dipper or Water Ousel (Cinclus aquaticus) may be heard 
