NOTICES OF SERIALS. 
129 
to the side, by means of mud, for the purpose of illuminating its dwelling. Mr. 
Layard will not vouch, from personal observation, for this fact, but suggests that 
the patch of mud which the bird places on each side of its perch, may be used for 
the purpose of sharpening its bill; and that, perhaps, the husks of seeds, or the 
wing-cases of a stray beetle, left sticking upon it, may have given rise to the idea 
which the natives entertain. (Leighton, Rev. W. A.) Monograph of the British 
Graphidese (continued) ; (Sedgwick, Rev. Professor) A reply to two statements 
published by the Palasontographical Society, in their volume for 1853; the one 
appearing to accuse the University of Cambridge of illiberality in*the administration 
of the Museum; the other reflecting on the character of Professor M‘Coy. This 
dispute arose from a passage in one of the publications of the Palseontographical 
Society, in which the editors—MM. Edwards and Haime—would lead their readers 
to infer that “ they had personally made an application for certain Palasazoic fossils 
in the Cambridge Museum, which had been rejected; that this rejection was in 
disadvantageous contrast with the liberal conduct of all other public bodies to which 
they had applied; that their loss on account of this rejection was the less because 
Professor M‘Coy had (since) published and figured ( First Cambridge Fasicules , 
May , 1851) nearly all the species of which they were anxious to have the loan ; 
that the Professor had made an unfair use of their first part of British Fossil Corals 
(z.e., Tertiary and Cretaceous Corals , as published in 1850); and to cover his 
plagiarisms, he had misdated a portion of his own labours, and virtually stated what 
was not true.” These are grave charges, which we have stated in Professor Sedge- 
wick’s language, and to which the letters of Professors Sedgwick and M‘Coy are in 
answer to. (Greville, R. K.) Notice of the occurrence of Desmarestia Dresnayi 
on the coast of Ireland. This alga, the occurrence of which was already noticed 
by us, was collected towards the close of last year, near the mouth of Lough Foyle, 
in the north of Ireland, by William Sawyers and-Morrison, Esqrs., and com¬ 
municated by the former gentleman to Professor Balfour, by whom specimens were 
placed in Mr. Greville’s hands for examination. Dr. Montague pronounced it to 
be identical with the alga found by him at Port St. Sebastian, in 1823, and pub¬ 
lished by him in u Annales des Sciences Naturelles,” for 1842, p. 251, t. 7, f. 2, 
under the name Desmarestia pinnatinervia. Dr. Montague obtained only a 
single specimen, scarcely more than four inches high, fully two inches wide, 
and truncate. M. Crouan has likewise met with it, but rarely, at Brest, and 
regards it as a variety of Desmarestia Dresnayi of Lamouroux, described 
and figured in the u Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles,” tom. xiii., p. 105. 
Professor J. Aghard, the most recent authority, in his Species, Genera et Ordines 
Algarium, refers both alga to varieties of Desmarestia liguilata ; but still in¬ 
cludes D. pinnatinervia among his “ Species inquirendas.” The Irish plants, now 
described, would appear to form an intermediate link between these two forms. 
They have a slender, well-defined stipes, half an inch long or more, a linear 
lanceolate front, from 12 to 18 inches long, and 2 to 4 inches broad; margin more 
or less sinuous or dentate. A very fine but perceptible nerve runs from base to 
apex, from which lateral ones, opposite and frequently forked, are given out at 
intervals of half an inch; these, which in dried specimens are somewhat incon¬ 
spicuous, terminate in the marginal denticulations; colour, in fresh state, that 
of a Lamminaria , but with a thinner substance. (Williams, Thomas) On the 
Mechanism of Aquatic Respiration, and the Structure of the Organs of Breathing 
