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colony, had been removed by Mr. Stone; a few workers which remained had recommenced building, but, deprived of the guidance and control of the queen, had produced in each case a monstrosity, an irregular and shapeless piece of clumsy workmanship. There were young larvæ in sealed cells constructed by the workers, which larvæ were the produce of eggs laid by the workers.

Mr. Tegetmeier had known workers of the hive-bees to lay fertile eggs, but these had always produced drones; two or three eggs were laid in one cell, but not more than one ever hatched.

Mr. F. Smith pointed out that the sealed cells in the wasps' nests exhibited were the cells, not of drones, but of workers, of females,-which was an extension of the observation and theory of Von Sieboldt.

Mr. M'Lachlan exhibited a twig of mulberry tree sent from Saugor, Central India, by Captain Alexander, on which were deposited in rows numerous eggs, which were probably those of a species of Ascalaphus or Myrmeleon; the arrangement of the eggs was precisely similar to that of the European Ascalaphus macaronius, as described by Dr. Brauer; the young larvæ that had emerged from the eggs were also exhibited. With reference to Geoffroy's observation, that Myrmeleon formicarius immediately after emergence deposits one or two eggs, which, however, are unproductive, Mr. M'Lachlan said that his own observations had convinced him that these so-called eggs were not eggs at all, but were in reality the meconium, which, instead of being voided in a liquid state, was in this instance solid, and took the form of egg-like lumps.

The Rev. O. Pickard-Cambridge (who was present as a visitor) exhibited a general collection of insects made by himself in Palestine, Syria, Lesser Asia, Greece, &c. All the specimens were admirably preserved and set, notwithstanding that the collection was made under the difficulties of being almost always on horseback, and seldom staying more than a day in one place; moreover his principal object of pursuit had been spiders, of which he had captured a great number and of very peculiar forms.

Prof. Westwood called attention to the "Schriften der Königl. phys.-ökon. Gesellschaft zu Königsberg" for 1864, in which was described and figured a new Amphipod -a marine animal-in gum copal or gum animé.

Paper Read.

Mr. Edward Saunders read a paper intituled "Catalogue of Buprestidæ collected by the late M. Mouhot in Siam, &c.; with Descriptions of new Species." Forty-four species were enumerated, of which thirty-three were described as new; three new genera were characterized-Cardiaspis, allied to Dicercomorpha of Henri Deyrolle; Engycera, allied to Melobasis; and Oncomœa, between Brachys and Pachyscelus.

New Part of Transactions.'

Trans. Ent. Soc. third series, vol. ii. Part 6 (being the concluding part of that volume) was announced as ready for distribution.-J. W. D.

Two Letters from the late Charles Waterton, Esq.,
of Walton Hall.

[THESE letters, although never intended for publication, contain so much that is really interesting to the naturalist, that I do not think it right to withhold them, more especially as everything connected with the illustrious deceased, if it tend to throw light on his favourite pursuit, has become, as it were, public property since the death of the great naturalist.-Edward Newman.]

My dear Sir,

Walton Hall, November 6th, 1845.

I cannot leave England withont dropping you a line to wish you all manner of success, and to say how sorry I feel that such a paper as "The Two Foxes" should have found its way into the respectable pages of the useful' Zoologist' [Zool. 1160]. The fox must have seized the goose by the leg; the goose then would have attempted a flight, and must have dragged the fox to the surface, if not out of the water altogether.

On the contrary,

No goose would dive in such a predicament. flight must have been its motion. Fancy, then, the long and strong wings of the goose expanded, and its bulky body pressing upwards. In the meantime, Reynard, underneath the surface, and not able to breathe, is to succeed in pulling down this firmly resisting body below it. Foxes never take the water except through the pressure of hounds or of hunger. It was hunger in this case. Still the thief did not eat the food procured at such a risk, and in a manner so repugnant to his usual habits, but must e'en try his luck again, all dripping wet; and he actually entered the water a second time for a second goose. His supernatural reasoning powers are then introduced by way of finale to the farce. I could write a long paper on this gross Yankee fabrication, which may possibly be of use some time or other, should Drs. Macgillivray and Audubon lay their heads together to concoct a second edition of the " Biography of Birds."

1 write this to you as a friend. You may show it to whom

* See my 'Autobiography,' second part.

SECOND SERIES-VOL. I.

2 c

you please.

I leave England for Madeira to-morrow week. In the

meantime, I remain, my dear Sir,

Edward Newman, Esq.

Private.

My dear Sir,

Very truly yours,

CHARLES WATERTON.

Walton Hall, January 27th, 1846.

Although it is not my intention to defend the poor hedgehog in the pages of the 'Zoologist,' still, as my name has been introduced into your number of January [Zool. 1204], I have ventured to send you a few remarks on Mr. Wolley's paper.*

1st. There appears an incorrectness in his statement, for his birds were "chickens," and then one of them became "a full-grown fowl" in the same night.

2ndly. As the hedgehog had the run of a small walled garden, might he not have supposed that the hole in the hencoop was a hole in his prison-wall? If so, he would enter it for flight, and not for food.

3rdly. His not supping on "beetles and other insects" and "milk,” which the walled garden was known to contain, argues strongly that his capture and imprisonment had destroyed his appetite for the time. Hence I would conjecture that he squeezed himself into the coop for bolting, and not for belly.

4thly. Disappointed in not finding an outlet in the posterior of the hencoop, I can easily conceive that he made a sufficient stir to cause the fowls to leave their perch, and that, in their fright, at the sight of a suspicious intruder, they would set up a cackling loud enough to rouse Mr. Wolley from the arms of Morpheus.

But as Mr. Wolley was not present when the uproar commenced, I am at a loss to discover how he knew that the hedgehog had first attacked the fowls. Might not the fowls have attacked the hedgehog? I once saw a hen attack and kill a magpie.

5thly. "Thrice and once the hedgehog whined." This whining goes far to convince me that the hedgehog was fighting, and not feeding; for I know, and can prove by many observations, that the hedgehog takes its prey in silence.

The paper which Mr. Waterton refers was, I think, from the pen of the Rev. J. Pemberton Bartlett, not Mr. Wolley.—E. N.

6thly. Mr. Woolley's observation, that the hedgehog would have drunk the life blood of the fowls, had not his timely arrival prevented the tragedy, is mere surmise, without apparent foundation, for if the hedgehog had refused the milk, it is but just to suppose that he would have no immediate appetite for blood. Indeed his capture and captivity, I should think, were quite sufficient to engross all his thoughts for the first night. Thus you see that I am not a convert to Mr. Woolley's doctrine. My park is well stocked with hedgehogs, and my hen-house has an aperture on a level with it, for the ingress and egress of the fowls; still not one solitary hedgehog has ever been seen in the hen-house, or a single fowl or chicken ever known to have been killed by this quadruped.

By the way, I have a family of milk-white hedgehogs in the park.

I see, by your December number, that our wise ones in Ornithology have raised the Canada goose to the diguity of a

swan.

It appeared a swan to Cuvier, "Me parait aussi un vrai cygne." According to Peter Pindar, Sir Joseph Banks once thought that a flea might be a lobster. Cuvier was a great philosopher and an honest gentleman; and he knew a good deal about the form of some birds: but, for the habits of birds in general he knew as much about them as I did about his own grandmother.

I cannot hail the Canada goose as a swan for the following

reasons:

1st. The swan does not obtain his full adult plumage until the third year; whereas the Canada goose is in mature plumage, like all other geese, by the end of the first year. 2ndly. The swan does not breed till the third year; but the Canada goose rears its young ones in the second year. 3rdly. The Canada goose will breed with other geese, even with the dimunitive Barnacle goose; still the swan is never known to make love to any goose. 4thly. The swan takes a mouthful of food, and immediately immerses his beak in the water, when the food undergoes a kind of filtering process; still the Canada goose never does this. 5thly. The swan does not feed upon the grass in the pasture; but the Canada goose lives entirely on it. 6thly. The Canada goose does not pursue, and even kill, its progeny of the former year, at the next breeding season; whereas the swan in-. variably does this. 7thly. The swan is what may be styled a mute

bird; but the Canada goose is most vociferous, on wing and on foot, and when disturbed.

N.B. When I say entirely, I mean the year throughout, except in harvest time, when the Canada goose will frequent the cornfields.

I have always forty or fifty Canada geese here; and I have such uncommon opportunities of looking into their economy, that I fancy I could write a very long chapter on their nature and habits. They are just now flying round the house night and day, making an incessant trumpet noise, preparatory to breeding.

As postage costs nothing now, and as the reading of this letter will only take up about two minutes of your precious time, I feel no scruple in troubling you with these remarks. I arrived from Madeira about a fortnight ago. I had taken my sister to pass the winter there. I should have returned this week, but Her Majesty has detained me to prosecute thieves and poachers at the Lent Assizes. Six of the villains are lodged in York Castle.

Believe me, my dear Sir, very truly yours,

Edward Newman, Esq.

CHARLES WATERTON.

Notes on the Zoology of Spitsbergen.

By ALFRED NEWTON, M.A., F.L.S., F.Z.S.*

In the month of May last, Mr. Edward Birkbeck offered me a berth in his yacht, the "Sultana," R. T. Y. C., on a voyage to Spitsbergen. As this was a country I had long been desirous to visit, I was very glad of the opportunity of seeing it, which had so unexpectedly presented itself. On the 31st of May I found myself on board the vessel at Lowestoft, and the following morning we sailed northward. After a passage protracted by some tedious calms, we cast anchor in the Bay of Hammerfest on the evening of the 26th June. Here it was necessary to stay for some days, while a Norwegian "jægt" was being equipped to accompany us, and to take us, if necessary, into the ice, where the yacht, from her extreme length, would become embarrassed, and from her slight build dangerous. Late in the evening of the 2nd July the necessary preparations were completed, and the

* Reprinted from the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London,' November 8, 1864, and kindly communicated by the author.

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