aeronauts in their flight, and placed them on the brass gnomon of the sundial, and had the gratification to see them prepare for, and recommence, their aerial voyage. Having crawled about for a short time, to reconnoitre, they turned their abdomens from the current of air, and elevated them almost perpendicularly, supporting themselves solely on the claws of their fore legs, at the same instant shooting out four or five, often six or eight, extremely fine webs, several yards long, which waved in the breeze, diverging from each other like a pencil of rays, and strongly reflecting the sunbeams. After the insects had remained stationary in this apparently unnatural position for about half a minute, they sprang off from the stage with considerable agility, and launched themselves into the air. In a few seconds after they were seen sailing majestically along, without any apparent effort, their legs contracted together, and lying perfectly quiet on their backs, suspended from their silken parachutes, and presenting to the lover of nature a far more interesting spectacle than the balloon of the philosopher.. One of these natural aëronauts I followed, which, sailing in the sunbeams, had two distinct and widely diverging fasciculi of webs, as in the annexed sketch (fig. 161.); and their position in the air 161 was such, that a line uniting them would have been at right angles with the direction of the breeze." In conclusion, permit me to mention, in reference to the glowworm, that I was quite aware of the opinion that had been entertained respecting the light of the glowworms, and reiterated by my reviewer; and the reason why I did not mention it was, that I held it to be unsatisfactory; my reasons are, that the insect, in its imperfect form of the larva, is gifted with light, as well as in its perfect and ultimate stage of metamorphosis. The winged male, as in the Lampyris itálica, carries its torch as well as the apterous female. Superadd to these, that the inference would not apply to the case of the crawling Scolopendra eléctrica on the one hand, or the winged Fúlgura lanternària on the other, "That shoot like stars athwart the night.” I have the honour to be, Sir, &c. July 16. 1828. J. MURRAY. ART. IV. Account of a monstrous Production of the Sheep Genus. By JOHN CHICHESTER, Esq. M.D. Sir, IN the course of the spring of 1827, I was requested by Mr. Averill, a surgeon of distinction, settled in this place, and well known to the profession by his treatise on operative surgery, to assist him in the examination of a monstrous production of the sheep genus (O`vis Lin.). We were aware that, by the means of injection, we should be most likely to discover such facts as might be brought to bear upon the science of organisation; but, besides some other unfavourable circumstances, putrefaction had too far advanced to admit of its being minutely executed; in which way only, perhaps, can the investigation of the law which governs those anomalies be successfully conducted. The great difference in the opinions which prevail at present respecting monsters, comes, in all probability, from an insufficiency of facts, or, rather, from an imperfect detail of them; since the greater part of the many cases to be found in books, scarcely furnishes one probable induction, so loosely and indistinctly are they stated. Their philosophical history is still in its cradle. The strange and irregular production of nature which at present engages our attention, had only one head, which was of the natural size, and complete in all its parts. It cannot be regarded as being acephalous, in respect to one of the two bodies, for the head was equally in common to both. There was one atlas only, of regular form, but somewhat larger than natural. This circumstance, together with one complete head, without the least rudimentary trace of a second, is sufficient to exclude all idea of absorption having played any part in this monstrous production; while, on the other hand, it favours very strongly the opinion of Blumenbach, Meckel, and Geoffroy St. Hilaire, who lay it down as an axiom, that all monstrosities (called by the latter les anomalies connées) are the result of interrupted developement. The second vertebra was single at the upper part, with only two articular surfaces, and of a size corresponding with the bone above it; below it was double, and, consequently, had a breadth somewhat out of proportion to its superior part. Hence went off two distinct vertebral columns, both containing the usual number of vertebræ in each division, and each of them seemed perfect, to the very caudal extremities. We found the whole of the other bones complete in number, as well as form, throughout both skeletons. The ribs of the right side of one animal were connected with those of the left side of the other, by a regularly formed sternum; while those of the opposite side, i. e. the left of one animal, and the right of the other, formed nearly a horizontal plane, and were connected by a second sternum, turned the reverse way of the other. The right scapula of the left animal, and the left scapula of the right animal, lay superiorly, while the corresponding scapula were situated immediately beneath, supporting the fore part of the common trunk. It does not seem that any thing further remains to be said respecting the bony parts; which, by the joint aid of Messrs. Averill and Charles Fowler, have been formed into a natural skeleton of great beauty, and deposited in the museum attached to the Casualty Hospital of this town. In respect to the soft parts, there was only one œsophagus, which was natural, and passed down, between the two vertebral columns, to the stomach, through a diaphragm which separated one thoracic and one abdominal cavity in common to the two animals. The stomach was single, and of the same regular, though complex, structure, that it is found to be of in all ruminating animals. The four divisions were distinct, and, in every respect, quite natural. From the pyloric extremity of the stomach, passed off a set of small intestines, which were in common to the two bodies; the last of them terminated somewhat on the right side of the centre of an arch, which had the distinguishing characters of a colon; this passed down on each side to something resembling a sigmoid flexure, and then, from the base of each sacrum, descended, through each pelvis, a rectum, terminating in its own external opening. No trace of a cæcum could be found. There was a liver, rather larger than natural, lying under the right ribs of the left body; and beneath the right ribs of the right body, near the inferior sternum, was discovered another, about half the size of the former. Each had a distinct set of vessels, but we could only detect one gall-bladder. The. circumstance of there being two livers in this case, with only one heart, as will be seen hereafter, very much increases the anomaly; for it is laid down by a systematic writer, that "avec le cœur manque constamment le foie." We could only find one pancreas and one spleen. The kidneys were double, and so were the whole pelvic viscera. The animals were both males, and the genital organs appeared to be natural. It has been asserted by Pohle, Palfyn, and others, that the greater number of monsters are of the female sex ; but, as far as my observation has been extended, the fact has turned out differently, the much greater number having been males. In both cases, I am inclined to suppose it merely a matter of chance; and that, upon a large scale of investigation, the numbers would be found nearly equal. That, however, which occurred to the above-mentioned authors was easily seized upon to support their own hypothesis, that, in the female, the plastic, or moulding, force is less powerful than in the male. It is, I believe, also generally admitted, that, in acephalous monsters, the viscera of the abdomen and pelvis are found more or less rudimentary only, particularly the urinary and genital organs; but, in the case before us, the genital organs, as well as all the other pelvic viscera, were completely formed. There was only one trachea, which descended into a thoracic cavity in common to the two animals. This cavity contained only one set of lungs, one division of them lying against the ribs of the right side of the one animal; the other division, against the left ribs of the other. There existed no mediastinum. Only one heart could be found, which was of the natural size and structure: but from each ventricle sprung an aorta; of these two vessels, one turned to the right, the other to the left. The one which turned to the left, went down in the natural direction; while that which turned to the right, crossed the right vertebral column, and passed down on the outer side of it. A transverse vessel, of somewhat smaller caliber, passed from the beginning of the turn of the arch on one side, to the same part on the other side, thus forming a communication between the two aortas. The circumstance of there being only one heart, and that of the natural size only, while the two animals appear, with the exceptions that have been stated, to have experienced no interruption in their intra-uterine growth, seems to make it doubtful whether, according to M. Serres, the sanguiferous system is to be considered as regulating and forming all the others. It is held also, by many other physiologists besides M. Serres, that the strength and volume of all the organs are in direct proportion to the quantity of blood bestowed upon them. Such are the striking circumstances that presented themselves to my observation. I am not aware that any description of a similar monstrosity is to be found in books, or that any such is contemplated by Geoffroy St. Hilaire, or any other systematic writer. remain, Sir, &c. Cheltenham, July 24. 1828. JOHN CHICHESTER, M.D. 7 4 ART. V. On the Manners of the Nuthatch. By H. S. Note by W. SWAINSON, F.R.S. &c. With a I HAD never seen the little bird called the Nuthatch (Sitta europæ a) (fig. 162.), when, one day, as I was expecting the transit of some wood-pigeons under a beech tree, with a gun in my hand, I observed a little ash-coloured bird squat himself on one of the large lateral trunks over my head, and, after some observation, begin to tap loudly, or rather solidly upon the wood, and then proceed round and round the branch, it being clearly the same thing to him whether his nadir or zenith were uppermost. I shot, and the bird fell: there was a lofty hedge between us, and when I had got over he had removed himself. It was some time before I secured him, and I mention this, because the manner in which he eluded me was characteristic of his cunning. He concealed himself in holes at the bottom of a ditch, so long as he heard the noise of motion, and, when all was still, he would scud out and attempt to escape. A wing was broken, and I at length got hold of him. He proved small, but very fierce, and his bite would have made a child cry out. The elbow joint of the wing being thoroughly shattered, and finding that he had no other wound, I cut off the dangling limb, and put him into a large cage with a common lark. The wound did not in the least diminish his activity, nor yet his pugnacity, for he instantly began to investigate all possible means of escape; he tried the bars; then tapped the woodwork of the cage, and produced a knocking sound, which made the room reecho; but, finding his efforts vain, he then turned upon the lark, ran under him with his gaping beak to bite, and effectually alarmed his far more gentle and elegant antagonist. Compelled to separate them, the nuthatch, for this bird I discovered him to be by turning over the leaves of an Ornithològia, was put into a smaller cage of plain oak wood and wire. Here he remained all night; and, the next morning, his knocking or tapping with his beak was the first sound I heard, though sleeping in an apartment divided from the other by a landing-place. He had food given to him, minced chicken and bread crumbs, and water. He eat and drank with a most perfect impudence, and the moment he had satisfied himself turned again to his work of battering the frame of his cage, the sound from which, both in loudness and prolongation of noise, is only to be compared to the efforts of a fashionable footman upon a fashionable |