a few spots of bright grey brown. Temminck states that it sometimes devours young birds and eggs. Geographical Distribution.-Central Europe. The bird is a rare visitant to Great Britain, and does not appear to have been seen in Ireland. The only one Pennant ever heard of was killed near Mostyn in Flintshire. Montagu mentions one that was killed in Kent, and states that one was seen by an accurate observer near Bridgewater. He also notices two others, which were shot in 1808, one in Devon, the other in Cornwall. Mr. Selby mentions one that was seen in Netherwitton Wood in Northumberland. Mr. Rodd, of Penzance, gave Mr. Yarrell information of one that was seen on a tree on the banks of Hooe Lake. It is recorded by Dr. Moore as having been shot in Devonshire near Washford Pyne Moor. Another is said to have been lately noticed at Pepper Harrow Park, lord Middleton's seat. Mr. Macgillivray gives instances of its having been shot in Scotland. Temminck records varieties of pure white, or yellowish white, with deeper spots; sometimes with the wings and tail white. The Nutcracker. NUTHATCH, the vernacular name for a Scansorial British bird, with much of the habits of the Woodpeckers, and which may be taken as an apt illustration of the genus Sitta of Linnæus. Mr. Swainson places the genus in the subfamily Sittinæ, being the second of his family Certhiade. The Prince of Musignano makes it the first subfamily of that family. Generic Character.-Bill straight, cylindrical, slightly compressed, subulated, accuminated. Tongue short, horny, and armed at the point. Nostrils basal and rounded, partly hidden by reflected bristles. Feet with three toes before and one behind, the outer toe being joined at its base to the middle one; hind toe of the same length as or longer than the middle one, with a long and hooked claw. Tail of twelve feathers. Wings rather short; the first quill very short, the third and fourth the longest. (Gould.) Example, Sitta Europea, the Common Nuthatch, or Nutjobber. Description.-Plumage above fine blue grey; quills and base of tail-feathers, except the two middle ones, black, the outer tail-feather on each side with a black spot near the tip. A black band passes from the bill through the eye down the sides of the neck, ending abruptly near the shoulders; throat whitish; rest of plumage below rufous brown blending into chesnut on the flanks; bill and feet black; iris hazel. Sexes alike. This is in all probability the Sitte (Eirrn) of the Greeks, and Sitta of the Latins. It is the Ziolo, Picchio grigio, Raparino, and Picchio formicajo of the Italians; Muratore of Savi; Torchepot and Pic-maçon of the French; Kleiber and Blauspecht of the Germans; Notwacka and Notpacka of the Swedes; Spott-meise of the Danes; Nat-Bake of Brunnich; Klener, Nusszhacker, of Kramer; and Delor y cnau of the antient British. Habits, Food, Reproduction, &c.-Like the Woodpeckers and Creepers, the Nuthatch runs with facility upon and ut the trunks and branches of trees; but the tail, which is short and rounded, is of no assistance to the bird in in progress. Unlike the Woodpeckers however, the Nuthatc runs with the head downwards as well as upwards, asi indeed the former position of the head appears to be the favourite one; it generally alights on a branch with the head in the downward position, and sleeps in that postur It is almost constantly in motion. Its food consists of 12 sects and their larvæ, berries, and nuts. The latter it fium in some chink, and cracks them by repeated strokes of the bill. It is a pretty spectacle,' says Willughby, to see he fetch a nut out of her hoard, place it fast in a chink, at. then, standing above it, with its head downwards, striking with all its force, break the shell and catch up the kernel The same author found beetles in the muscular stomach a gizzard of one opened by him. The filberd gives the Na hatch but comparatively little trouble; but the more de hazel-nut calls forth greater energies, and when employer upon one of those nuts, the bird makes the neighbourh resound with the strokes of its bill. Its call-note in the spring is a clear shrill whistle. The nest is generally macwith only a few dry leaves in the hole of a tree, and th eggs, which are from five to seven in number, are of gy white spotted with reddish brown. If the hole selected be large, the bird plasters up a part of it with mud, and w renew the plaster if destroyed, whence one of its Freem names. The female, when surprised on the eggs or her young makes a most determined defence with bill and in hissing at the intruder violently at the same time. 1 seems indeed to be a very attached bird. The old Frea quatrain says Le Torchepot et sa femelle ensemble A son mesnage au Torchepot ressemble.' Of its bravery and courage when made captive, a painf story is told in the Magazine of Natural History Nuthatch had been winged by a sportsman, and was into a small cage made of oak and wire. During a night r day, the period of his confinement, his tapping labour incessant, and at the end of that time the wood-work of a prison was pierced and worn like worm-eaten timber. Himpatience of his situation was excessive; his efforts escape were unremitted, and displayed much cunning .. intelligence. He was fierce and fearlessly familiar, a voraciously devoured the food placed before him. His b for he did not peck as other birds do, but taking a £= mering is described as having been peculiarly labora grasp with his great feet, he turned upon them as apa pivot, striking with his whole weight, and thus assu with his body the appearance of the head of a hammer: motion. This unfortunate bird sank at the close of second day under the combined effects of his vers assiduity, and voracity. The Rev. T. L. Bree mentions one which he caught in a common brick trap: when the bird was found, the bill appeared to be truncated, and he inferred that it had been fairly ground down to about two-thirds of its original length by the pecking of the bird at the bricks in its efforts to escape. Geographical Distribution.-Europe generally. Temminck notes its range as extending far to the north and south, and as rather abundant in central Europe. Mr. Selby traced it in Britain as far north as the banks of the Wear and Tyne; and it is noted in Mr. Thompson's Irish list. Mr. Gould describes and figures two other species, Sitte rupestris and Asiatica, in his 'Birds of Europe.' The genus is found in India and America; and there are closely allied forms in the Indian Archipelago and in New Holland. NUTMEG. (MYRISTICA.] NUTRITION. One of the chief differences between inorganic and organic bodies is, that the former retain their iform and other characters by a passive resistance to change; the latter by a constant change of their particles, in which those that in the constant actions of life or by the influence of external agents have been destroyed, are replaced by others similar to themselves. This constant change is effected by the process of nutrition. Nutrition is the last step of the general process of assimilation, by which living bodies convert the materials which they derive from their food into substances like their own, and appropriate the materials thus changed to their own increase or repair. The several nutritive matters received into the living body are variously altered by digestion, absorption, respiration, and by all the other changes which the blood or other fluid undergoes in its passage to the several parts of the frame; these changes constitute the process of assimilation, at the end of which each part of the body abstracts from the general and homogeneous mass of nutritive fluid that which is required for its own growth or repair; muscle abstracting particles to form muscle, nerves from the same fluid abstracting particles to form nerve, and so on. That a constant change of particles goes on in the majority of the tissues of the living body may be considered certain. It is evidently necessary from the nature of the case; for the living body is exposed to the same external agents as inorganic matter is, and all its own actions are smany more sources of waste to each tissue. Some consant power of repair must therefore be requisite to maintain living bodies in a state of integrity against these constant sources of waste; and that power is exerted in nutriton. Its influence is shown in the fact, that the living body retains throughout life, or a great portion of it, its form and composition less altered than the most solid of inorganic matters exposed to similar influences. Within certain limits also, the greater the waste, the greater the nutritive supply: thus, for example, by constant exercise the size of the muscles, so far from being decreased, is ultimately increased, the effect of nutrition being not only to replace that which was destroyed, but to supply a certain quantity more. We may clearly observe an application of the same law in the cuticle; that in the palm of the hand is more than twice as thick as that on the back of the arm, yet the former is subject to the most friction; and if the friction of the palm be greatly increased, the cuticle, notwithstanding the greater waste, increases in thickness in a yet greater proportion, so as to defend the subjacent skin from the greater source of injury to which it is exposed. It is true that when the body does not change in any of its sensible qualities, we cannot be so well assured of any change of particles still going on; but we may reasonably assume that the two parts of nutrition, the removal of old and addition of new particles, which at other times we trace producing either an increase or decrease of the body, as one or the other of them predominates, are exactly balanced. If we examine, for example, the growth of any hollow organ of the body, as the heart, we find that in advancing years from childhood to manhood, it increases not only in its whole bulk, but also in the size of its cavities, and that, at every period of life, the size of the cavities and the thickness of their walls bear nearly the same proportion. Now, if only an addition were made to the exterior of the heart of a child, its whole bulk would be increased, but the size of its cavities would be disproportionately small. We must therefore assume that substance is removed from the inte rior of the heart, at the same time, though not in exactly the same quantity, that substance is added to its exterior. In like manner, when the heart diminishes in size, as it usually does in persons labouring under consumption, material must be at the same time abstracted from the exterior, and, in rather a less proportion, added to the interior. Whatever of this kind is true of the larger organs must be equally so of the small ones; so long as they preserve the same form and proportions, no change of size can take place without the concurrence of the two processes of nutritive deposition and absorption; when the former preponderates, the part will increase in size-when the latter preponderates, it will diminish; the former, when connected with disease, is named Hypertrophy [HYPERTROPHY], the latter Atrophy. [ATROPHY.] The coincidence of these two processes, where any change of size takes place, being thus proved, and their continuance, when no such visible change occurs, being necessary, we may fairly assume that in the latter case, in the state of nutritive equilibrium, they still continue, though their opposite effects being exactly balanced, the ultimate result is not discernible. Popular belief, adopting this idea as one of whose truth there could be no possible doubt, has even assigned the periods of time in which one whole set of particles is removed and replaced. There is no evidence whatever upon which any such calculation can be made; the period in which an entire change is completed probably varies greatly in different tissues and different external circumstances, and in the bones and teeth it is probable that the particles once deposited are never removed, so long as the animal's size and other characters remain unaltered. The process of nutrition is concerned in the production of two apparently different results-that of development and that of growth. In development the added particles not merely increase the size of the part, but produce a change in its form or its substance. Thus, the whole body, with all its varieties of tissues, and through all its changes of form, is developed by nutrition, from a small part of a little sac [FŒTUS], which, to all appearance, is composed of homogeneous materials. In growth each part increases by the predominant deposition of particles within and around those of which it was previously composed, and similar to them. These two nutritive processes, though in the period of life previous to the adult age they are usually concurrent, may go on independently of each other. Thus the body may be deficient in development, some part of it being monstrous, that is, remaining of the same form as that which it had in the embryonic state [MONSTER], and yet with this defect in form it may increase in size, for monsters are commonly well-grown; and, on the other hand, being perfect in development and form, the body, or some part of it, may be deficient in size. A dwarf is an example of a defect of growth; a hare-lip, a cleft palate, an anormal unossified cartilage, are examples of defects of development: both are defects in the process of nutrition, but the failure is in each in a different direction. One of the most important facts regarding the process of nutrition is that lately discovered by Dr. Schwann of Berlin (Mikrosk. Untersuch. über die Uebereinstimmung der Thiere und Pflanzen), that all the tissues of the body, however different in their fully developed state, yet originate from the same fundamental forms, and up to a certain period of their development pass through the same series of changes. He has shown that the law of development from cells, which Schleiden had proved to obtain in the formation of all vegetable tissues (Beiträge zur Phytogenesis, Müll. Arch., 1838), holds with equal truth in all the animal tissues, and thus that in their first periods of existence all organised structures follow the same laws of formation. The great principle of formation is briefly this:-from a living but amorphous substance, to which the name of cytoblastema is given, minute roundish corpuscles first form. Around each of these a layer of organic substance, being after a time deposited and becoming membranous, forms a spherical or elliptical cell enclosing the corpuscle in or upon its wall. Around or rather upon this cell, a second cell next forms in the same manner as the first had, and to a part of its walls the first cell remains attached, and forms what is named the nucleus of the cell. These cells, containing nuclei, which again enclose one or more corpuscles, may be regarded as the original forms of which all the solid parts of the body are composed, or from which, altered according to various but certain laws, they are all produced. As ex . amples of such primary cells in their simplest form and | from that by which inorganic masses increase in size, as 2 separate, we find in the animal body the blood-globules, crystallization, which, as in it alone inorganic matter an which float in a quantity of fluid cytoblastema. Nearly quires definite form as it increases, can alone be e ujsimilar cells with nuclei are found, forming membranes, with with organic growth. In crystallization the addition f scarcely any intervening substance, in the horny tissues, as similar particles is entirely by external apposition, and te the cuticle, nails, feathers, &c., in which moreover each cell crystal has no power of attracting the particles of any L.: presents evidence of vitality to a certain degree independent different from its own : organic particles (as cells), on .. of the rest of the body, inasmuch as they undergo various contrary, not only attract particles into their interior sta changes of form, flattening, enlarging, and splitting into but alter them on their passage, decomposing themf fibres, after their first formation. In the next stage, the their previous elementary composition, and recom; cells are separated by a larger quantity of intervening sub- them into matter like their own. stance, with which their walls become amalgamated, as in In healthy nutrition each part appropriates are the cartilages, bones, and teeth, in which such primary similar to its own, or differing according to certa n las cells constitute the peculiar corpuscles by which those development; in disease, parts frequently appropriate t tissues have been long distinguished, and the intervening substances than their own, and all the solid prod substance, which forms the greater part of the tissue, is various diseases may be regarded as the effects of IL analogous to the soft or fluid cytoblastema of other parts. processes of nutrition. Some of these are formed accud In these tissues also, the cells begin to acquire some pecu- to the laws of normal development, and are only m liarities of form, sending out branched canals from their because out of place, as cicatrices, adhesions, and the .. sides in a star-like manner, and becoming elongated. In similar products of simple inflammation; others are the next degree similar cells, existing in the early periods of duced by the deposition of substances different from the tissue, acquire in the course of its development more of those already existing in the body, as in the prod peculiar forms, lengthening into the form of fibres and then of various tumours. The former are composed of a :-. splitting up into bundles of filaments, so as to form the fasci- similar to cellular tissue, but the injuries of parts ar culi of cellular tissue, tendons, and elastic tissue, which re- partially repaired by it, because the new tissue, which a main connected by a very small quantity of the amorphous all cases nearly the same, differs in many of its cuar. ..... cytoblastema. Lastly, instead of each cell lengthening and from that which it replaces. splitting into fibres, we find a number of cells arranging themselves in rows and adhering together, till, by the absorption of their attached membranous wails, their cavities open into each other and form a continuous hollow tube. Thus they form a kind of elongated secondary cell, which, continuing to grow in length and having peculiar substances deposited in its interior, acquires the characters of the fibres of peculiar tissues, as of the muscles or the nerves. In other cases each cell elongates and branches, and becomes connected with others which like it retain their cavities, so as to form together a series of tubes in the form of a network, which thus make up the capillary blood vessels. Each tissue thus formed from a series of cells increases in size, either by the increase of its primary cells or the elementary forms developed from them, by the interstitial deposition of particles within their tissue or in their cavities, or it grows by the formation of new cells within the tissue interposed between those previously existing, or (though very rarely in the animal body, by the development of young cells within the older ones. The most complete exercise of the process of nutr repairing injuries, whether from accident or disease, s bited in the regeneration of parts, but in man and the animals there are but few examples of a perfect repre tion of the injured or destroyed tissue. The bones in non-vascular tissues are probably the only instines which a tissue destroyed by disease or internal injury replaced by one similar to itself. In all these cases of repair or regeneration of tissue, same process of the effusion of nutritive matter and several stages of formation and alteration of the ce gone through which is observed in the first develop ter the tissues. But the process fails before the higher co are accomplished, and the repairing tissue acquires of low degree of development. As far also as they have at present examined, the various morbid growths aptbe formed on a similar plan, and to proceed from a i.. tion of primary cells. NUTTALITE, a mineral which occurs crystallized i mary form a square prism. Cleavage parallel to the a planes. Fracture uneven. Hardness 40 to 45. ( grey. Lustre vitreous. Translucent. Specific gravy. to 2.8. It is found at Bolton in Massachusetts imbedded .. careous spar. Analysis by Thomson Silica Lime Potash Protoxide of Iron 37.81 25.10 18.33 7.30 7.83 1.50 97.93 The material of nutrition is in animals obtained from the arterial blood, which is constantly sent in the vessels distributed amongst or near the elementary structures of each tissue; but the proper act of nutrition is performed not by the power of the blood-vessels, as has been commonly supposed, but by the cells and the structures analogous to them, which convert the common nutritive matter drawn from the blood into their own proper tissue. The blood-vessels are only the conveyers of the materials for nutrition, and the difference commonly made between growth by intussusception, or deposition within the tissue of a part, and growth by apposition, or deposition on the surface of a part, is more apparent than real. The parts that are said to grow by apposition are those in which vessels do not run through the very substance of the tissue, but only on one side of it, as the cuticle, the vessels for the nutrition of which run in the subjacent skin. In these the formation of cells from the nutritive matter poured out from the blood-vessels can only take place on the surface of the skin, though they may undergo various changes when removed to a short distance by fresh depositions beneath them. In vascular parts, on the other hand, the nutritive matter is effused in all the interstices of the net-work of their blood-vessels, and therefore in all parts of the interior of the tissue; but here also the development of the nutritive matter must take place in layers concentric with the blood-vessel from which it was poured out, and therefore by apposition, though, with refer-Neháyetu-l-árab fi fonúni-l-adab.' It is a sort of ence to the mass of the organ or tissue, it seems to be a growth by intussusception. The formation of fresh cells is therefore always by apposition on those already existing; but the cells and the elementary tissues immediately developed from them increase by intussusception, that is, by particles being deposited in the interspaces of those already existing, or in the cavities which the membranes of the cells already formed surround. Thus the process of organic nutrition is widely different NUWAYRI is the patronymic of a celebrated A's. historian of the eighth century of the Hejira, whose c name was Ahmed Ibn Abd-al-wahhab Al-bekri Al Al-kindí, and who was further distinguished by the l able surname of Shehabu-d-din (bright star of relig He was born at Nuwayreh, a small town of the pr of Bahnassá in Egypt, in the year 682 of the Hej a 1283-4). Nuwayri distinguished himself as a tr of the sect of Shafei, and also as a rhetorician and marian, and he wrote several works on these subjeto titles of which have not reached us. But the w has made Nuwayri known among European scholars pædia, consisting of thirty books or volumes, and divas five fenn (subjects), each of which is further sub. into kasm (sections), containing each a certain nun bab (chapters). The first four fenn treat of the pe sciences and the several branches of natural history moral philosophy. The fifth and last, which is likewi most valuable for Europeans, is wholly occupied with. tory of the Mohammedan settlements both in the eas west. The sixth bab (chapter) of the same contata narrative of the conquest of Africa, Spain, and Sicily by the Saracens, together with a chronological history of the sultans of the family of Umeyyah, who filled the throne of Cordova from A.H. 138 to 428 (A.D. 755 to 1036), and a short account of the principal events of their reigns. Nuwayri died, according to Haji Khalfah, in the year 732 of the Hejira, at the age of 50. Among his other accomplishments his biographers say that his hand-writing was very fine; indeed he seems to have made a trade of it, for Soyútti, in his History of Egypt' (Ar. MS. in the Brit. Mus., 7331, f. 127), says that he made eight transcripts of the large collection of Mohammedan traditions, by Bokhari, entitled 'Sahih,' for each of which he was paid the enormous sum of one thousand dirhems, or about sixty-five pounds sterling. He dedicated his large work to Almalek An-nasser Kalaun, sultan of Egypt (reigned from A.H. 678 to 689), a liberal patron of letters, by whom he was munificently rewarded. Complete copies of Nuwayri's work are exceedingly scarce. We are however assured that it is entire in the library of the university of Leyden. The Escurial library possesses one volume, containing parts xi. and xii. (Catal., No. 1637.) There are also several loose volumes at Paris belonging to different sets, and among them one supposed to have been written by Nuwayri himself. (Bib. Reg. Pari. Cat., No. 702.) Various extracts from the work of Nuwayri have been published at different periods. Reiske was the first who mentioned the work, in his 'Prodigmata ad Hagi Khalifa Tabulas,' Leyden, 1766. Albert Schultens next gave a slight notice of the historical part of his work, together with a few extracts from it, at the end of his Monumenta Vetustiora Arabum,' published at Leyden, in 1740. Again, in 1786, Reiske made use of it for his. 'Historical Notes,' published as a continuation to his translation of Abú-l-fedá Hafniæ, 1789-94). Schultens published also a Latin translation of some fragments of Nuwayri in the collection entitled Historia Vetustissimi Imperii Joctanidarum in Arabia Felice.' That chapter of the fifth fenn which treats of the conquest of Sicily by the Mohammedans was next translated, first into Latin, by Rosario Gregorio, and printed in folio at Palermo, 1790, and inserted in the collection entitled Rerum Arabicarum quae ad Historiam Siculam spectant, amplissima collectio,' and then into French, by Mr. J. J. A. Caussin; and Mr. James Lassen Rasmussen has lately published, in his Additamenta ad Historiam Arabum ante Islamismum,' Copenh., 1821, some fragments of the same work, in Arabic and Latin, respecting some curious customs of the Arabs who preceded Mohammed. Notwithstanding all this, Nuwayri's work is still imperfectly known, and it is to be regretted that the historical part-at least that concerning the settlements of the Arabs on the continent of Europe-has not been published entire, as it would throw great light on the history of the middle ages. Haji Khalfah's Kashfu-dh-dhanún, a bibliographical lictionary, in the British Museum; At-soy útti's History of Egypt. ib.; Bib. Rich., No. 7331, fol. 70, v. et passim. NUX VO'MICA. [STRYCHNOS.] NYCTALO'PIA. [HEMERALOPIA.] NY'CTERIS. [CHEIROPTERA, vol. vii., p. 24.] NYCTHE MERUS. [PAVONIDE.] NY'CTIA. [OWLS.] NYCTI'BIUS, M. Vieillot's name for a genus of birds, he type of which is the Great Ibijau, the Grand Crapaud olant de Cayenne of Buffon, Caprimulgus grandis of Latham. Generic Character.-Bill very much depressed and diated, especially at the base, where it is furnished with ristles, narrowed and hooked at the point; upper mandible ith an obtuse tooth on each edge, towards its origin, very uch developed in the old bird; lower mandible larger, ith the edges curved outwards; gape very wide, reaching the eyes; anterior toes united at the origin by a small embrane; lateral toes unequal; hallux robust and flatned. First quill shorter than the fifth. Description of the Great Ibijau.-Size about that of a out owl; total length of the bird rather more than twelve ches; of the bill, taken from the corners of the mouth, ther more than three; tail a little graduated, and exeded by the wings when folded by a few lines; plumage own, speckled with black, fulvous, and white, principally on the back, wings, and tail; breast of a deeper brown NYCTICE/BUS. [SLOW LEMUR.] NYCTICORAX, Mr. Stephens's name for a genus of Grallatores, or Wading Birds, belonging to the family Ar dead (Herons and Cranes). Mr. Swainson has changed the name to Nyctiardea; but besides the inconvenience arising from the change, the generic name Nyctiurdea is a hybrid word derived from Greek and Latin roots, and therefore objectionable. Generic Character.-Bill very strong, rather longer than the head, compressed; upper mandible curved towards the point; maxilla sulcated for three-fourths of its length and emarginated; culmen rounded; tomia of both mandibles straight and sharp, that of the under mandible entering within the upper one. Nostrils basal, longitudinal, placed in the furrow of the maxilla, and covered above by a naked membrane; lores and orbits naked. Legs of mean length, slender. Toes three before and one behind; middle toe shorter than the tarsus, exterior toe connected by a membrane to the middle one as far as the first joint. Claws short, falcated, that of the middle toe pectinated. Tibia naked for a short space above the tarsal joint. (Gould.) This form, of which at least seven species are now known, is widely diffused. Species occur in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America; and have been found in Manilla, New South Wales, and Tierra del Fuego. We select as our example Nycticorax Europæus, Stephens; Nycticorax Gardeni Jard.; Ardea Nycticorax, Linn. Description.-Old Birds-no difference in that stage of life between the sexes. Top of the head, back and scapulars, black with bluish and greenish reflections; three white very narrow feathers, six or seven inches in length, taking their origin at the back of the head just above the nape, and descending backwards; lower part of the back, wings, and tail clear ash-colour; forehead, space above the eyes, throat, front of the neck, and lower parts white; bill inches. black, yellowish at the base of the lower mandible; iris red; feet yellowish green; length rather more than 1 foot 8 Young of the Year.-The three long nuchal feathers absent; top of the head, nape, back, and scapulars of a muddy brown, with longitudinal bright red dashes on the centre of each feather; throat white, with small brown spots; feathers of the front and sides of the neck yellowish, with wide brown borders; coverts of the wings and quills ashy-brown, marked with great yellowish white spots at the extremity of each feather; lower parts clouded with brown, white, and ash-colour; middle of the belly whitish; arête and point of the bill brown, the rest greenish yellow; iris brown; feet olive brown. In this stage it is the Ardea maculata, and Ardea Gardeni, Gmel.; Le Pouacre and Le Pouacre de Cayenne, Buff.; Spotted and Gardenian Heron, Lath.; and Scarza cenerino, 'Stor. degl. Uc.' Indeed ornithologists have described it as a distinct species, in almost every progressive stage of plu mage. In the old state the bird is the Bihoureau, Roupeau, and Heron gris of the French; Scarza Nitticora of the Italians; Der Nacht-Reiher and Aschgraue Reiger mit 3-nacken federn of the Germans; Blaauwekwak of the Netherlanders; Night-Heron and Lesser Ash coloured Heron of the British. Habits, Food, Reproduction, &c.-The Common NightHeron appears to affect high situations by day, and in the evening resorts to the low-lands, marsh, or river side for its food, which consists of fish, for choice, and in their absence of frogs, mice, and even insects. The old French quatrain says: 'Le Bihoureau espece de Heron Es haults rochers et es collines hante. The general truth of this picture of its habits is borne out by modern observation; and its fondness for perching on high situations is attested by Mr. Gould, who received a fine adult specimen which had been shot from a high tree in the gardens at Frogmore near Windsor. The nest is built of sticks on the topmost branches of trees, and the bird breeds, like the Common Heron, in society. Where there are no woods, the nest has been found among reeds. The eggs, four in number, are pale greenish blue. Geographical Distribution-very wide. Since the article BITTERN was written, the Prince of Musignano has corrected the statement of its identity with the Qua Bird, which he notes as distinct, in his Geographical and Comparative List, under the name of Nycticorax Americanus, Bonap., Ardea Nycticorax, Wils. In addition to the localities given in the article above quoted, Col. Sykes notices it among the collection of birds' skins formed at the Cape of Good Hope by Captain Spiller, R.A. (2001. Proc., 1835.) It will be observed in the article BITTERN, that Le Vaillant had previously noticed it in South Africa. Mr. Gould records it, among other localities, from North Africa. Dr. Von Seebold and M. Bürger saw it in Japan. M. Lesson states that he found it at the Falkland Islands (Isles Malouines). In Europe, M. Temminck notes it as rather abundant in most of the southern countries, but as more rare towards the north; and as not numerous in Holland. He considers the bird found in North America as the same species; but in this, it seems, he is mistaken. In these islands the common Night-Heron is a rare visitor. In the last editions of Pennant, the specimen in the Leverian Museum, which was shot near London, is noticed, and the editor had heard of another having been killed in Suffolk; and Dr. Latham, in a note to the same work, records one that was killed at Cliefden in Buckinghamshire. He adds, that it is common in Spain and about Gibraltar, and that it inhabits China and India; and falls into the general error, as it now seems to be considered,* that the North American species is identical with it. Montagu notices a specimen shot on the Ouse near Ampthill, and another (a young bird-Gardenian Heron) was shot near Thame in Oxfordshire, by Lord Kirkwall. Be Mr. Gould appears still to entertain doubts whether this bird and the North American species are not the same; for, in his magnificent work on the Birds of Europe,' he says, ' if not identical, the Night-Heron of North America bears so great a resemblance to the European bird, as to require an experienced eye to detect the difference; the American birds are however, we believe, arger in all their proportions, Latham, on the contrary, says that the Ame in birds are smaller | wick took his figure from a specimen in the Wycliffe Mc seum. Two came under the observation of Mr. Selby:one shot by the earl of Home, at the Hirsel, near Coldstream, in 1823; and another, now in Sir W. Jardine's my seum, killed about two years afterwards in the neighbourhood of Dumfries. It appears in Mr. Thompson's Imme List. He saw a specimen in Dublin, which, he was informed was sent to the bird preserver, in whose possession it was u a fresh state, from Letterkenny, early in 1834. Common Night-Heron. Front figure, adult; back figure, young. NYCTI'NOMUS. [CHEIROPTERA, vol. vii., p. 24.) NYCTO'PHILUS. [CHEIROPTERA, vol. vii., p. 24.] NYL GHAU, or NEEL GHAU. [ANTELOPE, vol. p. 76.] NYMEGEN. [NIMWEGEN.] NYMPHA'CEA, Lamarck's name for a family of Dimy arian conchifers, consisting of the genera Sanguinolen Psammobia, Psammotea, Tellina, Tellinides, Corbis, L Donax, Capsa, and Crassina. To these Mr. G. B. Somerly suggests that Gratelupia and Egeria may be added. [Ca CHACEA; CONCHIFERA; GRATELUPIA; MALACOLOGY, L xiv., p. 319 (Nymphidae).] NYMPHEA CEA, a natural order of aquatic plants with floating leaves and solitary flowers, found in all the hot and temperate parts of the world. They usually be four sepals and many petals, which latter gradually tract into stamens, indefinite in number, and either byp gynous or adherent to the sides of the carpels. The o is superior, divided internally into numerous cells, to whee sides adhere many seeds, containing an abundance of a men and a small embryo external to it: the stigmas ra from the apex of the ovary. The order differs from Ranur culacea in the consolidation of its carpels, from Papavera in the placentation not being parietal, and from Ness biaceae in the want of a large truncated disk containing monospermous achenia. The stems of these plans fleshy rhizomata, rooting in the mud at the bottom of waters in which they grow; and their woody tissue is loosely disposed among the cellular, as to have given rise a controversy concerning the real nature of the plan which it is arranged, most writers considering, with us, th it is Exogenous, while others refer it to the Endogen type. The species of this order are generally plants of gra beauty, either the flowers or the leaves being of unusual The white water-lily (Nymphaea alba) and the yellow (Ne phar luteum) of our own rivers and ponds are among finest specimens of floral development in these latitals; in other countries both their size and colour are augmented brilliant tints of blue and crimson being added to the p white of our native species, and the most delicious od being also emitted. In Demerara grows the Victoria rigi whose flowers have a diameter of fifteen inches, while the leaves are as much as six feet and a half across. (P Magazine, vol. vii., p. 20; and Botanical Register for 15% Miscell., No. 13.) In the East Indies the Euryale fe |