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Gentleman's Magazine 1794 p.327
notched at the end; the nostrils oval; upper mandible, head, and back, of a mouse-colour tinged with yellow; a light yellow line between each eye and the corresponding nostril; wings of the same colour with the back, except that the inner web of each quill is marked with a yellow margin; tail long, consisting of eleven equal feathers of the same colour with the back; under mandible brownish; throat and breast white; thighs yellow; legs brownish; nails mouse-coloured; under-side of the feet a deep yellow, as is the inside of the bill. It appears here after the middle of April. Its song consists of a succession of distinct loud notes gradually decreasing in acuteness. It frequents hedges, shrubberies, and such-like places. It builds a nest of straws lined with hair, resembling that of the white-throat, and lays generally five eggs of a dirty white colour, marked at the thicker end with numerous dark-brown oval spots. the bird here described can be no other than the Scotch warbler of the "British Zoology;" though the author denies it to be a separate species, in his "Arctic Zoology," on the authority of a Swedish correspondent. We found the Cardium Edule on the sands below Arnside point; and the Fucus Filum, which is brought hither by the tide. The rocks are covered with the Mytilus Edulis, Turbo Littoreus, and Lepas Balanoides; they are also clad with the Fucus Vesiculosus and F. Canaliculatus. The Gulls, which were here numerous, conisted of the three following species, Larus Canus, L. ridibundus, and Winter-gull. Linnaeus makes this a variety of the Larus Canus; and Berkenhour supposes it to be the young of the same; but one was domesticated in this country, and kept in a garden for four years without changing its distinguishing marks; it ought, therefore, to be considered as a distinct species.
The rare plants that grow in the salt ditches on the marsh, the stony beach, and limestone rocks, may be thus enumerated: Apium Graveolens, Auriplex Littoralis, Cochlearia Danica, Triglochin Maritimum, Triticum Junceum, PLantage Coronapus, Atropa Belladona, Chelidonium Glaucium, Arenaria Tenuifolia, Polygonum Aviculare marinum, Roas Arvensis, Crataegus Aria, Conyza Squarosa, Parietaria Officinalis.
After following the beach about three miles beyond Arnside, we discovered the Oniscus*.........icus among the loose stones near low-water mark. This insect has not yet found a place in the British catalogue. It runs quickly, in which it differs from Oniscus Assellus as well as in the structure of its tail.
This was the end of our excursions; for we returned leaving the beach and keeping more on the sands, which were well inhabited by the Lumbricus Marinus. We also picked up the Tellina Carnaria, Medusa Aurita, and the Alcyonium Bursa. The surface of our road was ruffled here and there, so as to as to resemble the knap on frized cloth. This appearance is occasioned by a minute shrimp, the Canas Linearis, multitudes of which bore the sand perpendicularly, each forming for its own use a long narrow cell. It was well observed by my friend at the time, that, if a portion of sand so perforated should happen to be converted into stone, it would form a tubiporus every way like that in the neighbouring rocks, the slenderness of its tubes excepted. The remark was ingenius, and perhaps not very inconsistent with the operations of Nature; for, though the process of petrifaction is unknown, it is highly probable, nay almost demonstrable, that the calcareous strata occupying a vast extent of this country were originally loose sand mixed with marine bodies, just as it appears to be at this day in the capacious channel we have been exploring. The remaining part of our route lay through places already descibed; and the few new observations that occured do not seem worthy of a place in this narrative.
Yours, *c.
X. Z.
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