HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



.)0 



the eye ; the tail and long or flight-feathers of the 

 wing blue, the breast and under-part a dingy yellow; 

 bill and legs of a pale blue. The Blue Tit has a 

 sprightly note, but cannot be considered a songster. 



The Cole Tit (Panis ater) is about the size of the 

 Blue Tit, but has not such a beautiful plumage ; it 

 has a black cap; the general tone of the birds is an 

 olive-brown, with a few white spots upon the ends 

 of some few feathers ; it has a sharp black beak, 

 legs and claws exceedingly strong. If this bird is 

 put in a cage with the Blue Tit, a battle ensues, in 

 which the latter gets beaten, and if it succeeds in 

 getting the Blue Tit in its claws, as is often the 

 case, it will pluck the feathers out most unmerci- 

 fully. The Cole Tit should be fed the same as the 

 Blue Tit, but they are not so cheerful as that bird, 

 nor so easily kept alive. 



The Great Titmouse (Parus major) is a bold- 

 looking bird, and very pugnacious. It is not safe 

 to place him in a cage with other birds ; he mostly 

 kills any bird about his own size. I have seen the 

 Great Tit seize a robin in its claws, and in a few 

 seconds pick the poor creature's brains out. How 

 different to the little Blue Tit, that rarely quarrels 

 with any bird. Yet for all its cruel propensities, 

 how pleasant to find them in small parties acrobat- 

 ing in our suburban gardens round London, as it 

 frequently does in hard weather, chattering merrily. 

 This bird has a peculiar and amusing method in 

 feeding upon hemp-seed, making a quick tap, tap, 

 tap, much like an undertaker hammers, until a hole 

 is made, from which it eats the seed, casting away 

 the shell apparently unbroken. It will feed upon 

 German paste, as prepared for a woodlark, and dis- 

 pose of mealworms most greedily. The Great Tit 

 has a beautiful black cap, back and wings of a 

 greyish green, the sides of the head, breast, and 

 underpart of a dusky yellow ; it has great strength 

 in the feet and bill, and if handled darts upon the 

 fingers and bites severely. The Great Tit has a 

 sprightly wild song, which it mostly utters as soon 

 as it alights. The Blue Tit, Cole Tit, and Great 

 Tit, all tap with their bill when feeding upon hemp- 

 seed, after the manner of the Woodpecker. 



Chas. J. W. Rtjdd. 



UNDEB A STONE. 



THEBE is some consolation for those who make 

 the micro scope their hobby, that they are 

 very much independent of times and seasons ; come 

 snow, come blow, there is still occupation within 

 doors in spite of wind and weather. The angler 

 may be disconsolate, the botanist devoured by 

 ennui, the entomologist a victim to despair; but 

 with the microscope poor human nature is consoled 

 for the loss of out-door pleasures. Alas, poor 

 human nature ! How often the weather comes in 



for blame when some trip to the woods has been 

 postponed indefinitely, because of the rain — 



"When it clatters along the roofs, 

 Like the tramp of hoofs ! 

 When it gushes and struggles out 

 From the throat of the overflowing spout ! 

 Across the window pane 

 It pours and pours ; 

 And swift and wide, 

 With a muddy tide, 

 Like a river down the gutter roars 

 The rain, unwelcome rain." 



This however may be bearable, for the morrow 

 may be bright, or, at least, there is hope of a finer 

 day within a week ; but the summer grumbler is 

 happy compared with a naturalist "snowed up." 

 What a gush of unpleasurable sensations tingles 

 down to the tips of one's fingers at the thought of 

 a month's frost and snow. Suppose that we had 

 been planning sundry explorations during the 

 Christmas holidays, in the fond hope that a " green 

 Christmas" would again, as it had done before, 

 favour the out-door collector of Nature's uncon- 

 sidered trifles. And then suppose such a Christ- 

 mas as this last one to throw a snow blanket over 

 the earth and our projects. Grumble, should we ? 

 Well, perhaps we might, and not much to our 

 credit either. History has narrated to us of 

 prisoners in their cells finding contentment and 

 companionship in a mouse, a spider, or a flower. 

 Doubtless he who can accept all such events with 

 resignation, with no disposition to grumble, ,but 

 every disposition to turn the most untoward circum- 

 stances to advantage, is the happier man. 



Those who are blessed with vigorous health do 

 not realize the pleasure which an invalid finds in a 

 little plot of garden ground ; to him it is all the 

 outside world. In it he will discover treasures 

 scarce dreamt of by those who have the world 

 before them wherein to roam. A little garden to an 

 invalid, and what he saw and observed in it during 

 a whole year ! What a subject for a book, and how 

 many interesting chapters might such an invalid 

 contribute by the help of a microscope. Some 

 months ago, during conversation with a friend on 

 "subjects to write about," he suggested, "insects 

 found under a stone." At the time this was acknow- 

 ledged a capital idea, and — not the first time such a 

 thing has happened — no more was thought about it. 

 Becently confined to the limits of a garden, and 

 at no very cheerful season, — just before the snow 

 set in — this incident was revived by the sight of a 

 large stone, and immediately the thought " I won- 

 der what is under it ? " came like a flash across the 

 mind. The answer to this question is just what I 

 am seated to write, and if there was not much 

 found under the stone at such a season the observer 

 is not to blame, and the stone is not to blame, and 

 certainly not the insects that were absent. They 

 were wise, for it was very, very cold. 



