IIARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



45 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Ecb.inodeema.ta.— Can any reader inform me in 

 what part of England the large common Urchin, 

 Echinus sphara, is eaten, and how it is prepared ? 

 Eorbcs, in his work on the British starfishes, says, 

 "Abroad, like its congener the true Echinus esculen- 

 tus, it is much eaten, and Pennant says it is eaten 

 by the poor in many parts of England." _ I would 

 also like to know if Synapta isa widely-distributed 

 British genus. A species, which I take to be the 

 S. inheerens, occurs in immense numbers on the 

 mud-flats in our lough. It has the exact shape 

 of plates and anchor spines figured by Carpenter 

 in his work on the microscope.— W. S., Belfast. 



Tamarisk Manna— Eor very many years it has 

 been asserted that a kind of manna is produced in 

 the East on some species of tamarisk. This asser- 

 tion requires confirmation. One author after 

 another repeats it, but can any one affirm from 

 personal observation that such a substance is yielded 

 by any species of tamarisk whatever ? — C. 



Is the Landrail a Bird of Passage ?— The 

 Landrail (Ball/is Cre.il) is invariably described as a 

 true migratory bird by naturalists ; notwithstanding 

 which I have the presumption to doubt the authen- 

 ticity of the alleged fact, and am disposed to believe 

 that its prolonged silence is mistaken for absence. 

 Their familiar call ceases after the season of incuba- 

 tion, with other instincts of nature, and it is not im- 

 probable that at the approach of winter they retire 

 to the wet moorlands and heaths, where food is more 

 abundant, and return to the lowland meadows again 

 as the breeding season comes round. Iu support of 

 this opinion I have to state that on two or three 

 occasions in the north of England, I have, in mid- 

 winter, shot specimens in a plump and fat condition, 

 such as would negative the supposition that they 

 were diseased birds left behind by their fellows. 

 They took wing with great reluctance, after being 

 tracked for a long time, and for a considerable dis- 

 tance by a setter ; and any one who has witnessed 

 their slow and heavy flight, incapable of maintain- 

 ing their body in a position parallel with the plane 

 of the horizon, but allowing it to form a consider- 

 able angle therewith, while their legs trail beliind, 

 cannot hut have arrived at the conclusion that the 

 Landrail is not endowed with the physical qualities 

 necessary to sustain the prolonged flight entailed by 

 a passage to other climes. I have to add that I was 

 not mistaken in the specimens to which I have 

 alluded, for I compared them with Bewick's illus- 

 tration and description, and I know very well the 

 distinction between the Landrail and its congener 

 the Water-rail (Rallies aquaticus).—J. B. Bolgelly. 



Teeth of Strepsodus. — In the Northumber- 

 land, Staffordshire, and Scottish coal-measures the 

 teeth of a fish known as Strepsodus are not un- 

 frequently found : their form is strikingly charac- 

 teristic, being bent and recurved near the apex, a 

 peculiarity which suggested the name of the genus 

 to which the fishes possessing such teeth belonged. 

 The teeth, in addition to being recurved, are beauti- 

 fully striated longitudinally : the striatiqns run in 

 nearly parallel lines and only occasionally inosculate. 

 Some of the teeth of Strepsodus are free from stri- 

 ations, and it is not improbable that there are two 

 species of the genus, one having striated and the 



othersmoothteeth. An illustration of the tooth of 



Strepsodus appears iu the "Transactions of the 



Manchester Geological Society," vol. i. p. 167, pi. 5, 



fig. 12 ; an illustration and description of Strepsodus 



from the pen of Dr. Young, is published in the 



" Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society," 



vol. xx. pp. 597, 603; and a description of the jaws 



and teeth of Strepsodus has been published iu 



Scientific Opinion, vol. i. p. 556, vol. ii. pp. 13, 25, 



and vol. iii. p. 309. Until within the 



last few months little was known of the 



arrangement of the teeth of this fish ; 



but discoveries of nearly perfect jaws in 



Staffordshire and Northumberland have 



proved that the general arrangement of 



both mandibles and maxillae is a series 



of large laniary teeth at_ intervals of 



about half an inch ; and in the spaces 



between the large teeth there are five 



teeth with the same characteristics as 



the large ones, but about half the ToothoV 



size. I enclose a sketch of one of the strepsodus. 



larger forms of the teeth of Strepsodus 



(fig. 23). — T. P. BarJcas, F.G.S., Newcastle-on- 



Tune. 



Shower of Blood. — In the beginning of July, 

 160S, a supposed shower of blood fell for several 

 miles around the suburbs of Aix-la-Chapelle. The 

 cause of this was discovered by M. de Peirese to 

 depend upon the exudation of large drops of a blood- 

 coloured liquid on the transformation of large chry- 

 salides into the butterfly state. The drops produced 

 red stains on the walls of the small villages in the 

 neighbourhood, on stones in the highways, and in 

 the fields. The number of butterflies flying about, 

 too, was prodigious. These red drops were not 

 found in the middle of the city, or in places where 

 the butterfles did not reach. To the same cause M. 

 de Peirese attributes (I think very correctly) some 

 other showers of blood related by historians, that 

 happened in the warm season of the year when but- 

 terflies arc most numerous. Gregory of Tours 

 mentions one that fell in the time of Childebert, iu 

 different parts of Paris, and upon a certain house in 

 the territory of Senlis ; and about the end of the 

 month of June another likewise fell, in the reign of 

 King Robert. Large drops of excrement, of the 

 colour of blood, are voided by all the butterflies 

 which proceed from the different species of hairy 

 caterpillar. On one occasion twenty-eight chrysa- 

 lides of Vanessa. Antiopa, or Camberwell Beauty, 

 which I had preserved in a small room, attached to 

 projecting bodies, underwent transformation on a 

 single day in July. The walls and floor were so be- 

 spattered with bright crimson-coloured fluid, resem- 

 bling blood, as to give the appearance of a regular 

 shower of the fluid.— Odd Showers, p. 31. 



Electric Stockings.— Can any of your readers 

 explain the following phenomenon ? A relative of 

 mine is in the habit of wearing two pairs of stock- 

 ings, the upper, black spun silk, the under, lamb's 

 wool. They are drawn off together at night, and ou 

 their being afterwards separated, a curious occur- 

 rence takes place. There has been during the 

 intense frost more than the usual amount of electri- 

 city in them, causing a sharp pricking sensation up 

 the arms of the person drawing them apart, and the 

 stockings immediately become inflated, and when 

 held near a wall incline towards, aud finally adhere 

 to, the wall ; so that the four stockings remam 

 hanging there without any visible support. Is this 

 the result of the severe cold?— E. M. P. 



