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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



abundant during the Silurian and Carboniferous 

 periods, were much more scantily developed in 

 Liassic times. Here you see the last of the Spirifer. 

 On the other hand, the true conchiferous species, 

 which had lain in the background during the earlier 

 epochs of our planet's history, now began to assert 

 that supremacy which they still hold in even a 

 greater degree. No fewer than 625 species of 

 Conchifera have been found in the European Liassic 

 deposits alone. The commonest among these were 

 the species of Oryphce — a sort of curved fossil 

 oyster, whose abundance sometimes makes up entire 

 beds of limestone. The Hippodium, Plagiostoma, 

 and Avicula are also very common. Of brachio- 

 podous shells, including such familiar types as 

 Rhynchonella, Terebratzila, &c, there are as many as 

 115 species peculiar to the Lias strata of Europe. 

 Taking the summary of fossils which have been 

 found in the strata of this age in Britain, including 

 plants, insects, shells, and vertebrata generally, 

 there are no fewer than 1,228 species known to 

 science. This, of course, is not all ; for the list of 

 known species has been more than doubled within 

 the last twenty years. It belongs to the science of 

 the future to develop the fauna and flora of each 

 period of the past, but I am firmly convinced that 

 its efforts will be only to prove the continuity of 

 the great Life-scheme, whose broken fragments 

 are enclosed in the rocks. And yet, broken and 

 shattered though they are, they are capable of being 

 so put together that man — the last and highest link 

 of the series— is able to spell out the grand plan of 

 Creation, and to turn with mingled feelings of awe 

 and admiration towards its Great Designer ! 



ROBIN REDBREAST 



rpHE adventurous redbreast that found himself 

 -*- a captive in Beaumaris appears to have taken 

 kindly to his quarters. 



I remember once reading of the robin as an un- 

 grateful fellow creeping round your door soliciting 

 even the crumbs ; but when summer comes again 

 off he goes to the wood, and is not seen again until 

 the vagabond is driven by frost and snow to visit 

 the door of his old friends. Such is not quite my 

 opinion of this fine songster, which is carefully fed 

 by many both winter and summer ; one might 

 almost consider bobby a small philosopher for find- 

 ing out the when and where to find so many friends 

 to welcome his repeated truants. 



I should have been very glad to have heard that 

 the feathered pet of your correspondent, Mrs. 

 Watney, had had something to do in building the 

 nest containing the eggs of the canary mentioned; 

 but, alas ! I am of the same opinion as your corre- 

 spondent, — that is, bobby does not understand it. 



The robin in character is secluded, i.e. they do 

 not congregate and fly in flocks as linnets, gold- 



finches, and other birds at spring and autumn ; each 

 robin, or pair of robins, have their locality, upon 

 which no bobby can intrude without a combat 

 taking place. In winter you will find them taking 

 possession of some particular spot about a barn, 

 garden, hedge, or tree, from which he will drive an 

 intruder at once away. In a cage he soon becomes 

 tame ; but I never knew them sociable with other 

 birds, neither will they agree with each other. I 

 have tried year after year to get them to nest in my 

 aviary, but without success ; I find they quarrel at 

 times, one is master for a short time, after which 

 his opponent takes courage, and then the tables are 

 turned ; but as a rule they give each other a wide 

 berth. Where robins are kept together, you get very 

 little song, and that only very soft, so that the sweet, 

 melodious, free, and somewhat thrilling song is lost. 



It is not by any means an easy task to keep a 

 robin in full song ; the best cage for the purpose is 

 the same as those which are used to keep nightin- 

 gales in, — a cage with a wire front only. He will re- 

 quire raw meat, egg chopped fine, mixed with 

 crumbs of bread, also meal-worms, or other live 

 food, e.g. earwigs, spiders, &c. ; taking care to let 

 him have a bath frequently ; but with all this care 

 it is not a long-lived bird, seldom living over three 

 years in a cage. 



Strange notions and odd sayings are often heard 

 about robins ; many will not keep a robin upon any 

 considerations, telling you they are so unlucky ; 

 others say they are sure to die, and robins never 

 sing. 



Some years ago I directed the attention of an inn- 

 keeper to a robin singing in the hedge a short dis- 

 tance from where wc were standing. He seemed to 

 be a man of ordinary intelligence ; yet he thought 

 I must be mistaken, telling me, with an air of 

 assurance, " robins don't sing, sir," adding that he 

 had lived in all parts of the country and never heard 

 a robin sing. Again, a short time ago, being in con- 

 versation with an old woman the whole of which 

 time a robin was singing, near the cottage in which 

 she had lived from childhood, and wishing to hear 

 the old lady's ideas of the robiu, I said, " How beau- 

 tiful the robin sings." Evidently thinking I was try- 

 ing to deceive her, she cunningly said, " That isn't a 

 robn ; robns don't sing." The bird was still singing 

 beautifully, but I could not convince her that it 

 was a robin. 



Robins sing nearly all the year through, but, re- 

 tiring to the wood, their song is not so easily dis- 

 tinguished from other warbles. If caged at the 

 proper season of the year, and fed with care, they 

 will sing many months in captivity. To get a loud 

 song, you should cage your bird about the middle 

 of December, not before, nor should it be much after, 

 for you must remember robins are early at nest, 

 and then are very difficult to keep alive ; on the 

 other hand, those taken in autumn will live almost 



