15S 



HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE-GOSSIP 



Bay. Two of them (76 to 79), Endogens, are probably 

 palms ; tbe third, au Exogen, seems to have been, 

 perhaps, a climbing plant, as I judge from the 

 peculiar twistirg of the medullary rays. 



The concentric bands in the cells of fig. 79, 

 are interesting ; but are probably due to the suc- 

 cessive deposits of silica. It is very wonderful how 

 some portions of vegetable structure are represented 

 (I suppose one can hardly say preserved) in all 

 three specimens. The fossilization of such plants 

 must to some extent have been rapid, or the soft 

 vegetable structures would have perislied before 

 they could be replaced by silica. 



I hope some of your readers, who are familiar 

 with the microscopical aspect of tropical vegetation, 

 may be able to throw some light upon these inter- 

 esting remains. J. S. Tute. 



NOTES AT NANSLADRON, NEAR ST. 

 AUSTLE, CORNWALL. 



GOLDEN ORIOLE— In the early part of May, 

 1SG8, I noticed the voice of a bird in the 

 woods surrounding Nansladron, quite new to me. 

 Every friend whose attention was directed to the 

 sounds declared that they were equally new to him. 

 One person Suggested it was a parrot or parroquet 

 escaped from its cage ; another, that it was a varia- 

 tion in the cry of the Green Woodpecker ; and for 

 many days, owing to the extreme shyness of the bird, 

 it was impossible to say what denizen of the air pro- 

 duced such, extraordinary music ; but on the 17th 

 I had the good fortune to come upon it suddenly in 

 the orchard, and as it flew away from me at not a 

 greater distance than twenty feet, and continued to 

 utter its note " puhlo, puhlo" in its flight, the size 

 of the bird, and the blaze of gold in the sunshine, 

 immediately proclaimed our new friend to be no 

 other that the Golden Oriole (Oriolus galbula). 



On the day it was first recognized, it appeared to 

 have made up its mindto tenant a little wood of about 

 an acre behind our house, for it remained there till 

 late in the afternoon, when, hearing a tremendous 

 noise amongst a body of rooks in the constant habit 

 of visiting this wood, I went up to see what was the 

 matter, and found the poor oriole in the midst of 

 hot persecution. He was being driven from pillar to 

 post, and every "caw" of the rooks seemed to say 

 as clearly as possible, " Out, out, turn him out, who- 

 ever heard of a yellow bird,— turn him out ; " so that 

 the poor oriole was compelled to fly for its life, and 

 very possibly my coming to the rescue was the 

 turning point of its existence. 



I do not think it ever visited our wood again ; it 

 was seen a few times in the orchard, and we had the 

 daily pleasure till the end of the month of listening 

 to its loud, clear, ringing bell-like voice in the trees 

 of the St. Austle valley. We noticed during the last 



few days of May, that the cry was shortened into 

 "lo, lo," the "puh "being left out; and soon after 

 the beginning of June, acquaintance with our new 

 friendsuddenly ceased. We will hope that itsabsence 

 depended upon its own will ; but various poppings 

 heard in the valley made us shake our heads with 

 sadness, when we thought of collectors and cockney 

 sportsmen : "Belluce sunt et feri Molossi, hominuui 

 facie et habitu." 



Cuckoo.— On the 11th Eebruary, 1S68, whilst out 

 for a ramble, I heard the Cuckoo twice ; my wife 

 was with me at the time, and she heard it as 

 distinctly as myself. Had 1 been alone, very probably 

 I should have doubted my sense of hearing ; but as 

 we were both quite certain of the sounds, I do not 

 see the possibility of a mistake. I cannot find in 

 my books that any note has been made of such an 

 early visit to this country, for it is at least six weeks 

 sooner than the Cuckoo generally arrives. The poor 

 fellow must have had a solitary time of it till April, 

 and doubtless moaned often enough over his mistake 

 of setting out so early from sunny Africa. 



Carrion Crow. — In this neighbourhood the 

 Carrion Crow (C'orvus corone) is very commou, 

 and during the hatching season of chickens and 

 ducklings, farmers are quite as much afraid of the 

 depredations of this foul bird, as of falcons, hawks, 

 or owls : the young of anything is not safe from his 

 attacks, and sometimes he has the audacity of 

 lugging away half-grown ducks and fowls. One 

 morniug I heard a very loud quacking amongst some 

 ducks in the long grass hard by, and on stealing 

 down behind the hedge to discover the cause, found 

 an impudent Corvus endeavouring to kill a full- 

 grown duck. There were three ducks in the field, 

 and his modus operandi was simply to attack and 

 find out the weakest of the three : he would begin 

 with number one, jump on her back, seize the neck 

 in his beak, and bite and twist with all his might, 

 Madame Duck, as you might suppose, making a great 

 noise under the operation ; after perhaps a couple 

 of minutes, finding his worst efforts productive of 

 little result, he would pass on to number two duck 

 with the like event ; then on to number three, and 

 begin again. At length the stubborn truth seemed 

 forced upon him, and he was obliged to give up the 

 idea of a' duck breakfast ; he then seemed to utter 

 many maledictions upon the toughness of their 

 necks, rose in the air, discovered me, and was very 

 quickly out of sight. 



Rooks.— One summer afternoon my attention was 

 drawn to a vast assemblage of rooks on our lawn ; 

 by the terrible vociferations they were making, it 

 was eyident that something very unusual was being 

 enacted, for, clamorous as these birds are by nature, 

 the noise and excitement of this meeting it would be 

 almost impossible to describe. 



" C'^tait veritablement la tour de Babylone, 

 Car chacua y babillait, et tout du long de l'aune." 



