Jan. 1, 1SCG.] 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



15 



£120. It is true that this was the highest bidding, 

 but there was a reserve beyond that sum, and we are 

 told that the egg is to be repacked and sent back to 

 New Zealand, as its owner is not disposed to part 

 with it at the price. 



FOSSIL-WOOD IN FLINT. 



IN searching for fossils a few weeks ago iu an ex- 

 cavation made in this neighbourhood, for the 

 purpsse of getting chalk for the manufacture of 

 whiting, 1 met with a fine specimen of fossil-wood 

 embedded in a large tabular flint. With difficulty 

 I succeeded in removing the greater part of it, 

 together with a portion of adherent flint. The 

 specimen measured eight inches in length, and seven 

 in circumference. It is silicious throughout, bears 

 traces of bark, and is riddled in places with circular 

 holes, which are filled with pellets of flint ; the holes 

 having been most likely bored by teredines before 

 the wood had become petrified. As the silicified 

 fibres when microscopically examined exhibit rows 

 of circular dots, similar to those seen on the fibres of 

 coniferous wood, there is little doubt that the speci- 

 men is part of a pine-branch. The chalk in which 

 the fossil was found is of the kind known as upper 

 chalk, as it is interstratified at intervals of about six 

 feet with densely packed layers of flints, some of 

 which are of immense size, and when broken are 

 often found to contain beautiful specimens of silici- 

 fied arborescent sponge, coloured with oxyde of iron. 

 Some of the hollow nodular fliuts are lined with ex- 

 quisitely coloured mammillated calcedony. The 

 chalk itself is not very fossiliferous, having succeeded 

 in finding only a few Terebratulce with one or two 

 of the commoner Echini; but the workmen had 

 picked up from time to time several small pieces of 

 petrified wood, which were also found to be 

 coniferous. 



That such discoveries are sometimes noticed in 

 scientific journals would lead to the conclusion that 

 petrified wood is not common in chalk. The Geolo- 

 gical 'Magazine for July last contains a notice, with 

 a figure of a similar fossil, found also in the Hamp- 

 shire chalk, near Winchester. The specimen is now 

 in the Oxford Museum. Professor Phillips, the 

 Avriter of the article, describes it as " a fragment 

 worn and rounded in some of the prominent parts;" 

 and adds that " it looks like a small portion of a 

 pine-branch which had been exposed to rough 

 treatment, so as to present a wasted surface de- 

 prived of the bark. It is entirely silicious, and 

 reveals in the utmost perfection the whole of the 

 tissues." He then continues : " Traversing the woody 

 fibres are several short tabular masses, swollen at 

 the end, and marked more or less plainly with trans- 

 verse rings. These are flint moulds in cavities left 

 by boring shells, probably teredines. It appears that 

 these animals must have begun their operations in a 



young state on the wood when it had been reduced 

 to its present figure and magnitude ; for the moulds 

 which remain in their holes appear to be quite small 

 at the surface and quickly to grow larger within." 

 Prom the engraving the wood would be about live 

 inches long, aud one inch and a quarter broad, at- 

 tached to a good-sized piece of flint. 



J. S., St. Mary Bourne, Hants. 



ZOOLOGY. 



Red-breasted Fly-catcher (JIuscicapa parca) . 

 —Mr. E. H. Rodd has addressed the following 

 letter to Dr. Gray, on the occurrence of this bird at 

 Scilly :— " It may be interesting to you to know that 

 another example of Muscicapa parm, very nearly in 

 the same state of plumage as its predecessor at 

 Scilly, was captured on Sunday week at Trescoe 

 Isle, Scilly. The variation in its plumage consists 

 in the scapularies and wing-coverts being more 

 decidedly bordered with rufus. This, I think, 

 shows it to be a bird of the year. I expect it breeds 

 in Britain."— Penzance-, Nov. 14. (See also Annals 

 of Nat. Hist., 18G3, vol. XL, p. 229 ; Zoologist, 

 p. 8445.) 



The Glow-worm in Australia. — Those are 

 mistaken who believe that the little luminous worm 

 of this colony never displays its light nuless the soil 

 is disturbed. The first time that I observed it was 

 in the passage at the back of an old bush house near 

 Mount Elephant, one very wet night. The rain 

 had beaten in under the door, and the boards were 

 wet and dirty. I was surprised at the brilliant 

 light, so like that of the English glow-worm, and 

 having carried one luminous speck into a lighted 

 room, found it to be from a little whitish, semi- 

 transparent worm, of which several specimens might 

 have been collected from the floor and door-posts — 

 Wm. Adeny. 



The Glow-worm. — It may be worth recording 

 in Science-Gossip that I saw a glow-worm giving 

 out a brilliant light, last evening, in a hedgerow 

 near my house. It was about 7 o'clock. I never 

 before saw a specimen later than September. — IF. 

 W. Spice r, Itc/ien Abbas, Hants, Dec. 8, 1SG5. 



Bird Slaughter. — The President of the 

 Naturalists' Pield Club (the Rev. G. C. Abbs) 

 stated on Thursday, at the anniversary meeting of 

 the club, that he had been calculating the number 

 of caterpillars which the 6,000 sparrows killed by a 

 member of a "sparrow club" in Essex, and for 

 which he had actually received a prize of 10s., 

 would have eaten. The amount was 0,307,000,000. 

 While the clod-hoppers of Essex are killing sparrows 

 by the thousand, the Australian colonists are im- 

 porting them at a considerable expense from Eng- 

 land, to act the part of protectors of the crops, and 

 thereby of promoters of the comforts of the people. 

 — Gateshead Observer. 



