16 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Jan. 1, 1SGG. 



Eleas. — Perhaps S. J. MTntire will allow me to 

 make a small addition to the account of the Cat 

 Elea. He says he has not seen the larva? of the 

 common flea. Once, in a hot part, where fleas are 

 rather too common, 1 I found a blanket abounding 

 with their eggs and grubs. When I was a boy we 

 took some trouble to see the habits, &c, of fleas. I 

 got a glass tube, about two inches long, and put 

 some cotton wool lightly into the upper part of it, 

 with two or three fleas. The other end was stopped 

 with a cork, and to find them I used to take this 

 out and apply the open part to the back of the hand, 

 when the fleas made no trouble about] coming down 

 and having a feast. In this way I kept them for 

 some time, and they laid their eggs and hatched 

 their larva}. Put the life of these I did not trace 

 any further. Talking about different kinds of fleas, 

 I would mention that our English ones are much 

 lighter in colour than those found in Africa. They 

 attach their eggs to the fibres of the wool or flannel. 

 Whether they always lay the same number I do not 

 know, but I have one I preserved many years ago, 

 and it has five eggs of a plain oval shape. — E. T. Scott. 



Late Appeauaxce of Swallows. — Amongst the 



many characteristics of the extraordinary weather 



we have had this year none is more remarkable than 



the late period to which the Swallows have remained 



with us. The main body of them left us at this 



place on the 10th October. Almost every year it 



may be remarked that a few will be seen again 



about the middle of November, and accordingly 



this year a few made their appearance on the 12th 



and 13th November. Put on the 4th of this month 



a few were again playing about, the weather on 



that day being remarkably stormy. To my surprise, 



however, several House Martins appeared again 



yesterday, the 10th. The weather was fine; the 



wind east ; and at 3 p.m., when they were flying 



about, the thermometer was 4S 3 . I noticed upon 



this last occasion that they kept in their flight very 



close along the western side of the houses in the 



park here, and were only out between 2 and 3 p.m. 



They appeared very brisk and lively, but evidently 



did not like to get out of the warm stratum of air 



immediately in contact with the houses. On the 



4th, however, they were flying high up in the air on 



the eastern as well as the western side of the houses, 



the thermometer at that time being 4° higher 



than on the 10th. Naturalists have long been 



puzzled to make out where these late stragglers 



hide themselves, and how they subsist apparently 

 so long without food; and also whether they 



eventually migrate, or remain with us till the 



weather kills them. A curious fact in relation to 



this subject came to my knowledge about, twenty 



years ago. In removing the framework of an old 



clock in the tower of Oswestry Church, in order to 



put in a new clock, the skeletons of many scores 



of Swifts and Swallows (?) were found in the hollow 

 places behind the frame of the clock. A colony of 

 Swifts always frequented the tower every year, and 

 they had evidently found access to the space behind 

 the wooden frame of the face of the clock, which pro- 

 jected about a foot in front of the stonework. These 

 skeletons were apparently of all ages, most of them, 

 if I remember rightly, full grown, and the feathers 

 adhering to them. The sexton brought me a hat 

 full of them, and said there were great numbers of 

 them which the workmen had turned out. I regret 

 that I did not examine them accurately at the time, 

 to see if they were all Swifts, or some of them 

 Swallows. Nor do I know whether Swifts and 

 Swallows will breed in harmony in the same places. 

 Put how came these scores of skeletons there ? 

 The only conclusion I could draw was that some of 

 the birds every year were either the produce of a 

 second hatching, and so perhaps too weak to migrate 

 with the rest, or else that, having been accidentally 

 injured, they were unable to encounter the flight to 

 warmer latitudes, and so remained behind and 

 perished. The appearance of Swallows so late as 

 the 10th of December is certainly a very remark- 

 able occurrence. I have not " White's Natural 

 History of Selborne," at hand, to sec what is the 

 latest date at which he observed Swallows, but I 

 think the very late period to which they have 

 remained with us this year is worth recording in 

 your interesting journal of Science-Gossip. — T. 

 Salweij, Dec. 11. 



iEGEON Alfobdi. — In my hunts on our coast 

 during this week I have had the pleasure of coming 

 upon four specimensof the Anemone 2Egeon alfordi. 

 On Tuesday, December 5th, I brought home two 

 from the pools, formed by large stones and boulders, 

 on the beach in Porth Crapa Pay, on the south side 

 of St. Mary's. On Wednesday, the Gth, I found 

 another in the same wilderness of stones, nearer 

 low water mark ; and on Thursday, the 7th, I came 

 upon the fourth in a narrow crevice of a ledge of 

 granite under the Garrison Hill, running out into 

 the roads on the north side of St. Mary's. All 

 these, unlike the first specimens I found, were more 

 or less imbedded in sand, much after the manner of 

 Tealia crassiconris. The bases of all were expanded 

 beyond the column, and of a red color. The column 

 in all is very flexuous and distensible, the surfcae 

 being divided into squares, with fine pellucid lines, 

 each square containing a small crimson wart. The 

 disc is cup-shaped. The tentacles arc long and 

 flexuous, but much more so in one specimen than 

 in the other three. One I found witli the tentacles 

 quite hidden, but they were more concealed by the 

 swelliug of the upper part of the column than by 

 their own retraction. As to colour, the columns of 

 all the specimens were much like the one described 

 by Mr. Pope, but in two red prevailed chiefly ; in 



