TFeb. 1, 1866. 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



41 



18G3, and which is purely technical — interesting only 

 to those devoted to the subject, or I would quote it. 

 — T. P. Barkas, Newcastle-on-Ti/nc. 



Woodpeckers Storing Acorns. — F. G. writes in 

 the last Science Gossip some interesting notes on 

 the " great spotted woodpecker's " habit of storing 

 acorns. The only woodpecker that I know of, said 

 to be an acom-storer is Melanerpes formieivorus 

 (Swainson), "the Californian woodpecker ;" perhaps 

 E. G. alludes to this bird. First of all, let me 

 distinctly say, I do not intend to cast the slightest 

 doubt upon any one's statement. Travelling 

 through the Klamath country, iu Oregon, a few 

 years ago, my attention was particularly attracted 

 to the acorns sticking like nails in an old door, 

 jammed, as F. G. describes, in the bark of the Pinus 

 ponderosa. This was in June, and the acoms stored 

 must have been those of the previous fall. The 

 most rigid investigation failed to discover a single 

 acorn touched or hollowed as if eaten by the birds. 

 The winter had gone, and yet the store was un- 

 touched. This induced me to shoot the woodpeckers, 

 that were plentiful in all directions, and examine 

 their stomachs— not one or two, but numbers of 

 them, — but in no one instance did I discover any- 

 thing but the remains of insects. Thinking the 

 matter over, I doubted the possibility of the wood- 

 peckers' eating hard nuts, its prehensile wonderfully- 

 barbed tongue being ill-adapted to such diet. More 

 than this, the winters in Oregon are very cold (at 

 least in this part of it), and when the nipping frost 

 sends the insects into torpidity, the rodents and 

 bears to sleep, then the winged tribes all leave and 

 go southward. No woodpecker would be stupid 

 enough to remain and stand a chance of being frozen 

 to death, for the sake of acorns. I read in Cassin's 

 "Birds" a quotation from Kelly's "Excursion to 

 California : "— " With the acorns in their bills, half 

 clawing half flying, I have admired the adroitness 

 with which they tried it at different holes, then 

 tapped it home most artistically with the beak." 

 Dr. Harman (Nat. Sc. Phild., vol. ii., page 270) also 

 speaks of this singular habit. F. G. does not say he 

 saw the birds put the acorns into the holes, "but 

 the trees stuffed with acorns." I do not say the 

 birds never put the acorns into the holes ; they 

 may for aught I know ; but I do say it is singular 

 that not an acorn was eaten, and not a particle 

 of vegetable food discernible in the stomach. And, 

 further, I disbelieve in the birds ever feeding on the 

 seed of the oak. If they do really bore holes, and into 

 them hammer large acorns— and as many writers bear 

 evidence to having seen them at it, we must believe 

 it is so — that they never eat the stores in Oregon 

 (the only place I have seen them), I am quite 

 positive; and why they indulge in such idle 

 industry is a mystery to my mind yet to be ex- 

 plained. I have sent these hasty remarks, hoping 

 they may lead to a discussion in the pages of 



Science Gossip on this most interesting topic. — 

 /. K. Lord, F.Z.S. 



Muscular Force op Insects.— A paper has 

 been read, at the French Academy of Sciences, by 

 M. Plateau, on this subject. The principal results 

 at which he arrives are these : — 1. Except in flying, 

 insects have much greater power of traction than 

 vertebrata;. Thus, while the draught-horse can only 

 exercise a force of traction equal to two-thirds of its 

 weight, the cockchafer can draw 14 times its own 

 weight. 2. In the same groups of insects the 

 smallest aud lightest have the greatest power of 

 traction. And those results M. Plateau considers 

 as not proceeding from muscles of a comparatively 

 larger size, but from greater muscidar activity. — 

 The Standard. 



Plague op Rats. — Braemar has lately been 

 visited by an unlooked-for invasion of a very annoy- 

 ing kind, as a colony, or rather an army, of rats has 

 recently migrated into the mountain land, and are 

 literally swarming in myriads over the length and 

 breadth of the district, causing utter dismay to many. 

 Every homestead, farm-yard, and barn is teeming 

 with them, and the destruction done to property in 

 many cases is tremendous. The shopkeepers suffer 

 most — whole webs of cloth cut through and through, 

 and sweets and fruit disappearing at fabulous rates. 

 One man living in a bothy in the wilds of Glencal- 

 later has been actually under the necessity of leaving 

 the domicile. The voracious wretches, having dis- 

 posed of all the eatables, attacked the bed and cut 

 up the blankets and bedding piecemeal. At Inver- 

 cauld a number of sheepskins were eaten ; while, 

 to crown their savage ferocity, a few days ago the 

 farm manager at Allanvoich was beaten out of the 

 stackyard and obliged to take shelter. At Aul- 

 dowrie, they have several times rung the bells at 

 untimely hours. 



Chirping Beetles. — One day during last 

 autumn, while exploring the muddy bed of a " dry 

 pond," I met with a colony of the beetle Pceloblus 

 Hermanii, which were chirping about in a very dis- 

 consolate manner. Never having before met with 

 musical examples of this species, or, in fact, of any 

 other species of this order, I naturally felt much 

 astonished. The sound emitted was a good clear 

 chirp, repeated at short regular intervals, and con- 

 tinued during their transfer, at the point of a stick, 

 from the mud to the collecting bottle, into which 

 they went chirping most lustily. Mr. Gosse, I think 

 in the Zoologist, graphically describes the noise 

 made by some of the tropical beetles, but I cannot 

 recall to memory any allusions in natural history 

 works to sounds produced by our British Coleoptera, 

 except the ticking sound produced by the Anobium, 

 popularly known as the "death-watch." Perhaps 

 the experience of some of your correspondents will 

 enable them to verify the above -recorded facts. — 

 F. iV. BroderieJ:. 



