Oct. 1, 1S66.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



223 



five or six abreast, extending to, and traceable for, a 

 long distance, perhaps a furlong or more. They 

 seem to follow a leader, and take precisely the same 

 course that he (or she) has done, as strictly as a 

 party of school-boys do when they play at " follow- 

 my-leader." I once happened to fall in with a very 

 large colony of these ants on the march, and occupied 

 myself with watching their movements. Presently 

 they came to a gateway leading into a field ; but in- 

 stead of crossing it upon the ground, every ant, on 

 reaching" the spot, climbed up the gate-post, then on 

 to the hinge of the gate, and using the lowest bar 

 as a bridge, walked along the gate, and descending 

 by the other post, continued its journey on terra 

 finna. I do not for a moment suppose the ants 

 reasoned about the matter, though instinct may bave 

 prompted them ; but they certainly adopted the best 

 course to insure their own safety ; for if they had 

 crossed the gateway on the ground ; and any cart or 

 any cattle had passed through, numbers of them 

 •would doubtless have been crushed ; but by crossing 

 upon the gate, they would, if the gate had been 

 opened, merely have been carried witb it, and would 

 have remained in safety till it had been closed again. 



Birds, and especially Robins, sometimes choose 

 very strange places to build their nests. In Cheshire 

 there is always a small box or cupboard fixed to the 

 front of each cart, in which the carter puts his 

 dinner, or any little matters he may wish to carry 

 when he goes a journey. A cart belonging to a 

 gentleman who lives in Knutsford, had stood for a 

 week or two in the carthouse, but being at last 

 •wanted for a journey to Manchester (10 miles off), 

 it was got ready for use. On looking into the cart- 

 box, the carter was surprised to find that a robin 

 had built her nest in it, and was at that moment 

 sitting upon her eggs. He was puzzled how to act, 

 as he did not wish to disturb the bird that had built 

 in so strange a place ; but at last he closed the door 

 of the box, shutting the robin in. The journey to 

 Manchester and back was performed, the bird sitting 

 all the time quietly upon her eggs. When the cart 

 was brought back to the shed, the door was again 

 opened, and the prisoner liberated. She, however, 

 did not forsake her nest, but continued sitting, and 

 it is pleasant to add that her parental affection was 

 rewarded, and her young brood hatched in due time. 



And now I must begin to draw my chapter of 

 anecdotes to a close, lest the editor should think it 

 too long and too uuscientific to be printed in Science 

 Gossip, so I will just give one instance of a remark- 

 able want of foresight in a bird. We cannot often 

 accuse the lower animals of want of foresight, for 

 instinct is such a wonderful attribute of the mind, 

 that it is very rarely at fault, but prompts the animals 

 that are governed by its impulse always to act for 

 their own benefit, or that of their offspring, at the 

 proper time and in the best possible manner. But, 

 after all, the anecdote I am about to relate really 



shows us the difference between reason and instiuct, 

 the former enabling us, by experience, to judge of 

 the probable consequence of any particular mode of 

 action, the latter impelling to the performance of 

 certain acts without the agent in the least knowing 

 what the consequences will be. 



In my friend Mr. G 's garden, a quantity of 



old pea-sticks are always reared up in a particular 

 corner to be ready for the next year's crop. Por 

 many years a pair of thrushes regularly built their 

 nest amongst these pea-sticks ; butno sooner was the 

 nest built, and the parent birds had settled them- 

 selves to the duties of house-keeping, than the pea- 

 sticks were wanted for use, and the nest was de- 

 stroyed ; but the birds never gained any knowledge 

 by experience., but built their nest year after 

 year with the most foolish pertinacity, although 

 they were never permitted to bring their household 

 arrangements to a satisfactory termination. 



Robert Holland. 



THE AMCEBA. 



~Y\7~E have undertaken to give a short account of 

 » * a creature often met with amongst the in- 

 habitants of the mud of ponds and ditches. Its 

 shape is nondescript : it has neither mouth, teeth, 

 stomach, claws, eyes, nose, hands, nor feet, yet it is 

 able to perform the functions of each and all of 

 those members most efficiently; or, rather, it is 

 endowed by the Creator in such a manner, that it 

 can dispense with them all, and yet fulfil its destiny 

 in the economy of Nature. 



Our subject, an Amoeba, has no members which 

 would lead one to suppose it was predaceous, yet its 

 powers in this way are by no means to be despised 

 by its more innocent neighbours. It has no mouth 

 wherewith to swallow its prey, which, to use Mr. 

 Slack's graphic words, "it flows over" in order to 

 capture ; but it makes short work of this difficulty 

 by forcing the unlucky organism, whether animal or 

 vegetable, into its interior at any part of its body. 

 It is also beyond doubt that the indigestible portions 

 of the food are ejected from its body in the same 

 simple manner that they are taken in, namely, 

 pushed through to the exterior at any point. Again, 

 the absence of eyes or nose, or organs answering 

 thereto in the body of the Amoeba, would lead one 

 to suppose that the power of discrimination in the 

 selection of proper nutriment was slight ; but such 

 is not the case, at least we think so ourselves, for 

 we have watched numbers of them, and could often 

 identify the nature of their food. So far as we can 

 recollect, we have never noticed that they had ap- 

 propriated stones or sticks, or, in fact, anything else 

 than diatoms, desmids, monads, and spores of algae, 

 as portions of then - diet. The Amoeba has no legs, 

 no cilia, yet it can traverse the field of the micro- 



