II A 1! D \ V 1 C K E * S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



213 



seems to me that such an advertisement speaks very 

 strongly in favour of our little four-footed friend.— 

 W. Macmillan. 



Natural History in Novels. — Inauswerto your 

 correspondent " R. S. T., Surrey " : — A year ago an 

 old woman (Scotch) told me if I took a fowl and 

 drew from its bill a chalk line it would lie quite 

 still. I tried this with a barn-door fowl, and it 

 answered, the fowl never moving till I took it up. 

 I also took a young sparrow and it was rendered to 

 all appearance quite insensible ; when 1 returned to 

 it some few minutes after, it had never moved and 

 was dead.— Fred. Casson. 



Natural History in Novels.— In reply to your 

 " R. S. T." -.—Many years ago, "in the apple- water 

 country on the banks " not " of the Wye " but of 

 its tributary the Lugg, a friend showed me the ex- 

 periment mentioned in the " Katcrfelto." Mes- 

 merism was much in vogue in those days, and he 

 called it mesmerizing the fowls. We drew the 

 chalk line straight away from the bird's bill as its 

 head was placed on the floor, when, for a short 

 time it appeared to be paralyzed, but afterwards got 

 up, shook itself, and crowed as if just awake. There 

 was evidently some influence produced upon the brain 

 through the medium of the optic nerve; the bird 

 was dazed by the white line, which, as far as appear- 

 ances went, drew out its senses by a kind of mag- 

 netic influence. — W. Southall. 



Cats and Water, &c. — May I call your attention 

 to a little book called "The Highlaud Glen," written 

 by Miss Wrench some fifty years ago ? It describes 

 the way in which a poor family was saved from 

 starvation by the fishing propensities of a cat : every 

 word of it is true, and vouched for by many who 

 were witnesses of the whole or some part of the 

 incident. In answer to another correspondent, I 

 may perhaps mention that it is a common habit of 

 the old women in parts of Herefordshire, where 

 vipers abound, to keep a bottle of the fat stripped 

 from the back of the reptile, ready for application 

 in case of a bite.—/. A. P. 



The Uses of Tails in Animals. — May I 

 suggest that it may not be improbable that the 

 principal uses of tails in rats and mice, are to afford 

 means by which to feed themselves when placed in 

 circumstances when, without such a member, they 

 would be unable to accomplish the object of their 

 desire; e.g., the case of milk or other liquids being 

 out of the reach of cither their nose or paws, they 

 will invariably try to dip their tails in, and then put 

 it to their mouth. Another use I believe is to afford 

 means of climbing under some circumstances, by 

 suspending themselves one from the tail of another. 

 I should be very pleased to hear anything from the 

 readers of Science- Gossip as tothe habits (varying 

 from those of the ordinary kind) and true origin of 

 the "Manx cat," which has no tail at all.—//. /. 

 Marsden. 



A Voracious Eel. — Amongst others caught in 

 a net was an eel that looked very corpulent : though 

 only weighing 2\ lb., it contained a fu 1-sized water- 

 rat, three gudgeons, and the remains of three or four 

 minnows.— W. Herridge, JVincanton. 



Dogs and Pictures.— The other evening my 

 notice was attracted to our dog, which is a splendid 

 Pomeranian. We were all quite still when suddenly 

 his eye caught sight of a portrait of an old gentle- 



man (almost life-size) which had lately been sus- 

 pended in our dining-room. He immediately com- 

 menced barking and growling, and was not quieted 

 until the picture was taken down and shown him.— 

 /. R. D. 



Mutilated Fish.— A few summers ago, I was 

 angling in the river Cale for roach and dace, grass- 

 hoppers being used for bait. I had caught several 

 fish and on getting another " bite," the gut broke 

 when 1 endeavoured to land something large. 

 Putting on a fresh hook, I resumed my sport, when 

 I found that six or seven of the fish afterwards 

 caught, had more or less of their tails recently 

 bitten off, as they were in a bleeding state when 

 taken from the water. Pike frequent the river a 

 mile or two farther down, and I suspect that it was 

 a stray one maddened with the pain of my hook that 

 attacked his piscatorial brethren.— jr. Herridge, 

 Wincanton. 



Botanical Experiments.— About twelve years 

 ago I tried a similar experiment to " Agnes Lury " : 

 the bottle was filled two-thirds with water, the acorn 

 being suspended from a thin layer of cork, carefully 

 fastened and gummed so as to be as air-tight as 

 possible. Though kept in the conservatory, its ger- 

 mination and growth was somewhat slow ; however 

 it grew too large for the bottle, and, as the acorn 

 was apparently useless, I placed a piece of card- 

 board over the mouth of the bottle, making a hole 

 large enough to admit the stem, and suspended the 

 root in the water, leaving the acorn outside; it 

 throve well after being exposed to the air, which I 

 attributed to the genial temperature of the conser- 

 vatory. Unfortunately it was broken, and I lost the 

 opportunity of observing the further results of an 

 interesting experiment.— Thomas 0. Oborn, Tangley 

 Park, Guildford. 



Cats and Music— I have a cat that has appa- 

 rently great fondness for music. Whenever any of 

 the family or a stranger commences playing on the 

 piano, and if the tune is at all lively, she fondles 

 and purrs and evinces the greatest pleasure imagi- 

 nable, and sometimes becomes so excited that she 

 will jump on to the keys and rub herself against the 

 hands of the person playing. — Thomas C. Oborn, 

 Tangley Park, Guildford. 



Spawn op Frogs and Toads. — Can any of your 

 correspondents kindly tell me the difference between 

 the spawn of frogs and that of toads ? For several 

 years I have reared tadpoles from spawn found in 

 the roadside watercourses, but frogs have always 

 been the result. Some years ago I saw some spawn 

 in a rather deep pond unlike that which I have 

 since kept, the eggs being arranged in single strings 

 like beads. Was this toad's spawn?— G. M. Doe. 



Disease in Elm-trees. — " W. A." will pro- 

 bably find that some change has taken place in the 

 water-line of the subsoil in which the elm-trees 

 stand. The most frequent cause of the death of rows 

 of elms is that a sewer or drain has been laid along 

 the road, or a stream has been diverted, by means of 

 which they have been deprived of their usual quan- 

 tity of moisture. The event frequently happens 

 when estates are turned from agricultural to build- 

 ing purposes. Sewers are put in which drain the 

 subsoil ; the spongioles of the roots are deprived 

 of their accustomed excess of moisture; dryness 

 follows ; they cannot get on ; they cast their leaves, 

 and the upper branches die. If there is water near, 



