r.s 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



formed him : it is about the size of a pea, white, 

 with obscure markings. The number deposited 

 varies from twelve to eighteen. The old and young 

 birds keep together during the autumn and winter 

 months, and at the present season may be occa- 

 sionally seen actively engaged in company searching 

 the branches and twigs of shrubs for insect food, 

 running up and down, turning and twisting, head 

 or tail uppermost, in true "Tit" fashion. — George 

 Gascoyne. 



Rare Insect. — In " Notes on the Entomological 

 Season of 1S73 " (Science-Gossip, No. 109, p. 1), 

 " M. H." says, " ti. velleda has been extending its 

 southward range; it has been reported from the 

 Quantock Hills, Somerset, from Eolkestone," &c. 

 As far as Kent is concerned, //. velleda is quite an 

 old inhabitant, as, on referring to Westwood and 

 Humphrey's "British Moths," I find "the species 

 has been found plentifully in Darentli Wood, 

 Kent ;" I have not heard, however, of its having 

 been taken there of late years. In a wood in the 

 neighbourhood of Chatham, I have been in the 

 habit of taking this species for the last twenty years, 

 my first record bearing date May 23rd, lS5i, since 

 which time scarcely a year has passed without an 

 entry of its capture, my last date being June 23rd, 

 1873. _ It must, therefore, have been many years ago 

 since it extended its southward range iuto Kent, as 

 Westwood's statement must have been written quite 

 thirty years ago. In some years I have seen this 

 insect in great profusion ; it seems to prefer under- 

 wood of about two years' growth, through and be- 

 tween which it flies very rapidly between sunset and 

 dark. From the above facts, both as to the time it 

 has been observed, and the moth not being at all a 

 ■weak insect on the wing, we need not be surprised 

 at its occurrence at Folkestone, nor, indeed, at any 

 other part of Kent, and may expect to hear of its 

 turning up both in Sussex and Surrey. I may also 

 add that, in addition to the two L. albipuncta taken 

 at Folkestone, which I have seen, several others 

 were taken there by another collector ; two were 

 also taken in the Isle of Sheppey. — W. Chaney. 



Snakes and Toads.— One day, while hunting for 

 specimens in the early summer with a friend, we 

 came across a fine snake, measuring a little more 

 than a yard. While measuring it we remarked a 

 sort of protuberance or lump midway between its 

 liead and tail. We took no further notice of this, 

 carrying the snake with its head downwards, till it 

 appeared that the lump moved gradually toward the 

 head. Fastening a piece of grass to the end of its 

 tail, and hanging it to a tree, we anxiously awaited 

 the result. At last its mouth began slowly to open, 

 and a large toad made its appearance. The load 

 was covered with a greenish slime, and after some 

 minutes recovered, and was, seemingly, little the 

 worse for its imprisonment. My friend still has 

 both the snake and toad preserved in spirits of 

 wine. The snake was the common grej', and not by 

 any means the largest of that kind that I have 

 seen. — Brynffynnon. 



Microscopic Fungi.— I have lately been search- 

 ing among some large beds of Iris fetida for its 

 Puccinia, and have discovered one plant only with 

 sori ; but on bringing it home found that the spores 

 were only in the iircdo state. Will some of your 

 " Pucciueous " correspondents be so good as to tell 

 me something of the history of P. lnnicata--dLO the 

 t)rand-spores succeed, or precede, the urcdo form ? 

 It is inconvenient to me to watch this infected plant 



of Iris, so that I should like to know at what season 

 to find the characteristic spore. — /. O. M. 



How TO Prepare Skeleton Leaves. — Skeleton 

 leaves obtained by boiling in caustic soda (see vol. 

 viii. p. 30) are of a light brown colour, and require 

 so long an immersion in chloride solution to whiten 

 them, that they are quite destroyed unless the fibres 

 are unusually stout, and even then the stems seldom 

 become white. Would Mr. J. F. Robinson, or any 

 of your readers, oblige me by stating how the 

 specimens may be properly bleached and attain the 

 whiteness of such as are prepared iu the old way ?— 

 /. L. B. 



A Protest. — As the collecting season is approach- 

 ing, pray allow me to enter an emphatic protest 

 against the gradual extermination of the rarer 

 species of our birds, insects, and plants, carried on 

 from year to year by a number of persons calling 

 themselves naturalists, who can, however, have little 

 of that true love for nature which can admire the 

 beautiful and interesting without their hands itch- 

 ing to take possession. There can be little doubt 

 that if something is not done to check this injurious 

 propensity, in a very few years nothing but the 

 more common varieties will be left. How many 

 beautiful kinds of birds might have become natu- 

 ralized amongst us, had not the first-comers invari- 

 ably fallen before the guns of brainless fellows whom 

 it would be absurd to call sportsmen ? Then with 

 regard to the destruction of tb© rarer kinds of 

 butterflies, &c., I need only refer to the January 

 number of Science-Gossip for the present year, 

 pagel, where the writer says, amongst other things, 

 that the " take " of V. antiopa last year is consider- 

 ably less than in 1872, and that the disparity is 

 probably owing to the fact that almost all the 

 individuals seen in that year were netted, so that 

 few were left to perpetuate the species ! Then as 

 to the exterminating collection of botanical speci- 

 mens, a case in point appears at page 91 of Science- 

 Gossip for 1870, In reply to_ an inquiry as to 

 whether the rare Pyrola media is stiU to be found 

 at Stock Ghyll, Ambleside, the writer states that 

 on a certain date, after a long search, he obtained 

 fee specimens, and apparently not content with this 

 large number, three weeks later went over the 

 ground again with a friend, but without finding a 

 single plant. Is it any wonder, after reading the 

 above, that the habitats of many of our choice wild 

 flowers are yearly becoming fewer in number ? It 

 ought to be an invariable rule with all true natural- 

 ists— ^ lake nothing that is rare. When a species 

 becomes plentiful then specimens in moderation may 

 be taken ; till then the motto should be "Eyes on 

 and hands ofl'." — C. 



Grafting: Strange Freak. — A moss rose 

 graftedonthecommon cabbage rose produced a shoot 

 on the top of graft same as the parent stock, the 

 ilowers on which were cabbage roses and those on 

 the centre of same shoot moss roses.— /S'. A. B. 



Winter Stores. — Five or six weeks ago, in a 

 walk with one of my neighbours, we found several 

 patches of a brightish substance which, at first, 

 Mc thought was a sort of fungus. On procuring 

 a portion, we were somewhat surprised to find 

 that the supposed fungus was a collection formed 

 of fragments of hips and haws. These fragments 

 wore found in detached cemented masses of irre- 

 gular form, from four to seven or eight inches 

 across. 1 send you a piece : it may, perhaps, be not 



