i6 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



scene, kicking and screaming, no attempt to get away, 

 but a resolute fight with the pencil. I must remark 

 that Atropos certainly makes two sounds : the more 

 ■common resembles the noise made by an imprisoned 

 bee or a large fly held in the hand, it is of short 

 duration ; the other is a squeak. 



On the evening of the 1st of November, this moth 

 became so very lively that it was necessary to put it 

 in a large bottle of cyanide to prevent the plumage 

 from being damaged. 



To return to the larva first received : one day in 

 the first half of October, seeing a crack near the hole 

 marking its place of descent, I expected an early ap- 

 pearance. On the following day I dug it up, expecting 

 to find the pupa just below the surface, but it was not 

 till I had reached the bottom of the pot that I found 

 it. It was in a chamber the shape and size of a small 

 hen's egg, the sides beautifully smooth. When taken 

 out, the colour was a bright chestnut, which became 

 nearly black after a few days' exposure on the surface 

 of the earth, which I moistened from time to time- 

 On one occasion I thought I heard a sort of grunt 

 from the pupa ; this I found was produced by a rapid 

 sweep of the tail over the earth, for the pupa of this 

 species is far more active, than any other I have seen ; 

 no sound was produced in the hand, or on a smooth 

 surface. 



At night, and during the greater part of the day, 

 the pot was covered with a paper cone, made with 

 four thicknesses of newspaper, the bottom tightly 

 tied round the pot, the top fastened with a rubber 

 band, and the middle with a pin. This I thought quite 

 secure. However, the pupa was seen all right, at half- 

 past ten on the evening of the twelfth of November 

 and on the thirteenth the empty case was found and 

 not the moth. The house was hunted from cellar to 

 attic many times without result ; on the following 

 day the earth of a flower pot in a window was seen 

 to> have been disturbed during the night. I searched 

 the earth and found an egg, whether of Atropos or 

 not, I cannot say ; I shall be pleased to send the egg 

 to any reader who can identify it for me. 



At dusk the moth was found on drawing the 

 curtains, though these had been repeatedly examined 

 during the day. This specimen squeaked freely. To 

 prevent further accidents, I placed it at once in the 

 cyanide bottle, without waiting to make any more 

 experiments. W. A. Gain. 



'lux ford, Newark. 



A MUD-CAPPED DYKE. 

 By the Rev. Hilderic Friend, F.L.S. 



AS we take our morning walk during the dreary 

 days of December we naturally think that it is 

 useless to occupy our minds with anything relating to 

 Nature, for all life has been extinguished, and all 

 activity among animals and plants hushed to rest till 



spring-time again calls it forth. Unless we have 

 more than the usual amount of interest in, and 

 knowledge of, the familiar objects around us, we 

 shall be apt to conclude that any attempt to derive 

 instruction or profit from things so often seen and so 

 well understcod by us as these are, will be useless, 

 and we may as well neglect the appearance of the 

 leafless trees, the brown hedgerows, the seared 

 meadow grass ; thinking only of how much ground we 

 can cover, how rapidly we can walk, how much heat 

 we may evolve, or what we shall do on our return. 

 Thus, unfortunately, to many the days of winter are 

 often days of dulness and monotony, and their 

 enforced or voluntary perambulations in the country 

 yield no such golden return as is reaped in summer 

 days. Yet we are bound to ask, need this be so? 

 Is it true that life is extinguished ? Is all activity at 

 an end? And even if this were so, is there nothing 

 in the familiar objects around us which can serve us 

 for a text or even a lecture ? Those leafless trees we 

 saw a few months ago, in their dress of living green, 

 could tell us much that would interest us now if we 

 would examine their buds, scars, bark, or twig and 

 branch arrangements. Under the hedge bottom are 

 many forms of fungoid life with which most of us are 

 still unfamiliar, whose life history and economy we 

 might profitably examine ; while here is a mud- 

 capped dyke, the history of whose name, materials, 

 and tenants, would occupy our thoughts for many an 

 hour. 



i. The Name. — Some of my readers who live in 

 the South of England are saying : " We never heard 

 of such a thing as a dyke capped with mud, nor can 

 we see how such a thing is possible." They even 

 assert that it is quite evident I don't know what a 

 dyke is, or I should never speak of it thus. Here is 

 a philologist who says : " Look at your dictionary, and 

 you will find that a dyke (or dike) is a ditch (called 

 dick in Sussex), or trench, that is, it is something dug 

 out, and so you cannot have a mud-capped dyke." 

 I soon find I have stirred up a hornet's nest. A 

 Sussex friend says : "If you only knew as much 

 about dykes as I do, you would talk with more sense. 

 Don't you know that a dyke is a marsh drain ? If 

 you want to know what a dyke is, go out to Pevensey 

 Marsh or Romney, and ask the dyke-reve (the officer 

 who superintends the dykes and drains in marshes)." 

 I have not heard the last word from my angry critic 

 (who little thinks that I have been across as many 

 Sussex dykes as he has), before a learned geologist 

 chimes in : " Sir, if you would only study science as 

 I do, you would soon learn that a dyke consists of 

 cooled lava, which when molten was poured by 

 volcanic action into cracks and cavities already 

 formed in the solid rock. If you will accompany me 

 to the Wrekin or the Lake District, I will soon show 

 you what a dyke is." Very generous ! But I happen 

 to know those localities very well, and have seen the 

 famous dykes of the geologist there. I see, however, 



