HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



"7 



ated there. It is a very pretty sight when in full 

 bloom, as it gives quite a pink tinge to the fields, 

 with here and there a bit of bright blue from Gentiana 

 ziema. In Weardale I only know of two localities 

 where it can be found ; one I have seen myself many 

 times, the other I have seen the blooms from it. I 

 have often been asked where these localities are, but 

 1 keep the information to myself, although I have no 

 objections to get a few roots for any one who really 

 cares for the plant. Many years ago it used to grow 

 on a bog between here and Durham, but now there 

 is a coal pit on the place. There was a rather 

 peculiar instance of a plant coming and going here. 

 When our parish church was rebuilt in 1848 the soil 

 from the foundations was spread on one particular 

 part of the churchyard, and for a few years Henbane 

 was to be found there, and then it quietly died away. 

 The plant was not known here either before or since ; 

 I have kept a look-out for it whenever a grave has 

 been dug, but have never seen it since. — A. Pickard, 

 Wolsingham, Dur/iam. 



GEOLOGY, &C. 



A Huge Fossil Plant. — The largest plant-fossil 

 in Europe is at present being exhibited at the Berlin 

 Berg-Akademie. It was discovered in 1884 in the 

 coal mines of Piesberg, and sent to Berlin by the 

 chief magistrate of Osnabruck. With great difficulty 

 the huge mass was cut out of the earth in which it 

 was embedded and carted away. The fossil is a piece 

 of a gigantic ancestor of the ordinary Lycopodium of 

 the present day, known as Sigillaria. It consists of 

 a trunk about one yard in diameter, which divides at 

 the bottom into several forklike strong roots, rung 

 horizontally. The surface of the trunk looks like 

 wood, and shows a graining in the form of long 

 ridges. The bark is still traceable in places, in 

 charred-looking remains. Many of the roots show 

 the marks where formerly grew the long cylindrical 

 suckers which supplied the plant during its lifetime 

 with nourishment. The entire fossil, with the 

 exception of the charred pieces of bark that remain, 

 consists of argillite. The process of fossilisation was 

 as follows : — The trunk an. 4 roots became embedded 

 in mud, which gradually hardened ; the trunk then 

 rotted away, so that at last only the hard case round it 

 remained, which was then tubelike in form ; this tube 

 became gradually filled with argilaceous mud, which 

 in its turn hardened, and took the shape of the trunk. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Cuckoo and Wagtail. — Mr. Smith, in December 

 number of Science-Gossip, asks, " Is it not strange 

 that the pied wagtail should be foster-mother to the 

 cuckoo ? " It is not uncommon. Last year I saw 

 a wagtail whose whole time, like the one Mr. Smith 



refers to, seemed to be taken up in catching flies for 

 a young cuckoo. It was busy as a bee. Some years 

 ago I saw a young cuckoo in a wagtail's nest, in a 

 quarry at Chipping Sodbury. I also remember when 

 a lad one being found in a robin's nest, with the young 

 robins outside. I do not think the cuckoo is partial 

 to any particular nest, such as the hedge-sparrow, which 

 Mr. Smith suggests, so that she can rid herself of the 

 responsibility of rearing her offspring. Is it not 

 strange (1) That she should lay so late in the season, 

 as in the case Mr. Smith refers to ? (2) That small 

 birds should so seem to lack discrimination as not to 

 object very strongly, but rather to take to, and feed 

 so a^siduously one so much larger than their own 

 young, and even than themselves ; and (3) That the 

 cuckoo should lay her eggs in the nests of small birds, 

 and thus impose the responsibility of rearing her 

 young upon those whose own family claims are so 

 heavy and constant, instead of laying, say, in a crow's 

 or magpie's, or other large bird's nest? But perhaps 

 she does, although never to my knowledge. Has 

 any reader of Science-Gossip ever known of such a 

 case ? — y. Brozuri, Wincanton. 



Colour of Eggs. — I am told that a certain 

 guillemot near Flamboro' invariably lays white eggs. 

 The collectors usually obtain three or lour eggs every 

 season from the same ledge, and I believe they are 

 sold at a high price to a collector in the south, who 

 has a standing order for all they can procure. — y. A. 

 Wheldon, Leeds. 



Tadpoles. — With reference to a correspondence 

 in the last volume as to tadpoles remaining for an 

 abnormal length of time previous to metamorphosis 

 into frogs or toads as the case may be, I may mention 

 that in 187 1 I found in the pools of a quarry about 

 two miles from my present residence a few black 

 tadpoles, presumably those of the toad, so late as 

 November 8th. Some of these, however, had acquired 

 legs, but the majority were entirely destitute of these 

 useful appendages. I had an idea at the time that 

 these tadpoles were those of the Natterjack 

 (B. calamitd). Last year, too, I noticed tadpoles in 

 the same quarry in the second week in October. — 

 IV. H. IVarner, Fy field, Abingdon. 



Bird-Egg Curiosities (p. 7.) — Might I add two 

 or three more " curiosities " to those enumerated by 

 Mr. T. D. Wright, in his interesting article under the 

 above heading ? I once had an egg of the hedge- 

 sparrow {A. modularis), which, though similar in 

 colour and shape to those usually laid by that 

 familiar little bird, was in size no bigger than 

 those deposited by Jenny Wren in her "hole of a 

 nest." Again, in July 1S83, I found the nest of a 

 spotted flycatcher (M. grisola) built in the fork of 

 a pear-tree in an orchard in Oxfordshire, containing 

 four eggs, which, instead.of being of the usual bluish- 

 white tint, liberally freckled with faint red, were of 

 a uniform pale greenish-blue, and, more singular still, 

 were almost globular in form. Our breakfast-table 

 purveyor too (Galhts domcsticus) often produces some 

 remarkable curiosities in the shape of eggs. A 

 neighbour one morning showed me an egg which 

 had been laid by one of his fowls. It was in size 

 and shape very similar to that of the common snake 

 (T. natrix), and was buff in colour, sprinkled with 

 reddish spots. — W. H. Warner, Fyfield, Abingdon. 



The Common Guillemot. — Any one who has a 

 long series of eggs of this bird, or who has an oppor- 

 tunity of seeing a number of eggs of this bird, will at 

 once be struck by the great diversity of colouring and 



