J 5° 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



great harm. Tree creepers and woodpeckers are, of 

 course, innocuous. 



x. Wagtails, and pipits, all seem to be rather 

 beneficial than otherwise ; and the same applies to 

 buntings. 



xi. For the common sparrow {P. domesticus), 

 having witnessed its depredations in Australia as well 

 as at home, I have not a good word to say. Destroy 

 them all, I say — as they did in biblical times if it is 

 the same birds mentioned in the scriptures. The 

 tree-sparrow (P. montanus) is useful. 



xii. The starling is sadly trying in the cherry 

 orchards when the fruit is ripening. On the other 

 hand, what an enormous amount of good the flocks 

 accomplish in the pasture lands by destroying the 

 larva; of the tipula lurking in the roots of the grass. 



xiii. The rook is a much maligned bird. If it 

 robs the grain and young shoots, how much more of 

 the deadly wireworm does it consume ? Encourage 

 them to build everywhere is my advice. 



xiv. Flycatchers do nothing but good. 



XV. I have never been able to discover any harm 

 done in garden or orchard by chaffinches. 



XVI. There is an extensive group of birds, such as 

 jays, magpies, carrion crows, and jackdaws, which are 

 the enemies of game-keepers and poultry-fanciers. 

 But I do not think they injure vegetation to any 

 appreciable extent. 



xvii. All hawks and owls are the farmer's friends. 



XVIII. The goatsucker is most partial tonight-flying 

 eockchaffers and large insects. 



xix. Swallows, swifts, and martins prey on insect 

 life. 



xx. Crossbills extract the seeds from hard 

 coniferous fruits only. 



XXI. Wood-pigeons and their kind are de- 

 structive to crops rather than orchards. I should 

 destroy them. 



XXII. The corn-crake, very common in Worcester- 

 shire, does no harm. 



xxin. The siskin, arriving in autumn in our parts, 

 cannot do much damage. 



xxiv. The whinchat abounding in the fields either 

 eats insects or grass seeds. 



xxv. The wryneck loves ants and such food, and so 

 does the wheatear. 



xxvi. The goldcrest clears evergreen conifers from 

 small insect life. 



xxvii. The redstart is perfectly harmless, as are 

 the robin and common wren, and hedge-sparrows. 



xxviii. The skylark is injurious to the spring corn. 

 I have seen great numbers this year in a field where 

 they did serious damage. 



To sum up my notes, it leads to the conclusion 

 that, as far as orchards and fields are concerned, 

 sparrows (P. domesticus), green linnets, and wood- 

 pigeons, are wholely injurious to crops, and larks 

 partially so ; that blackbirds, thrushes, and starlings 

 do damage in the ripe-fruit season, but great good 



at other time ; that rooks are friends to the farmer 

 rather than enemies ; that tits do some little harm 

 possibly to fruit buds in their efforts to kill blight, 

 and that most birds are innocuous, unless it be one 

 or two of the hard-billed finches. I should like to 

 hear the experiences of others on this subject. 



C. Parkinson. 



NOTE ON A HANDY "BLOCK" FOR THE 

 WORK-TABLE. 



I APPEND a rough sketch of a work-table block 

 which I have found handy as a dissecting 

 microscope stage, a drawing stand, and an apparatus 

 for satisfactorily hardening balsam mounts. As a 

 rule, anything claiming to be a multum in parvo is a 

 fraud ; but having had this block beside me on my 

 work-table constantly for several years, and its uses 

 having suggested themselves one by one as needs 

 arose, I feel sure that others also will find the 

 apparatus an inexpensive and handy addition to their 

 stock, and withal may improve upon it. It is a block 

 of polished teak wood of the following dimensions : — 



ad. . . .5 inches 

 ai; . . . . 6 



EB . . . . 7 



Ac ■ ( # s • "J * 5 



*/....- 2j „ 



JC . . . . 2h „ 



The groove or recess in which the mirror M is fixed 

 should have its three sides blackened ; in mine I 

 pasted dead-black paper on the sides of the recess. 

 My mirror is from an old microscope, in which it was 

 fixed by a pin which passed into a hole in an upright 

 brass rod ; the pin is now fixed in a hole bored half 

 way up whichever of the three sides of the recess is 

 most convenient for light. Two small brass pins are 

 let into holes at the points e and d. For a reason to 

 be stated later on, the exact dimensions of the block 

 will have to vary in one direction : preferably in the 

 width, A B. 



For use as a stage for a dissecting microscope 

 place a plate of photographic glass (about five inches 

 square) on the top of the block. The object to be 

 dissected can be worked at in a glass trough, or a 

 watch-glass, or even on a slide laid upon the plate of 

 photographic glass. The pins at e and d help to 

 steady the glass plate. Light is thrown up through 

 the object by the mirror M. The lens used may be 

 in a separate stand such as a gem-engraver's, or 

 preferably on one of the small stands made by 

 Baker and others for pocket and platyscopic lenses, 

 and which can be stood on the glass plate. 



If intended to be used as a drawing-stand, the 

 width, A b, or at any rate one of the dimensions of 

 the block, should be such that when added to the 

 height of the centre of the eye-glass from the table 



