HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



189 



time described ; and another rostrum in the Museum 

 of Practical Geology, characterised by being very 

 short and with a deep boat-like anterior extremity, is 

 named Mcsoplodon scaphoides. The peculiar species 

 Ailnrus anglicas, hitherto known only by a piece of a 

 lower jaw with a carnassial tooth, is now further 

 illustrated by a fine upper molar recently presented 

 to the Museum of Practical Geology. 



Rh^etic Fossils. — The finding of anything beyond 

 the merest fragments of any of the larger reptiles 

 along the Rhuetic-Lias section near Watchet, Som., 

 should be of some little public interest, and I 

 chronicle, therefore, the occurrence of the remains 

 of a large Ichthyosaurus in the Lower Lias between 

 Lilstock and Stolford, about eight miles to the east 

 of Watchet. The remains consisted of about fifteen 

 slightly disarranged vertebrae with ribs attached, all 

 the rest of the animal was wanting, having probably 

 been separated by sea currents during decomposition. 

 At various places on the coast II found detached 

 vertebrae, all of Ichthyosaurus, and at one place, 

 between Watchet and Blue Anchor, I found a few 

 washed out of the shell by the action of the sea, loose 

 amongst the pebbles. In talking with an inhabitant 

 of some geological attainments, I was told of one or 

 more entire or nearly entire specimens having been 

 discovered close to Watchet ; a thing not of course 

 unlikely, seeing that the general horizon is appa- 

 rently that of Street, near Glastonbury, where they 

 are abundant ; but I have not been able to verify or 

 disprove this hearsay evidence ; perhaps some of 

 your readers may be able to supply additional 

 information. Between Watchet and Blue Anchor 

 I came upon fragments of the well-known Rhoetic 

 bone bed ; but apparently harder and more flaggy 

 than at Aust Cliff, Gloucester, the equivalent 

 horizon. On some slabs about to be built into a wall, 

 I noticed a pretty good specimen of the pretty shark 

 spine, Nemacanthus moniUfer. Close to this horizon, 

 Professor Dawkins found many years ago the earliest 

 Mammalian teeth in Britain. — T. Slock. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Folk-lore. — A few days ago, when a friend of 

 mine was returning home with a fine live specimen 

 of the grass-snake suspended from his walking stick, 

 a benevolent carter, whom he met, asked if he knew 

 what he had got. On my friend replying that he did, 

 the man added, "That's a deaf adder" (a name 

 usually applied in this part of the country to Anguis 

 fragilis) ; " if he bites you you'll be dead before sun- 

 down. If you cut him open you will find written on 

 his flesh : — a 



" If I could hear as well as I see, 



No man nor beast could pass by me." 



This speech was bona-fide, and my friend, after some 

 useless efforts to convince the man of its utter 

 absurdity, proceeded on his way laughing. — R. 

 McKenzie Skinner. 



Blue-Tit's Nest in a Buffer of a Railway 

 Truck. — On May 22nd, while a truck was standing 

 in a brewery yard, one of the men noticed some hay 

 in the buffer (which is a hollow iron one, with a if 

 inch hole in the centre). On examination it proved 

 to be a blue-tit's nest with three eggs (one broken). 

 The truck had come the previous day from 

 Whittington, Salop, and had been recently repaired. 

 Probably the nest was built during the time it was 

 standing for repairs. There were also nests started in 

 the other three buffers. I need hardly say the bird 

 was not a passenger in her nest. — Jno. E. Nowers, 

 Burton-on- Trent. 



Alopecurus pratensis. — The other day I found 

 a specimen of the meadow fox-tail grass {Alopecurus 

 pratensis), with a fasciated stem and double head. — 

 P. Tracy, Ipswich. 



Colour of Birds' Eggs.— I have a small 

 collection of magpies' eggs which might also be 

 interesting. No. I, pair bluish-green with grey spots 

 in the usual way ; No. 2, one egg pure white, no 

 spots ; No. 3, one egg very pale blue, nearly white, 

 with a few olive-green spots ; No 4, one egg dirty 

 white with a few purple spots, and one large purple 

 blotch ; No. 5, one very dark (rather darker than a 

 skylark's), and nearly round and rather small. All 

 the eggs are the usual size and shape, except the last- 

 mentioned ; but I find that this variation is not 

 confined to birds' eggs alone, for I have quite a list 

 of birds themselves that I have seen out of the usual 

 colour. — Henry Blaby, Brackley, North Hants, 



White Rockcist. — I should very much like, 

 through your valuable columns, to draw attention to 

 the fact that Babbacombe is not the only habitat in 

 this neighbourhood for the white rockcist (Helian- 

 themum poli/olium). I have seen it on Walls Hill, 

 Babbacombe, but have also found it on Daddy Hole 

 plain, Torquay ; and on the 4th of May this year, 

 having walked out from Brixham to Berry Head on 

 a botanizing expedition, I there found it blossoming 

 luxuriantly all over the south side of the old enclosure 

 of the headland — divided by five and a half miles 

 of water from the other two habitats. — H. MacC. 

 White, Torquay. 



How Deep do Hybernating Mollusca 

 Bury ? — I have done a lot of collecting during the 

 winters of 1886-89 m tne Airedale district about 

 Calverley, Apperley Bridge, and Eshold, and my ex- 

 perience is as follows : — December 7th, 1886. New 

 line, Calverley ; Helix nemoralis, mouth upwards, 

 level with the surface of the soil, under withered 

 grass ; and in tufts of coarse grass, with thick ephi- 

 gram formed. In all my visits to this locality in 

 winter I find the same thing, also with H. virgata, 

 but this very often comes out on bright days. — 

 January 1st, 1887. On side the towing-path, canal 

 bank, Idle and Thackley ; Helix arbiistoritm, amongst 

 the dead fronds and roots of ferns, also a few H. 

 nemoralis and hortensis. Nemoralis in holes in the 

 wall ; hortensis and rufescens amongst recently fallen 

 leaves of briar and thorn ; Zonites glaber under 

 stones and timber (one stone was a large one, about 

 two cwt., such as is used for building the locks), it 

 was four to six inches down in the ground ; under 

 this we found two Limax maximus, five Arion Bour- 

 guignati, one a subfuscus, four Z. glaber, two Z. 

 alliarius, and two H. rufescens— these, were in the runs 

 of some burrowing animal.— January 5th, 1887. Buck 

 Wood, Thackley ; Z. alliarius, var. viridula, under 

 stones, along with the type and Z. pnrus ; none of the 

 Zonites, except nitidus and excavatus, can be fairly 



