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HA RD WICKE' S SCIENCE- G OS SIP. 



of the stone below the layer is chalcedony profusely 

 sprinkled with minute red dots. This is the stig- 

 mites, or St. Stephen's stone. When the specimen 

 is held obliquely between the eye and a strong sun or 

 gas light, the prismatic colours appear at first of an 

 intense blue or green, in fine wavy lines, then, when 

 turned in the hand, the reds and yellows make their 

 appearance, and shine with equal brilliancy. The 

 stronger the light the more beautiful the rainbow 

 appears. The stone need not be placed very near to 

 the light, as it can be seen in a room at a yard 

 distant from a lighted gas. I possess many other 

 specimens, both plain and banded, some of which 

 are quite as thin as the specimen described above. 

 These have all the appearance of the rainbow stone, 

 but none of them show any colours when held up to 

 the light.— F. P. Marrat, The Free Public Jl/useum, 

 Liverpool. 



Note on the Occurrence of Fish-remains, 

 &<:., in the Forest of Dean Coal Basin. — 

 Whilst recently making a collection of plants from 

 the Forest of Dean coal-field, I noticed a few scales 

 of cceclacanthus and a tooth of diplodus in a bed of 

 carbonaceous shale, or impure cannel, obtained from 

 above the High Delf coal at the Trafalgar or Ser- 

 ridge Pit, near Cinderford. They were accompanied 

 by an occasional coprolite, and a few thin, flattened, 

 obscure shells belonging to two genera, one of which 

 was finely striated, and might, perhaps, be an ento- 

 mostracan. Except an occasional coprolite in other 

 beds, this was all the evidence I saw of the presence 

 of fish-remains in that basin, in which, as in those of 

 the Bristol and Radstock areas, animal remains of 

 any kind appear to be exceedingly scarce. In the 

 Bristol district I have occasionally obtained good 

 Leaias, a large and small species (if not the same), 

 from Coal Pit Heath Colliery, and other thin obscure 

 shells, apparently Lamellibranchs, occasionally from 

 the S. Parkfield Colliery, and the pits near Yate. 

 Also at the Howbeach Colliery, near Yorkley, in the 

 Forest of Dean, I saw and obtained specimens of 

 Leaia and other small shells from a gray shale over- 

 lying the Coleford High Delf seam. As far as I can 

 gather from inquiry and from reading, this is the first 

 time that fish-remains have been detected in either of 

 the coal basins above mentioned, and it is to be 

 regretted that the specimens obtained are both few 

 and fragmentary ; but they will serve to indicate a 

 horizon where they may be expected to occur. For 

 the exact localitating of the bed I am indebted to the 

 kindness of Mr. A. Brain, manager of the Trafalgar 

 Pit.— T. Stock. 



The Saiga Antelope in Britain. — At the 

 Zoological Society's Meeting on November 4th, Mr. 

 Smith Woodward exhibited and made remarks upon 

 the calvarium and horn-cores of an adult male Saiga 

 antelope {Saiga tartarica), from the Thames 

 Pleistocene deposits near Richmond, Surrey. The 



specimen was forwarded to the British Museum for 

 determination by Dr. J. R. Leeson, F.G.S., of 

 Twickenham, who had obtained it from a recent 

 excavation in Orleans Road. The fossil agrees so 

 closely with the corresponding part of the skull of the 

 recent Saiga, that no doubt remains as to the correct- 

 ness of the identification ; and the discovery makes 

 known for the first time the presence of this antelope 

 in the British Pleistocene Fauna. Bones and teeth 

 of the Saiga are already well-known from several 

 caverns in France and Belgium, found in intimate 

 association with the evidences of Palseolithic man ; 

 and the occurrence of the animal in Britain was thus 

 likely to be proved sooner or later. At the present 

 day, Saiga tartarica is essentially characteristic of the 

 Siberian steppes, though occasionally met with as far 

 west as the borders of Russian Poland. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Query as to a Plant. — Would you please put a 

 question in your column of Notes and Queries, 

 regarding a plant I am curious about ? Long years 

 ago I copied a notice of it from an Indian paper here. 

 It is : — " A medical officer of the French Govern- 

 ment in the Madras Presidency, has discovered a 

 cure for leprosy. It is a plant very common there, 

 called Vhydrocotyle Asiatique. Two ounces of the 

 dried plant to a quart of water, to be taken daily." — 

 Edith R. Allan. 



Strange Wasfs' Nest. — There is here a wasps' 

 nest of so very unusual an appearance, that I think it 

 deserves a notice. It is situated in a chamber used 

 as a hen-loft. Some pieces of sack had been nailed 

 to the wall, on which the insects have built their 

 nest, about twelve inches by eight inches in size, pear- 

 shaped, crown upward ; the entrance is situated near 

 the bottom and close to the right angle partition wall, 

 the materials are of the usual kind, resembling light- 

 brown or straw-coloured paper. What strikes one as 

 singular is the fact of the insects having worked all 

 over the structure of the nest, tastefully arranged 

 patterns of a much -lighter colour, fairly resembling 

 the inside rim of bivalve scallop-shells. This is as 

 near an accurate account as I am at present able to 

 give, as its situation is rather obscure, requiring a 

 nearer approach than my courage would allow me to 

 make among the active operations of a full company 

 of these "Uhlan Lancers." — G. Worledge, Wood- 

 bridge. 



Late Nidification of the Wood-Pigeon. — 

 On October 19th an unfledged wood-pigeon {Cohimba 

 palumlms) was found in a nest situated in a small fir 

 tree, within a few yards of a cottage at Penton, 

 Crecliton, Devon. Probably owing to the unusual 

 warmth and dryness of the weather, several pairs of 

 wood-pigeons have succeeded in rearing their second 

 or third brood during September in the neighbour- 

 hood ; but the fact of so young a bird being in the 

 nest so late as the 19th of October appears worthy of 

 record. Macgillivray notes seeing a pair of young 

 birds on the 26th of October, but states that they 

 had down tips to the feathers, showing that they 

 were much older than the unfledged bird above 

 mentioned. As much earlier dates of nidification 

 have been quoted as remarkable, the writer would 



