HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



19 



United Kingdom, by the establishment of branches 

 in all our large cities and towns. The originator of 

 the scheme was the Editor of " Youth," who acts as 

 President, and the idea has been warmly taken up by 

 not a few eminent naturalists, who have already 

 added their names to the honorary membership list. 

 The subscription for honorary members is 2s. 6d. 

 and for ordinary is. per annum. Further particulars 

 may be had on application to the Chairman of 

 Council — Alfred J. Weyman, Esq. F.R.Hist.S., etc. 

 Keppoch House, Glasgotu, or J. W. Williams, Esq., 

 B.Sc, 100, Albert Street, Regent's Park, IF. 



Apanteles glomeratus. — As a rule, very few 

 caterpillars of the great white cabbage butterfly 

 escape being eaten up alive by the larvce of this 

 ichneumon fly, but last autumn I scarcely saw one 

 caterpillar attacked by them, and the fact struck me 

 as somewhat remarkable and worthy of record. — 

 Albert H. Waters, B.A., Cambridge. 



Butterflies at Cambridge. — I noticed last 

 year that Colias ediisa had begun to put in an ap- 

 pearance. I had not seen it flying here for the last 

 six years. I also observed that Pyraineis Cardui 

 was tolerably abundant, lo Urticce and Atalaiiia 

 have been very plentiful, as have also the common 

 whites ; but yanira, Hyperaiithiis, Rhamni, and 

 Carda/nines seem to have been scarcer than they 

 ordinarily are. Tithonus and the common blue 

 seemed, however, to have been pretty plentiful. — 

 Albert H. Waters, B.A., Cambridge. 



The Salmon Disease. — Mr. H. Marshall Ward, 

 Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge, has made 

 some interesting experiments in the reproduction of 

 the fungus of the salmon disease — Saprolegnia ferax. 

 The disease first appeared in 1877 in certain rivers 

 flowing into the Sohvay Firth. Since then it has 

 extended rapidly and widely, and in iSSo it appeared 

 in North Wales. Salmon affected by the disease 

 show signs of languor, feed badly, and when severely 

 affected, die. The fungus is reproduced very rapidly, 

 and may be cultivated on the bodies of ordinary flies. 

 Contact of the diseased salmon with a dead fly in 

 fresh water, for twenty-four hours or less, results in 

 infection of the latter, and very fine silky filaments 

 are soon observed to shoot forth in all directions 

 from the body of the fly into the water. If proper 

 precautions are taken, the silky filaments soon form 

 multitudes of reproductive bodies by which other 

 flies may be infected. Mr. Ward recently described 

 his experiments in detail to the members of the Man- 

 chester Literary and Philosophical Society, and said 

 that the results he had obtained confirmed those 

 published by Professor Huxley. 



Spotted Redshank at Lynn. — Four beautiful 

 specimens of the spotted redshank {Totaims fiiscus) 

 were shot on the mud-banks at Lynn on October 



28th last. The birds were in the winter plumage. 

 Two were adults, and two immature, males and 

 females of each. The latter sex was the largest ; 

 the adult female weighed eight ounces, and the 

 male seven. Adult specimens are not often obtained 

 in Norfolk, but individuals in the immature plumage 

 sometimes occur in the autumn. — E. W. Gunn, Jiin., 

 St. Giles Street, Norwich. 



The Cultivation of the Herring. — Some 

 very interesting experiments were made by the In- 

 vestigation Committee of the Fishery Board for 

 Scotland, during the recent summer, in connection 

 with the early history of the herring. The ova of 

 that fish were successfully artificially impregnated 

 and developed. The first experiment was made on 

 August 7th with spawn from herring which had been 

 several hours out of the water, but these results were 

 unsatisfactory. Afterwards ripe fish were obtained, 

 the roe and the milt were pressed out on separate 

 slips of glass, and then placed in specially-designed 

 carrying boxes, and conveyed to a laboratory, where 

 they were transferred to hatching boxes, through 

 which a constant current of water flowed. In from 

 three to five days well-formed active little embryos 

 were visible through the transparent egg-membrane, 

 and in ten days successfully hatched fry were obtained 

 from the artificially impregnated ova. It was found 

 that the chief feature in their successful development 

 was having an abundant supply of pure sea water, at 

 an equable temperature. The committee report that 

 from the experience gained last autumn, they are now 

 able to hatch immense numbers of herring ; each 

 herring produces from 30,000 to 50,000 eggs, but 

 they are so small that 20,000 are only a layer thick, and 

 can be placed on a square foot of glass. From icoo 

 herrings it would be possible to obtain about thirty 

 millions of fry, and this in from ten to fifteen days. 

 It is well known that following herrings is an abund- 

 ance of cod, and other food fishes. Hence the annual 

 introduction of some millions of young herring into 

 British waters might serve to attract numerous large 

 food fishes to our shores. What , is true of the 

 herring is equally so for other fishes, such as the sole 

 and the turbot (which have recently been declining 

 in numbers). These are less migratory than the 

 herring, and the Committee of the Fishery Board 

 think they might be manipulated in much the same 

 way as trout and salmon, if we only knew their habits. 



Geese Migrating. — A large flock of geese passed 

 over Norwich city about 2 p.m. on 29th November. 

 The direction of flight was from north-west to south- 

 east. As they passed overhead some of the birds 

 were distinctly recognised as the Canada (A7iser 

 Canadensis). Several persons counted the flock, and 

 reported it to consist of some eighty-three or eighty- 

 four individuals. — E. JV. Gunn,jitn., St. Giles Street, 

 Norwich. 



