HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



83 



Australian winter, and remains closely coiled round 

 them till the return of Spring, when the young ones 

 are hatched, and, some people say, the mother then 

 devours as many of them as she can. Centipedes, 

 scorpions, and tarantulas, are usually found con- 

 cealed, during the day, beneatli the loose bark of a 

 dead tree, or an unstripped post or rail in a fence, 

 and are the favourite food of the pied crow, or 

 Australian magpie, which displays considerable in- 

 genuity in extracting them from their lurking-places. 

 Having, probably by the sense of smell, ascertained 

 the retreat of one of the above-named disagreeable 

 insects, Mag taps the spot sharply with her powerful 

 beak, and upon the centipede, scorpion, or taran- 

 tula, as the case may be, popping out to ascertain 

 the cause of the disturbance, snaps it up, and crack- 

 ing it carefully from head to tail, swallows the dainty 

 morsel, and flies off, with a self-congratulatory 

 chuckle, to repeat the process elsewhere. 



The Mantis (sacred, from the Greek) is a curious 

 insect, of a green or blue colour, and varies in size 

 from that of a grasshopper to that of a European 

 wren. It derives its name from a habit it has of 

 sitting upright on a leaf or branch, wrapped closely 

 in its gauzy wings, its head turned skyward, in a 

 contemplative, quasi-devotional attitude, while its 

 fore-legs are crossed over each other, and partly 

 raised, as if in prayer : it is a thorough hypocrite, 

 nevertheless, and assumes this appearance of devotion 

 simply to deceive the unwary flies and creatures or 

 which it lives. It is common enough in the bush, 

 but not very frequently seen, on account of its colour 

 harmonising so thoroughly with that of the vegetation 

 upon which it is usually found. 



Another queer creature has been called the " walk- 

 ing-stick " by the colonists, from the great resem- 

 blance it bears to a piece of animated twig. There 

 are several varieties of these abnormal-looking beings, 

 at least they are found of various sizes and colours, 

 and inhabit, some the water, others the dry land. 

 They can all run with considerable agility ; and it is 

 very curious to watch the terrestrial walking-sticks 

 making their way along from one to another of the 

 sparsely distributed flowering tops of the indigenous 

 Australian grasses. I have been told that these 

 creatures develop, in course of time, into the different 

 kinds of mantis, but have no personal knowledge of 

 the metamorphosis, which, however, I do not consider 

 unlikely, as there is a general resemblance between 

 them. 



The locusts, at least such is the name given in the 

 colonies to the insects I am now about to describe, 

 are a numerous and interesting family ; some of them 

 are no larger than a bee, while others are not less 

 than a European tit. The larger sorts are of a bright 

 green colour, with golden eyes, and are the most in- 

 defatigable songsters I have ever heard : the hotter 

 the weather, the louder they chirp ; and though not 

 at all unpleasing, when heard for a short time, the 



concert becomes all but intolerable when kept up, as 

 it is, without intermission from daylight to dark. 



Grasshoppers are without number in the summer- 

 time, and may be seen of almost every size and 

 colour, hopping about in every direction, and con- 

 tributing their shrill quota to the high-pitched con- 

 cert of the locusts. 



Many other curious insects there are in the Austra- 

 lian bush, which considerations of space will not 

 permit of my even enumerating here : the following, 

 however, are deserving of briefest mention. During 

 the summer months the intelligent observer in the 

 bush cannot fail to notice a little beetle, most de- 

 structive, by the way, to furniture and dry wood in 

 general, which looks exactly as if some one had cut off 

 its head in a slanting forward direction ; and a grub, 

 called the " carpenter," which makes itself a habita- 

 tion with little bits of stick, neatly rounded off at 

 either end, and fastened together with a species of 

 silk woven for the purpose : which puts me in mind 

 that there are several kinds of native silk-worms to 

 be met with in Australia, which will, I am sure, be 

 utilised some day. 



One more reminiscence and I have done : years 

 ago I recollect reading somewhere an account of an 

 insect called the " burying-beetle," which performed 

 the "last offices " for mice and small birds : but in 

 Australia are coleoptera endowed with similar pro- 

 pensities, which I have seen ambitiously attempting 

 the sepulture of an ox, and that, too, not without a 

 fair prospect of success, had not their labours been 

 interrupted. 



NOTES FOR SCIENCE CLASSES. 

 No. VII. — Mosses. 



THE mosses 'are humble plants, but they have no 

 insignificant part to play in the economy of 

 Nature, or in the colouring of the landscape ; trees, 

 rocks, and old mins look grand under their 

 covering ; whilst the various species of Sphagnum, 

 which grow in boggy places, perform an important 

 part in the formation of turfy soil. These aquatic 

 mosses grow very rapidly, so as in a very short time 

 to occupy the whole of the pools which they 

 inhabit. The genus Phascum are very minute 

 species, found plentifully in fallow fields, but the 

 large family of Hypnums are the most conspicuous, 

 and often elegant plants, commonly seen on tree 

 trunks, old walls, &c. The mosses can be gathered 

 all the year round, although they vary in their period 

 of flowering ; for example, the Funaria is always in 

 good condition for examination ; on the other hand, 

 the Phascum blossoms in early summer, and is ripe 

 in the autumn, but the Hypnum, in many instances, 

 takes twelve months to form the mature capsule, or 

 theca. 



