HARDWJCKE'S SCI ENCE-GOSSIF. 



259 



envelope. Some twenty-five years ago I discovered 

 that a volume, recently bound, which stood by its side, 

 showed signs of attack. Thus I became informed 

 that the creature was living in the covers. To eject 

 it, or try to do so, I beat them well with a hammer, 

 and so ultimately I removed twenty larvas and five of 

 the beetle or perfect insect, and so got rid of all further 

 mischief. The worm had perfoi"ated the volume in 

 many ways, but it was the covers they preferred. 

 Oaken covers are rarely attacked and only under 

 special conditions. The millboard now used they 

 do not like, as I found they retired after having 

 pierced the leather envelope. In fact, banish the 

 beech-wood and you banish the worm. It is only an 

 accident when it appears in other bound books. I 

 am quite convinced that, properly so-called, there is 

 no book-worm, but it is the larvae of the Scolytus, 

 common to the beech-wood, and which plays such 

 havoc with furniture made of that material. — J. G. 

 Waller. 



Marine Borers. — An interesting lecture was 

 recently delivered at the Edinburgh Forestry Ex- 

 hibition by Professor MTntosh, in which he called 

 attention to the serious damage inflicted upon sub- 

 marine wood-work by marine borers. Among the 

 most destructive of this class are the crabs known as 

 the Chehiria terebrans and the Limiioria ligiiormii, 

 or Scotch gribble, of which the former is the most 

 mischievous, as being able to make larger and more 

 oblique excavations. It was thought that the gribbJe 

 paid attention only to timber, but it is now known 

 that it is equally unremitting in its attentions to the 

 sheaths of gutta-percha and other materials which 

 protect submarine cables. The ravages of the gribble, 

 great as they are, are surpassed by those of the 

 xylophaga, a very small bivalve occupying a position 

 between the stone and rock boring pholas and the 

 wood boring teredo. The tunnels which the latter 

 made into timber were of astonishing length, varying 

 from one to two feet in the common teredo to three 

 feet in the case of the great teredo. Up to the 

 present time, no wood has been found capable of 

 resisting the attacks of these little creatures ; and 

 although various remedies have been tried in the 

 shape of immersion of the wood in silicated lime, 

 bitumen, and creosote, by forcing them under great 

 pressure into the tissue, the latter material was the 

 only one which had been found to be efiicacious, 

 while mechanically nothing short of metallic sheathing 

 protects the timber. On the other hand, the Pro- 

 fessor pointed out, that the borers were frequently 

 useful in their proper place, and particularly in the 

 case of drifted timber, and old wrecks, which would 

 be very dangerous to navigation were they not rapidly 

 disintegrated by the action of the teredo. 



Arvicola amphibius. — I have given much at- 

 tention of late to the habits of this vole, and feel 



assured it is entirely vegetarian in its diet. I know 

 we do sometimes find the shells of water snails in its 

 burrow, but I suspect they are often dragged in with 

 weeds by accident and not carried there intentionally. 

 The common brown rat often dispossesses the acpiatic 

 rodent of its burrow and appropriates it to its own 

 use, and as this gentleman does relish a molluscous 

 diet the water vole is apt to be charged with the 

 brown rat's sins. Beautifully dark coloured speci- 

 mens of A>'vicola amphibius may be seen, in the fens 

 near Cambridge, by those who know how to watch 

 warily fur such timid animals — timid with good 

 reason, for not unfrequently they, unwillingly, serve 

 as a living target for a pistol bullet. — Albert H. 

 Waters, B.A., Cambridge. 



Local Scientific Societies. — The Annual 

 Report of the Penzance Natural History and Antiqua- 

 rian Society is to hand, containing, among other 

 matter, papers of considerable interest on " The 

 Marine Algas of West Cornwall, " by John Ralfs ; " The 

 Marine Polyzoa of the Land's End District," by J. B. 

 Magor ; "The Sphagnums or Bog Mosses of West 

 Cornwall," by W. Curnow ; "The Ichneumonidse of 

 the Land's End District," by Ernest D. Marquand ; 

 and an account of a "Lichen Supper," describing 

 some culinary experiments on certain of the common 

 lichens, including Sticta pulmonata, Peltigera canina 

 and Parmelia ferlata, of which the sticta is described 

 as being horribly tough and bitter, whilst the peltigera 

 is compared to half- boiled cabbage. The results of 

 these experiments will hardly commend lichens to the 

 epicurean palate as special luxuries. The Proceed- 

 ings of the Liverpool Naturalists' Field Club is mainly 

 occupied with descriptions of various excursions made 

 by the club during the past year : a list is also given 

 of the most interesting botanical "finds " during those 

 excursions. In the Report of the South London 

 Natural History Club, we note the address of the 

 President, Mr. B. Daydon Jackson, and abstracts of 

 various papers read before the Club, including : 

 " Insectivorous Plants," by Mr. Henry Groves ; and 

 " British Sea Anemones," by Mr, W. T. Suffolk. 

 "The Ear," by I\Ir. H. Belham Robinson; '' Aconi- 

 tiim Napellits,'"'' by Mr. D. G. Simpson, and 

 " Endemic Species and their Lessons," by Mr. G. C. 

 Chisholm. The Fourth Annual Report of the 

 Walthamstow Natural History Society contains an 

 account of the year's work, and an interesting descrip- 

 tion by the curator, Mr. A. H. Hinton, of the principal 

 objects of natural history &c., in the possession of the 

 Club. In the Transactions of the Yorkshire Philoso- 

 phical Society are to be found reports by the respective 

 curators of the departments of Botany, Comparative 

 Anatomy, Mineralogy, &c., of these collections under 

 their care, a list of various donations to the Museum 

 and Library, and a valuable communical article by 

 the Rev. W. C. Hey to the Society on "The Forms 

 of Pond Snails in Yorkshire." 



