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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



middle of the loch stands an old castle of the Wolf of 

 Badenoch, and on one of the exposed corners of this 

 castle is built the huge nest of the ospreys. On the 

 I5lh of July last, I, in company with my brother, 

 visited Loch-an-Eilan, and we were fortunate to see 

 one of the birds on the water. After some time it 

 flew on to the nest, and we got a splendid view of it 

 as it fed the two young ones. When it had finished 

 feeding the young pair, it stood by the side of the 

 nest watching its charge, and every now and then 

 turning its head to the side whence any sound 

 proceeded. It was indeed a fine sight to see the 

 noble bird standing and defying, so to speak, the 

 approach of anything to harm the young ospreys. A 

 glimpse could be got of the young as they playfully 

 rose to feed the old bird. The mother bird was a 

 little larger than a pretty large hen, with a short 

 black bill, white breast with sprinklings of grey, grey 

 wings, and a white tuft of hair on the top of the 

 head. Those two birds are said to be the only now 

 remaining in the British Isles. They go off in the 

 winter season — the young never return — and return 

 in the following summer, and they have done so now 

 for many years, and with such regularity that by the 

 inhabitants a certain day of the year is called the 

 "eagle day. " Long'may they make Loch-an-Eilan their 

 summer home, and long may the peaceful dwellers 

 of Rothiemurchus resist the tempting offers of some 

 of our Cockney friends of large sums of money for the 

 possession ofeither eggs or young birds. — J. G. Sharp. 



Strange Tenacity of Life. — A few days ago 

 the body of a puss moth [Cerjira vinida) was 

 brought to me. It was found under a poplar terribly 

 mutilated by ants or birds ; the head and greater part 

 of the thorax had been eaten away, as also the entire 

 wings, and there was a wound on the left side of the 

 abdomen ; nevertheless, the insect remained alive for 

 twenty-four hours, and during that time was con- 

 tinually thrusting out its ovipositor in search, as it 

 seemed, for a convenient place to lay its eggs. But 

 whether it was not satisfied with the lime leaf on 

 which I had placed it, or whether in its singular state 

 it was unable to produce any eggs, is to me a mystery. 

 Is it possible that if I had given it the leaf of a willow 

 or poplar, the natural food of the larvre, it would have 

 deposited its eggs ? For insects generally show a 

 wonderful instinct in laying their eggs where the 

 larvae when hatched will be at once supplied with 

 food.— i?. A. F. 



The Minnow. — Has it ever occurred to any of 

 your readers what a voracious little shark we have 

 in our common minnow ? I put one of them in a 

 small aquarium containing pond life, and was surprised 

 to find next day that nearly all my microscopical 

 captures had disappeared. I always gave the palm 

 for gluttony to Messrs. Dragon-Fly-larva;, and 

 Dytiscus, but this little minnow beat them. Thinking 

 he looked hungry one day, I commenced the difficult 

 task (as it turned out) of trying to appease his 

 appetite. With a dipping tube I forced into the 

 ac[uarium, one at a time, a hundred and fifty good 

 sized daphniae which the minnow took as fast as 

 I could supply. I then gave him a few cyclops, 

 three small red worms, and a small water louse. 

 As I had been thirty minutes supplying this meal, 

 I thought surely he ought to be satisfied ; not so, 

 however. After watching for the dipping tube for a 

 minute or so, off he goes in evident disgust, but, to 

 my surprise, at once proceeded to assist a tadpole to 

 get rid of its tail, and with one dash took the only 

 remaining spiracle from the tail of Mr. Dragon-Fly- 

 larvse. — Henry Burns. 



Pet Tomtits, &c. — I have been much interested 

 in Mr. Robertson's account of his tame tomtits, as 

 two pairs of those engaging little birds, one pair blue 

 tits, the other the greater titmouse, have been my 

 constant companions for some months, coming con- 

 tinually to pay me little visits, and to feed on a bench 

 just inside my window. I first attracted them by 

 beef suet hung outside the window, but soon coaxed 

 them in by placing the delicate morsel to which they 

 had got accustomed inside. They know my voice 

 well, and come at my call, and answer me at a great 

 distance, and on some occasions, when, on finding 

 their way in through a very small opening they have 

 got alarmed and confused in trying to find their way 

 out, I have succeeded in quieting them by my voice ; 

 one of them once ceasing all endeavours to free itself 

 and hopping on the handle of a basket, where it com- 

 posedly sharpened its beak till I opened the window 

 wider for its flight. This little sensible individual 

 was the greater tit, and the cock — and by far the 

 boldest of the quartet. I knew him always by his 

 pretty habit of raising the crest when answering me, 

 and by the broader line down the chest. I never 

 saw any indication of a crest on the hen, and would 

 be glad to know if this is an invariable distinction of 

 their sex. I think the best way of distinguishing 

 their note from the chaffinch's is to observe that they 

 frequently repeat their call three times, " Twink, 

 twink, twink," while I never heard the chaffinch 

 repeat more than the double " Twink, twink." I 

 found the blue tits the quickest to tame, but the 

 others bolder and more sympathetic, once their con- 

 fidence was won. The blue tits liked bread, taking 

 it regularly in turn with the suet, a few pecks of one 

 and a few pecks of the other, while the larger tits 

 scarcely touched it, and, if the fat was not provided 

 for a few days, gave up coming. The staler the bread 

 the better it was appreciated. Their manner of eating 

 both it and the suet was very pretty ; the pieces were 

 fastened to the bench by a long steel pin, and one 

 little claw was always clasped firmly round this 

 upright pin, which gave them a sideways attitude, 

 and then they hacked away with their strong little 

 bills like a pickaxe, making a surprising noise, and 

 having evidently great enjoyment in the process. — 

 C. G. Grierson. 



Notes from Rotterdam. — The " Nieuwe Rot- 

 terdams Courant" relates (12th August): — "The 

 gardener P. v. Leeuwen at Noordwijk, near Leiden, 

 has obtained a double white crocus {Crocus vermis. 

 All.). This is the first double crocus which ever was 

 gained." That same day the above-mentioned news- 

 paper writes .-^From Groningen we are informed : 

 The lOth, a swarm of small black-winged insects came 

 over here from the east, and covered gardens, houses, 

 &c. ; this insect is one stripe long, and as thick as a 

 horsehair. What insect can this be ? In the end of 

 July, the same newspaper mentioned that a scholar of 

 the Hoogere Burger School at Arnhem had photo- 

 graphed, during a violent thunderstorm, some flashes 

 of lightning. — IV. IT. Croockeicit. 



A Beech WITH "Gnaurs." — On the grounds of 

 Hawkhead, Renfrewshire, by the storm of the 26th 

 January last many trees were thrown, among which 

 is a beech [Fagiis sylvatica) on which there are many 

 "gnaurs" or "burrs." On this beech I counted 

 thirty-nine "gnaurs" or "burrs," one of these, 

 which had grown at a height of thirty feet from the 

 root of the tree, was a foot in diameter and four 

 inches deep, from which grew several small branches, 

 many not exceeding an inch in length. This tree 

 is about two feet nine inches in diameter, and has 



