HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



119 



mount the steps. Eventually they congregated 

 together, held a consultation, and after a chorus of 

 quacks started round a road to the back premises. 

 I went through the house, and saw them come in a 

 body under the gate into the yard. After looking 

 around for a minute or two, they approached me in 

 a body, held up their heads, and with a loud and 

 united quack, led off to the door separating the yard 

 from the garden. I followed them, and opened it, 

 upon which they immediately took the right path 

 round the house to the front lawn where the coops 

 were placed. 



Feeding Frogs and Newts. (Science- 

 Gossip, p. 43). — I think A. F. Jenkins's frogs 

 cannot be tree-frogs if they will eat worms, as he 

 reports. I have kept tree-frogs, and they would 

 never eat anything but insects and millipedes, the 

 latter they were very fond of. The very name " tree- 

 frog " suggests an arboreal residence, as of course they 

 delight in, and where no worms could be obtained. 

 Perhaps they eat worms for want of something 

 better? I agree with your correspondent that it is 

 cruelty to keep newts constantly in water ; if 

 required as ornaments in an aquarium they should 

 always have a large piece of cork on which to 

 scramble when they wish. With regard to sala- 

 manders, the best food for them is undoubtedly 

 slugs, these creatures the salamander seems to be 

 just able to overtake in their flight ; other and more 

 active prey, such as worms, etc., invariably make 

 their escape whilst their enemy is making up his 

 mind which to take. — JV. Finch, jun., Nottingham. 



Flies and Ants. — ' ' Amator Naturae " has evidently 

 witnessed the "Marriage Flight" of ants, which, 

 according to White, of Selborne, takes place on hot 

 sunny days of August and September. The larger 

 winged ants are the females, those of less size the 

 males. I have extracted the following from a paper 

 by F. Buchanan White, M,D., F.L.S. : "When the 

 winged individuals (male and female) leave the pupa 

 state they remain in the nest for a few days, attended 

 by the workers, but on some fine morning they come 

 out, climb about the dome, or on some neighbouring 

 plant and pair there, some however going off to a 

 greater distance. At this time the workers are in a 

 great state of excitement, and run hither and thither, 

 looking for the fertilised females, which are then 

 carried into the nest. The mates fly away, and, 

 being unable to feed themselves, die in a few days, 

 or are slain by birds cr spiders, or by other ants. 

 After a female has been fertilised she takes steps to 

 get rid of her wings, which are now of no further use. 

 This she accomplishes by moving them backwards and 

 forwards and shaking them violently till they drop off. 

 In getting rid of their wings they are often assisted 

 by the workers. Thereafter the rest of the life of the 

 female is spent in laying eggs from time to time, and 

 she takes little or no part in the work of the nest." — 

 Thomas Winder, C.E., Sheffield. 



The Mountain Finch 

 usual for this bird to roos 

 house sparrow. During the 

 large flock of these finches 

 near Emsworth, of which 

 sparrow net, among the 

 (March 5) continue to stay 

 F. H. Arnold. 



— It is probably not very 

 t in company with the 

 last week in February, a 

 appeared at Hollybank, 

 several were taken in a 

 evergreens. Some still 

 in the neighbourhood. — 



Marine Copepod. — The illustration representing 

 a marine copepod with the young was found in the 

 Menai Straits about the beginning of February. It 



shows in a striking manner the difference between 

 the young nauplii and the mature crustacean. I am 

 unacquainted with the name, and should be glad if 

 any reader of Science-Gossip could identify it. — 

 Bernard Thomas. 



NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



To Correspondents and Exchangers. — As we now 

 publish Science-Gossip earlier than formerly, we cannot un- 

 dertake to insert in the following number any communications 

 which reach us later than the 8th of the previous month. 



To Anonymous Querists. — We must adhere to our rule of 

 not noticing queries which do not bear the writers' names. 



To Dealers and Others. — We are always glad to treat 

 dealers in natural history objects on the same fair and general 

 ground as amateurs, in so far as the "exchanges" offered are fair 

 exchanges. But it is evident that, when their offers are simply 

 disguised advertisements, for the purpose of evading the cost of 

 advertising, an advantage is taken of our gratuitous insertion of 

 " exchanges " which cannot be tolerated. 



We request that all exchanges may be signed with name (or 

 initials) and full address at the end. 



Miss C. — The shell you sent us to be named is Cyprea 

 oceilata. If you will send us your address (which has been 

 mislaid) we shall be pleased to return the shell to you. 



G. F., jun.— Your exchange was not inserted through in- 

 advertence. 



G. E. East, jun. — Have you tried preserving the delicate 

 shells by placing them in a boiling mixture of milk and 

 gelatine ? It restores the organic matter and renders brittle 

 shells hard ; but much care must be taken. 



J. Bowman. — We shall be very pleased to have your ornitho- 

 logical articles. Send us one to look at. 



EXCHANGES. 



Wanted, a set of the " Phytologist," in return for which will 

 be given a collection of British mosses, in all about 350 species, 

 named and localised, each species in separate packet ; together 

 with copy of Hobkirk's Synopsis. — J. C, 9 Wythenshaw Road, 

 Sale. 



For exchange, Witkowski's movable anatomical plates, seven 

 in number, cost js. 6d. each, for Quain's " Anatomy," 8th or 

 gth edition, in good condition. — John L. Speirs, 1 Longley 

 Street, Newcastle-on-Tyne. 



Will exchange "Cornhill Magazine" for 1886 and 1887, 

 unbound, good condition, for good micro slides. Send list. — 

 Miss P. — Fern Cottage, Witheridge, North Devon. 



Exchange. — Planorbis glaber, Cochlicope tridens, Pisid '171111 

 amnicum, &c. Desiderata, Bulimus montamis, Helix fusca, 

 Helix obvoluta, Helix pygma-a. — John Clegg, 5 Derby Street, 

 Millwood, Todmorden, Yorkshire. 



Wanted, Newman's " Moths," entomological apparatus, or 

 ova, larvae, or pupae of Lepidoptera, in exchange for a number 

 of educational books, "Tit-Bits," &c— L., 4 Gill Street, 

 Nottingham. 



Wanted, in exchange for rare and curious lizard, about six 

 inches in length, deep brown shining warty skin, found in 

 eastern Perthshire, a live specimen of sea anemone, any 

 of the trochus or turritella, or Velvet Fiddler crab. — Wm. 

 Smith, Belmont Street, Newtyle, Forfarshire. 



About fifty pathological slides in rack box, with class-room 

 notes to most of them. What offers? Other micro-slides not 

 wanted. — W. Mathie, 127 Buchanan Street, Glasgow. 



What offers for "Chambers's Encyclopaedia," 10 vols.; 

 Cassell's " Popular Educator," 3 vols. ; Cassell's " Franco- 

 Prussian War," 2 vols. ; Ward & Lock's " Instruction for All," 

 3 vols., all bound half-calf, and equal to new, never having 

 been used?— W. Mathie, 127 Buchanan Street, Glasgow. 



For exchange. — Marshall's " Rural Economy of Southern 

 Counties," 2 vols. (1799); "Burns's Correspondence" (1816) ; 

 Forrest's " Rock Sculptures on Rombald's Moor " (lithographs, 

 pamphlet); Harting's "Rambles in Search of Land Shells," 

 and engravings of varieties of British Unios. Wanted. — Con- 

 tinental Unionidae, or varieties of Helices, or varieties or mon- 

 strosities of Dreissena polymorpha. — Geo. Roberts, Lofthouse, 

 Wakefield. 



Wanted, a pond-collecting stick with bottle, net, knife, &c. 

 Will give good exchange in micro-slides. — Geo. Ward, Syston, 

 Leicester. 



Most brilliant and magnificent exotic butterflies — Morpho 

 anaxibia and Morpho leonte — what offers? — Joseph Anderson, 

 jun., Aire Villa, Chichester. 



Antique microscope, "by Heath and Wing, near y e Exeter 

 Exchange in y e Strand," supposed one of the first made, with 



