HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIP. 



263 



a Sunday afternoon for providing pleasant instruction 

 of various kinds to children of all classes. — Lester 

 Francis, 16 Wanscy Street, Walworth. 



Celloidin. — Will some correspondent oblige me 

 by giving the composition of Celloidin. Watts does 

 not give it, and I cannot find it in the shop here. — 

 J. B. 



A Strange Nesting-place. — On the nth of 

 June this year, when the steamer " Dunara Castle " 

 on her return from St. Kilda called at Uig in Skye, a 

 shore-boat came alongside to bring on and take off 

 passengers and cargo, as is usual at ports where there 

 is no pier or landing-stage. Behind a suspicious 

 looking jar in the bows of the boat was a nest, 

 apparently a rock pipit's, with four eggs. The boat- 

 men told us that the old bird flew off just as they 

 were leaving the shore, but that oftentimes it would 

 stay on its nest and come out with them. A fort- 

 night afterwards I learned that the eggs had hatched 

 out, and a fortnight later was glad to hear that they 

 had all got away safely. The rock pipit not un- 

 frequently makes its nest in the wreckage of an old 

 boat on the seashore, but this is the first time I have 

 seen or heard of one in a real " live " boat. — Robert 

 H. Read. 



" Pecten Tigrinus," found on Forfarshire Coast 

 at Montrose, taken from the stomach of a flounder 

 (dab), caught by a small boat in July. It seems a 

 complete and full grown specimen. — B. J\IcC. Barclay. 



White Sparrow. — It may be interesting to note 

 that, on Tuesday, 7th August, I observed an almost 

 pure white specimen of the common house sparrow 

 on Glasgow Green.— Hannan Watson, Sec. Zoological 

 Society of Glasgow. 



Helix Pomatia at Lucerne. — This species was 

 found very abundantly by myself in the neighbour- 

 hood of Lucerne during a recent visit. — W. Harcourt 

 Bath, Ladyioood, Birmingham. 



There is at the Hartley Museum, Southampton, 

 amongst the land and freshwater shells, one named 

 Helix nemoralis (variety hortensis). Is it a new 

 species, as I do not find it in Dixon and Watson's 

 Manual of 1858, or the handbook by J. W. Williams, 

 M.A., D.Sc, Editor of the "Naturalists' Monthly," 

 published this year? You will much oblige by 

 enlightening me on the subject. — Archibald Hy. 

 I\IcBcan, S. Denys, Southampton. 



Thrush Nest. — The thrush frequently nests upon 

 or near to the ground, although less often than the 

 blackbird and ring-ouzel. In my experience both 

 the thrush and the blackbird will nest almost any- 

 where. Often have I found their nests in barns and 

 cow-houses, sometimes placed conspicuously on a 

 beam, at others in holes of the wall caused by the 

 displacement of stones or bricks. I saw this summer 

 a blackbird's nest on a pair of wooden steps hanging 

 against a wall, at Heslingtoe Hall, near York. — J. A. 

 Wheldon. ■ 



Natural History Queries. — In answer to 

 M. A., I believe it is not unusual to find toads in the 

 stomach of fish, especially young toads. Of course 

 the older ones do not frequent the streams so much. 

 I have seen one, three parts grown, taken from the 

 stomach of a five-pound jack. I have seen as many 

 as five pike lying in the shallow in March, but not so 

 close together as to render it possible to snare any two 

 of them at the same time, but still all within a few 

 inches of each other. — y. A. Wheldon. 



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. 



A. B., T. R. D. ( and Others. — Answers next month. 



S. M. — You can procure splendid specimens of Blue John 

 (coloured filiate of lime) polished or otherwise, at a very cheap 

 rate, by writing to the keeper of the Museum, Speedwell Mine, 

 Castleton, Derbyshire. 



Tony. — Yes, your specimen is a white var. of Geranium 

 molle. 



J. B. — Celloidin is a preparation of pure pyroxylin, patented 

 for Germany and England under the name of "Schering's 

 Celloidin." Mr. Arthur Bolles Lee, in his splendid " Micro- 

 scopist's Vade-Mecum," says it may be obtained through the 

 po=t by writing to "Schering's Grun Apotheke, Wittick and 

 Benkendorf, Berlin." 



P. N. (Bolton) —The "Playtime Naturalist" will be issued 

 in the course of next month. 



M. J. B. — Your fossil is a very fine internal flint cast of 

 Anachytes ovata — one of the commonest of the chalk fossils 

 found silicificd. 



P. Q. Keegan.— The female of the stag-beetle {Lucanus 

 ccrvus). 



R.T. Orme.— No better book than Stark's " British Mosses." 



James K. Benson. — You can procure them from Mr. Chas. 

 Cullins, 157, Great Portland Street, London, W. 



Nemo.— Write to the Hon. Secretary of the Geological 

 Society of Liveroool. He will tell you all about Mr. Morton's 

 book on the Carboniferous Limestone of North Wales. 



J. W. Odell. — Many thanks for the fasciated specimens 

 sent us. These monstrosities are more than astonishing. 



EXCHANGES. 



Offered.— Eggs of pine grosbeak, dotterel, gannet, razor- 

 bill, guillemot, puffin, Sgull-billed tern, sooty tern, fulmar, manx 

 shearwater, storm petrel, clutches of ring-ouzel, stonechat, 

 goldcrest, chiffchaff, grasshopper warbler, dipper, coal tit, 

 1 — t — tit, rock pipit, purple martin, lesser redpoll, bullfinch, 

 corn and reed buntings, magpie, green woodpecker, sparrow 

 hawk, kestrel, shag, mute swan, rock dove, capercaillie, 

 golden plover, oystercatcher, common sandpiper, arctic tern, 

 herring gull, and kittiwake ; nests with several. Please describe 

 clutches offered in exchange for the above. — R. J. Ussher, 

 Cappagh, Lismore. 



Offered. — Micrographic dictionary, and Davis's "Practical 

 Microscopy " (new). — Wanted, lantern slides of Scottish scenery 

 —must be good.— H. W. Case, F.R.M.S., Cotham, Bristol. 



Wanted, good books on microscopy; will gives slides in 

 exchange. — Henry Ebbage, 344 Caledonian Road, London. 



Wanted, a small specimen of Actinoloba dianthus for salt- 

 water aquaria, in exchange for coins or eggs. — R. McAldawie, 

 4 Brook Street, Stoke-on-Trent. 



Wanted, a well-set specimen of a hornet {Vespa crabo), in 

 good condition, in exchange for good specimens of British 

 land and freshwater shells, or unmounted specimens for micro- 

 scope, &c. 



Australian marine shells (Port Jackson), named, offered in 

 exchange for terrestrial or marine shells from any of the islands 

 of the Pacific. — T. Rogers, 27 Oldham Road, Manchester. 



Sixteen' micro slides (various objects) offered in exchange 

 for some modern illustrated book on botany ; list sent, or 

 mutual approval. — D. T , 115 Dynevor Road, Stoke Newington, 

 London, N. 



Splendid collection of moths and butterflies, over 300 

 different species (list sent on application), in exchange for 

 Rover bicycle. — Fiennes A. N. Beasley, Ardenham House, 

 Aylesbury. 



Wanted, micro slides in exchange for Rutherford's freezing 

 microtome. — R. Suter, 5 Highweek Road, Tottenham. 



Dragonflies wanted from all parts of the world for figuring. 

 — W. Harcourt Bath, Ladywood, Birmingham. 



