HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



69 



dwindled down to a minimum ; eels, where at one time 

 might be caught 5 cwt. alas now where are they? 

 The dreadful tornado we had on Friday, October 

 14th, may frighten the timid and superstitious, but 

 accounts state that for the last 1480 years earthquakes 

 lightning, storms, hail, snow, fogs, &c., have been 

 going on. As I must be brief, I will quote a few out 

 of the multitude of meteorological extracts that I have 

 before me. In 401 the Black Sea was entirely frozen 

 over. In 800 the winter was intensely cold. In 

 12 1 3 the Po froze 15 ells deep, and wine burst the 

 casks. The successive winters 1432, 1433, 1434) 

 were uncommonly severe : it snowed 40 days without 

 interruption, all the rivers of Germany were frozen, 

 and the very birds took shelter in the towns ; the 

 price of wheat rose in England to 27 shillings a 

 quarter, but was reduced to 5 shillings in the follow- 

 ing year. In 17 16 the winter was very cold ; on the 

 Thames booths were erected and fairs held. The hot 

 summers appear to have been as hot as the winters 

 were cold. In 763 the summer was so hot that the 

 springs dried up. In 1333 the cornfields and vine- 

 yards were burnt up. In 1556 the drought was so 

 great that the springs failed ; in England wheat rose 

 from 8 shillings to 53 shillings a quarter. The year 

 17S8 was also very hot and dry, and of the same 

 character was iSll, famed for its excellent vintage 

 and distinguished by the appearance of a brilliant 

 comet. It is therefore evident from these accounts 

 that the summers were much hotter and the winters 

 much colder than at present. To be brief, the number 

 of earthquakes, eruptions of volcanoes, destruction 

 by lightning, winds, floods, &c., I cannot now go 

 into. We may easily perceive that Nature never 

 stands still, that all these forces are constantly at 

 work, that the earth's surface must be materially 

 altered in hundreds of thousands of years, and tliat 

 the globe itself may change its position, and then 

 where will Old England be ? — Thomas Kiiigsford, 

 Canterbury. 



The Mildness of the Season. — Strolling 

 through Norwich cemetery to-day (Jan. 12, 1882), I 

 observed the following plants in full bloom : Virginian 

 stock (in abundance), roses, marigolds, and white 

 arabis, also Ranimciiliis Imlbosiis, Achillea millefo- 

 liiiin, Veronica Bnxbatmiii, Laniium pnrpureuni, 

 Capsella bursa-pastoris, Senecio vulgaris and Stellaria 

 media. I also noticed in adjoining gardens yellow 

 crocuses, snowdrops, winter aconites, primroses, 

 pansies. Sweet Williams, mignonette, stocks, wall- 

 flowers, Christmas roses, and yellow jessamine in 

 flower. Hazel catkins were fully expanded, and 

 lilacs, honeysuckles and blackthorn were in some 

 places showing their leaves. — A. W. Preston. 



Tadpoles in October. — I remember finding 

 several small newts with well-developed branchiae 

 in mid-winter, December (I think) some years ago. The 

 weather had been mild. I have now a newt {\\ in. 

 long) which has been kept in a jelly glass for four 

 or five months and still retains his branchiae, though 

 much diminished. These he has probably been 

 unable to spare on account of the depth of the glass, 

 and having no weeds to support him in breathing 

 at the surface of the water. — W. B. R. 



Ornithological Notes. — I think the following 

 ornithological notes may prove interesting : as a 

 proof of the mildness of the season, the following 

 birds have been singing here at the undermentioned 

 days in January. Common thrush, 2 ; missel thrush, 7 ; 

 great tit, 11 ; skylark, 17; redbreast, 18; gold- 

 crested wren, 23 ; nuthatch, 28. Near this place 



is the finest old English poplar J;.know of ; it is in my 

 estimation sixty feet in height. Remarking to an old 

 labourer the other day how valuable it would have 

 been for wheelwrights' work a few years since, he 

 surprised me by replying that when a lad he had 

 heard his father say a pair of ravens built in it 

 annually, and its owner had the bole spiked, to pre- 

 vent boys from climbing to their nests. Within a 

 quarter of a mile of my residence, a small colony of 

 rooks took possession of three young oak timbers 

 early last spring, and built twenty-two nests. On 

 April i8th matters appeared to be going on as usual, 

 but on the 20th every rook had finally disappeared. 

 Now, considering the young must have been hatched, 

 this appears to me rather unaccountable. I once 

 detected a stoat at a pigeon's nest in a tree twenty- 

 feet from the ground, but the rook-trees were at least 

 fifteen feet higher. The owner of the trees did not 

 wish to have t4ie birds disturbed, and is very strict 

 with trespassers. One of my labourers tells me that 

 several years since he was engaged in hoeing corn 

 near some rook-trees, when a pair of " large " hawks 

 appeared on the scene and worried the rooks 

 until they forsook the place ; the hawks . then 

 reared their young in one of the deserted nests, A 

 pair of either kestrel or sparrow-hawks did breed 

 near the first-named three trees in 1880, but not that 

 I am aware of in 1881. — E. Lingwood, Thivaite, 

 Stonhain. 



Flukes in Sheep. — Helen E. Watney's note in 

 the December number of Science-Gossip, correcting 

 her first note on flukes in the November number of 

 the same, requires a slight correction, for, as it stands, 

 it is misleading to the uninitiated. Instead of " effect " 

 the word "begin " should have been used, because the 

 fluke only begins its various changes in the world and 

 effects or completes them in the liver of the sheep, 

 and when the matured fluke is taken out of the liver 

 it cannot be kept in water, but immediately dies. — 

 Clara Kingsford, Canterbury. 



Herons. — A propos of the note by F. J. B. in 

 your January number, I would quote the following 

 from Waterton's essay on the Heron (Essays, first 

 series, 6th ed. p. 187). — " There is an old and vulgar 

 notion, still current here (in Yorksliire), that, when 

 the heron is sitting on her eggs, her legs appear 

 hanging down on the outside of the nest. Probably 

 the length of the heron's legs has given rise to this 

 absurdity. A very slight inspection of the formation 

 of the bird would suffice to convince the observer of his 

 error. The thighs of all known birds are of a length 

 exactly proportioned to that of the legs ; therefore 

 when a bird wishes to place itself in a sitting position, 

 the bending of the knee causes the leg to recede suffi- 

 ciently towards the tail to allow the feet to come to 

 the centre of the body. This being the case the heron 

 places its legs in the nest with as much facility and 

 ease as all other birds place theirs. Indeed,- it 

 cannot possibly perform its incubation with its legs 

 outside of the nest ; and the admirable provision of 

 Nature, in always giving to birds a due proportional 

 length in their legs and thighs, saves the heron from 

 the necessity of attempting to place itself in such an 

 unsightly posture. In fact, the formation of the parts 

 would not admit of it ; and were a bird by any chance 

 to put itself in a position by which the legs would 

 appear on the outside of the nest, we may rest assured' 

 that both great pain and great inconvenience would 

 ensue, and soon force it to resume the common pro- 

 cess of incubation. The thighs by being stretched 

 asunder, would be thrown out of their ordinary 

 bearings ; and the feathers by coming in contact with 



