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HARD WICKE' S SCIENCE- G OSSIP. 



splendid specimens, and left the remainder alone in | 

 its virgin beauty. On the Glass rigg, a long stretch | 

 of bleak moorland at the base of these hills, I have 

 often come upon single plants of white heath, and 

 sometimes nearly white flowers of the cross-leaved ' 

 ling [Erica Tdralix), and many a white flower [of 

 the delicate harebell {Campanula rotnndifolia), 1 

 Scotia's bluebell as the poet sings ; and whether it 

 be spelt hairbell, airbell or harebell, matters not. 

 bluebell and harebell are the names taught me in 

 my boyhood, and they have, at least to me, the 

 most poetical relation to colour and habitation of 

 the plant, for loves it not to bloom where hides 

 the limping hare ? and a patch of these white bells have 

 appeared for a few years regularly by the Lovers' Walk, 

 a pathway leading through Holmhill wood, close to 

 the village of Thornhill. In this same sylvan retreat, 

 white specimens of Hyacinthiis non-scriptus are to be 

 met with. The name by which this plant is commonly 

 known in mid Nithsdale is that under which the poet 

 Tannahill thus sings of it, and which is a correct 

 description of its favourite haunts, for, to the rural 

 botanist, " dewy dell " and crowflower are nearly 

 synonymous terms. 



" Sweet the Crawflower's early bell 

 Decks Glenipper's dewy dell." 



— yohn Brown, Sunderland. 



White Heather. — Referring to the remarks of 

 John G. Sharp, white heather is rare in the south of 

 Scotland, but I have found it two or three times 

 among the hills in Eskdale, Dumfriesshire, and once 

 among the hills near Hawick. It is, however, looked 

 upon as quite a find by the residents in these districts. 

 — G. R. R. 



Cure for Adder bites. — Reading the remarks 

 in your last issue on eye-stones brought to my re- 

 collection a curious cure for adder bites. When 

 spending some time among the Roxburghshire hills, 

 I found that the shepherds amongst whom I had 

 occasion to be were in the habit, whenever a dog was 

 bitten by an adder, of taking it to a man who had 

 a piece of wood which had, or was supposed to have, 

 the virtue of healing the bite, and removing in a very 

 brief period all effects arising from it. These men 

 had implicit faith in this, and some of them assured 

 me that they had possessed dogs which were cured 

 by having the bitten place rubbed with this wood.— 

 G. R. R. 



The Birds of Jersey. — In looking through Mr. 

 Lovett's interesting papers on the natural history of 

 Jersey in the last few numbers of Science-Gossip, I 

 observe in his notes on the birds, which, as he says, 

 are necessarily short and cursory, he mentions the 

 golden eagle as having been recorded as occurring in 

 Jersey in 1S49 and 1856, but he does not say that 

 he has seen either of the specimens so recorded him- 

 self, nor does he say whether they are preserved and 

 still in existence. Now, I admit I am not a little 

 sceptical as to the occurrence of the golden eagle in 

 the Channel Islands. All the Channel Island eagles 

 I have seen have turned out, as did the so-called 

 golden eagle at Dare in Somerset, mentioned by me 

 in Science-Gossip for 1875, immature white-tailed 

 eagles, which bird occurs not uncommonly in the 

 Channel Islands in the autumn, in the immature dress 

 in which it is so frequently mistaken for the golden 

 eagle. The golden eagle is not mentioned in Professor 

 Ansted's list. I admit this list is not very reliable, but 

 it usually sins much more in admitting species without 

 sufficient evidence, than in including those birds which 

 had any claim, however slight, to be included in the 

 Channel Island list ; and I am sure, had he, or M. 



Gallienne, who assisted him a good deal in writing 

 his list of Channel Island birds, had any evidence of 

 the occurrence of the golden eagle in any of the islands 

 it would have been found in the list. Perhaps, how- 

 ever, Mr. Lovett would kindly give us some further 

 information on this subject. I should also be a little 

 doubtful about the kite being "frequently seen." It 

 may possibly make its appearance now and then in one 

 or other of the islands, though I have never been able 

 to gain any satisfactory evidence of its occurrence, and 

 consequently omitted it from my "Birds of Guern- 

 sey," although I know Professor Ansted includes it in 

 his list and marks it as occurring in Guernsey. The 

 common buzzard, which occurs in most of the islands 

 almost every autumn, is frequently spoken of as the 

 kite. May not this have led to a mistake, especially as 

 Mr. Lovett does not appear to have seen the bird 

 either dead or alive himself? He is quite right in 

 saying the starling is a winter visitant ; but it is not a 

 winter visitant only, as a few certainly remain to 

 breed in Guernsey, and I should think also in Jersey, 

 as I have seen several eggs in different collections 

 quite recently taken in the former island. In some 

 years the flocks of starlings which arrive in the 

 islands in the autumn are very much more numerous 

 than in others. This was especially the case in Guern- 

 sey and Alderney in the autumn of 1 87 1, and I suppose 

 in Jersey also. I saw many large flocks, especially in 

 the evening, when they were beginning to seek a 

 roosting-place, and had, as they do in England, 

 collected in enormous flocks, after a good deal of the 

 usual flying and wheeling about fly off in the direc- 

 tion of Jersey and the French coast, and they certainly 

 continued their flight in that direction as long as I 

 could follow them with my glass ; but whether they 

 were going to seek a roosting-place and to return in 

 the morning, or whether they continued their migra- 

 tion and their place was supplied by other flocks 

 during the night, I could not tell, but certainly there 

 never seemed any diminution in their numbers during 

 the whole time I was there (from the 1st to the l6tli 

 of November). Their migration seems to extend over 

 a considerable time, according to the lighthouse 

 keepers' reports last year, from August to December : 

 the reports being as follows: "at the Casquets, 

 Oct. 13th to 17th, midnight, rain ; starlings amongst 

 other birds to N.W. ; at Hanois Light Aug. 14th, 

 night, with many others, Dec. 2nd, midnight ; half 

 a dozen struck." Amongst the grebes I should think 

 Mr. Lovett might have included the eared grebe, 

 which is certainly a not uncommon autumn and 

 winter visitant to Guernsey, and I can see no reason 

 why not to Jersey also ; but it generally occurs in the 

 winter dress, in which it may be easily mistaken for 

 the Slavonian grebe. The great crested grebe is 

 by no means rare in autumn and winter in Guernsey 

 and the adjacent islands ; but not so common, I think, 

 as on the South Devon coast. Mr. Lovett does not 

 say whether by merganser he means the goosander 

 or the red-breasted merganser ; both, however, are 

 common in the islands in autumn. Theturnstoiie is, 

 as Mr. Lovett says, abundant in autumn and winter, a 

 few remaining throughout the year, and, I believe, 

 though I have not been able actually to prove it, 

 occasionally breed there. I have seen the old birds 

 about with the young in July ; of course the young 

 could then fly. I have also seen them in June in full 

 breeding plumage and apparently paired ; I also saw 

 a pair, male and female, which had just been shot in 

 the island of Herm on the 17th or i8th of June ; the 

 female with eggs just ready for extrusion. Had not 

 this pair of turnstones been shot somewhat in 

 defiance of the Guernsey Bird Act, in which they are 

 included, I think I should have had a fair chance of 



