HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



213 



stood the above in a moderately light and cool place 

 for about one week, I took a dipping tube and made 

 several examinations, but found very few specimens 

 of active animal life. I have kept adding small 

 quantities of rain-water from time to time, to com- 

 pensate for loss by evaporation, and at the end of 

 April, on taking down the glass and holding it to the 

 light, I beheld an immense quantity of minute specks 

 of animal life flitting hither and thither in all 

 directions. I found upon closer examination that 

 Cyclops qiiadricornis was present in all stages of 

 development ; I also dipped out successively Daph- 

 jiia pukx and the globose water-flea, Chydortis 

 spkicriciis, likewise the ribbed water-flea " Cavipto- 

 ccrcus " macrottra, and I have since discovered the 

 Pitcher rotifer or Brachionus, and have no doubt 

 that deeper investigation will reveal other forms. I 

 feel convinced that as the summer advances, and by 

 paying proper attention, I shall be in possession of a 

 rich fund of intellectual amusement, such as I could 

 not expect to meet with by ordinary collecting. — F, 

 Farrant, Brighton. 



Wholes.\le Destruction of young Rooks. 

 — The storm which raged so furiously on the 29th 

 April soon after mid-day was most fatal to the young 

 rooks in this district ; some trees have been blown 

 down, many nests carried some distance with the 

 force of the wind, and hundreds of young rooks des- 

 troyed. At Bosrigo after the storm, which lasted nearly 

 three hours, boys were picking the young rooks up 

 a dozen at a time ; the large rookery at Tregolles 

 fared no better, many nests being gone, and the 

 ground strewed with the young; the trees being high, 

 they were mostly killed probably by the fall. In Simon- 

 street and Edward-street, where rooks had built, there 

 were the same results in a lesser degree. On the fol- 

 lowing day, I visited a rookery about two miles from 

 the city in a clump of trees beyond Tenair, and near 

 Penealcuick grounds ; quantities of young were lying 

 dead, many nests about and two trees down ; some of 

 the young could not have been hatched more than a 

 few days, others again were all but fully fledged ; the 

 season being so mild, they commenced building 

 earlier than usual this year. In Edward-street some 

 of the young that were alive were taken into shelter 

 for the night, and when placed under the trees the 

 following morning the old ones came and fed them. — 

 Hamilton James, TruTO. 



Lapwings' Eggs. — There are one or two peculi- 

 arities in the eggs of the lapwing, which I have never 

 seen mentioned in any journal, and which seem to me 

 worthy of note. It has often struck me as curious, 

 that in the same field, in nests quite close together, 

 eggs are sometimes found quite different in colour 

 and shape. For instance, on one occasion I found 

 in one nest four eggs round and "dumpy," brown in 

 colour, and so thickly sprinkled with black blotches 

 that the ground colour at one end was almost hidden ; 

 while, within a hundred feet of these I found another 

 nest containing four eggs long and pointed in shape 

 and of a creamy green colour, comparatively thinly 

 sprinkled with black. The field was marshy meadow, 

 and the eggs in each case were equally fresh. What 

 could cause the difference ? Another curious matter 

 has come to my notice. I have several times found 

 and seen others find lapwings' eggs not larger than 

 those of a sparrow, but on one occasion, when walk- 

 ing over a moor in Scotland, I found a nest containing 

 three eggs, one long and pointed, light in colour, one 

 short and round, dark in colour, and one of the small 

 description just mentioned. I never heard of the 

 same strange variation in the eggs from one nest, and 



I venture to send you this in the hope that (if you 

 insert it) some of your readers may perhaps be able 

 to explain it. — G. R. 



SwAi.LOWs' Nests. — In this immediate locality a 

 pair of chimney swallows built under a bridge for 

 several years past, over which there is not only con- 

 stant traffic, but which, owing to its being constructed 

 mainly of wood, vibrates considerably with every 

 load that passes ; unfortunately, both in 1880 and 

 1 88 1, the nests were destroyed by boys. Whilst stand- 

 ing on this bridge the birds will shoot under within 

 a yard of my feet, uttering plaintive cries the while ; 

 whether they will try the experiment again this season 

 remains to be seen. — E, Lingwood, Stonham, Suffolk. 



Peculiar Site for a Blue Tit's Nest. — In the 

 spring of 1878, while egg collecting with the game- 

 keeper's son, in Mabledon Park, Tunbridge, I was 

 climbing up to a thrush's nest in a large hawthorn- 

 tree standing by itself. The keeper noticing what I 

 was doing told me that it was an old one, and he 

 had been up to it some days before. As I had just 

 reached the nest I felt in it and to my surprise in a 

 little hay at the bottom, not covered in the least, I 

 found two tomtits' eggs, these I blew and added to my 

 collection, but they have unfortunately got broken. 

 Some days after, a party of naturalists were collecting 

 in quite a diff"erent part of Tunbridge, when they too 

 found a thrush's nest with, I think, three eggs in ; the 

 nest was an old one and was placed in a thorn hedge. 

 Perhaps an instance of the same kind may have come 

 under the notice of some of your readers. — B. Roio, 

 Blackheatk. 



Terns inland. — On the 20th of May, the wind 

 was rather high, and the water in a broad reach of 

 the river, about half a mile above the town, was very 

 rough. As I was sculling up the river, I saw three 

 Terns (either common or Arctic, the former I 

 suspect), wheeling above the surface of the water, 

 and as I watched their rapid buoyant flight, and quick 

 turns and wheeling, I was reminded of their "nick- 

 name " sea swallow ; and well have they earned it. 

 I never before heard of tern being seen so far inland 

 as this. They caused great excitement, and many 

 were the names applied to them, ranging from 

 " stormy petrel " to "herring gull," and " kittiwake " 

 and much was the ignorance of sea birds that was 

 shown. There was no storm, either before or after 

 their appearance, to account for their visit : they left 

 an hour or two after I first saw them. — G. T. B., 

 Oxford, 



Miscellaneous Notes. — I was reading in 

 Science-Gossip a short time ago about the scarcity 

 of wasps. On Sunday, the 5 th of March, I observed 

 in our church a wasp buzzing on the window ; also I 

 found a dead one on the floor of the pew ; were they 

 not very early ? Our church is a very ancient one, 

 and has just been restored; it is partly built out of 

 the stones of the Roman wall, which are known by 

 a peculiar mark of lines crossing each other. The 

 tower of the church, which is the most interesting 

 part, is entered by a massive iron gate, and the walls 

 are of immense thickness. This tower was a place 

 of defence in the invasions of the Scots ; the inhabi- 

 tants of the village drove the cattle into the body of 

 the church, while they themselves took refuge in the 

 tower. There are some other similar churches on the 

 border. I should like to know if the plant Herb 

 Paris {Paris quadrifolia) is common in the south. I 

 have seen it here in Cumberland. — A. Aland D., 

 Burgh House, Burgh-l'y-Sands, Cumberland. 



