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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Scientific Progress in Hertfordshire. — I 

 notice that my friend Mr. B. Pififard has contributed 

 to your pages, under the above heading, a short 

 account of the neighbourhood of Hemel Hempstead, 

 together with a iew botanical and entomological notes 

 connected with the locality. All who are interested 

 in natural science must view with unqualified satis- 

 faction the formation of local scientific societies. It 

 is evident that the Hemel Hempstead Natural His- 

 tory Society has already done good work, and I 

 heartily congratulate its members on the measure of 

 success that they have been able to achieve ; but 

 surely in taking a survey of scientific efforts connected 

 with our county, the society that initiated the move- 

 ment, and which appears to have suggested the for- 

 mation of both the Luton and Hemel Hempstead 

 societies, is worthy of some little acknowledgment. 

 Mr. Piffard, who is, I am pleased to add, one of its 

 members, alludes to it in the following words : "At 

 "Watford also there is one, "with the title ' The Hert- 

 fordshire Natural History Society and Field Club.' " 

 the italics are my own. May I be allowed to supple- 

 ment Mr. Piffard's article by giving a few particulars 

 respecting the society thus mentioned ? The asso- 

 ciation at present known as the Herts Natural His- 

 tory Society, &c., was established under a local name, 

 at Watford in January, 1875, and published its first 

 number of ' Transactions ' in July of that year. Two 

 years ago, at the suggestion of several gentlemen 

 residing on the other side of the county, it was de- 

 termined to extend the area of its operations and to 

 adopt the present title. Since that date field meetings 

 have been arranged in all parts of the county, and 

 ordinary meetings have been held at Hertford, Ware, 

 and St. Albans in addition to Watford. The society 

 is now issuing its fourth volume of Transactions ; the 

 numbers already published containing valuable papers 

 by Mr. John Evans, D.C.L., Mr. J. Gwyn Jeffreys, 

 IX.D., by Professor Morris, Mr. J. Logan Lobley, 

 Rev. George Henslow, Mr. J. E. Harting, Miss 

 Ormerod, and many others. Meteorological and 

 phenological information has been collected from 

 every division of the county and has been carefully 

 collated by the editor. The geological features of the 

 district have been zealously investigated. An orni- 

 thological register, recording the arrival and departure 

 of migratory birds and the occurrence of rare and 

 accidental visitants, has been regularly kept and 

 notes on its contents annually read. Entomology 

 and botany have obtained their full share of attention, 

 and in order to encourage the study of the latter 

 science, the society is about to publish a second 

 edition of the Flora Hcrtfordieusis (Webb and Cole- 

 man, 1849) in which an attempt will be made to give 

 a comprehensive account of the flora of our county 

 corrected to the present time. In completing this 

 arduous task, Mr. Piffard's assistance would be most 

 valuable, and I hope that he will be willing to give to 

 the committee, under whose care the publication of 

 the volume is placed, his cordial co-operation. I do 

 not wish, in the smallest degree, to depreciate the 

 efforts of the Hemel Hempstead Society, but I hope I 

 may be allowed to vindicate the right of the society 

 with which I am so intimately connected to the title 

 It has assumed.— >/^// E. Littlcboy, V. P. of Herts 

 Nat. I/ist. Society, Watford. 



" Hay-Fkver."— After partaking of fish I am 

 visited by a severe attack of hay-fever, generally about 

 an hour after. Salmon and mackerel^owever I have 

 eaten lately without any such effect, but a day or two 

 ago, after eating part of a whiting I had the worst 

 ^.•r? ,^ ever remember having. Breathing was very 

 difficult ; in fact I felt nearly suffocated. This was 



accompanied by swelling over the eyes, between the 

 eye-brows and the eye-lids. This last symptom I 

 have never had before. A friend of mine has hay- 

 fever after smelling a rose. I can understand this a 

 little, but do not see how it is that it occurs in my 

 case. Can anyone explain this? — C, Fred. Worters. 



Hen Canary Singing. — In further answer to 

 Stuart McB.'s query, I learn from bird fanciers and 

 bird breeders that it is not unusual for hen canaries, 

 and in fact hen birds in general, to sing ; but the note 

 of the female bird is usually far inferior, both in tone 

 and power, to the note of the male bird. — Clara 

 Kingsfo7-d, Canterbury. 



Unexpected Guests. — The bees, from what I 

 can make out from Mr. W. M. C. C.'s description, are 

 imagos of the great saw-fly ( IVichiosoma liicornm). The 

 larva is mostly to be seen at night or just about dusk, 

 feeding on the hawthorn hedges ; they are of a greenish 

 white, covered with a kind of bloom, and exude a 

 peculiar-smelling liquid when handled. When full 

 fed the larva spins a hard and compact cocoon, which 

 it fixed to a hawthorn twig. It stays in the larva 

 state inside the cocoon throughout the winter, and 

 turns to a pupa in the spring. I have bred two 

 species of Ichneumons from this sawfly, Opliion 

 obscunts, and a smaller species with a red and black 

 abdomen. I do not know its scientific name. — 

 Trichiosovta liicoriim is very abundant in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Birmingham, and the cocoons can be 

 gathered by dozens off the leafless hedges in winter, 

 when they are more easily detected. — /'. T. Deakin. 



Unexpected Guests. — The insects produced 

 from the cocoons found by your correspondent 

 W. M. C. C. were not "bees," but the hedge 

 saw-fly (Trichiosoina lucoriim). The cocoon and 

 larva of this saw-fly bothered me not a little when I 

 first began to collect moths, as the caterpillar is much 

 like that of a moth, but may be readily distinguished 

 by its having twenty-two legs, the caterpillars of 

 moths and butterflies never having more than 

 eighteen. It may be found through the summer 

 months, till the end of August, and will be one of 

 the first captures if the bushes be smartly beaten with 

 a stick and an open umbrella held underneath. It 

 has a red head, with a whitish-green wrinkled skin, 

 dotted with minute glandular elevations. It has a 

 habit of coiling itself in a ring, with its tail in the 

 centre, and is a fat well-to-do looking caterpillar. 

 When irritated, it causes a whitish fluid to exude from 

 its body, and probably this will prevent its being 

 snapped up by a hungry bird from some offensive 

 property attaching it, or, it may be that it is to 

 prevent its being scorched by the heat of the sun, there 

 being little shelter in a thorn bush during the heat of 

 the day. The caterpillar attaches the cocoon, which 

 is a stiff pasteboard case, with rounded ends, and so 

 hard that it will almost resist a penknife, to a twig 

 in the hedgerow, and when the leaves drop oft" it may 

 easily be seen. The caterpillar lies dormant in the 

 case during the winter, and turns into a chrysalis the 

 following April, remaining in that state two or three 

 weeks, until it emerges from the cocoon by biting a 

 round trap-door at the top of the case, leaving a 

 little piece uncut, to serve as a hinge. If the cocoons 

 are taken indoors early in the winter, the insect 

 comes out much sooner, owing to the increased 

 warmth. The old shells of the cocoons are very 

 firmly fastened to the twigs, and often remain on the 

 bushes two or three years, and form a snug retreat for 

 stray beetles, spiders, and other insects. — R. Utanden, 

 Goosnargh, Lancashire. 



