262 



HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSS IP, 



excepting the pale blue cere of the male, and the 

 dazzling white of the little spots on the throat, which 

 in the ordinary budgerigar are cerulean blue. This 

 dealer has also some pale green birds of the same 

 species that are almost as large as a turquoisine. A 

 blue variety of the undulated parrakeet has recently, 

 I understand, been obtained in Germany ; so that we 

 may soon expect to have budgerigars bred of all 

 colours, and so different in appearance from the 

 parent stork, as to puzzle ornithologists unacquainted 

 with their origin. I would recommend readers of 

 Science-Gossip interested in the matter to pay an 

 early visit to the establishment of Mr. Joseph 

 Abrahams, 192 St. George Street East, London, who 

 will be pleased to show them his yellow budgerigars, 

 even if they do not spend a penny in the place. — 

 W. T. Greene, J/..-1., F.Z.S. 



Wasps and Insects. — In reply to your corre- 

 spondent Mr. J. P. Smythe, as regards wasps capturing 

 insects, I may say I have often seen wasps seize 

 flies on window-panes. I have also seen them on 

 the wing. — F. II. Parrot, Walton House, Aylesbury. 



Name wanted. — The bird observed by E. H. R. 

 was probably the spotted flycatcher (Mnscicapa 

 grlsola), though what little note this species has can- 

 not be called " harsh." I have often observed the 

 flycatcher stationed on an iron fence in a garden, 

 darting off occasionally for flies, as E. H. R. 

 describes, sometimes not returning to the same spot, 

 but a foot or two farther on, and so in time traversing 

 the whole lepgth of fencing and back again. — C. A. 



Large Slug. — The slug described by E. H. R. is 

 no doubt the Umax maximus, L. It is common in 

 most parts, and, though harmless (as any other slug 

 at least), is a great terror to servant-maids in back 

 kitchens. E. H. R. will find an admirable drawing 

 of this species in Reeve's " Land and Fresh-water 

 Mollusks," p. 25, and should he meet with another 

 specimen, I would advise him to place it on a half- 

 inch stick, and, when the slug is extended to its full 

 length, peer through the respiratory orifice on the 

 right side of the animal witli a lens, examine the 

 chamber and try to make out the ramification of the 

 blood-vessels on its surface, — C. Ashford. 



Notes on Mollusca. — In answer to your corre- 

 spondent P. S. Taylor : "I have observed Planorbis 

 Cornells, devouring egg-capsules of P. vortex. I do 

 not think this can be from choice, and put it down in 

 my case either from want of vegetable food or from 

 its incessant habit (as with all semivalve shells) of 

 rasping any surface it passes over. Anyhow, it is 

 interesting." To " Arion" and to your " first corre- 

 spondent," Caterham Valley and all the country 

 between there and Box Hill produces //. poinatia, 

 but I am grieved to say that, from my own experience 

 and that of several Molluscan friends, it is becoming 

 very uncommon in the first locality — owing, I fear, 

 to an assiduous bird fancier not a hundred miles 

 from Seven Dials. Both Limax maxinins (black 

 slug) and Arion ater are very variable in their colour, 

 but L. maximus may be easily recognized by 

 feeling the shell under the mantle. According to 

 " Rimmer,"yi. rt. is from 3- to 5 inches, and Z. m, 

 4 to 6 inches." — C. D. Shcrborn. 



Re.\soning powers of Animals. — A friend has 

 just related to me an incident whiclt recently 

 occurred in his household, which I think adds to the 

 evidence in favour of reasoning powers, to some 

 extent, in the brute creation. My friend has a cat 

 which has acquired the habit of letting itself in at 



the back door of his house by pressing down the- 

 thumb lever of the latch with its forepaws and sc 

 opening the door. Puss is very fond of sparrow 

 hunting, and has selected one secluded corner of the 

 garden for a hiding-place, from whence to pounce 

 upon any adventurous bird, and, one day, during the 

 spring, she was in ambush laid, when her son (a fine- 

 lively young cat) appeared on the scene, and proceed- 

 ing across the garden, mewed to be let into the house. 

 His mother evidently thought this procedure unlikely 

 to hasten the advent of the sparrows, and rising from 

 her lair, crossed to the door, which she opened in her 

 I accustomed manner, letting in her beloved, though, 

 at the time, troublesome son. She then returned to- 

 her old position of watchfulness. The^ action of the 

 cat exhibits, to my mind, no mean degree of intelli- 

 gence, and is therefore, I think, worthy of record. — 

 Baker Hudson. 



A Litter of Wild Rabbits. — During the month 

 of September a wild rabbit has littered beneath one 

 of the point rod covers, in the upper goods station, 

 yard at Brighton. Engines and trucks are continu- 

 ally being shunted over the cover beneath which the 

 old rabbit and her little ones have established their 

 home. Yet, when all is quiet, they venture out and 

 graze upon the banks of buffer beams in close proxi- 

 mity. They are much petted by the shunters and 

 others engaged in the yard. — F. F'arrant, Brighton, 



Hens and Horsehair. — The lady is the subject 

 of a hoax. It reminds me of an incident that occurred 

 to a friend of mine some years ago. Suspecting that 

 he did not receive the due quantity of eggs from his- 

 poultry, he privately marked several eggs and re- 

 placed them in the nest, but the tliief was too wily to- 

 be thus caught, so he adopted the following plan. 

 With a fine sewing-needle he pierced the end of a 

 fresh laid egg, and inserted a long black horsehair, 

 closing the puncture with a particle of white wax;, 

 replacing the egg, he kept his own counsel. Some 

 short time afterwards when talking to his gardener 

 about fowls, the latter said, " Hens were queer birds," 

 as his wife had even found horsehair in their eggs. 

 " Oh," said my friend, " now I know ; it was myself 

 who put the horsehair in, and you who took the eggs," 

 So the thief was discovered, — P. IF. Henson. 



White Campanula. — One of your correspon- 

 dents, C. E. J. G., mentions the occurrence of white 

 flowered specimens of Agraphis nutans (wild hya- 

 cinth) and Campanula rotundifolia (hairbell). I- 

 beg to state that a white Agraphis nutans was- 

 gathered near here this summer ; and I have gathered 

 white-flowered specimens of Campanula rotundifolia- 

 in plenty at Tilmire near York, and Rievaulx Abbey 

 near Helmsley. — Alfred JValler, York. 



Holly Berries. — Several fine hollies growing 

 wild in a strip of uncultivated ground on my glebe 

 (near Lurgan), retained their unusually large cymes - 

 or bunches of berries all this year, till the 20th of 

 September, on which date the first flock of missel 

 thrushes passed this way and cleared them off, I 

 attribute such uncommonly late holly berries to the- 

 absence of blackbirds, which were all but extermi- 

 nated by the severe winters of 1879-80 and 1 880-81, 

 and the wet cold spring and summer of 1882, which 

 retarded the fruit ripening. — //. IV. Lett, M.A. 



Death's-head Moth. — I have lately seen a 

 large death's-head moth which was caught by a 

 Sheffield gentleman whilst on board one of the 

 Grimsby fishing boats, about two hundred miles off 

 the Norfolk coast in the North Sea. They were 



