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HARDWICKE'S SCI EN CE - GO S S IP. 



sucli terror into a guilty conscience. Note the slight 

 pause between " Coo " and " Sam," and the inter- 

 pretation thereof is perfect.— C.-i. Bree, M.D., Col- 

 chester. 



Saw-flies. — I quite concur with Mr. James W. 

 Gooch in his remarks upon conclusions drawn upon 

 such common occurrences as even the depositing of 

 insects' eggs, as he illustrates in the case of the 

 Saw-fly ; and as allusion has been made to my 

 observations on tlie " Stings of the Queen-bee and 

 the Worker-bee," in the same number, I venture 

 to add another illustration as an accepted fact — 

 " That in the queen {Apis mellifica) the sting, which 

 is covered, is also a modified ovipositor, serving to 

 aid her in the deposition of eggs, as well as to 

 attack her enemies " ! These scientific naturalists 

 and professors should guide us common out-of-door 

 observers of nature better, and direct us in proper 

 channels of information, and not classify errors. 

 Imagine the long curved sting of the queen-bee 

 being used for guiding the eggs along the raised 

 back of a bill-liook, or the blunted edge of a 

 scimitar ; but it is not more absurd than what has 

 been shown by Mr. Gooch to be stated regarding 

 the Saw-fly._ The excellent illustration in your 

 paper, showing protrusion of ovipositor, will as 

 nearly as possible indicate the queen-bee's ovipositor; 

 and being of . the same class {Hymenopterd), may 

 perhaps be accepted in its comparative anatomy 

 without having the sliding " back of the sting " to 

 guide the eggs into the cells. — W. A. Miinn. 



Habdihood or Bats.— Having caught a bat in 

 my bedroom, and being anxious to preserve it with- 

 out injury, I got some spirits of wine, and put it in a 

 glass for about two hours, until I thought it was 

 dead ; I afterwards wrapped it up [in a handkerchief 

 and put it in a box in a drawer. Being called away 

 from home the next day, and having remained away 

 for three weeks, when I came back I went to the 

 drawer, expecting to find the animal decayed, when, 

 on opening the handkerchief, out flew the bat, as 

 well as when I first caught it. Can any of your 

 readers explain this phenomenon ? — E. K. S. Asccit. 



Grey Flies.— On cutting out the top of a hive 

 last autumn for the purpose of introducing a feed- 

 ing-bottle, I was surprised, on looking through the 

 aperture, to perceive a number of large flies with 

 black heads and grey bodies crawling lazily about. 

 They did not seem able to fly, and I fancy had 

 been bred within the hive, as I remarked two of 

 those I captured had their wings crumpled up, as 

 if just escaped from the pupa. Their whole appear- 

 ance was most " uncanny," and reminded me of the 

 sullen-looking Carrion Crow. Can any one tell me 

 what they were, and whether, as I fear, they are 

 destructive to the bees "^^Ilarry Ridge. 



Remamcable Sense of Smell.— A very extra- 

 ordinary case has just come under my notice. A 

 certain lady possesses the sense of smell in such a 

 remarkable degree, thatitmuch resembles the power 

 of that faculty in some of the inferior creation, as 

 the dog ; for, like the dog, she is enabled by this 

 sense to track, to a certain extent. As an instance 

 of this, on coming from her room one morning, she 

 said that she could smell rabbits. That could not 

 be, it was said, as there were none, and had been 

 none, in the house. But she began to track it ! 

 And going straight to an outer door, she opened it, 

 and found the rabbits hung up on a nail. They had 

 been brought horn ; by her brother on the previous 



evening. Again : she was washing her brothei-'s 

 nightgown ; she said it smelt as if a child had been 

 wearing it. It was afterwards discovered that it 

 had been used by a little boy, who had been staying 

 at her house. By this acute sense she is an 

 excellent judge of many things, as, for example, tea. 

 She is enabled to tell, almost immediately, the very 

 best kind of tea. At a tea-merciiaut's, one day, she 

 was given a few samples, to see which was the best. 

 She put one on one side, went through the rest, 

 came back to the one selected, and pronounced it 

 to be the best. The merchant said she had judged 

 perfectly right. — JF. S. Palmer. 



Arrival of Wax-wings. — It may interest some 

 of your readers to know that we have been visited 

 in this neighbourhood by a considerable number of 

 wax-wings {Bomhycilla garrula). I have seen a 

 pair that were shot about a fortnight ago, and have 

 heard of one shot since then. Probably others, that 

 I have not heard of, have been victimized. — G. S. 

 Streatfield, Boston, Lincolnshire. 



RosELEAF-cuTTER Bee (p. 9). — I have seen 

 several of the leaf-constructed cells of this bee 

 taken out from the upper part of a sunny wall in 

 summer. — JF. H. JFamer, Kingston, Abingdon. 



Swans and Fish.— Replying to "F. G. P.'s" 

 query, I may mention that swans do clear water of 

 weed, and that they are very likely to devour the 

 spawn of fish. I met with the fact in Smee's " My 

 Garden." 1 have not the volume at hand now; 

 but as well as I can recollect, he states that some 

 swans were introduced by him into the river which 

 passes through his garden. The river was well 

 stocked with Anacharis alsinastrum, which the 

 swans soon fell upon and devoured with great 

 avidity, clearing the water of nearly the whole 

 supply. Mr. Smee alludes to the fact that the 

 ducks on his premises do considerable harm in 

 the spawning season by feeding upon the ova of 

 the trout. I know not whether he mentions the 

 swans as feeding on the eggs, but if one would 

 devour them, it might be expected that the other 

 would do likewise. — H. A. Auld. 



Prunella vulgaris (the Self-heal) avorthy 

 OF Cultivation (see p. 28).— Whether I have 

 read Mr.«(Holland's year-or-two-back remarks in 

 Science- Gossip about the common Prunella being 

 desirable for garden growth, or whether he men- 

 tioned his notion to me when we had a pleasantly- 

 remembered botanical chat together some twelve 

 months ago, or whether I hold it as an original, 

 yet, as it proves (as a coincidence), an identical idea, 

 I know not,— but I know that during my botanical 

 walks in the past year my thoughts have several 

 times set upon the point in question ; and happen- 

 ing to come across a show of the plant in fine 

 flower, 1 have speculated upon the possibihty of so 

 improving and tutoring as to render it worthy of 

 cultivation in the garden parterre. An impression 

 against this has arisen ■with me from the— shall I 

 say— very weedy appearance the ordinary plant 

 assumes when growing in full vigour and not 

 impeded by competition for possession of the soil — 

 unless, indeed, the earth be of a clayey character 

 and rather baked or pressed hard on the surface. 

 Under this last-named condition one plant certainly 

 becomes more spreading, —dwarf in habit, — and 

 proportionately bears a greater number of largely 

 developed flower-heads. I have noticed, however, 

 upon the Lancashire sand-hills, occasionally, a form 



