HARDWICKE'S S C I E N CE- GOS S IP. 



117 



found in the abdomen of the worker hee are 

 entirely wanting; in the abdomen of the queen, and 

 their place is filled up with her ovaries ; and when 

 the queen flies, her abdomen hangs down as a dead 

 weight, as I have often seen when they have gone 

 out, or returned from_ their matrimonial excursion, 

 or come out in swarming. — William Carr. 



Snow-Buntings, &c. — It may be interesting to 

 your readers to know that we have been visited 

 during this winter by large numbers of the Snow- 

 Bunting and Mountain Finch. The Siskin and the 

 Twite also put in an appearance, and the Grasschat 

 paid us a visit on March 11th, when the ground was 

 almost covered with snow. Our fells are white at 

 this date, April 7th. — A. P., Darlington. 



The Cuckoo. — It has often been a matter of 



curiosity to me to endeavour to ascertain why all 



our feat hered friends have such an aversion to the 



cuckoo. Por several days during last spring a male 



and female cuckoo haunted our garden at intervals ; 



the male perching on the wall and bowing and 



coquetting as he shouted forth his song, then as 



the female (which, unlike most females, is almost 



voiceless) came sweeping up he would take to flight, 



and glide hawk-like over the neighbouring fields, 



leaving her to follow humbly behind. I have said 



that the female cuckoo is voiceless, or nearly so — the 



almost was a cautious reservation as I am rather in 



doubt at present to which sex to attribute the loud 



bubbling whistle occasionally heard from a cuckoo. 



The half-laughing cackle proceeds from the male, 



and is often a continuation of ids more familiar cry. 



The pair of cuckoos (by the bye is it not rather 



unusual to see a pair in company ?) mentioned above 



made several visits to the garden, and on each 



occasion met with very disrespectful treatment 



from the birds in the neighbourhood — the swallows 



from the chimney shrieked at them loudly, the 



colony of sand-martins from the quarry close by 



mobbed them in a body, the blackbirds and thrushes 



rang out their insults, the usually peaceful starlings 



flung terrible imprecations on their poor heads, and 



a missel-thrush, bold in his wrath, anathematized 



them in the most recherche Billingsgate. Several 



times the cuckoo has appeared in a shrubbery close 



by, and on each occasion the hitherto merry songs of 



the feathered inhabitants have changed into hoarse 



cries of anger and defiance. The following incident 



which came under my notice some years back will 



show the detestation in which the cuckoo is held by 



the rest of the feathered tribe, A cuckoo by some 



means or other had entangled its legs in the tiles of 



our house, and was totally unable to extricate itself. 



Its helpless condition was soon discovered by the 



small birds living in the vicinity, and they came 



from all directions to exult in its misfortune. The 



staid, grave old house-sparrows left the eaves, and 



the gaudy finches I'rom the neighbouring trees all 



crowded down to see the unfortunate bird and to 



assist in the mobbing that took place. And never 



was any poor bird so foully abused — they hissed 



bim, they hooted him, they struck him with their 



bills, and scolded and chattered with all their might 



till a fresh actor came on the scene in the shape of 



a man with a prop, who in endeavouring to rescue 



the unfortunate bird hit it an unlucky blow on tlie 



head and thus caused its death. It was a very fine 



specimen. Other instances of cuckoo-mobbing have 



come under my notice, and the most justifiable 



excuse for such attacks is the popular belief that 



the cuckoo has a predilection for eggs ; but then 



why should it be siugled out for such open tokens 



of hatred, while the magpie and jay, both of which 

 are inveterate egg-suckers, are seldom molested? 

 Or is it possible that the birds are impelled by a 

 virtuous indignation to siiow their contempt and 

 disgust for such an unnatural parent, which, though 

 anxious to continue its race, is unwilling to bring 

 up its progeny itself, but rather commits it to the 

 unsolicited attentions of a strange nurse ? This 

 however is merely a romantic hypothesis, and I 

 should greatly like to see a practical explanation, 

 or_ reasonable supposition on the subject.— /F. U. 

 IFaruer, Kingston, Abingdon. 



White ArrLE.— Audubon, in the journal of his 

 excursion to the Great Western Prairies, as given 

 in his interesting life by Buchanan, says, " When 

 sailing up the Big Sioux lliver they found on the 

 river's bank the white apple, much used by the 

 Indians for food, which they dr}% pound, and make 

 into a mash. It is more of a potato than apple, for 

 it grows six inches under ground, and is about the 

 size of a hen's tg^. It had no flowers, the root 

 woody, leaves ovate, and attached in fives." The 

 ample and very interesting replies to my query 

 respecting the Compass-floicer, which have appeared 

 in the Science-Gossip from your American cor- 

 respondents, and for whicii I beg them to accept 

 my thanks, induce me, with your permission, to 

 ask if the "white apple" is known, and if so, what 

 is its botanical name, its qualities, and peculiari- 

 ties ? — James Pearson. 



Luminous Tungi.— I find under "Notes and 

 Queries " in Science-Gossip for March, some re- 

 marks concerning " luminous fungi." As the light 

 spoken of was seen on a post, may it not have been 

 caused by phosphorescent wood ? When taking a 

 walk one very dark autumn night at Linton, North 

 Devon, my attention was attracted to a luminous 

 object in a hedge, which, on cautiously feeling my 

 way towards, I found to proceed from some de- 

 cayed bark on a tree. It emitted a sort of waving 

 light, which was so bright that I could clearly see 

 the time on my watch by it. I think the following 

 particulars extracted from "Himalayan Journals," 

 written by Joseph Dalton Hooker, M.D., R.N., 

 E.R.S., will be interesting both to your correspond- 

 ent and many of your readers: — " The phenomenon 

 of phosphorescence is most conspicuous on stacks of 

 firewood. At Dorjiling, during the damp, warm, 

 summer months (May to October), at elevations of 

 5,000 to 8,000 feet, it may be witnessed every night 

 by penetrating a few yards into the forest— at 

 least it was so in ISIS and 1849; and during my stay 

 there billets of decayed wood were repeatedly sent to 

 me by residents, with inquiries as to the cause of 

 their luminosity. It is no exaggeration to say that one 

 does not need to move from the fireside to see this 

 phenomenon ; for if there is a partially decayed log 

 amongst the firewood, it is almost sure to glow with 

 a pale piiosphoric light, A stack of firewood col- 

 lected near my host's cottage presented a beautiful 

 spectacle for two months (July and August), and 

 on passing it at night I had to quiet my pony, who 

 was always alarmed by it. The phenomenon in- 

 variably accompanies decay, and is common on oak, 

 laurel (Titranlhera), birch, and probably other 

 timbers ; it equally appears on cut wood and on 

 stumps, but is most frequent on branches lying close 

 to the g>-ound in the wet forests. I have reason to 

 believe that it spreads with great rapidity from old 

 surfaces to freshly-cut ones. That it is a vital 

 phenomenon, and due to the mycelium of a fungus, 

 I do not in the least doubt, for I have obs^erved it 



