!' 132 



HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE - GO S S IP. 



STING OE WASP. 



THE following sketches will perhaps help to 

 explain my notions about the structure of tlie 

 lancets of the wasp's sting : — 



Fip. 



80. Side view of two te«th of the lancet, x 

 A. The teeth. B. The tube and its branches. 



500. 



Fig. 81. Front view of ditto. 



Fig. 82. Transverse section through one of the teeth. 



Fig. 83. Lancet, with duct running through the tube, x 50 



Fig. 84. Broken piece of lancet, showing tubular character. 



R. H. NisBETT Browne. 



A FAMILY OF LIZARDS. 



IN March, 1871, 1 obtained two scaly lizards, male 

 and female, the former distinguished by the 

 red under-surface. These I put in a box with a 

 glass front, constructed so as to keep out the rain. 

 After I had kept them for about two months, I 

 placed the box out in the garden, i-esting on a 

 saucer and brick. I then gradually educated the 

 male in taking walks on the lawn, at first watching 

 him and putting him back in the box after a short 

 turn, and then leaving him to amuse himself. The 

 female did not avail herself of the opened door till 

 one morning, not getting her usual supply of food, 

 she sallied forth in search of it, and afterwards was 

 always ready to come out. She used to spend a 

 great deal of time on the brick on which her house 

 stood, enjoying the warm sunbeams, and retired 

 under the saucer at night. At last the male 



disappeared for a week. At the end of that time be 

 came one morning to the brick, where the female was 

 sitting, and from that time never strayed far, until 

 his final departure. For a week, on every sunny 

 morning, the female came from under the saucer 

 and waited on the brick. The male 

 them dropped himself down from a 

 hole in the wall hard by, and ran to 

 the brick also. During the day they 

 pursued each oilier among the gras?, 

 on the brick, and under the saucer, and 

 at night retired respectively to the 

 hole in the wall and the saucer. I 

 used to shift the latter from its posi- 

 tion, in order not to destroy the grass 

 under it. One day I did this, and the 

 grass being damp, the female went to 

 some resting-place, that could not 

 liave been very far off. The next 

 morning the male came out of his hole, went to the 

 brick, but found no one waiting for him. He 

 remained a short time, and then departed. Almost 

 immediately afterwards the female cameup, but the 

 male was never seen again. 



The female, however, still stuck to the brick ; nor 

 do I remember any loss in her appetite, which was 

 always extremely good. Nothing came amiss to her ; 

 large flics, spiders, and caterpillars were devoured 

 in rapid succession. Once she made a meal of an 

 earth-worm. I have seen her, after a 

 good meal, appear hardly able to 

 move. She took food readily from the 

 hand, and was remarkably tame. At 

 first she was very retiring in habits, 

 much more so than the male, but afterwards became 

 the tamer of the two. Thus she went on till August, 

 when she was unfortunately injured in mowing the 

 garden. She was last seen with a portion only of h.er 

 tail. She left behind her a family consisting of 

 two young ones, who ran about the garden, alone 

 or together,quite untrammelled, from their birth to 

 their death. There was a very small hole in the wall, 

 into which they both contrived to thrust tliemselves. 

 This was their usual home. They also affected one 

 or two other holes in a lesser degree. They were 

 tolerably tame, and would eat little hunting spiders 

 that were common about the wall. The young 

 lizards were very dark-coloured, quite different to 

 their parents. 1 have seen one run several feet up 

 a wall, among the foliage of a peach-tree, in mere 

 buoyancy of spirits. 



1 let them choose their own winter quarters, 

 thinking they might reappear in the spring ; however, 

 though they disappeared at the proper season of the 

 year, they failed to reappear in the ensuing spring, 

 and'so myfamily became extinct. Thoughl have since 

 had several lizards, I never had the same success. 

 1 was always in too great a hurry to begin their 

 training in the garden, in which case their first walk 



