HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE . GO S S 1 P. 



239 



emblem lias been so inexplicable was owing to the 

 blunder and ignorance of the engraver, who engraved 

 the inscription reverseways, and the seal again 

 suffered through the greater ignorance of a second 

 engraver to whose care it was intrusted.—/. P. S. 



Bltje-bottle Fly (p. 211).— In answer to 

 " S. A. B.'s" query, I may say that, as blue-bottle 

 flies live entirely on sweets, it is by no means an 

 uncommon occurrence to see them round flowers. 

 In autumn they swarm about the ivy blossoms, in 

 company with bees, butterflies, and wasps.— /F. H. 

 Warner, Kingston. 



Singing Mice. — My experience with these un- 

 natural songsters accords more with Mr. Sims' than 

 with Mr. Palmer's, as I never remember to have 

 heard but. one in the act of singing. This was in 

 October, 1872, and the performance reminded me of 

 three things — the spluttering of a roasting apple, 

 tlie soft twittering of j'oung birds, and the crying 

 of a toy doll. The song appeared to be of a ventri- 

 loquial character, seeming to come from my pocket, 

 then from a sack lying on the ground, and lastly 

 from under a meal-chest where the performer really 

 was. — IF. H, Warner, Kingston. 



The Landrail (p. 214).— Mr. E. Anderson's 

 query respecting this bird brought to my recollection 

 the fact that I had not heard its familiar note for 

 at least three years. Pormerly (that is a few years 

 back) it used to occur quite commonly in this 

 neighbourhood, and its everlasting crake-crake- 

 crake ! from the field oppot^ite often prevented the 

 welcome approaches of Morpheus. I can assign no 

 reason for the disappearance of the bird. — W. H. 

 Warner, Kingston. 



Death's-head Moth.— In answer to your cor- 

 respondent C. B. Barnes, the Death's-head Moth 

 {Acherontia atropos) is very uncertain in its ap- 

 pearance, and is often found in a locality where it 

 has not been seen for several years before. I once 

 found a good many of the larvae in the potato-fields 

 near a town in Wiltshire, where I was then residing, 

 and for seven years afterwards I did not see a single 

 specimen ; it then occurred again in considerable 

 abundance, but for one season only. The larvae may 

 easily be found, as they make their presence known 

 by their ravages. I have seen a square yard of 

 healthy potato plants completely stripped of foliage 

 by a single larva. — H. Lovett. 



Stinging Eish.— In the Echo of September 

 3rd there is a letter from a special correspondent, 

 giving an account of a day's shrimping on the 

 Lincolnsliire coast, in which he says that they cap- 

 tured, amongst other things, "a score or two of 

 silvery fish as big as a gudgeon, which, upon being 

 shaken out of the net, shufiled themselves down into 

 the wet half-liquid sand till nothing was visible but 

 their sand-coloured backs, armed with some vil- 

 lanously sharp prickles, which make a wound hard 

 to heal and dangerous to waders." Could any of 

 your readers inform me what is the name of this 

 fish? as I have since heard from another source that 

 a gentleman was so badly stung in the hand by one 

 of these fish that he was told by his doctor that he 

 had barely escaped amputation. — E. Lovett. 



Spakkows and Fruit. — An American correspon- 

 dent, Mr. H. W. 11 allenbusli, sends us an instance 

 of the great benefit of the English sparrows, which 

 are very numerous and doing well in the town and 

 ■vicinity of Reading, Pennsylvania. Et^ery season for 



several years a plum-tree {Pruniis domestica) at his 

 father's house was attacked by caterpillars and 

 insects, which stripped it of its foliage and prevented 

 the fruit from ripening. But now the sparrows 

 have taken up their quarters there and shown no 

 mercy to the army of insects, the tree is recovering 

 its verdure and its fruit growing to the full size. 



"Praying Mantfs," sometimes called the "Sooth- 

 sayer," is one of the most pugnacious of insects, 

 and little merits the name it bears in Italy, Spain, 

 and all the south of France, where the devout, 

 struck by the peculiar way in which it holds up its 

 forelegs, when suspended motionless in the air, 

 waiting for its prey (other insects), term it "the 

 Praying Mantis." A lady, a friend of mine, nearly 

 got herself into some trouble on the Continent, she 

 told me, by caging two of them; so exceeding super- 

 stitious were the people by whom she was at 

 the time surrounded, that they believed some dire 

 misfortune must surely follow her profane act. The 

 Mantis is carnivorous, and will even kill its own 

 relations and eat them. It belongs to the Ortho- 

 ntera, and is consequently 'a cousin of the " Walking- 

 leaf."— iT. E. Watney. 



Food of the Tortoise (p. 165). — The common 

 land tortoise, so usually kept in gardens, is purely 

 a phytophagist, and so far differs widely from its 

 aquatic brethen. It will eat most vegetables, but 

 prefers the milky composifse, as was long ago 

 observed by Gilbert White: "Milky plants, such as 

 lettuces, dandelions, sow-thistles, are its favourite 

 dish" (Letter of October Sth, 1770, to Danes 

 Barrington). Your con-espondent will find many 

 interesting particulars as to the habits of the tor- 

 toise in the same series of letters. — R. A. Pryor. 



Ants. — Will any one kindly inform me how to 

 extirpate a colony of ants, which, when driven from 

 a corner of a greenhouse, enter a frame near grow- 

 ing melons, &c., and vice-versa, and have done so for 

 years ?— ^. B. F. 



A Lost Owl.— Between eight and nine in the 

 evening, a few weeks ago, I was seated in the 

 centre of a large seaport town, when I noticed a 

 beautiful white owl {Strix flanmea) fly from the 

 sea, and stop upon a tree about twenty yards olT. 

 After stopping there some few minutes it flew away 

 in the same direction from whence it came, t 

 should be glad if any readers of the Gossip can teU 

 me whether it is customary to find an owl in a 

 place of this description. — B. G. Bately. 



Swarm of Cockchafers about a Tree. — One 

 often sees, during what have been called "cock- 

 chafer years " (for the insect is notably more abun- 

 dant in some years than in others), a number of the 

 beetles at eventide ; but they are not usually under 

 the influence of any particular attraction noticeable 

 by us. A few evenings ago, I observed, just at 

 sunset, a swarm of cockchafers -flying at various 

 elevations about a sycamore-tree, not settling 

 mostly. They were attended upon by a host oi 

 small boys, who happened, unfortunately for the 

 beetles, to come across them, and set to work dili- 

 gently to knock them down. The cockchafers were 

 certainly not feeding upon the leaves, and the tree 

 was not in flower, and I could only account for 

 their presence by the supposition that the scent of 

 the honey-dew deposited on the leaves by a pretty 

 numerous family of the Aphides, had drawn them 

 thither, though they did not appear to be imbibing 



it.-/. K s. a 



