HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



263 



Hedgehogs. — About a fortnis^lit since, I had a 

 bedgeliog and four young ones brought to me. I 

 kept them in a. box. The mother has since died, I 

 rather fear from exhaustion, as she suckled her 

 young, and I did not know what to give her except 

 'bread and milk. The young ones are thriving ; they 

 are about the size of a large orange, and run about 

 on the grass-plot, and will soon I think be tame ; they 

 feed greedily on \Yorms and snails ; and last night 

 niadeshort work of a body of a mole (which my dog 

 had just caught and killed) ; not a vestige appears to- 

 day in their box. I should like to know anything more 

 about their food and habits : they do not tov;ch 

 apples or berries. Their cry to the mother was 

 shrill, and very like the note of a child's whistle, but 

 I never hear any sound now. They are said to be 

 capital destroyers of cockroaches, &c. — L. 



Stinging Eisii. — I imagine the fish mentioned by 

 the Echo correspondent to he the Otter Pike [Traclii- 

 mts vipera), fisnred and described in tliis journal 

 (volume for 1S71, p. 171). It may also be the Sting 

 Eay {Baia pastlnacM), the long flattened spine of 

 which is capable of inflictiug very severe wounds. 

 This spine is cast annually, the new spine often at- 

 taining a large size before the old one has dropped 

 off, in which state it has been described as a distinct 

 species. — C. L. 



Ckane Ely. — Has it ever been ascertained if the 

 legs of this insect are reproduced ? Its life is pro- 

 bably not long, but the creature manifests such an 

 utter disregard for the safety of these appeudages, 

 that, towards the close of its career it must be in a 

 state of utter destitution, if there be no such pro- 

 vision. — C. L. 



The "Vaxessid^. — Has there been a general scar- 

 city of V. Atalanta this year? I have not seen a 

 single specimen. I looked for the larvaj in June and 

 July, as I wanted a few, but did not succeed in find- 

 ing any. V. tirticcE and V. lo have been common, 

 the former I think even more abundant than usual. 

 —E. J). M. 



Shoke Lark. — Mr. Mathew' (Science-Gossip, 

 p. 234) is certainly misinformed as to the number of 

 shore larks recorded as having been killed in Eng- 

 land. The first British specimen recorded was 

 killed on the Norfolk coast at Sherriugham, in March, 

 1830 ; since that time it has occurred in this country 

 in 1850, 1855, 1861-2, and again in considerable 

 numbers in the winter of 1869-70. I have in my 

 own possession five killed at the latter date. It has 

 also occurred, in addition to the years named above, 

 on the Suffolk coast in 1862-64 and '65, and on the 

 south coast of England. Mr. Stevenson {Zoologist, 

 N.S., p. 2367) says thirty-eight are known to him to 

 have been killed in Norfolk since 1830, and many 

 others in Suffolk; and it must be remembered that 

 these are only representative members of the flocks 

 from which they were killed. It is probable that it 

 has frequently pissed along the coast unrecognized. 

 —T.S. 



Blue-bottle Ely (p. 211).— "S. A. B." may, 

 during this month and the next, if the weather is 

 fine, see numerous blue-bottles sipping the honey 

 from the ivy, in company with other flies, wasps, &c. 

 —W. W. S. 



Notes on Aphides (p. 173).— I am obliged to 

 Mr. "VYestropp for his courteous reply to my ques- 

 tions in last month's Science Gossip: like him, a 

 friend of mine says he believes he has seen an aphis 



suckle its young, and I think Morren has made a 

 similar statement. Perhaps, under these circum- 

 stances, I am hardly justified in thinking they may 

 possibly have been mistaken. I have watched 

 Aphides a little, but was never so fortunate as to see 

 an insect thus retVesh itself. I do not feel qualified 

 to make a positive assertion on the subject, but 

 would ask if the structure of the mouth is suited to 

 taking nourishment in the manner described. I 

 know the young will occasionally climb on to the 

 parent's back ; sometimes they do so immediately 

 after birth, but usually (so far as my experience 

 goes) the offspring at once take up their station 

 behind their mother, and commence feeding on the 

 leaf, and I am rather at a loss to know why any 

 exception to this rule should occur. My library is 

 on a very limited scale, but, so far as 1 am aware, 

 Morren is the only observer who has made any 

 statement respecting this, and surely if any other of 

 the celebrated men who have watched the Aphis 

 had seen such a thing, they would not have failed to 

 record a circumstance so unusual in insect life. As 

 regards laying eggs, I most decidedly think Mr. 

 Westropp's friend is in error. Alttiough it is often 

 stated in " popular " works on natural history that 

 the winged insects lay eggs, still, so far as I have 

 observed, the winged females are all viviparous, and 

 eggs are only laid by apterous insects. I believe 

 Professor Huxley also takes this view, and protests 

 most strenuously against the error which has been 

 propagated through one author copying the writing 

 of another. I ought perhaps to say 1 have only 

 bred and watched the Hose Aphis ; my acquaintance 

 with other species is quite casual. — E. P. P. 



BOOKS RECEIVED. 



"Half-Hours with the Microscope," a new edition, with 

 chapter on the Polariscope. By F. Kitton. London : Hard- 

 wicke. 



" Spirit and Mind Polarity." By Arthur Young. London : 

 Houlston & Sons. 



"Grevillea." October. 



" Monthly Microscopical Journal." October. 



" Canadian Entomologist." No. 7. 



" Boston Journal of Chemistry." September. 



" Popular Science Review." October. 



" Eastbourne Nat. Hist. Soc. Lists of the Local Fauna and 

 Flora." 



" American Naturalist." September. 



" Les Mondes." 



" American Agriculturist." 



" The Darwinian Theory of the Law of the Migration of 

 Orgranisms." Translated by J. L. Laird. London : Edward 

 Stanford. 



" Tenth Annual Report of the Belfast Field Naturalists' 

 Club." 



Communications Receivkd up to the IOth ult. — 

 H. A.- J. W.— E. M. P.— H. H— a. D.— W. S. P.— H.M. W. 

 _R p.-W. S.— E. W.— J. P. G.— J. R. I.— B. T— M. G. W. 

 —J. E.— R. T. S.— C. F. W.— G. H.— E. C.-G R. W^.— F. F. 

 — C B.— S. A. B.— J. C. M.— J. V. E.— C. R. B.— W. K. M.— 

 J. L — T. O. W.— R. J. ly.— J. C. M.— A. S.— F. R. S.— E. C. L. 

 —J. H. A.— W. S.— H. B. T.— T. T.— J. D.-C. B.— F. M.— 

 F W. H.— H. L.— G. S. T.— a. E. S.— R. B. H.— W. H. R.— 

 T L — H. E. S. R.— J. H.— C. O. G. N.- J. R. S. C— E. D. M. 

 — R. H.— H. A. A.— E. P. P.— C. L.-S. T. P.— W. L. W. E. 

 _j p._W. H. W.-H. J. McG.— A. H— W. W. 8.— C. J.— 

 W. H. W.— B. M.— E. S.— H. E. W.— K. W.— G. O. H.— 

 G D B.— H. W. I.— J. D. S.— H. W. S.— E. F. F.— C. C. U.— 

 W. H. B.— S. M.— C. J.-E. L.— W. B.— E H. S.— S. S.— 

 J. H.— M. M.— J. T.— G. R.— J. J. R. B.— E. H.— J. H. L — 

 R. A. P.— W. L. S.— J. A. jun— F. A.— J. H.— G. D.— T. C. C. 

 — E C J.— C. V. G.— S— H. C— W. B. G.— C. C— J. A.— 

 E. C. R.-J. S. H— G. G.— J. F.— R. M. B.— A.S.— H. B.T.— 

 C. H. P. 



