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HARDWICKE'S SCIEN CE- GOSSIP. 



her rival in a combat, is utterly unable to injure by 

 puncture or penetration of the sting any part of 

 man or beast. The fact, if fact it be, will prove 

 equally novel and important ; for bee-masters and 

 experimental physiologists would be able to handle 

 Queen Bees with perfect impunity ; and in a teleo- 

 logical point of view, which would have delighted 

 Paley, he has thus advanced the opinion that the 

 weapon of the Queen Honey-bee is only adapted or 

 designed for a single and special purpose. These, 

 and numberless other kindred observations, afford 

 good evidence of the originality of Major Munn's 

 mind, and of the great loss which the society has 

 to deplore in his death. 



Hippocampus (Sea-hoese). — In the last number 

 of Science-Gossip, Mr. Brittain states that 

 these fish have recently bred in the temporary 

 tanks of the Manchester Aquarium Co., and he 

 adds, "it is quite certain that it is the first time 

 that the Hippocampus has been bred in a public 

 aquarium." Now, so far from this being the case, 

 the Hippocampus has bred in at least three other 

 public aquaria : first, at Vienna, in 1860 ; se- 

 condly, at Paris, in the aquarium of the Jardiu 

 d'Acclimatisatiou ; and lastly, at the Crystal Palace 

 aquarium, in the summer of 1S71 ; when, as Mr. 

 Lloyd informs me, the young were immediately 

 eaten by their parents. However, although the 

 Hippocampus has bred so readily in confinement, 

 the young have never arrived at maturity, being 

 either eaten by their parents or destroyed through 

 lack of nourishment of sufiicient minuteness to 

 compensate for their wants. — IFalter T. Ocjilmj. 



Poison of Spiders. — In your issue for November 

 I notice "E. E." inquires whether white matter 

 which he saw hanging from the aperture at the end 

 of a spider's fang could be the poison of that 

 creature? A reference to Mr. Blackwall's "Re- 

 searches in Zoology," an excellent work, which 

 should be in the hands of all naturalists, leads me 

 to think that the secretion alluded to by " E. E." 

 was not the spider's poison. At page 240, and a 

 few subsequent ones, Mr. Blackwall mentions this 

 poison as a transparent colourless fluid emitted from 

 the minute orifice situated near the extremity of 

 the fangs on the side next to the mouth, when 

 those instruments are employed to inflict a wound. 

 As far as I can make out, the author nowhere 

 adverts to the fluid as being white. At page 315 

 Mr. Blackwall writes : " A male Agelena labyriu- 

 thicus, confined in a phial, spun a small web, and 

 among the lines of which it was composed I per- 

 ceived that a drop of white milk-like fluid was sus- 

 pended : how it had been deposited there I carmot 

 explain, but I observed that the spider, by the 

 alternate application of its palpal organs, speedily 

 imbibed the whole of it." But for further infor- 

 mation upon this interesting subject ' E. E." is re- 



ferred to the author's book ; or, I doubt not, even 

 fuller particulars are given in his work on "Spiders," 

 published by the Bay Society, — the best treatise 

 ever written in this country, if not in Europe. — 

 John Colebrooke. 



Vanessa Atalanta. — In reply to "E. D. M.," 

 p. 263, I should imagine that the scarcity of this 

 insect is local only, as 1 found plenty of them this 

 autumn as usual ia my garden, which abounds in 

 arbutus-trees, a very favourite resort of Atalanta. 

 —E. B. K. W. 



The Spotted Bay.— The Brighton Aquarium 

 has solved another interesting question in natural 

 history. A young Homelyn, or Spotted Ray {Raia 

 miraletus) has been hatched from an egg laid in one 

 of the tanks in the first week of June last. Eive 

 months appear, therefore, to be the period of de- 

 velopment of this fish in the Qgg. The young 

 spotted dogfishes, of which more than eighty are 

 now thriving well and growing fast, were not 

 hatched until six mouths after the eggs were laid. 



Rare Birds in Scotland.— The Duke of 

 Sutherland has prohibited killing birds of the eagle 

 and hawk tribe, or taking their eggs, on his Suther- 

 land estates, on account of their rapid decrease. 

 His keepers have frequent offers from egg-collect- 

 ors of £5 for a golden eagle's egg, and about £2 

 apiece for the eggs of other rare birds of prey. In 

 one instance a golden eagle's e^g taken in Scotland, 

 and purchased from the keeper at five guineas, was 

 resold for £10. 



Helix obvoltjta. — Some years ago I found the 

 shells of H. obcoluta in a wood near Winchester, 

 twenty miles west of the habitats mentioned in 

 Tate's " British Molluscs." During the present 

 year a more careful search has led to the discovery 

 of living specimens in various stages of growth. 

 Can any correspondent inform me — 1st, whether this 

 is a new habitat ; 2nd, whether the species is met 

 with in Erance ; and 3rd, what is its geographical 

 range ? — C. Oriffith, Winchester. 



Preserving Actinia. — I observe (p. 240) that 

 "R. M." asks for a method of preserving sea- 

 anemones for collections. I only know of one plan 

 proposed, viz., that mentioned by Mr. Davies in his 

 "Practical Naturalist's Guide," p. 53. "The actinia 

 is allowed to remain in sea-water until nearly dead. 

 While the tentacles are completely distended with 

 sea-water, the animal is gently lifted into a smaller 

 vessel, and the end of a glass tube of suitable size, 

 and previously filled with glycerine, is pushed in at 

 the mouth, and the contents forced into the body 

 by blowing. The tube is again and again filled and 

 applied, until the fluid which exudes at the points 

 of the tentacles has lost its saline; the surrounding 

 fluid is then removed, and replaced with glycerine. 



