282 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



the club ; at the expiration of which time, should 

 they be willing again to serve, they may be re- 

 elected by a majority of the members ; or any other 

 members may be elected in their stead. 



14. That any member who shall, by accident or 

 otherwise, break or damage, or cause to be broken 

 by bad packing, any object whilst it is under his 

 care, or before it is received by next member, shall 

 make good the same ; the liability, however, of such 

 member shall not exceed the sum of 2s. for each 

 slide broken or damaged, whicli amount (if it cannot 

 otherwise be agreed upon) shall be assessed by. the 

 president and paid througli tlie hon. sec. ; but 

 should an object, although properly packed, be 

 broken in transit, it shall be made good— if not 

 exceeding the value of 2s.— from the funds of the 

 club. 



15. Slides above the value of 2s., and not exceed- 

 ing 5s., may be insured to the owner by remitting 

 to the hon. sec, at the time of sending the slide, 

 o?ie penny in postage stamps for every shilling in 

 the value of the slide ; and every slide broken, where 

 practicable, shall be replaced in kind. 



16. To insure safety in transit, not more than 

 twelve objects shall be packed in one box, which 

 shall be wrapped in the accompanying block wrapper, 

 and securely tied witii strong string ; a luggage-label 

 bearing the address, with sufficient stamps to prepay 

 postage, shall be securely tied to one end, and to no 

 other part of the box. 



17. Any ivember receiving the box with its con- 

 tents at all damaged, must at once inform the hon. 

 sec. of the fact, and send on to him at the same 

 time the broken or damaged slide or slides. 



IS. No mem lier shall send any but good slides, 

 and eacii slide must bear his name and address. 



19. Should the slides sent round be for exchange, 

 such may be stated in the notices accompanying the 

 box. 



(Signed) Alfkeb Atkikson, Presidetit. 

 Aleked Allen, Hon. Sec. 



Death of a Dytiscus (p. ]90).— I cannot think 

 it an unavoidable conclusion that the beetle found by 

 "H. G. F. " was killed by the mollusk which had 

 attached itself to the antenna of the insect. The 

 aquatic species of snails are well-known to act as 

 scavengers, destroying decaying vegetation and dead 

 animals, and the Dytiscus, evidently very languid 

 when found, may have been in articulo mortis at the 

 time its apparent enemy fastened upon it. These 

 beetles, it may be noted, do occasionally quit the 

 pond or stream, and they will even take a flight to 

 some distance. — /. U. S. C. 



ScAKciTY OP Butterflies in June. — It is 

 observable that in most seasons there is a period of 

 two or three weeks in the summer during which 

 hardly any butterflies are visible in the fields, lanes, 

 and woods, and this lull of butterfly life generally 

 falls in the month of June, when it appears strange 

 to us to have the landscape, now in its leafy glory, 

 denuded of those lively tenants of the air. The 

 truth is, however, that the break is to be accounted 

 for by the disappearance of the spring flights of 

 butterflies, and the non-emergence of the summer 

 broods. In this season (1873), the absence of but- 

 terflies throughout June was notable in many places 

 near London. Some of the meadow species were 

 greatly retarded by the uugenial spring, as well as 

 diminished in numbers. -ff.y»;?wY(;, usually looked 

 for early in June, was coming out slowly five or six 

 weeks later in Kent ; and about the middle of July 

 what should have been the May brood of the large 



Skipper {E. sijkamis); for it could hardly have 

 been the autumn flight in advance. 



London Botany.— Wm. Somerton, who in the 

 October number of Science- Gossip asked for a 

 good book treating of botany, suitable for a Lon- 

 doner, will find "The Botanist's Pocket-book," by 

 W. 11. Hayward, an excellent guide, and a mosi; 

 suitable work iox practiced botany. I could also re- 

 commend Oliver's " Lessons in Elementary Botany." 

 Hayward's "Pocket-book" is published by Bell 

 & Daldy, York-street, Covent-gardcn. I think the 

 price is 4s. Gd. Oliver's is, 1 believe, published by 

 iVIacmillau, price also 4s. 6d. Lindley's "School 

 Botany " is also a good work, published, I believe, 

 by Bradbury & Co., at about 5s. 1 might also 

 mention Cooke's " Manual of Botanic Terms," pub- 

 lished by Robert Hardwicke, Piccadilly, price 2s. 6d.; 

 also Cooke's "Manual of Structural Botanv," 

 Hardwicke, Is. Moore's " British Eerns," at 2s. 6d. 

 and Is., published by Routledge, is also a first- 

 class work on the subject of ferns.— /r. S. Palmer. 



The Vanessid.e (page 263).— I can fully cor- 

 roborate the statement of your correspondent 

 "E.D.M." as to the scarcity of Atalanta during the 

 past season. It used to be one of the commonest of 

 the Vanessas in this neighbourhood, but 1 have for 

 the last two seasons hardly seen a specimen. \S'\i\s. 

 respect, however, to finding the larva, I have always 

 met with it most abundantly during the last three 

 weeks of August. It is a very easy larva to find, the 

 dodge being to look, not for the caterpillar or its 

 traces, but for the spun leaves which it inhabits ; 

 and the underside of a nettle-leaf being white, the 

 doQiicile is therefore a conspicuous object.— 6'. 

 LoceJcin. 



Rearing LARViE (p. 23S).— In rearing lepido- 

 ptera from the Qg%, I keep the larvae for a time under 

 an inverted wine-glass on a piece of paper, and when 

 of a fair size remove them to the ordinary boxes. 

 Directly the eggs hatch, I put them at once under 

 the glass wifli the most delicate and tender leaves 

 of their foo -plant I can find. I have had little or 

 no trouble in this respect, and have been generally 

 successful. — W. E. Warner, Kingston. 



_ British Shrews.— I beg to thank " T. W." for 

 his obliging answer to my query ; but with all due 

 respect 1 must say I am not a whit wiser than I 

 was before. The three species mentioned by 

 " T. W." as occurring in Professor Bell's book, do 

 not include the whole of the British shrews, since I 

 myself have information of four kinds; viz., the 

 Common ^xx^^^ Xporsira vulgaris — Sorex araneus of 

 Bell), the Rustic Shrew {Corsira rustica), not men- 

 tioned by Bell, the. Water Shrew {Crossoptisfodiens 

 — Sorex fodiens of Bell), and the Black Water Shrew, 

 or Oared Shrew (Crossopus ciliatus — Sorex remifer 

 of Bell). The Corsira rustica is, I believe, much 

 larger than the other shrews, and, like the two 

 species last mentioned, is of aquatic habits. So 

 much for those already recognized by naturalists. 

 The object of my query was to get information of 

 the so-called varieties or species w"hich are occa- 

 sionally heard of through the natural history peri- 

 odicals. — JF. H. Warner, Kingston. 



Eresii-water Aquarium. — Will any of your 

 readers kindly give me a few hints as to the forma- 

 tion of a fresh-water aquarium ? 1 wish to know 

 what kind of tank would be suitable, and also what 

 fish, mollusks, insects, &c., it should contain. — 

 M. A. H. 



