HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSS IP. 



185 



over them. We wish merely to state to all whose 

 tastes run in diatomizing directions, that in the arms 

 of the sea running into the island and in its fresh- 

 water lakes they will find splendid hunting-ground. 

 About the sides of the fresh-water lochs in summer 

 the gadflies certainly swarm, and as certainly, so 

 soon as a stranger enters their territories, the " Fiery 

 Cross " is sent round to warn the clans that a full- 

 blooded victim has arrived, and to invite all to the 

 feast. We learned beside one of these lochs why the 

 natives never appear in the kilt, and how Pharaoh 

 felt long ago by the Nile. We had actually to cover 

 our necks, ears, and faces when gathering our various 

 kinds of game from the lochs. Even then the pests 

 would not be said Nay. They bit our hands till, in 

 my friend's case, who is thinner-skinned and, it may 

 be, sweeter-blooded than I am, the blood was running 

 from half-a-dozen punctures ; and, just when I 

 thought I had secured a splendid spoonful of diato- 

 maceous stuff, a villain had crept round to and into 

 my ear. To preserve the stuff and kill the enemy 

 my feelings instinctively declared to be impossible. 

 What was in that spoonful I do not know. I belong 

 to the " Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to 

 Animals " when I can honestly count myself one of 

 these animals. Other spoonfuls of stuff were how- 

 ever got, rich in such things as A"", scraiis, A', crassi- 

 nervia, N. rhomhoidcs, and Ep. Hytidmanii, along 

 with a lot of curious things apparently not yet given 

 in any of our ordinary books. Among these curious 

 things there are several Surircl/as, a drawing of one 

 of which I send you. We have named the thing 

 S. rhombea, as there is already a S. rhoviboidea well 

 known, as obtained from the chalk-marl of Caltani- 

 setta, and which from the organisms there associated 

 with it is evidently a salt-water species. Perhaps 

 some of our fellow-readers can tell us whether the 

 outline forms of S. rhombea and S. rhomboidea stand 

 in anything like the same relation to each other as do 

 those of A', rhombea and N. rhomboides, as figured 

 in Kiitzing and Rabenhoi-st. Our plant, you will 

 observe, has along its margins much the same arrange- 

 ment as is seen in S. splendida in Van Heurk's Atlas. 

 The whole median space is, however, occupied by 

 punctse radiating from the centre, there being about 

 three punctce in each radius. Let me just add that those 

 who care for N. Hitchcockil will find it in abundance 

 in Loch Vennachar, along with other things perhaps 

 as good as any found in the far-away Skye. — X. 



A VERY BEAUTIFUL ACCIDENT.— While sitting at 

 my window, which faces east, one morning in June, 

 viewing a slide of Ftmaria hygrometrica capsules, I 

 experienced the following : — My slide was illuminated 

 by a white cloud, which, as the sequel will show, 

 came directly between the sun and the object under 

 view. After watching for some few minutes, sud- 

 denly the cloud moved away from between the sun 

 and the condenser I was using, thereby condensing 



the direct rays of the sunlight upon the capsule, 

 causing the peristome, by the condensed heat, to open 

 in all its splendour, disclosing the interior of the 

 capsule with its beautiful golden spores. Almost as 

 quickly a cloud came between the sun and object, 

 when the peristome went back to its normal condition. 

 I do not remember ever witnessing so magnificent a 

 spectacle, and which was the more striking because 

 unexpected. My instrument was a binocular with 

 l-inch objective. — jfohn A. Howe, Bath. 



ZOOLOGY. 



Crows in Norway. — Birds of the crow-tribe, 

 especially the raven, the carrion-crow, the hoodie, 

 and the magpie, are in ill-repute in England for 

 stealing eggs, and, when opportunity serves, for 

 murdering chickens, ducklings, &c. ; but in the north 

 of Norway these depredators are much bolder. They 

 will even attempt to carry away the eggs and the 

 young brood of the eider-duck, and too often succeed 

 in their foray ; but if the drake is near at hand, they 

 are frequently defeated. He seizes the crow by the 

 wing or the neck and plunges down with him into 

 the sea. Being a good diver he feels no inconvenience, 

 whilst the carrion-crow, however brave and strong in 

 the air, is helpless in the water, and the end of the 

 struggle is soon shown by his lifeless body floating on 

 the surface. Sometimes even the raven is disposed 

 of in the same manner. It is a curious fact that 

 young sea-fowl, when swimming or diving in waters 

 which literally swarm with cod, halibut, and other 

 greedy and hungry fishes, "are not often snapped up and 

 swallowed. Yet veteran lobster fishermen, no small 

 part of whose life has been spent in disembowelling 

 such fishes, declare that they never find a young bird 

 in the stomach of their prey. — J. W. Slater. 



CoRONELLA L^vis IN HAMPSHIRE.— Respecting 

 Mr. Cockerell's note on the occurrence of Coronella 

 iiTvis in Hampshire, I am in error, the snake being 

 too common for special notice. I should not have 

 recorded it, but I thought the species rarer than it 

 really is, owing to the fact that I, have frequently 

 looked for it in Hampshire myself without finding a 

 single specimen. I hear now that this snake some- 

 times occurs in great numbers. One specimen 

 recorded in a recent number of SciENCE-GossiP, 

 is distinct from that recorded in 1887. As to 

 Lacerta viridis being found at Margate, I can only 

 repeat what I said in " The Naturalist's World " for 

 November 1887 : — "A friend of mine states that he 

 found this beautiful lizard several times during his 

 stay at Margate." Perhaps he may have been 

 mistaken, as Mr. Cockerell has not seen it there. 

 He may have confused the Z. viridis with the green 

 varieties of Z. agilis. However, on the 4th Sep- 

 tember, 1886, I caught a specimen of Z. viridis in 



