HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



279 



ZOOLOGY. 



Preserving Butterflies.— Dr. F. Roderberg, 

 of Lower Belgium, has taken out a patent in the 

 United Kingdom for a method, devised by him for 

 preserving butterflies and other natural history 

 specimens. The following is the method : The 

 objects or specimens to be preserved, unless they are 

 already flat, are first pressed out and dried. In the 

 case of butterflies, for instance, the body which is cut 

 open and emptied of its contents, is flattened out by 

 gradually applied pressure, the wings, etc., being 

 previously fixed in the desired position, and the 

 butterfly thus treated is allowed to become thoroughly 

 dry. A piece of material, such as cardboard, wood, 

 or the like, to form a mounting or backing, is then 

 moistened with water, with which antiseptics may be 

 mixed, and the prepared butterfly is laid on this 

 backing ; a clean, colourless leaf of gelatine is placed 

 over the butterfly and backing, and the whole is 

 pressed together, so that the gelatine leaf shall firmly 

 adhere to the backing, securing the butterfly thereto. 

 To prevent the gelatine adhering to the pressing and 

 the supporting surfaces, instead of the backing, the 

 surfaces are treated with fat, vaseline, or the like. 

 To prevent warping or shrinking and bending of the 

 backing, its underside may be coated with a solution 

 of gelatine, or a leaf of gelatine may be applied 

 thereto. The card covered with gelatine is, after 

 having been well cleaned from fat, etc., sprinkled or 

 moistened on its upper side {i.e. the side to which the 

 butterfly is secured) with water, and afterwards 

 thoroughly dried. Finally, the whole is coated with 

 a suitable hard, colourless, drying or siccative 

 varnish (for instance, with an alcoholic solution of 

 red arsenic, to which has been added a small quantity 

 of castor oil). This coating protects the gelatine and 

 the object or specimen to be preserved from the 

 injurious action of moisture, mildew, or insects. 

 Butterflies and other objects prepared in this manner 

 can be kept in albums, and be transported and 

 examined at any time without liability to injury. 

 There is evidently springing up a fine art among 

 collectors, which will soon transform dried plants and 

 •wizened butterflies into the objects of real and grace- 

 ful beauty they ought to be, and as they are in a 

 state of nature. 



A Surrey Naturalist. — We regret to record the 

 death of the veteran Surrey ornithologist, Mr. William 

 Stafford, of Godalming. Mr. Staftbrd was one of a 

 group of self-taught village naturalists, two of whom 



the late Edward Newman (author of "British 



Butterflies and Moths," &c.), and J. D. Salmon 

 (" Flora of Surrey "), his friends and fellow -townsmen 



have become well-known through their published 



works. Mr. Staftbrd never published anything, but 



like the late Mr. Newbould, the eminent botanist 



^his great local knowledge was chiefly dispensed 



through others of more literary habits. The 

 vertebrate fauna were his favourite study, and he was 

 the chief authority on the birds of Surrey, of which 

 he has left a magnificent and unique collection, 

 obtained by himself during more than fifty years of 

 observation, and stuffed and mounted in cases with 

 his own hand. He was a skilled taxidermist, a very 

 fair painter of small landscape sketches in oil, and an 

 excellent folk-lorist of his county. His homestead at 

 Godalming, a room in which was occupied for some 

 years by Inskip the painter, was the resort of every 

 naturalist of note who passed through Surrey, 

 desiring to avail himself of the most exact knowledge 

 of the birds and reptiles. His earlier contemporaries 

 have long since passed away, but there are many who 

 still remember with gratitude his kindness of 

 character, and the fulness and freeness with which he 

 gave his knowledge to his many visitors. He reached 

 his eightieth year, tended affectionately by his 

 daughters in his old age. He died peacefully on the 

 2 1st September last, and was buried at Godalming. 



North London Shells.— Mr. Cockerell (pp. 

 212-213, ante), at the end of his courteous, and, to say 

 the least, praiseworthy critique of the first part of 

 my article on "Variation in the MoUusca" (con- 

 cerning which I shall have something to say later), 

 makes a few interesting observations about my note 

 on "Shells from North London Districts," which 

 was printed on p. 164 of the July number. I did 

 not scruple (nor shall I) to use what are, in my 

 thinking, "somewhat objectionable terms," for the 

 reason I gave in Part i of the Variation article, that 

 "they have been added by workers in faunas, and 

 consequently they must remain ; and, more than that, 

 they must at present be acknowledged." And, 

 although I cannot see a utility in them sufficient to 

 warrant their use, yet I shall still employ them in 

 recording until they are pronounced against by a 

 common veto, simply because they have so ingratiated 

 themselves into the minds of faunal workers. I used 

 the name, proposed by Mr. Cockerell, var. pallida, as 

 distinctive of a pale ground-colour of hortensis, 

 different in tint from Moquin's var. albina, and, as is 

 done with the other colour-variations, as olivacea, 

 incarnata and liitea, given the various band-formulae 

 gathered from the bandings on that ground-colour. 

 I need hardly say that the bandings I recorded are 

 exact, and that I shall be pleased to accompany 

 Mr. Cockerell to the same spot, when he returns to 

 England, where I believe many are still to be found 

 in the same hedgerow. Mr. Cockerell, in conclusion, 

 says, "It would be interesting if someone would 

 collect a large number of the North London Paludina 

 fasciata {vivipara, Auct.). Some of the forms 

 approach conteda closely in shape, such being 

 apparently the var. inflata of Locard." I may say 

 that I have examined thousands of this species from 

 the Bathing Pond, Leg of Mutton Pond, and 



