iiA HDVVICKE'S SCI EK C E-G O S SIP. 



143 



Gold-tail Moth.— In Mr. Lovekin's "Notes 

 on the Web-weaving Caterpillars," on p. 5S (or 85 

 in my copy), he includes in his list the Gold-tail, a 

 species which I never knew to be a web-weaver at 

 all, if we except the tiny web (or rather cocoon) 

 in which the young caterpillar hybernates during 

 the winter. His remarks would seem to apply to 

 the social tent-weaving caterpillars, the habits of 

 which are not shared by the Gold-tail caterpillar. 

 In this neighbourhood the caterpillar of the Gold- 

 tail is seldom or never found on the Blackthorn, 

 but feeds in great profusion on the Hawthorn, and 

 also on the Elm.— /T, H. JFarner, Kingston, Abing- 

 don. 



CtrRiors Habits op Swallows.— I can confirm 

 " G. E. R.'s " remarks under the above heading in so 

 far as to prove the repugnance exhibited by the 

 Swallow tribe to the birds of prey, having on two 

 or three occasions seen a flock of Hirundines chasing 

 small hawks ; but with this difference, that the 

 pursuers were not swallows but sand-martins 

 {Hirundo riparia). In addition to the anecdotes 

 related by " G. E. E.," as to the pugnacity of the 

 Swallow, I will mention another which proves the 

 Swallow to be an intelligent bird, and also occa- 

 sionally actuated by a revengeful spirit. A gentle- 

 man when out shooting one day brought to the 

 ground a hen swallow which was skimming in the air 

 in company with her mate. The latter at once dashed 

 at the gentleman, struck him iu the face with its 

 wing, and continued pertinaciously to annoy him 

 for a long time. Eor weeks did the revengeful 

 little bird maintain " war to the knife " with the 

 murderer of his -gentle partner, attacking him 

 'whenever an opportunity offered. _ On_ Sundays it 

 failed to recognize the gentleman in his change of 

 dress, and let him pass unmolested. This anecdote 

 has been well attested. — W. H. JFarner, Kingston, 

 Abingdon. 



Vakiety of the Ttjfted Duck.— I procured a 

 variety of this duck about the end of April, 1869. 

 The crest was a deep crimson, the head fading into 

 deep black towards the neck, and then beginning 

 to be streaked with silver, and gradually merging 

 into a broad white band immediately above the 

 chest. The silver streakings and black then began 

 again, and continued down the back. The breast 

 was marked with one ring of black, and was pure 

 white all the way down from that. The legs and 

 feet were flesh-colour ; tlie iris was orange-yellow. 

 I carefully observed all the specimens in the British 

 Museum of Fulignla cristata, but they were all 

 more or less buff-coloured. The reason for tbe 

 peculiarity was, I think, the duck's beginning to 

 put on summer plumage. — G. E. R. 



Lesser Pettychap. — The Lesser Pettychap, it 

 may not be generally known, is the same as the 

 Chiff-chaff; the correct Latin name of which is 

 not Sylvia hippolais, but S. rufa. — G. 



The Sappkoj; again. — At page 281, vol. vii., of 

 Science-Gossip, "J. E. C." inquires what plant Mr. 

 Walter Thornbury, in describing the town of Saffron 

 Walden, refers to, as " a plant resembling a thistle, 

 yet without down," &c. The plant is the Cartha- 

 mus tindorius, Lin.,— Bastard Saffron, or Safflower, 

 an annual of the Composite family, and a native of 

 Egypt, having sharp-pointed, oval, sessile, spiny 

 leaves. The flowers grow in bracts inclosed iu a 

 roundish spiny involucre ; the florets are of an 

 orange-colour, turning red as they dry. The dried 

 flowers are exported in large quantities from Egypt 



and the Levant ; are used for dyeing, and also to 

 adulterate the true saffron. I cannot think that 

 this has ever been cultivated in England for com- 

 mercial purposes, as it is a half-hardy annual. The 

 (rue safi'ron is the dried stigmas of the Crocus 

 satims, and was first cultivated at Saffron Walden 

 somewhere about the time of Edward III., from 

 which circumstance the town has derived its name. 

 — Josh. B, Bodman. 



A Shower op Ebogs.— I really thought, until I 

 read " M. A. B.'s " inquiry in the January part of 

 Science-Gossip, that showers of frogs, like showers 

 of gold, were exploded myths. Doubtless the 

 latter fable had its moral, and we occasionally see an 

 elderly " Zeus " of modern times win a fair young 

 " Danaii ;" but I do not believe the former either 

 serves to " point a moral or adorn a tale," unless it 

 be a fairy one. I will, however, briefly relate to 

 " M. A. B." what a very good naturalist friend of 

 mine said to me iu explanation of this very subject, 

 apropos of a newspaper account of "a shower of 

 frogs." Every female frog is capable of producing 

 1,000 young ones ; these little froggies hide in 

 crevices and under stones, waiting to come forth 

 directly the first summer showers pour down. They 

 appear in. multitudes immediately genial rain falls, 

 and some good folks, ever since the days of 

 Ai'istotle, have been found to imagine that they drop 

 from the clouds, or that they have been taken up 

 from a marsh by a whirlwind, and let fall. In the 

 case of fish it is different, seeing that they are never 

 said to grow on trees, or on laud, save in comic 

 song-books. A whirlwind is the cause of their 

 sudden descent from an element they are not sup- 

 posed to inhabit, — the air, to another region equally 

 unsuitable, — the earth. Some curious facts are re- 

 corded in the "Proceedings of the American 

 Academy of Science " with respect to frogs. You 

 have so many American contributors to your pages, 

 that I look with interest to replies from them on 

 the subject of frog showers.— if. E. Watney. 



Abnormal Cherries.— There is a Morella 

 cherry-tree against a north wall in our garden,^ 

 which for two years past has borne numbers of 

 double, triple, quadruple, and one quintuple cherry. 

 The occurrence of these forms in 1870 led me to 

 examine the flowers in 1871, and from a superficial 

 observation I found that to each flower there were 

 from four to ten pistils and as many ovaries, some 

 proving abortive and some fruitful. It was in 

 the summer of 1871 that the quintuple specimen 

 occurred. — P. P. 



The White Ermine {Ardia lubricipeda). — 

 People don't usually trouble themselves mucli 

 about the meaning of Latin names, yet some may 

 have speculated as to the reason why the above- 

 named was called " slippery-footed." It might have 

 arisen from the fact that the moth, when taken up 

 or touched, at once loses its foot-hold, and feigns 

 death, and therefore seems as if it had an insecure 

 or slippery hold of whatever substance it is reposing 

 upon. But I am rather inclined to think that the 

 habits of the caterpillar originated the names ; for it 

 has two very distinct modes of progression. Under 

 ordinary circumstances it crawls along rather lan- 

 guidly, but should it be alarmed, or suddenly roused, 

 it moves with a degree of velocity which is really as- 

 tonishing, though this is not kept up for any length 

 of time ; hence it may have received the appellation 

 lubridpeda, because at certain moments the cater- 

 pillar can slide or glide along as if it were pass- 

 ing over a slippery or lubricated surface. — /. R. S. C. 



