HAKDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



151; 



into the melee without a moa^ent's hesitation. The 

 late arrivals often take no part in the afTair, beyond 

 cheering on the principals with a few sharp notes- 

 At length, as in human squabbles, the absurdity 

 and uselessness of the whole thing seem to strike 

 every one — the outsiders retire, and the chief actors 

 begin to draw off : the lover, if such is his character, 

 performs with less empressement, the lady becomes 

 hiore indifferent to his " chaff." Agamemnon and 

 Menelaus go off together Kara (cXto-iae te vias re, 

 Paris himself steals away by degrees, and Helen is 

 invariably left quite alone. Such arc the facts, as I 

 have witnessed them, over and over again, but their 

 significance is not so easy to determine. It should 

 be remembered that these birds are not polygamous, 

 like ruffs and capercailiics, and domestic fowls, 

 whose desperate combats are intelligible enough. 

 There is no greater provocation to jealousy amongst 

 spaiTOws than amongst linnets or buntings, which 

 are not in the habit of brawling in this manner, 

 sparrows, indeed, are hardly gregarious in the 

 breeding season ; each male bird has his own mate, 

 and the pair bring up their family in as exemplary 

 a manner as many a Christian couple. Nevertheless, 

 there is not one of these staid, business-like charac- 

 ters who is not ready, at a moment's notice, to 

 engage in a furious set-to with his neighbours about 

 one of the other sex, for whom he cares nothing a 

 minute before or after. Moreover, these squabbles 

 are not confined to the spring season. I have wit- 

 nessed them in every month in the year, excepting 

 during the moulting season. I will not hazard any 

 theory respecting them, content to draw the attention 

 of your readers to the facts of a very curious, how- 

 ever common, phenomenon ; the object of which, 

 like the night-crowing of the roost-cock, or the 

 serrated claw of the rern-owl, is, I believe, very 

 little understood, H. 



PUPA ene:\iies. 



ON May 2nd, I went to my pupa-cage to look 

 for " fresh arrivals,"and was very much 'asto- 

 nished to find the pupaj were being carried off bodily 

 by a number of large red ants. Several had been 

 partly devoured, and others injured beyond re- 

 covery; but by a prompt and vigorous attack, the 

 pupse were rescued and removed, while the ants were 

 destroyed by a copious douche of boiling water. A 

 little searching revealed the colony, at about three 

 yards distant from the breeding-cage. I stirred them 

 up with a stick, and gave them a dose of the hot 

 water; a thin stream of ants were travelling along 

 the wall, having no doubt been informed of the 

 " grub " by their relatives. 



As I keep all my pups oid of doors, and exposed 

 to the changes of the atmosphere, such dangers 

 must be risked. I simply place the pupa on the 



top of a layer of fine sifted mould, mixed with de- 

 cayed tan and silver sand : as I never moisten them, 

 they do not damp off, and I have lost but few frora 

 dry rot. I once covered them over with moss, 

 boiled, according to instructions ; but I never saw 

 any advantage derived from it ; and as you cannot 

 see how the pupaj are without disturbing it, I have 

 discontinued using any moss for some time. 



There are a great many other plans for rearing 

 pupai successfully, each of which has its supporters 

 and followers, who of course believe it to be " in- 

 fallible." 



I have tried several others, and with more or less 

 success. I should say laying them in bran is per- 

 haps the worst, as then they invariably dry up ; 

 cotton wool produced the next smallest percentage 

 of perfect insects. Another enemy of the moth 

 in its pupal state is the Earwig {Forficula) ; also 

 Cocktail or great Hove Beetle {Creopldlus maxiU 

 losus), and such "Reptiles." 



The Rev. Joseph Green, in his valuable little 

 work on "Pupa-digging," says, "I have known a 

 slug crawl in a straight course more than a foot up 

 the side of my cage, to get at a chrysalis, and then 

 feast on it till there was nothing left but the 

 empty skin." He also states that he has seen an 

 earwig eat a soft pupa, and gives an account of las 

 pupoe being devoured by a brood of Tinea pseudo- 

 Sjpretellu. 



Other enemies of the pupse, more especially when 

 at large, are Gcldmice, which are fond of soft pupae. 

 Those who damp their pupae will also suffer losses 

 from mould, which is very destructive to some 

 kinds, especially those which have been moved from 

 the cocoon. 



It is curious what clusters larvae will often 

 form, piling the cocoons one above another, till 

 some are not visible. I had last summer iu one of 

 my larger breeding-cages, a group consisting of 

 5 Drinkers {Odone&tis potatoria), 3 Oak Eggars 

 {Lasiocampa Quercics), 7 or 8 Lackeys {Bomhyx 

 Neustrla), 5 Eigure-of-8 (J)ilola caruleocephala), 

 4i Gipsies {Liparis dispar), and a single Tiger 

 {Chelonia Cajd). I need scarcely say, I did not 

 leave them to come out in this position, or many 

 would no doubt have been undeveloped. I think I 

 have given a tolerably good list of the various 

 enemies or diseases to which the pupa2 of Lepi- 

 doptera are liable ; but if others have been noticed 

 by subscribers to Science-Gossip, I shall be glad 

 to see their remarks. 



J. Hendekson, Jun. 



" England is the sister of Holland, but, being 

 more enveloped, I think, iu misis, owing to the 

 vi-arm waters of the Gulf Stream, it did not recog- 

 nize until a later period the grandeur of its mari- 

 time horizon."—" Nature," hy Madame Michelet. 



