HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



263 



luminosity at all at tlie time on tlie water. Occa- 

 sionally a piece of seaweed was disturbed, which 

 showed its whole len-tli by the phosphorescent 

 clow which wns immediately produced. _ Ou taking 

 up the senweed, the slow became most intense, and 

 on passinc: tlie weed between the lingers, the slow 

 became attached to them, and a strong smell ot 

 phosphorus was unmistakably perceived _ ihe 

 phosplioreseent glow was seen inost brightly 

 wlipre there were lines of foam leit by the tide. 

 When the foam was disturbed, the whole became 

 brilliant immediately. The lisht was not seen on 

 anv seaweed but tlie Chorda filim. ; the Fiiciis vest- 

 (>M/'os?« and sertularias did not exhibit the pheno- 

 menon. Several flashes of lightning were observed 

 at the time in the west, but we heard no thunder. 

 Is not this phosphorescence on the sand an untre- 

 quent occurrence? Can you give me any mtorma- 

 tion about it ^—A. B. C, Croydon. 



BiTiDs Imitating Sounds. — I do not know 

 whether naturalists have made the extent to which 

 small birds have the power of imitating sounds 

 foreign to their own natural notes, a subject of in- 

 vestigation. Bullfinches, we know, can whistle 

 elaborate tunes : their voice organs must be won- 

 derfully flexible, their ear extremely sensitive, and 

 their iutuitiveness of memory such as also to'suggest 

 a development of brain beyond the phenomena of 

 mere instinct. Canaries whistle tunes, and I was 

 told the other day of a sparrow which had been 

 taught by a lady to sing in a manner totally dif- 

 ferent and far superior to its natural style. Many 

 years ago, I was staying with my sister in a lodging 

 a few miles out of London. Soon after we were 

 settled in, we were rather annoyed by hearing a clock 

 outside our door continually striking; it was quite 

 regardless of the true time, and sometimes went on 

 for several minutes together, but the moment we 

 opened our door there was silence. Our curiosity 

 was excited, and we inquired of our landlady what 

 it meant, as there certainly was no clock within 

 our precincts. The mystery was soon solved : ou 

 the window-seat outside our door was a large cage 

 containiug several canaries ; one of them had been 

 hung in a cage during the previous winter (it was 

 now May) near the clock in the kitchen, and had 

 learned to imitate tiie strike so exactly, that it was 

 impossible to distinguish the performance of the 

 machine from that of the little mimic.— J. L. 



Vanessa Antioi'a.— I am pleased to_ see that 

 several captures (most in the eastern counties) of this 

 rare British insect have occurred lately. Although 

 reported exceedingly abundant on the continent, so 

 far as my experience in 1868 and 1870 went, I 

 should take it to be by no means of such common 

 occurrence there as Machaon, Podulirius, Hyale, La- 

 thonia,Io,or Atalanta. Itwouldbeinterest:,iugtonote 

 if, in the corresponding years during whicii it has 

 favoured Great Britain with " putting in an appear- 

 ance," it has been more than usually abundant in 

 France, Germany, or Switzerland. I heard last 

 week from my sister, Miss Evelyn Melvill, that 

 she had captured several specimens in a garden at 

 Coblenz. This place was the centre of my entomo- 

 logical observations in the two years I have men- 

 tioned, when the species was most conspicuous by 

 its absence. All this leads me, and not without 

 reason, to surmise that Autiopa is more thau 

 usually frequent this year in Europe. I noticed, 

 when in America this year, that this species was 

 common about Boston and New York : it is not 



called there the Cam berwell Beauty, butthe"Mourn- 

 ing Widow." In Germany it goes by the name of 

 der Trauermautel, the Mourning Cloak.— J, Cosmo 

 Melvill. 



Ants. — Can any of the readers of Science- 

 Gossip account for the swarms of ants that this 

 year infest the hotels and houses on the coast of 

 Kent and Sussex? They are so minute, that but 

 for their rapid movements one cannot without a 

 magnifying-glass detect them. They enter every 

 crack or hiding-place, and attack bread, fruit, &c., 

 by hundreds. I am told, at Mutton's, the confec- 

 tioneer at Brighton, that they kill and eat beetles 

 when found on their backs and left at their mercy ; 

 — they even enter trunks, boxes, &c. — T. B. W. 



Missel-Thkush versus Squirrel. — As counsel 

 for the defendant in the above case, which first 

 appeared in the columns of Science-Gossip more 

 than twelve months ago, I feel bound to say a few 

 more words on behalf of my old client, as the 

 charge has been renewed against a relation of his 

 on the other side of the Atlantic, who is apparently 

 possessed of more than even Yankee 'cuteness. 

 Turning over the pages of " Waterton's Essays " 

 (than which I know no higher authority in natural 

 liistory), I came upon the following remark: — 

 " Mr. Wighton's squirrels will consume carnal food 

 in confinement, whilst mine in liberty are never 

 known to touch it." I was very glad to meet with 

 this, as so far it confirms my opinion. . Now I wish, 

 one of the upholders of the flesh-devouring theory 

 would be so kind as to answer the following 

 question in language that can be easily understood 

 by us ignorant unbelieving blockheads : — How can 

 an English squirrel climbatree andcarry apheasant's 

 &g^ at the same time ? When this has been satis- 

 factorily accomplished, I will cry peccavi. — H. C. 

 Sargent. 



An Optical Phenomenon. — Under this head, 

 in the September number, was a very remarkable 

 statement, which reminds me of a much commoner 

 phenomenon noticed, 1 suppose, by many, but 

 never very satisfactorily accounted for. I allude 

 to the border of light seen round a person's shadow 

 ou the grass wiien the dew is heavy and the morn- 

 ing sun is bright. It will be best seen on the 

 grass, but may be noticed also on the roadside 

 hedges when the observer is riding or walking 

 quickly along the road. The general explanation 

 is that it is simply an illusion produced by the 

 strong contrast of light and shade ; but all who 

 will observe carefully will agree that it is something 

 more than contrast. It may be in the recollection 

 of some of your readers that the subject is touched 

 upon in Sir Emerson Tennent's book on Ceylon, 

 lu that island the dew is dense and the sun in- 

 tensely bright ; and every moving shadow on the 

 grass has a strongly illuminated border, to such an 

 extent, indeed, that it is supposed to have suggested 

 the halo which is depicted round the Cingalese 

 idols. The phenomenon I speak of, like the more 

 remarkable one noticed by your correspondent, is 

 no doubt due to refraction, but it is never noticed 

 in works on optics. — W. L. Bell, M.A. 



Whitebait.— Can any of the readers of Science- 

 Gossip inform me if Whitebait is a distinct species 

 {Cltipea alba), or is it the young or fry of the 

 Herring (C harengus) ? Some ichthyologists state 

 that the tiny fish termed Whitebait is simply the fry 

 of the Herring.— C. /. Latlibury, Worcester. 



