Aug. 1, 1867.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



183 



his valuable collection of stuffed birds was, I 

 believe, his legacy to the museum at Truro. Among 

 his "curiosities" was a "white blackbird." I have 

 also seen a white rook, and one partly white, with 

 some white varieties of other birds, usually of 

 coloured plumage. I observe two of your corre- 

 spondents refer to the grey phalcrope. This bird was 

 observed by one of my cousins (himself a naturalist), 

 one cold winter, on a small pool close to the town, 

 where'we were then living, many miles inland. I 

 was taken by him to see it, and it seemed quite un- 

 disturbed by the presence of spectators. 



Our early home afforded an excellent field for 

 ornithological pursuits. Moths and butterflies in 

 almost endless variety were seen. Of the latter, I 

 may mention ^the rare Purple Emperor, Peacocks, 

 Admirals, and Painted Ladies, and Eritillaries of 

 many sorts — the Granville Fritillary, which is, I 

 believe, very local, being abundant. We had also 

 both the copper butterflies ; the larger having now, 

 1 am told, almost forsaken England. We now find 

 that some of the white varieties of butterfly we got 

 there are very rare (my specimens were long since 

 too dilapidated to be of any use), and white varieties 

 of " clouded sulphur " and " clouded yellow " were 

 not unknown to us. A privet hedge in our garden 

 was frequented by the Privet Hawk moth, r a sunny 

 walk by the Humming-bird Sphinx, and more than 

 one specimen of the Elephant and of the splendid 

 "Death's-head" moth was captured. One of the 

 latter, I remember, made a fearful noise while 

 dying— a sort of shriek, which horrified my mother, 

 who was its murderer, and very tender-hearted. 



While on the subject of moths, I may mention 

 that a moss house in one of tbe gardens of our 

 after-home, situated near a valley, was the resort of 

 the Goat-sucker or Night-jar, and we often found 

 the floor strewed with the wings of the Puss moth, 

 Oak-egger, &c. Walking once on Kinver Edge, in 

 Staffordshire, I came upon what I thought was a 

 piece of wood covered with some peculiar lichen ; 

 but, stooping towards it, noticed the sparkle of a 

 bright, bead- like eye, in which life was evident, and, 

 bending nearer, there was a Goat-sucker, cowering 

 so closely to the heathery ground, I thought he 

 must be wounded. But no — before I could grasp 

 him, up he flew, and was out of sight and reach in 

 a moment. I well remember how hard my mother 

 fought, during our childhood, against our dairy- 

 woman's prejudices as to this much-maligned bird. 

 Some dishonest people had milked our cows in the 

 field, and old " Becky " would have it that Goat- 

 suckers, or else Hedgey-boars (the equally harm- 

 less English porcupine, or hedgehog), had sucked 

 them. Cornish people hold the belief your corre- 

 spondent mentions, i. e., that if you try to kill a 

 snake, "it will not die till sundown;" they also 

 give full credit to the healing powers of that hand- 

 some St. John's-wort, " Tutsan." 



In the woods before referred to, we often found 

 colonies of the great wood ant, with high conical 

 nests, in part made, as your correspondent observes, 

 of fir leaves, but also, apparently, of grass stalks, 

 and the thin stems of small plants. We often saw 

 winged ants of this species near the nests, and 

 though we watched the insects closely, I do not 

 remember that either of us was stung by them at 

 any time. 



I am very unlearned as to spiders, for I 

 must confess I have a silly but unconquerable 

 antipathy to the whole race (unlike one of my 

 brothers, who succeeded in so far taming some 

 large spiders, as to get them to come to the edge of 

 their webs, instead of hiding themselves at his 

 appearance. The same brother was also a successful 

 tamer of toads, of which he kept a large number). 

 Despite my dislike to the race, I am bound to say I 

 never saw such handsome spiders as were found in 

 that neighbourhood — " Huge Zebras," more than 

 one of which was not unlike a moderate-sized white 

 strawberry, a large green spider, &c. 



That spiders are capable of inflicting wounds on 

 human beings I have had proof in my own person. 

 I slept, one hot night, in what is called a turn-up 

 bed ; and, tossing restlessly aboufr, my right hand 

 got up into the corner of the bed's head : I felt a 

 kind of prick in my forefinger, and a sharp pain 

 shot up my arm, and next morning the finger was 

 sore and slightly festered ; and where- it had struck 

 the corner was a common black spider, crushed and 

 dead. Some of your young readers may be amused 

 at hearing, in connection with " Spider Gossip," 

 that a cousin of mine, an engineer, who was super- 

 intending the erection of some saw-mills in South 

 America, shot one of the large hairy spiders which 

 there devour small birds; the English workmen 

 being afraid to pass beneath its web lest it should 

 drop on them, and the creature being out of ordi- 

 nary reach. 



The botany of the neighbourhood of our early 

 home was also most interesting ; but I need not say 

 that many flowers and ferns seem almost peculiar 

 to the slaty and granitic soil of north and west 

 Cornwall. The delicate little Cornish money-wort, 

 with its small whitish flowers, we greatly prized ; 

 and obtained from many a moist and shady place. 

 Like Mrs. Howitt, we had a little garden exclu- 

 sively for wild flowers, to which every pretty or 

 interesting plant we could obtain was transplanted 

 with as much of the original soil as we could con- 

 vey ; and much happy labour have I spent in secur- 

 ing shade for one and sunshine for another, &c. &c, 

 at the same time. Only once since I left that 

 neighbourhood have I seen that beautiful fungus 

 the Carmine Peziza. It grew, year after year, on a 

 time-worn elder tree in one of our fields, and the 

 rich scarlet of its little cups was visible from some 

 distance. A. C. P. 



