Aug. 1, 1S67.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



185 



to say, in spite of an abundant produce and rather 

 high winds, scarcely a single pear rewarded my 

 daily search. I of course suspected that some 

 thieving neighbour anticipated me, and I deter- 

 mined to bring my friend to account. With this 

 object in view, I one morning hid myself behind 

 the hedge which skirts the orchard. There was a 

 west wind blowing, and I amused myself with 

 watching the luscious little pears as they dropped 

 from the boughs and fell with a "thud" on the 

 soft earth below. An hour passed away, and I 

 began to wonder whether the thief would make his 

 appearance after all, when my attention was drawn 

 to the movements of a hedgehog, which crawled 

 out of the hedge on the opposite side of the 

 orchard, and trotted towards the pear tree with its 

 peculiar shuffling gait. I remained perfectly still, 

 with my eye upon the little animal, more for the 

 sake of amusement than with any idea of the im- 

 portant part it was about to play in the robbery of 

 my pears. I thus became witness of the following 

 curious scene. After snuffling among the fallen 

 fruit for a short time, the hedgehog took one up in 

 its mouth by the stalk, carried it a few yards, and 

 laid it carefully down ; it then returned, seized 

 another, and laid it. by the first one. This was 

 repeated until no less than sixteen pears were 

 lying close together, or rather heaped upon each 

 other. Satisfied, I suppose, with the amount, and 

 conscious that he had collected as many as he 

 could conveniently carry at one trip, the animal 

 spread out its prickles to their widest possible extent, 

 deliberately threw itself on the heap of pears, and 

 rolled from one side to the other, until the whole 

 of the fruit was transfixed, and then calmly walked 

 off with its ill-gotten booty to the place from 

 whence it had issued, where I could plainly see 

 some little ones awaiting her return, and no doubt 

 anticipating a juicy breakfast. I made no attempt 

 to disturb the clever little thief, grateful to it for 

 giving me the opportunity of witnessing a fact 

 which has long been treated as a fable — viz., the 

 power and ability of the hedgehog to carry off food 

 on its back. — B. L. 



[From Die Gartenlaube, a weekly periodical pub- 

 lished at Leipzig, 1865.] 



Swallows hybernating. — Though residing 

 some three thousand miles aw r ay from the dear old 

 country, I have been a subscriber to your invaluable 

 Science-Gossip since its commencement ; and feel- 

 ing much interest in your articles on the hibernation 

 of swallows, would feel obliged by the insertion 

 of the following in the columns of your ever-welcome 

 monthly. An intelligent German, a native of Dant- 

 zig, employed in our office as an engraver, informs 

 me that it is a matter of very common occurrence 

 for the fishermen who ply their vocation during 

 the winter season in the reedy and marshy pools 



and sluggish streams around the city of Dantzig, to 

 dredge up in their nets from beneath the ice 

 numerous swallows in a torpid condition. He tells 

 me that in shape they somewhat resemble the 

 handle of a shoemaker's awl ; the head is turned 

 downwards, aud the beak pressed into the feathers of 

 the breast so as to be scarcely discernible ; the body 

 is stiff and hard, as if frozen, and their weight much 

 lighter than when in a normal state. He remembers 

 an instance in particular of one being given to his 

 mother hi this condition by a fisherman; she placed 

 it in tepid water, when it revived, but soon after- 

 wards died. On one occasion he saw six taken up 

 from the stream, clinging by their claws to a 

 broken reed, from which it appears they had not 

 detached themselves on immersion, as in most 

 cases they do. In autumn they assemble in large 

 flocks, and alight on the reeds overhanging the 

 streams, when their weight accumulates to an 

 amount sufficient to bear down the reeds into the 

 water, the claws appear to relax their grasp, and as 

 the birds disappear beneath the surface, the reeds 

 again rise, and resume their pei'pendicular position. 

 Professor Lieber, of Elbing, near Dantzig, has for 

 a number of years paid great attention to the 

 habits of these birds, and would, I have no doubt 

 (if still living), feel great pleasure in communi- 

 cating any facts relating to them. From the des- 

 cription of the bird, I should presume it to be the 

 common house swallow [Uirundo rustica), but am 

 not certain. — G. IF., Philadelphia, U.S. 



The Pearl Fisheries. — Perhaps my fellow- 

 readers of Science-Gossip would like to hear a 

 little concerning a work which is throwing light 

 upon a branch of Natural History, whilst its imme- 

 diate object is to fill the purse. I refer to the inves- 

 tigations now being carried on with regard to the 

 Pearl-fishery of Ceylon. There is no necessity for 

 me to give an account of the fishery. That has 

 been done frequently already. But before giving 

 some extracts from a private letter, kindly placed 

 at my disposal, perhaps it will be as well if I give a 

 short account of the circumstances which called for 

 the inquiry. I need not say that the pearl-oyster 

 is no oyster at all, but belongs to the genus Avicula 

 of class Conchifera of the Mollusca. It rejoices in 

 the name Avicula margaritifera, or Meleagrina mar- 

 gar, Lamarck, or Mytilus margar, Linnaeus. It is 

 well known of what importance and what a fertile 

 source of revenue the Pearl-fishery is to Ceylon. 

 For some years the fishery gradually lost its lucra- 

 tiveness, until at length the oysters disappeared 

 from the beds. In consequence of this Mr. E. TV". 

 H. Holdsworth was sent out as naturalist to see 

 what could be done. The chief questions which 

 required solution would seem to be — first, what 

 were the causes which led to the disappearance of 

 the oysters— secondly, what could be done to obtain 



