Feb. 1, 1867.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



33 



mellow notes, together with Mocking-birds from 

 the States ; Canary birds direct from their native 

 islands ; Finches, rare and curious, from Australia 

 and Tasmauia; Grosbeaks from North America; 

 Sparrows from a variety of localities ; a case of 

 Doves presented by the late Lola Montes ; the 

 Zebra, and other exquisitely-plumaged Paroquets, 

 talking Parrots, together with the ingenious little 

 weaver-bird, were alike devoured by the greedy 

 flames. A few only were set at liberty, the greater 

 number are burnt ; Blondin's present, a Florida 

 Parrot, was saved from death by smoke and fire 

 through the kind interference of his Grace the 

 Duke of Sutherland. The baby Hippopotamus had 

 his residence not far from where we now stand ; 

 the most strenuous efforts were made to rescue the 

 quaint little beast, though in vain ; the fire ruth- 

 lessly did its work, until at length the floor of the 

 animal's dwelling gave way with a crash, and through 

 it went the half-roasted hippopotamus ; we can see 

 for ourselves where its remains were subsequently 

 dug out. The poor little fellow was discovered 

 lying on a printing-press, its appearance bearing a 

 comical resemblance to that of a huge sausage over- 

 fried. 



We could willingly have lingered very much 

 longer "amidst the ruins," but time and space 

 forbid. We could have contemplated with interest 

 the remains of the class-room and its adjoining 

 orangery, where 110 orange-trees grew and throve, 

 some of them 400 years old, once the property of 

 the late Louis Philippe, and originally brought from 

 his chateau of Neuilly — their loss is irreparable. 

 The school of art, the reading-room, and library, 

 wherein was burnt a valuable collection of rare books, 

 the rarest of them all, perhaps, the copy of " Das 

 Neue Testament," which was printed in 1S51 for the 

 King of Prussia, 25 copies only of which were ever 

 struck off. The ruins of the Byzantine court, too, 

 would have amply repaid us, could we have rambled 

 over its remains to recall and chat about the many 

 interesting incidents connected with the statues, 

 models, and various works of high art that flourished 

 from the 6th to the loth centuries. Every part of 

 this splendid court was replete with interesting 

 relics, now little other than charred, broken, shape- 

 less fragments, destroyed by the withering flames 

 beyond every possibility of restoration. 



It would take a good-sized volume to contain a 

 detailed account of all the treasures consumed in 

 this disastrous fire. We have certainly one consoling 

 thought as we shut the door upon the chaotic heaps 

 and piles, and inextricable confusion of smashed 

 glass, twisted iron, broken columns, masses of 

 masonry, and fragments from Moorish, Assyrian, 

 and Byzantine structures, mixed with, and half- 

 buried in, the dust and debris of a miniature tropical 

 forest :— no human being perished in the blazing pile. 



J. K. Lord, F.Z.S. 



ON THE EXAMINATION OF MELICERTA 

 WITH HIGH POWERS. 



MY attention was drawn to these interesting 

 objects for the microscope by finding, in 

 October last, a colony of them on some weed, taken 

 from a pond in the Hampstead Fields, near the 

 Swiss Cottage. A bath, 3 inches by 2, and £ inch 

 wide, was constructed for their accommodation, and 

 placed on a shelf in the window, in front of a 

 binocular, provided with a 1-inch power. The 

 intention was to watch their reproduction; but 

 though they increased rapidly, and the commence- 

 ment of the tube was frequently seen, in other 

 respects this effort was unsuccessful. 



Fig. 26. Melicerta ringens. Front View of the Disc. 



A fine specimen very near the front glass formed 

 an inducement to try a T 4 o, but it proved just beyond 

 the focus ; so a smaller bath was made, having a 

 front of thin microscopic glass, and a space of 

 about i of an inch between the slides. 



Fig. 27. Sheath-like character of the horn. 



In this several bits of weed were placed; and 

 when a specimen happened to be in a favourable 

 position, near the first glass, the -^ worked excel- 

 lently. But the whole affair was clumsy ; and it 

 was soon abandoned for another, formed entirely of 

 thin glass, with a space of the T V of an inch 



