Feb. ], 1SG7.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



41 



Crocodiles near London. — A circumstance 

 came under my notice the other day, which may be 

 interesting as having some bearing on the question. 

 Some time after seeing Mr. Wright's paper in The 

 Gentleman's Magazine, I happened to go into the 

 Welsh Harp Hotel, in the Edgware Road, where 

 there are a good many preserved specimens of 

 natural history; among these I observed a case 

 containing a reptile, very similar in appearance to 

 that described by Mr. Wright. I at once inquired 

 its history, and ascertained from the persons in the 

 house, who were anxious to give me every informa- 

 tion, that it was a young alligator, brought over to 

 this country by Heenan, the well-known American 

 prize-fighter ; that it was presented to the landlord 

 alive, and that it lived with them for six months : 

 indeed, as they said, it might have been alive still, 

 had it not come to an untimely end at the hand of 

 some evil-disposed angler, who, seeing it on the 

 bank of the reservoir, terminated its existence with 

 a blow from the butt-end of his fishing-rod. Erom 

 their account it appeared to have been tolerably 

 tame, as although when it first came into their pos- 

 session it was kept confined, it was after a time 

 allowed to go at large, when it used to crawl about 

 the margin of the large reservoir at the rear of the 

 house, returning regularly for its meals to its old 

 quarters ; and they further said that it was well 

 known to all who frequented the house. The little 

 creature was not well preserved, and it was there- 

 fore very difficult to get a correct estimate of its 

 proportions. As far as I could judge, however, it 

 seemed to be about a third size larger than the 

 crocodile described by Mr. Wright. It seems to me 

 clear from the history of this alligator, and from its 

 having existed for some months in a semi-wild state 

 in this country, that there can be no difficulty in 

 believing that a creature of similar habits and orga- 

 nisation might also exist under the same or the like 

 conditions, although it would seem that the high 

 authority of Professor Owen is against this view of 

 the subject. — The Gentleman' 's Magazine. 



Mice as Destroyers oe Birds' Eggs. — In my 

 experience as a bird-nester, I have frequently found 

 the eggs of birds broken in the nest, and this 

 destruction of eggs I have attributed to the weasel. 

 I have a cat, a noted bird-destroyer ; but I never 

 knew her to take young ones out of the nest, nor 

 to destroy the eggs; but several times she has 

 grievously disappointed me by destroying the old 

 birds on the nest. I have frequently, at the latter 

 end of the breeding season, found mice in nests ; 

 but I never could find, though I have diligently 

 looked for them, any traces of the eggs, which I 

 should unquestionably have done, had the mice been 

 the destroyers. I am of opinion that deserted nests 

 are frequently taken possession of by mice, and used 

 by them as homes. I found four young mice (blind) 



in a chaffinch's nest ; I also found a litter in a 

 blackbird's nest ; and last year, whilst looking for 

 the nest of a tree-sparrow, I found two mice, pro- 

 bably a male and a female, iu the deserted nest of a 

 hedge-sparrow. When I suddenly withdrew my 

 hand, they ran along the branches of the hawthorns 

 with as much ease as if they had been used to it 

 all their lives. — John Hanson, Linton-on-Ouse. 



The Anchovy {Engranlis encrasicholus). — I have 

 just received a specimen of this fish, above 64 inches 

 long, caught with the sprats on the Lincolnshire 

 coast, near Boston. According to Mr. Yarrell, this 

 fish is very rare on that coast, although well known 

 in the West of England. Yarrell says (vol. ii., p. 

 219), "In a series of notes on the occurrence of 

 rare fish at Yarmouth, and its vicinity, with which I 

 have been favoured by Dawson Turner, Esq., there 

 is mention of a specimen of the Anchovy taken on 

 the beach, which measured six inches and a half in 

 length. Mr. Couch says he has seen it in the 

 Cornish seas of the length of seven inches and a 

 half, additional proofs of the large size acquired 

 by this fish on our shores." — C. Adcock, Birmingham. 



Alas ! poor Atropos ! — In a recent communica- 

 tion to the Tint. Mag. (pp. 180), Mr. McLachlan 

 proposes that Atropos pulsatoria should henceforth 

 be called Atropos divinatoria, and denies it the 

 power of making a noise. He says, "That various 

 species of Anobium cause this sound, is proved 

 beyond doubt ; but that a creature with a body so 

 soft that the least touch annihilates it can in any 

 way produce a noise sensible to human ears, seems 

 to me impossible. I look upon it as a perpetuated 

 superstition commenced centuries ago, at a time when 

 the human mind was peculiarly sensitive to impres- 

 sions of the supernatural, and having its origin in 

 the habitat of the creature ; the real producers of 

 the sound, species of Anobium, were not seen or 

 suspected, and Atropos, as being the only iusect 

 supposed to frequent the spots whence the sounds 

 proceeded, was naturally accused. The apprehen- 

 sions excited by what is only the love-call of a 

 small beetle, still exist with the uneducated." 



On this subject see prior communications (S.G., 

 vol. ii., pp. 77 and 251). 



Great Spotted Woodpecker (Picus major).— 

 Perhaps you may be interested to know that on 

 Monday, the 31st of December, I shot a female 

 specimen of the Great Spotted Woodpecker. I 

 killed it in an open country, away from any wood. — 

 /. B. B. Maxfield, Stone, Staffordshire. 



Rein-deer Bot.— At a recent meeting of the 

 Zoological Society, Dr. J. Murie read a notice of 

 the occurrence of (Estrus tarandi in a Reindeer in 

 the Society's Gardens, and made some remarks on 

 the summer dress of the Llama and Alpaca as 

 exhibited in the Gardens during the past summer. 



