270 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Dec. 1, 1867. 



Cat and Kestrel. — A. cat belonging to a neigh- 

 bour was lying concealed in a drain in a meadow 

 (November, 1865), watching her opportunity to 

 seize a field-mouse, when a kestrel swooped upon a 

 mouse so close to her, that with a sudden spring 

 she caught the bird, and eventually killed it ; a ter- 

 mination to her hunt as unlooked for by her, as it 

 was unexpected by the kestrel, \i ho had probably 

 been so intent upon the moving mouse, as to over- 

 look the motionless cat. This was related to me by 

 the- owner of the cat, who took the bird from her a 

 few minutes after the event.— Hurting' s Birds of 

 Middlesex. 



Black Redstart.— A male specimen of the 

 Redstart {Sylvia tithys) was taken at Gedney, 

 Drove-End, Lincolnshire, on October 25th. A 

 Greenshank (JFotanus glottis) was taken in a flight- 

 net on the sea-marsh at the same place on October 

 :3rd— C. E. R. 



Clouded Yellow in Ireland. — In your number 

 for November, a correspondent mentions having 

 taken a specimen of the Clouded Yellow (Colias 

 e&usd) at Kilkee, and asks if it is an uncommon in- 

 sect in Ireland. " I may inform you that it has been 

 taken in considerable numbers during the past 

 summer at Tramore, a bathing place in Co. Water- 

 ford, and at other localities in the neighbourhood 

 of Waterford City. Two years ago it was very 

 common, and many were captured. During the 

 same season the Painted Lady {Cynthia cardui) 

 was very abundant, continuing from June till the 

 end of November. One insect I had emerged from 

 the chrysalis on the 11th of December. This year 

 they were again frequently seen, but were not nearly 

 so plentiful, and last year very few were met with. 

 — E. Garnett, Newtown^ Waterford. 



Fangs of Spideks. — After reading the sceptical 

 •remarks of your correspondent, " E. T. S. " 

 (page 237, Science-Gossip,) on the structure of the 

 Spiders' Fangs, I determined to examine them 

 carefully for myself. This I have ample opportunity 

 to do, as my cabinet contains no fewer than four 

 specimens of different species, three of which are 

 whole, prepared by myself. The other slide contains 

 the fangs only I had from Mr. Groves Tollington, 

 London. Of these four specimens three show dis- 

 tinctly an aperture opening into the interior of the 

 fang. The sketch by R. Beck, page 201, Vol. II. of 

 Scjence-Gossip, accurately represents its form 

 and position. There can be no mistake of its actual 

 existence in my specimens. What relation these 

 apertures may sustain to other parts of the insect's 

 structure, or what special or general functional 

 purpose they may have, I know not ; nor can I 

 boast of less ignorance respecting the "modus 

 operandi " observed by the constitutional murder in 

 ■seizing or holding its hapless victim. — B. Taylor. 



Bugs.— In a rare and curious old book on insects, 

 written in Latin, and published at London, in 1634, 

 the title of which is " Insectorum sive Minimorum 

 Animalium Theatrum,'T find, amongst other things, 

 a curious account of the common Bug. It states 

 that this insect first occurred in this country at 

 Mortlake, on the Thames, in the year 1563, and 

 that those unhappy people who were first bitten by 

 it, imagined that they had been attacked by a 

 plague, but the writer says, "Tandem re cognita, 

 ac bestiolis captis, risu timorem omnem excussit." 

 He then gives a list of preparations which are cal- 

 culated to destroy these insects, about which he 

 writes, " Contra istos nocturnse quietis hostes, 

 Deus noster misericors, remedia nobis suggessit." 

 The writer does not seem to have had much opinion 

 about the cleanliness of foreigners, for he says, 

 " Galli, Germani, et Itali qui munditiem minus 

 curant, pariunt magis banc pestem; Angli autem 

 munditei et cultus studiosissimi rarius iis laborant." 

 The accounts of the insects in this book are mos 

 curious, and the figures mostly veryroughlyexecuted 

 those of some of the Lepidoptera being scarcely 

 recognisable ; a great number of our rarer and 

 reputed British insects are figured, doubtless, as 

 British. There is no attempt at arrangement into 

 genera, as neither generic nor specific names were 

 then in use. — Henry C. Lang. 



Submergence and Emergence.— In 1772 the 

 greater part of one of the largest volcanic mountain 

 in Java was swallowed up. A luminous cloud 

 enveloped the mountain on the 11th of August, and 

 soon after, the huge mass disappeared with a great 

 noise, carrying with it about 90 square miles of the 

 surrounding country, 40 villages, and 2,957 inha- 

 bitants. In 1819 a large tract of country, not far 

 from the eastern mouth of the river Indus in India, 

 underwent considerable change. A tract of probably 

 not less than 750 square miles was raised 10 feet 

 above its former level, and south of this another tract 

 of perhaps 600 square miles became submerged, and 

 occupied by the Lake of Sindree. In 1628, 1720, 

 and 1811, islands have appeared and disappeared in 

 the sea near the Azores. On the last occasion an 

 island rose to the height of 600 feet, and was named 

 " Sabrina." In the following year it disappeared. 

 In 1831 an island appeared to the south west of 

 Sicily, reached an elevation of nearly 200 feet and a 

 diameter of 3 miles. After three months it gradually 

 sank again, uutil nothing remains but its name of 

 " Graham Island." Had the reported submergence 

 of the island of Tortola taken place, it would have 

 surpassed in terrible interest all previous and 

 similar events, and impressed itself on the memory 

 of all men living as the great catastrophe of 1S67- 

 Fortunately, however, the "sensation telegram" 

 lacked bein<? true. 



