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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Dec. 1, 1867. 



' Hedgehogs. — As in the August and September 

 numbers, you have published an account of' hedge- 

 hogs apparently carrying away pears and crabs 

 sticking on their spines, you may thiuk the following 

 statement worth insertion as a further corroboration. 

 1 have received this account in a letter dated 

 August 5, 1867, from Mr. Swinhoe at Amoy :— 

 " Mr. Gisbert, the Spanish Consul at Amoy, informs 

 me that when he was an engineer on the roads 

 in Spain some years ago, he was fond of shooting 

 and roaming about the country. He states that in 

 the Sierra Morena, a strawberry-tree (Arbutus 

 imedo ?) was very abundant, and bore large quan- 

 tities of red, fruit-like, fine, large, red strawberries. 

 These gave quite a glow to the woods. The district 

 in the mountain chain he refers to, is on the divisional 

 line between the provinces of Seville and Badajos. 

 Under these trees hedgehogs occurred innumerable, 

 and fed on the fruit, which the Spaniards call 

 Madrone. Mr. Gisbert has often seen an Erizo 

 (hedgehog) trotting along with at_ least a dozen of 

 these strawberries sticking on its spines. He 

 supposes that the hedgehogs were carrying the 

 fruit to their holes to eat in quiet and security, 

 and that to procure tbem they must have rolled 

 themselves on the fruit which was scattered in 

 great abundance all over the ground beneath the 

 trees." — Charles Darwin. 



The Viper. — I found a viper out on an open 

 niece of ground the other day, and as his home was 

 evidently at some distance, 1 detained him a short 

 time for the purpose of " making observations." He 

 did not move about much faster than I walked, and 

 when I put my stick on him to hold him back he 

 never darted at it, but hissed violently and tried to 

 escape. Finding his efforts fruitless, he lay still, and 

 even when 1 removed the stick, he only coiled himself 

 round and drew back his head, following the point 

 of the stick, but never aimed a blow at it. He then 

 climbed to the top of a thistle about two feet high, 

 and lying amongst its prickly leaves, treated me to 

 another hissing performance. The climbing was 

 done in a way that showed it to be perfectly natural 

 to him, and frequently performed ; he did not coil 

 round the stems at all, but lay across the leaves and 

 branches, lifting himself from one to another. I 

 teased him from this post, and lie hurried into a 

 thick tuft of herbage, where I left him. Anent 

 the reptile's bite, your correspondents evidently 

 believe it sometimes deadly, but fail to cite a case ; 

 the one given at length by Mr. Hall proves my 

 own views to have some truth in them. He says 

 if the victim had been a child instead of a man, 

 death would have been certain, but how can he 

 tell that the constitution of a child would have 

 been similarly affected ? I still adhere to my 

 former statement, that we are as yet without 

 any well-authenticated case of a viper's bite 

 proving fatal from its own simple nature. If any 

 instance can be brought forward, I hope to see 

 it in the pages of Science-Gossip.— Henry Ulhjett, 

 Folkestone* 



Failure of Egg-hatching.— Many settings of 

 fowl, turkey, and duck eggs have failed with me 

 this summer. Some were valuable sorts. From 

 settings of thirteen eggs, rarely more than five 

 chickens have been hatched. Similar failure has 

 been common with my neighbours, creating surprise 

 as to the cause, such ill-success not having been 

 observed before.— S. B. M. 



Snails. — Can any of your readers recommend an 

 effectual remedy for snails in a garden ; I mean one 

 that they have tested and found successful? The 

 employment of gulls or ducks has been suggested ; 

 but they are objected to by some on the ground that 

 they tread down the flowers, and devour straw- 

 berries and other fruit. The ivy affords them con- 

 cealment in dry weather, but on damp mornings 

 they swarm, and of course can be destroyed in 

 numbers, though with little appreciable effect. 

 Forty have been taken in a few minutes out of three 

 or four yards of hedge, and young plants are rapidly 

 stripped of their leaves and killed. A row of holly- 

 hocks are their last victims, and ferns are terribly 

 riddled. No doubt they are ably assisted by their 

 shell-less cousins, the slugs, and also by the wood- 

 lice which are likewise more numerous than wel- 

 come. The garden being surrounded by stone walls, 

 it is somewhat protected from outsiders, if the 

 enemy within could be destroyed. — G. Guyon, 

 Ventnor, Isle of Wight. 



Is the Poison of the Yiper Fatal? — It is a 

 difficult thing to prove a negative ; and, unques- 

 tionably, such a circumstance as is related by your 

 correspondent, may have occurred at Poundbury, 

 near Dorchester, within the last two or three years 

 without my being acquainted with it. But, as one 

 fond of Natural History, and being all my life in the 

 immediate neighbourhood, I think I may say that 

 it is passing strange if such should have been the 

 case. I should be very glad if "the young relative" 

 mentioned in the note, could afford any information 

 whereby the matter may be elucidated. Poundbury 

 is hardly to be called a wild kind of spot, a sort of 

 waste. It is a bright open down, within half a 

 mile of the county-town, with hardly a shrub or a 

 stone, and certainly without any heath, which could 

 have furnished a viper's lair, and constantly exposed 

 to public observation. Assuredly no very extraor- 

 dinary death could have happened there, without 

 its being universally known throughout the county. 

 — C. W. Bingham. 



My Blackbird.— Two or three years ago I reared 

 a blackbird from the nest, and he proved a first-rate 

 songster, having beside his own natural song many 

 variations which I had taught him ; and his round, 

 flute-like notes were the admiration of all who heard 

 them. This season he has been quite unable to 

 sing, though always attempting to do so, the cause 

 of his silence being, I believe, some disease in his 

 throat, which is sometimes very much swollen. A 

 kind of blister rises, and breaks at the root of his 

 beak frequently, and he often seems to have some- 

 thing in his throat which he tries to dislodge. His 

 plumage has not that neat appearance it used to 

 have, although the bird itself seems to be as lively 

 and cheerful as ever. Can any reader of Science- 

 Gossip kindly inform me how to treat my bird? — 

 G. B. C, Ringrcood. 



Cockroaches beware. — I should recommend 

 " J. G." to try the following remedy agaiust cock- 

 roaches. Put two teaspoons of treacle in a soup- 

 plate, and then fill it up with hot water. Then 

 place several pieces of fire-wood up against the plate, 

 to serve as ladders for the cockroaches to climb up. 

 Some time ago our kitchen was swarming with these 

 creatures, but we set three or four of these traps at 

 a time (placing them by the holes from where the 

 cockroaches came out), and in a week or two we 

 were almo.st entirely free of them. — B. F. B. 



