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HARD WICKE 'S S CIENCE - G O SSIP. 



the duck to fall previous to securing it. It is curious 

 that Mr. Gould's plate of the European peregrine, in 

 his "Birds of Great Britain," represents the bird 

 striking down a duck precisely as the American pere- 

 grine is said to do by Wilson. Mr. Dealy says the 

 Duck- Hawk constructs its nest upon trees in the cedar 

 swamps, and that the true peregrine never frequents 

 swamps of any description, and has never been known 

 to construct its nest on a tree of any sort — always on 

 the rocks. I do not think this is strictly correct. 

 Professor Newton, in "Ootheca Wolleyana," pp. 

 102-3, gives repeated extracts from Mr. Wolley's 

 note-book of eggs of the peregrine taken from nests 

 found on the ground, amongst the bear-moss, in a 

 marsh : this was in Lapland. Mr. Dresser says 

 (" Birds of Europe ") that in the flat wooded parts of 

 North Germany, ' ' it appears, as a rule, to nest in 

 trees." In Livonia, Von Middendroff states that it 

 nests on the moors in the moss, "never otherwise 

 than on the ground." Mr. Dresser obtained eggs of 

 the peregrine in Northern Finland, " which were 

 placed on a large tussock in the middle of a great 

 morass." It also occasionally breeds in church 

 towers, and has been known to do so in the steeple 

 of Gorton Church, Suffolk, not many miles from 

 where I am now writing. Under these circumstances 

 I think Mr. Dealy can hardly be said to have made 

 out a good case in favour of Falco anatiun. Wilson 

 was, as Mr. Dealy says, a truly great naturalist, and 

 could at once appreciate the powerful influence cir- 

 cumstances and surroundings would have upon the 

 habits and mode of feeding of a species so wide- 

 spread over the globe as the Peregrine Falcon, even, 

 it might l^e, to the production of a darker shade of 

 plumage, or a slightly superior size. — T. Soiitlnodl, 

 Noj-wich. 



The Herox. — In answer to F. H. Arnold's query 

 as to whether the Heron is a good bird to eat, he 

 may be glad to know that I, on my uncle's persua- 

 sion, tried one about three years ago ; and in spite of 

 the protestations of the cook, who declared that it 

 was carrion, found it very good eating, both roast 

 and hashed : its flavour is something like hare. I 

 am afraid he will find it, however, no easy matter to 

 get his friends to taste it, as there seems to exist in 

 England a strong prejudice against the use of herons 

 as food. — J. G. P. Vereker. 



The Common Nettle (p. 46). — Mr. Augustus 

 Mongredien, in his work on "Trees and Shrubs for 

 English Plantations " (Murray, 1870), has a chapter 

 on " Man's Influence on Vegetation," in which he 

 gives a list of plants which follow human cultivation, 

 and mentions the nettle as follows : — " Urtica dioica 

 (the common nettle), whose presence almost infallibly 

 indicates that not far off" a house or shed exists, or has 

 existed."— ^r. R. Tate, Blandford. 



Fertilization of Crucifers. — At a recent 

 meeting of the West Sussex Natural History Society, 

 when the Crucifers were under discussion, a question 

 was put — Why are two of the stamens shorter than 

 the other four? What advantage does this give for 

 insect fertilization ? In Sir J. Lubbock's work this 

 order is stated as "not offering so many special spe- 

 cific adaptations [for this purpose] as other groups." 

 Is this so ? Any observations on this point will be 

 acceptable. — F. H. Arnold. 



Fertilization of Mosses. — Will you or some of 

 your numerous readers kindly answer in your journal 

 the two questions that arise from the following quo- 

 tation from " Footnotes from the Page of Nature," 



page 32 



■ There is one remarkable species [of 



mosses], the male plants of : which exist only in 

 Europe, so far as can be ascertained, and the female 

 only in America, and yet they propagate themselves 

 with as much facility as though they grev/ side by 

 side in the same crevice of rock." The two questions 

 are : (i) What is the name of this species? (2) How 

 do they propagate themselves ? A short answer, or a 

 reference to books containing the infonnation, will be 

 very acceptable ; but, since books are suspected things 

 here, a direct answer will be more serviceable. — 

 James Key, St. Petersburg. 



Apocynum andros.'Emifolium. — The fact that 

 this plant is insectivorous is not new, as it is men- 

 tioned in Kirby and Spence (4th edit., i. 289), 

 where, indeed, this plant heads the list of " Vege- 

 table Muscicapae." — Albert C. Coxhead. 



Destruction of Rare Birds. — I was glad to 

 read "G. T. B's." protest, in the January number of 

 Science-Gossip, respecting the destruction of rare 

 birds. I frequently see recorded in a Cornish news- 

 paper the name of some so-called naturalist who has 

 shot a rare bird visitor. Last week a Northern Diver 

 was killed near Penzance. Would not the fact that 

 such visitors had been seen and were unmolested be 

 much more satisfactory to all true lovers of nature 

 than that their skins were handed to a taxidermist 

 for stuffing ? — H. Budge. 



Teucrium Cham.-edrys. — In the autumn of 1875 

 I gathered Tencrhun Chamczdrys on the walls of 

 Winchelsea Castle, where it grew in some abundance. 

 The locality is a very solitary one, far from gardens 

 or houses. The fact of a plant being found on ruins, 

 or old walls, does not appear to me, as it does seem 

 to one of your correspondents, to be any reason for 

 thinking it not to be indigenous, any more than the 

 grass, chickweed, or ivy that is sure to be growing in 

 every crevice, is to be supposed doubtful also ! — 

 H. E. JVilkinsoii, Anerley, S.E. 



Early Flowering Plants. — It may interest 

 your readers to know that to-day (Feb. 7th) I found 

 the following plants in bloom near Hughenden Park, 

 the seat of Lord Beaconsfield : Lamiu)n purpure^iin, 

 Veronica Buxbaiimii, Getim in-banuvi, Potentilla 

 fragraria, Mercurialis peren)iis, Stellaria media, and 

 flower-buds of the Bramble ; also hazel catkins in 

 abundance, barren and fertile "palm." The wild 

 honeysuckle and elder are also in leaf, and the beech- 

 woods seem almost ready to follow their example. — 

 E. R. B. 



Orchids near Boxhill. — Your correspondent, 

 J. R. N. , Kingston, inquires for a good locality, near 

 Boxhill, where many species of orchids may be 

 found. During residence at Guildford, I used to 

 visit Compton chalk-pit, a wild spot on the left 

 slope along the Hog's Back (one mile from Guild- 

 ford Station. On one occasion, in various stages of 

 flowering, I gathered the following species : Early 

 purple, Ladies' Tresses, Musk, Bee, Fly, Pyrami- 

 dalis. — 7^. //. Stock. 



The Colours of Shadows. — The answer to 

 H. O. Sterland's inquiiy is simple. A shadow is 

 only a space from which light is cut off by an opaque 

 body. If the light is entirely intercepted, the space 

 becomes invisible ; but in practice all so-called 

 shadows receive some light by reflection from sur- 

 rounding objects. The apparent colour of the 

 shadow (on a white ground) in such cases is always 

 complementary to that of the light ; this illusion be- 

 ing simply the well-known effect of contrast. Thus 



