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HARD WICKE 'S S CIENCE - G O SSIF. 



any aquarium kept solely for the purpose of rearing 

 or preserving either Rotifera or any similar small but 

 edible objects. In answer to your correspondent's 

 inquiry, I would observe, that the Volvox globator is 

 to be obtained in certain places long after the "fort- 

 night in June " to which he refers ; but as he does 

 not intimate the locality whence he writes, it is impos- 

 sible to form an opinion about the freak of nature 

 which he alleges has taken place for the last few 

 years. It would afford me great pleasure to learn 

 where I can again readily come across the Volvox 

 in the vicinity of London, as it is a tedious task to 

 have to search for this interesting stranger in new and 

 unknown neighbourhoods. Ponds with sandy or 

 gravel bottoms are, I believe, the best in which to 

 search for our now scarce friend ; and when found he 

 should be placed in a light-green-coloured bottle and 

 exposed to the light (not the sun), when his graceful 

 evolutions can be easily observed without even the 

 aid of the microscope. I need scarcely remind your 

 readers that the Volvox globator forms one of the 

 prettiest animated objects that can be exhibited at a 

 soiree, and is specially attractive to the ladies. — 

 G. E. Ladbury. 



"Science-Gossip Section Machine."— Permit 

 me to add my testimony to that of Greenwood Pirn 

 (whose paper in this month's GossiP on Section- 

 cutting is most interesting), as to the excellency of 

 the Science-Gossip Section Machine. All who use 

 it will, I feel sure, agree that for cheapness and neat- 

 ness of working it cannot be equalled. Until one of 

 these section machines was given me by a relation, 

 I never could procure really good specimens fit to 

 mount and show ; but now I find no difficulty at all. 

 Let me advise all readers of Science-Gossip who 

 may be in want of an instniment of this kind to give 

 the one which bears the name of one of the most 

 popular of our present scientific journals a fair trial, 

 before laying out money on a more expensive, and, 

 perhaps, not so effective an instrument. — CJiarlcs 

 Williams Redlaiid. 



Golden Pheasant and Bantam. — A short time 

 ago a gentleman living in the neighbourhood of St. 

 John's Wood bought a golden pheasant, and thinking 

 it would be rather lonely, he gave it a bantam hen as 

 a companion. The birds bred, and in the course of 

 time the hen hatched five chickens (three cocks and 

 two hens). When the chicks were about eight months 

 old he gave me a pair, which I have had about two 

 months. For about three weeks after I got them they 

 uttered the same peculiar cry as the pheasant, but 

 now the cock has left that oft", and crows veiy much 

 the same as a bantam. The feathers of the cock are 

 very similar to those of the golden-laced bantam, 

 except those on the back and shoulders, which are of 

 a brick-red colour. There is no peculiarity in the 

 plumage of the hen, but the head is rather more like 

 that of a pheasant than that of a domestic fowl. Is 

 it a common occurrence for the golden pheasant to 

 breed with the domestic fowl ? If any of your readers 

 can give me any information on the subject I shall be 

 much obliged. — G. W. Landels. 



Cuckoo's Eggs.— May I venture, without giving 

 offence to any one, to express a liope that such of the 

 readers of Science-Gossip as are interested in the 

 cuckoo-egg controversy, but have not given much 

 attention to it, will accept the true version of that 

 theory, as it is admirably expressed by Mr. South- 

 well in your November number, page 260 ; for really 

 the rubbish that has been written about that question, 

 and the ridiculous dress in which a very beautiful 

 theory has been vested by some, who were com- 



pletely at sea as to the real question at issue, has 

 made more than one ornithologist shy of expressing 

 his views on the matter, lest he too should be mis- 

 represented, and opinions attributed to him the very 

 reverse of those he entertained. As Mr. Southwell 

 has referred to my translation of Dr. Baldamus' paper, 

 which was printed in the Zoologist in April, 1868, I 

 feel bound to thank him for his timely rescue of the 

 learned doctor from the mud with which he has been 

 too liberally bespattered by some. And as Mr. South- 

 well very fairly acknowledges that his own opinion is not 

 in favour of the theory above-mentioned, I hail a true 

 exposition of that theory from him, as from an unpre- 

 judiced and competent authority. While, on the other 

 hand, I should not be honest if I did not as openly 

 acknowledge that the more I have studied Dr. Bal- 

 damus' view, the more convinced I am that it contains 

 the nucleus of a great truth ; though I do not think 

 we have yet reached the whole of it ; nor can we 

 speak otherwise than very reservedly and cautiously 

 on a question which has not yet been settled, and 

 about which our best ornithologists are not yet by 

 any means agreed. — Alfred Charles Smith, Yatesbury 

 Rectory, Calnc, Wilts. 



Colour of Eggs. —In reply to the inquiry of 

 "A. P.," in the November number of Science- 

 GossiP, page 259, for information in regard to the 

 species of birds which have been ascertained occa- 

 sionally to assume white or parti-coloured plumage, 

 I beg to refer him to a list of fifty-seven species which 

 I| published in the Zoologist, in 1853, pages 3,969- 

 3,980, at the conclusion of a paper " On the General 

 Colour and the Occasional Variations in the Plumage 

 of Birds " ; but I would add that a great many addi- 

 tions might now be made to that list from subsequent 

 observation. In short, so numerous are such instances, 

 and in so great a variety of species, that I have come 

 to the conclusion that in all probability no species of 

 bird is altogether exempt from a liability to this acci- 

 dent, or deject, as I think it should be called, however 

 peculiar and sometimes beautiful such white or 

 mottled specimens may be, inasmuch as constitutional, 

 or hereditary, or other weakness, appears to be the 

 general cause of the absence of the pigment or colour- 

 ing matter which forms the normal hue of more healthy 

 members of the species. Therefore I would depre- 

 cate the preservation of such abnormal and unnatural 

 specimens as I would of any other deformities. — 

 Alfred Charles Smith, Yatesbury Rectory, Calne, 

 Wilts. 



Rare Birds.— Does it not seem a pity that every 

 rare bird that visits us should be shot ? Last No- 

 vember a fine specimen of the bittern was shot at 

 Sutton Coldfield. A hoopoe was also shot about 

 five miles from Birmingham. Is it not rather rare 

 for the hoopoe to be taken so far north ? — G. T. B. 



An Ancient Cat.— At Gundagai, New South 

 Wales, there is in existence a cat which is said to have 

 attained the extraordinary age of 100 years. It 

 \vas brought from England in the Golden Grove one 

 of the three storeships that accompanied the first 

 fleet of convict ships, which cast anchor in Botany 

 Bay on the 20th of January, 1788. This vessel may 

 be characterized as the Noah's Ark of Australia. She 

 conveyed thither — one bull, four cows, and one calf; 

 one stallion, three mares, and three colts ; one ram, 

 eleven sheep, and eight lambs ; one billy-goat, four 

 nanny-goats, and three kids ; one boar, five sows, 

 and a litter of fourteen young pigs ; nine different 

 sorts of dogs ; and seven cats, including that of Gun- 

 dagai, which is supposed to be the sole survivor of 

 the magic number of seventy-seven quadrupeds 



