HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE GOSSIP. 



47 



and burn building, effects, and everything else. In 

 this case, the spider was found, and Ur. Mohnbeer 

 has it preserved in spirits in his surgery. I write this 

 to caution persons to look well to their bedclothes 

 before retiring to rest, as I have witnessed persons 

 suffering from the bite of snakes and other reptiles 

 in Australia, but never saw any one in such agony 

 as my son during the time the poison was taking 

 effect." 



Birds. — Could any of the readers of Science- 

 Gossip oblige me with a list of the birds to be 

 found round the coast of Kent? — Henry Lamb, Maid- 

 stone. 



Habits of Herons (No. 144, p. 283). — Mr. 

 Arnold asks if heronries are ever built in other 

 trees than oak or fir. The nests in Lord Portman's 

 park (Bryaastone), I may tell him, are in Elm trees. — 

 W. K. Tate. 



Herons. — I can inform F. H. Arnold that herons 

 do sometimes have their nests in a rookery ; one had 

 its nest two years in succession in the Fyvie rookery, 

 no other heron's nest being known of within six 

 miles. The rookery and heronry at Hatton, near 

 Turriff, were at one time connected : the trees are 

 now cut down, they are separated a little ; the herons' 

 nests at that place are mostly in spruce-trees of a 

 great height. — W. Sim. 



Herons. — In answer to a question asked by F. 

 H. Arnold in the December number of Science- 

 Gossip as to whether herons build only in fir and oak 

 woods, I wish to state that there is a wood near here 

 composed principally of beech, no oak nor fir, and in 

 which there are two heronries. There are also 

 rookeries in the same wood, but at some little dis- 

 tance from the heronries. — The Needle); Strangford, 

 Co. Down. 



Heronries. — In answer to F. H. Arnold's queries 

 respecting the habits of herons, I may state that there 

 is a large herony in North Germany, not very far 

 from the town of Bremen, at a place called Stiihe, 

 where the nests are built exclusively on fine beeches. 

 The birds find their food in the marshes on the 

 western banks of the Weser, about twelve miles dis- 

 tant from the colony. — V. M. (Elsson. 



Tennyson and his " Sea-blue Bird of 

 March."— I think I can set "J. R. S. C.'s" mind 

 at rest on this vexed question. My father, the late Mr. 

 B. B. Woodward, who was a great lover of nature, 

 was at first much puzzled concerning this passage, 

 which he knew must refer to the Kingfisher ; but 

 what connection existed between it and March he 

 was unable to discover, until he asked Mr. Tenny- 

 son himself. Mr. Tennyson informed him that the 

 Kingfisher was the bird intended, and that it abounded 

 in the Fenland during the month of March. Jn 

 Memoriam was written while he was staying in that 

 district. — B. B. Woodivard, British Museum. 



Anthropoid Ape in South America. — It is 

 curious that the idea of the existence of an anthropoid 

 ape in the dense tropical forests of South America 

 is so firmly held by the natives, who are, like most 

 savages, acute and exact observers. Warned by 

 our experience in Africa, where the Gorilla existed 

 unknown (except a casual mention in the Latin 

 classics) to very recent times, and by the fact that 

 the forests of Brazil are comparatively unexplored, 

 we ought, I think, to hesitate before pronouncing 

 decidedly against the idea. Legends of the existence 

 of such an ape exist in Brazil, and I fancy that 



Captain Burton alludes to the subject in his work 

 upon the " Highlands of Brazil." At any rate, 

 Captain Masters, in his work entitled " At Home 

 with the I'atagonians," says (p. 120) that he was told 

 that the Chilotes aver that an animal called the Tranco 

 or Trauco inhabits the western forests of the Cordillera 

 (of Chili). An intelligent Chilian officer — Gallegso 

 — also informed him " that there was no doubt of its 

 existence, and described it as possessing the form of a 

 wild man, covered with a fell of coarse, shaggy hair. 

 This animal is said to descend from the impenetrable 

 forests, and attack the cattle." Humboldt also men- 

 tions the traditional existence of this monstrous ape, 

 and it has been suggested that it is a legend of the 

 former existence of the fossil ape, whose remains 

 are found in South America. Reading Barrington 

 Brown's " Canoe and Camp Life in British Guiana," 

 I find the following information about a similar 

 monster in Guiana: "The first night after leaving 

 Peaimah, we heard a long, loud, and most melan- 

 choly whistle, proceeding from the direction of the 

 depths of the forest, at which some of the men ex- 

 claimed, in an awed tone of voice, 'the Didi.' The 

 ' Didi' is said by the Indians to be a short, thick-set, 

 ; and powerful wild man, whose body is covered with 

 hair, and who lives in the forest. A belief in the 

 existence of this fabulous creature is universal over 

 the whole of British, Venezuelan, and Brazilian 

 I Guiana. On the Demerara rivers, some years after 

 1 this, I met a half-bred woodcutter, who related an 

 I encounter that he had with two Didi — a male and 

 j a female — in which he successfully resisted their 

 ! attacks with his axe. In the fray, he stated that 

 he was a good deal scratched, &c." All this 

 evidence seems singularly circumstantial, and tra- 

 vellers might with good results follow up their in- 

 quiries on the spot. When we learn that the recent 

 inundations in Spain stranded on the fields unex- 

 pected denizens of the river Guadalquiver — whose 

 occupants ought by this time to be pretty well 

 known, — what liisus natiine may we not expect to find 

 in the fastnesses of tropical America ? — Francis 

 A. Allen. 



Query about Marigold. — In the first act of 

 the " Two Noble Kinsmen" these lines occur: — 



Oxlips in their cradles growing, 

 Mary-golds on death-beds blowing, 

 Larkes-heeles trymme. 



The Mary-gold is evidently the ALarch marigold, 

 which is contemporary with the Primrose, first-born 

 child of Ver. Was it ever especially used to strew a 

 corpse ? Can any of your correspondents tell me 

 whether the wild columbine {AqiiUegia vulgaris), also 

 a spring flower, is called larks-heel in any part of the 

 country ? The Delphinium consolida (field larkspur) 

 is somewhat later, and seldom found at the same 

 time as the Primrose. — J. P., Maidenhead. 



Abundance of Convolvulus arvensis.- — The 

 dry, hot summer which so seriously diminished the 

 number of our wild flowers in many districts, 

 especially where the soil is chalk or limestone, and 

 the land is intersected by few streamlets, served to 

 stimulate the growth of a few species. Amongst 

 these, I particularly noticed, in fields about North 

 Kent, the great profusion of C. arvensis, which so 

 bespangled, in some cases, the rows of potatoes, 

 that the pinkish white bells appeared to be the most 

 conspicuous object on the surface. And yet, on ex- 

 amination, I could not assert that the "weed," as 

 the agriculturist would naturally style it, interfered at 

 all with the rightful growth of our valued esculent. — 

 J. R. S. C. 



