HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSS J P. 



215 



always attacked with mould, the great pest of small 

 fish. One of the side-glasses I keep entirely for In- 

 fusoria and other microscopical objects. The other 

 contains fish too small to be trusted in the large one. 

 Some time in March last I banished a large male 

 stickleback from the centre aquarium to one of the 

 side ones, on account of his quarrelsome habits ; and 

 knowing their nest-building propensities, I thought I 

 would see if they would buikl in a small aquarium. 

 I therefore caught a female heavy with spawn, and 

 put lier in the small glass with him, and in a very few 

 days the male had built a rough kind of nest, in which 

 were deposited the eggs. After this the male set up 

 such a violent persecution of the female that I was 

 obliged to remove her to a separate tank. I now 

 thought a stream of water would be good for the 

 eggs ; so, instead of letting the water run through the 

 waste-pipe, I fixed another siphon up, to draw the 

 water out of the side-glass, nearly emptying it three 

 or four times a day, by which means I got an almost 

 constant current through the bell-glass, which the 

 stickleback himself supplemented by poising over the 

 nest, and setting his fins in motion, very much in the 

 same way as that in which bees ventilate a hive in hot 

 weather. Some three or four weeks after I was very 

 pleased to see a lot of small sticklebacks hatch out. 

 I immediately removed the old one, lest his appetite 

 should overcome his parental affection. I fed the 

 young fish on meat-flies' eggs and small water in- 

 sects for some weeks, during which time they throve 

 well. One day, however, a friend brought me some 

 very small minnows ; these I placed in the large 

 aquarium, but they were immediately set upon by the 

 perch ; one was captured and swallowed by a perch 

 not more than half as long again as himself; and 

 fearing the rest would go in the same way, I caught 

 them again, and put them in the side-glass with the 

 young sticklebacks, and on looking for them some 

 time after, they (the sticklebacks) had all disap- 

 peared. I have now put three small roach in with 

 the minnow, the largest of them all not being more 

 than one inch long. With regard to food, I find 

 small worms cut up are the best. I also give them 

 vermicelli, which they all, except sticklebacks, eat 

 greedily. Since writing the above, one of the perch 

 has come to an untimely end, in endeavouring to 

 swallow a small stickleback, a great many of which 

 he had eaten before in safety. The spines had caught 

 in his throat and killed it. Had I seen the difficulty 

 before, I should doubtless have been able to relieve 

 him, as I have frequently pulled sticklebacks out of 

 the mouths of gold-fish when they have been unable 

 to swallow them. — T. Sliipton, Chesterfield. 



Sticklebacks in Aquaria.— Perhaps my ex- 

 perience in keeping sticklebacks may interest 

 " P. E. C." I have had an aquarium for many years, 

 holding about eighty gallons, and hearing of the 

 mischievous propensities of sticklebacks, I did not 

 have any. However, one was brought me, a pretty 

 creature in his bright colours. He was tame, came 

 and took food from your hand, and became a favourite, 

 but he soon began to pluck at the snails and killed 

 them ; he then bit pieces out of the tails and fins of 

 the fish. Not satisfied with this, he used to meet the 

 fish, swim under them, put up his stickles and rip 

 them open. At first I could not imagine how it could 

 be, but at last we saw it done. Of course he was 

 taken out, but the fish all died off from wounds which 

 he had inflicted, though not perceptible to me : I had 

 no living thing left. After a while I put in some 

 snails and tadpoles ; a friend brought me four 

 stickles, three males, one female ; I put them in, and 

 one of them began almost immediately to build a nest. 



He was indefatigable in his attention to it night and 

 day, hovering over it and fanning the water ; mean- 

 while the others were killing the snails and biting oiV 

 the tails of the tadpoles, so they could not swim, and 

 fell to the bottom, dying one after the other. In about 

 seven or eight days the young ones were swimming 

 about over the nest ; we counted seven ; the parent 

 kept them there and drove the others away furiously. 

 However, they soon lost their protector ; he was 

 floating dead in about three days after the hatching, 

 which I hear is always the case : I do not think he 

 ate anything all the time. From that time we saw- 

 no more of the young ones until by chance we sav/ 

 two behind a stone as though they were hiding ; the 

 female went up, put her head in, and swallowed them 

 both ; they were nearly half an inch long, and very 

 slender. I had the cannibals taken out and sent 

 down into the sewer. — H.C.R. 



Metropolitan Entomology. — In reference to 

 Mr. R. S. Gibbons' communication in your July 

 number, I may say that some few years ago, M'hen 

 I lived at his collecting-ground, Cricklewood, I 

 often saw C. Edusa in my own garden, and in the 

 adjoining fields ; I did not want it, and therefore 

 did not capture it. With regard to G. Rhaiiini, which 

 one may fairly expect to meet nearly everywhere near 

 London, unless Cane Wood, Hampstead, has been 

 even more hunted lately than it used to be, — Mr. 

 Gibbons will find the pupce pretty frequent there, 

 and I doubt if there is any more beautiful chrysalis 

 among British butterflies. — Albert D. Michael. 



How TO Get Eggs in Trees. — A friend of mine 

 in Canada would like to collect the eggs of various 

 hawks and owls, which, as he informs me, breed in 

 the woods near ; but he is deterred from this by the 

 great size of the trees in which these birds nidificate. 

 What would be the best method (easiest) of climbing 

 trees from 50 to 90 feet high and from 4 to 8 feet in 

 diameter ; for in such trees, he says, the much- 

 wished-for eggs are located. — T. W. Dealy, Sheffield. 



Notes, &c. — May I call your attention to what 

 seems to me a singular freak of nature in the case of 

 a grey parrot ? I have just seen one which, after 

 being in the same family for 25 years, has within the 

 past two months laid four eggs : it had never laid 

 one before. The bird is a capital talker, and a great 

 pet. The eggs are of the size and colour of a wood- 

 pigeon's. The bird would be at the least nearly 

 thirty years old : it has always lived alone in the usual 



large wire parrot's cage. The question of early 



primroses has brought out many wonderful examples 

 of the mildness of the season; but surely "Haw- 

 thorn," in "J. H. of Watford's '' account, must be an 

 error. — W. E. ThontJ>son. 



A Cat and her Kittens. — In front of a certain 

 public-house on the Abingdon road stands a row of 

 elm-trees. In one of these trees, many feet from the 

 ground, is a hollow, in which cackling jackdaws nest 

 every year. One morning, before it was light, a cat 

 was heard making a great noise in the tree, and was 

 observed in the uncertain light to be bringing some- 

 thing down in its mouth. When a short distance 

 from the ground pussy was seen to drop her burden 

 very softly on the ground, and afterwards convey it 

 very carefully into an outhouse. When the landlady- 

 came down stairs and went into the latter place, pussy 

 had laid the last of her three kittens (for kittens they 

 were) on the floor, and, looking up in her mistress's 

 face, mewed most piteously, as if soliciting her pro- 

 tection, which was cheerfully given, it is needless to 

 say. She had, perhaps, been driven up by some dog 

 the night before, and had " kittened " in the jackdaws' 

 haunt. — IV. H. Warner. 



