26o 



HARD WICKE 'S S CIENCE - G OSSIP. 



was at the risk of having one's clothes spoiled by the 

 clammy shower. It is commonly supposed to be 

 secreted by aphides, and it is rather strange that Mr. 

 Horn should not have been able to find any of those 

 insects. Aphides usually accompany the exudation of 

 honey-dew, and in this neighbourhood, if a sycamore 

 branch be shaken, a complete cloud of aphides falls to 

 the ground. — Robci't Holland, Runcorn. 



HousE-SPARKOW AND ITS YouNG. — Will any 

 of your readers kindly inform me whether it is usual 

 for the House-sparrow to desert its young ? I wit- 

 nessed the following occurrence a few days ago. 

 Bounding our garden is an ivy-covered wall, where 

 quantities of sparrows build their nests ; and the other 

 day observing a young sparrow hopping about on the 

 grass, I imagined it had been allured from the nest 

 by the parent bird, but had not sufficient strength to 

 lly up again. It could not feed itself, and towards 

 night we caged it, in order to protect it from the cats. 

 Early the following morning we liberated it, and had 

 the satisfaction of seeing another bird come and feed 

 it. It remained under the tree until nighl, when we 

 placed it in the cage again, and in the morning put it 

 in a bush, but the birds seemed to have deserted it. 

 During the day many sparrows came under the bush 

 for the crumbs placed there, and each time the little 

 one fluttered to them, opening its mouth and chirrup- 

 ing, but not one would feed it. Several times we 

 took it up and tried to give it crumbs, but the little 

 thing had not sufficient knowledge to take the food, 

 and I could not succeed in putting any into its mouth. 

 ^Ye moistened its beak with a feather dipped in water, 

 but it was not enough to sustain life ; the bird grew 

 hourly weaker, and before night it died. But it was 

 piteous to see the poor little thing beg repeatedly for 

 food from the other sparrows, and we could do 

 nothing for it. I should be glad to know if this be a 

 solitary case or not. — Louisa Corrie. 



Cuckoos. — On the 8th of June my nephew took 

 me to see two young cuckoos in separate nests, 

 and within 30 yards of one another ; one as large as 

 a young jiigeon, and nearly full-feathered and still 

 l^eing fed by the Titlark (or, as called here, Bute) ; 

 ihe other was about the size of a sparrow, but very 

 ^itw feathers on. The nests were small, and made of 

 dried grass (called fog here), and evidently a titlark's. 

 The cuckoos were much too large for the nests ; the 

 larger being veiy pugnacious, striking with its beak 

 if you put your finger near it. They were in a hay- 

 meadow at Wall Hill Bottom, Saddleworth.— 

 Cliarlcs BiittaiiJortJi. 



An Incident in the Life of a Scottish 

 Naturalist. — In Smiles's " Life of a Scotch Natu- 

 ralist," I find (p. 332) that " Edward also discovered 

 a specimen of the Lcplocliniiim piDictatinn, which had 

 been thrown on shore during a severe storm. It was 

 of a most beautiful greenish colour, variegated with 

 steel-blue. This specimen he sent to Mr. Alder, 

 who answered him in the following letter : — ' The 

 Ascidian which you sent me is a Leptoclinium, and 

 may probably be a new species. There are few of 

 that genus with the star-shaped calcareous crystals 

 emliedded in them. The species you have sent me 

 has the star-shaped crystals, and differs in colour 

 from any I have seen, being of a greenish blue 

 colour. I put it into water to moisten it after it 

 came, and it stained the water of a blue colour. 

 I therefore presume that it would be of that 

 colour when fresh.'" As the habitat of " some of 

 the ascidians is the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, 

 and the Mediterranean," could this have been the 

 animal from which was extracted the celebrated Tyrian 



dye, and have become scarce, and thus the art for- 

 gotten, through the scarceness caused by the great de- 

 mand ? — B. [No, a species ol Purpura. — Ed. S.-G.] 



Sick Cage-Birds. — I should feel much obliged 

 if any of your readers could suggest a remedy for a 

 Paradise Paraquet which has lost its quill feathers for 

 two years. He is in perfect health, but as fast as any 

 feathers grow they drop out in a diseased state. This 

 merely refers to the smaller ; the long tail and wing 

 quills never make any appearance. He is in a large 

 aviary cage, and last summer was turned loose in an 

 attic for several months. He is fed on millet and 

 canary-seed. — C. I. M. 



Mistletoe on Lime-trees. — There are several 

 flourishing branches of this parasite on the fine Lime- 

 trees in Sutton Park, near Guildford. — IV. R. Tate, 

 Blandford. 



Query about a Flower. — Two answers have 

 been given in the July number of Science-Gossip to 

 the question asked by "A. H.," headed as above, in 

 the number for May. " G. S." thinks the plant 

 meant is Fritillaria imperialis, which, I think, can 

 hardly be the case, as it is not, so far as I am aware, 

 a British plant at all. In the case of the Arum, 

 which W. G. Horn suggests, I think it may be 

 objected that the "tears" which flow from this re- 

 markable flower are not "heaven-collected," and, 

 moreover, the wind does not appear to have much 

 influence in producing them. Does it not seem 

 more likely that the "tall flower" intended by the 

 poet, is the common Teasel [Dipsacus sylvcstris), the 

 leaves of which are so formed as to compose a kind 

 of cup round the stem, which catches the rain, or, 

 in rainless weather, the dew, so that the plant is 

 never without a certain amount of moisture, and, of 

 course, when bowed by the wind, it scatters the 

 water on the earth around it ? — C. B. M. 



Willows and Spontaneous Combustion. — 

 Can any of the readers of Science-Gossip ex- 

 plain the reason of a curious fact mentioned in a 

 book, " English Forests and Forest Trees " (author's 

 name not given), published in 1863, I believe, to the 

 effect that the JViUo^u is subject to spontaneous 

 combustion ? It was stated that a willow in full 

 vigour would suddenly smoulder and begin to con- 

 sume away ; is it occasioned by an accumulation of 

 gases, which take fire from various causes ? I have 

 unfortunately mislaid an extract I made of the state- 

 ment in cxienso. — E. Hopkins. 



Gullibility (or Pugnacity) of Spiders. — • 

 Some naturalists maintain that a spider, if its web is 

 touched or gently shaken, will rush out to seize the 

 supposed prey, whilst others — the late Mr. Rennie 

 included — hold the contraiy opinion. The following 

 incident, I think, speaks for the former opinion. Being 

 much annoyed by a Tegenaria, which would persist in 

 attaching its web to a burette-stand in my laboratory 

 window, I unstoppered a pint bottle of ammonia, 

 and held it close to the web. The spider, instead of 

 decamping as I expected, charged the intruding 

 object with such fury that it nearly fell into the open 

 bottle ; but, checking itself just in time, and feeling 

 the influence of the fumes, it fled. Now, the neck 

 of a 20 oz. phial certainly bears no resemblance to 

 any insect or other prey which the spider could ever 

 have met with. — J. W. Slater. 



A Predatory Slug. — Taking a twilight walk in 

 my garden after a mild, moist spring day, I observed, 

 as I went along, the earthworms slipping into their 

 holes on either side of the path. One huge fellow, 



