HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



71 



to take a thick stick when feeding her. — /F. A. 

 'Gain. 



Two Sides of the Medal. — Surely Mrs. Alice 

 Jiodington is labouring under some misapprehension 

 as to what Mr. Wallace and other naturalists mean 

 when they say that the effects of use and disuse are 

 not inherited. I judge this to be so because as 

 examples of the contrary she gives the cases of the 

 inheritance of deafness, supernumerary toes, insanity 

 and other characters which are born with people, not 

 ^acquired by them either through use or disuse, and 

 because her breath is taken away on reading Weis- 

 mann's statement that "the inheritance of acquired 

 ■characters has never been proved." Let us take the 

 case of two men, A. and B. A. is born with large 

 muscular limbs, while B. is not, but by dint of careful 

 training and exercise he contrives to make his limbs 

 as big as A.'s. Mr. Wallace, and those who think 

 ->vith him, say that A.'s children would be more 

 likely to have muscular limbs than B.'s, since the big 

 muscles of the latter are the result of use, while A's 

 are natural. Again, suppose C. to be born without 

 thumbs, and D. to lose his by accident. Does Mrs. 

 .Bodington suppose that D.'s children would be as 

 ■likely to be born thumbless as C.'s ?• Wallace and 

 Weismann think that D.'s children would be as likely 

 ito have thumbs as those of any one else. My friend 

 Mr. W. P. Ball, in a little book recently published 

 by Messrs. Macmillan, in " Nature Series," has 

 analysed very destructively the cases which have 

 been adduced in favour of the hypothesis of what he 

 ■calls "use-inheritance," and I think that those who 

 ■wish to look at both sides of the medal should read 

 this work carefully. — Charles Bird, Rochester. 



Two Sides of the Medal. — I think many of 

 your readers would be glad if Mrs. Bodington would 

 explain what third set of renals exist in vertebrates, 

 besides the true kidneys and the Wolffian organs. — 

 F.R. 



Beche-de-Mer. — Will some reader of Science 



Gossip kindly inform me where ;i"Trepang," or 



" Beche-de-mer " can be procured in London — 



either by purchase or e-xchange ? — E. H. R., Pains- 



.wick, Gloucestershire. 



NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 



On the iith of August, 1887, a snow-white 

 ■specimen of the yellow wagtail was observed on 

 Quaiaton Hills (not far from this village) by a friend 

 -oYmine. On the morning of the next day he saw it 

 again, and got within a few yards of it, and saw it 

 well before it flew away. Its flight and chirrup were 

 quite normal. An albino wagtail I consider to be a 

 rare and somewhat unusual occurrence amongst birds. 

 Several white starlings have been observed in this 

 neigbourhood at various times by different persons, 

 and one was seen on the i6th of July, 1890, and 

 again on the i8th with other starlings by my cousin, 

 Mr. P. H. Ward, who also saw it settle on the back 

 of a sheep, after it had flown from the place where he 

 first saw it. Several white house-sparrows (more or 

 less deficient in colour) have also been seen and shot 

 in this district. 



In the winter of 1885 a sparrow was caught in a 

 trap with the crown of its head pure white, and one 

 was seen on the 6th of last November, 1889, and 

 again on the iSth, in company with a flock of its 

 companions, with its back and tail quite white. So 

 recently as September 24th, 1890, one with a white 

 %ving was observed amongst a large flock of sparrows, 



which frequented a stubble-field for the littered grains 

 and loose ears of wheat when the rest had been 

 carted away to the barn or stack. Another albino 

 bird, of the finch family, was seen by my cousin on 

 June 6th 1890, who thought it was either a chaffinch 

 or a linnet, but he could not be certain of its species. 

 I have been told by a person of good authority that 

 he saw a white blackbird in his father's orchard a few 

 years ago. Another parishioner said that when he 

 was at harvest-work near Wendover, a few years ago, 

 he killed a white pheasant. — H. G. IVard, North 

 Alarston, Bucks. 



NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



To Correspondents and Exchangers. — As we now 

 publish Science-Gossip earlier than formerly, we cannot un- 

 dertake to insert in the follo'A'ing number any communications 

 which reach us later than the 8th of the previous month. 



To Anonymous Querists. — We must adhere to our rule of 

 not noticing queries which do not bear the writers' names. 



To Dealers and Others. — We are always glad to treat 

 dealers in natural history objects on the same fair and general 

 ground as amateurs, in so far as the "exchanges" offered are 

 fair exchanges. But it is evident that, when their offers are 

 simply Disguised Advertisements, for the purpose of evading 

 the cost of advertising, an advantage is taken oi o\ix gratuitous 

 insertion of "exchanges," which cannot be tolerated. 



We request that all exchanges may be signed with name (or 

 initials) and full address at the end. 



Special Note. — There is a tendency on the part of some 

 exchangers to send more than one per month. We only allow 

 this in the case of writers of papers. 



To our Recent Exchangers. — We are willing and helpful 

 to our genuine naturalists, but we cannot further allow dis- 

 guised Exchanges like those which frequently come to .us 

 to appear unless as advertisements. 



E. Pratt. — You may procure any of the following works 

 relating to the botany, &c., of Surrey, of W. Wesley & Son, 

 Essex Street, Strand: Brewer's "Flora of Surrey," with maps, 

 price TS. td. ; " Flora of Reigate," by G. Luxford ; Brewer's 

 "List of Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, Fishes, Birds, &c.," price 

 2^^. dd. 



A. Mavfield. — The average length of the slow worm 

 {Anguis fragilis) is from 9 to 10 inches. Your specimen, 

 17! inches long, is very unusual. 



E. Parker. — Re " Lobster and whelk." It is not a lobster 

 at all, but the hermit crab {Pagiirus Bernhardus), which 

 always lives in empty whelk shells, its own body being per- 

 manently soft. It is a type of a distinct order of Crustacea. 



B. C. Robinson. — You will doubtless obtain a good second- 

 hand copy of Kirby and Spence's " Introduction to Ento- 

 mology" of Messrs. W. Wesley & Son, Essex Street, Strand, 

 or Mr. W. P. Collins, 157 Great Portland Street, London, W. 



C. Oldham. — To preserve frogs, &c., try a mixture of half- 

 and-half spirits and glycerine. 



M. J. Teesdalh. — You can prepare your new magic lantern 

 slides by getting the usual sizes of ground glass, similar to 

 those used for cl ildre'^'s transparent drawing slates, and by 

 placing them over an', oook illustration or otherwise, sketching 

 on them with a pencil. The sketches can then be filled in 

 with transparent oil colours. 



R. de G. B. — You are probably correct in surmising that the 

 cases are the cocoons of a coccus. It will be best to wait till 

 they come out. The best Handbook on British Birds is written 

 by Mr. Howard Saunders, and published by Messrs. Gurney 

 and Jackson in twenty shilling parts, illustrated. 



Miss Chichester. — The Editor is much obliged for the 

 drawings and photographs of the holly bough, which is ex- 

 ceedingly interesting. iThe flattening is due to "fasciation," 

 but it is uncommon in the holly. 



EXCHANGES. 



Wanted, choice unmounted material, polycistina, &c., in 

 exchange for choice microscopic shdes of every description. — 

 R. Suter, 5 Highweek Road, Tottenham, London. 



Wanted, fossils from various localities. Good duplicates 

 offered in exchange.— Thos. W. Reader, 171 Hemingford Road, 

 London, N. 



Science-Gossip from vol. i. (1865) to vol. xvi. (i83o), un- 

 bound, but wrapped and tied up in vols., with the exception of 



