HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIP, 



iiy 



Habits of the Crossbill. — I saw a flock of ten 

 crossbills feeding in a larch tree at Ballyhyland, co. 

 Wexford, on the 15th of January. They are rare 

 visitors here, and these birds allowed me to walk 

 freely all round and under the tree they were in, for 

 half-an-hour or so, but the light was so bad that I 

 failed to get a satisfactory view of their plumage, a 

 point of such interest in the crossbill. As one of 

 these crossbills was feeding near the extremity of a 

 bough, I saw another come hopping to him along 

 the branch from the end next the trunk. The feeding 

 bird, seeing the other approach, stopped eating, and 

 gravely opening his beak took that of his visitor into 

 his mouth. The two bills were then slowly drawn 

 apart again, the one crossbill unconcernedly resumed 

 his eating, and the other hopped away. Some 

 minutes afterwards I saw the very same process gone 

 through again. The bird visited was, I am pretty 

 sure, the same on each occasion ; about the identity 

 of the visitor I am less clear. The grave demeanour 

 of the birds was very entertaining to witness. I am 

 quite at a loss to know the nature of the transaction. 

 Was it (i) an old bird feeding her young ; (2) a cock 

 bird feeding his mate (either would be a remarkable 

 fact, seeing it was the 15th of January, and very 

 harsh weather); or (3) may we suppose that the 

 crossbills occasionally suffer inconvenience in feeding 

 from getting bits of scales impaled on their curiously- 

 formed mandibles, and that in these emergencies 

 they come to each other to be relieved. The act, as 

 I saw it, seemed to me more consistent with this last 

 explanation. There was not the smallest symptom 

 of an emotional greeting, a flutter of wings, or a note 

 of welcome or expectancy, such as usually happens 

 when a hen bird or a fledgeling of one of our 

 common species is fed by its mate or parent. It was 

 clearly a visit of business, regarded by both in the 

 light of a passing interruption to the routine work of 

 devouring the larch-cones. — C. B. Aloffat, 



Galvanised Wire and Orchids. — I find that 

 galvanised wire kills orchids. I tied galvanised wire 

 round some orchids to keep the moss on the roots, 

 and most of them died, one plant especially I wish to 

 draw attention. It was a plant of Cattleya crispa in 

 full growth. To hang the plant up I had a band of 

 galvanised wire placed round the pot and wire from 

 this band formed a loop. I must relate that the 

 plant in question had vigorous roots clinging to the 

 sides of the pot. All these roots died, and then the 

 plant. Since then I have taken the galvanised wire 

 from the pots, etc., and replaced with copper. Since 

 then the orchids are in better health. — R. Draper. 



Bats flying in Sunlight.— On the i6th 

 February, about ten o'clock on a brilliantly fine and 

 warm morning, I watched two flitter mice-bats ( Ves- 

 perugo pipistrellus, Schreb.), for some time. They were 

 hawking to and fro for the numerous flies that were 

 abroad. I have never seen bats following their avo- 

 cations in the bright sunlight before. — J. E. Taylor. 



Trees in Trees. — A friend who has had experience 

 in tree growing tells me that a young tree, as for 

 instance an elm, grows much more rapidly when 

 planted inside a hollow tree, say an elm, than under 

 any other conditions. Looking to the quantity of 

 decaying vegetable matter from which the roots of the 

 young tree derive part of its nutriment, this does not 

 seem at all improbable. — T. S. 



Dead Thrushes in Rabbit-Holes.— Seven dead 

 thrushes were taken from a rabbit-hole at Aust, 

 Glos., into which they had retired to die during the 

 iate severe weather. Several birds that were picked 



up dead from starvation, were difticult to skin, just 

 skin and bone, light as a feather.— 7". S. 



Cuticle of Leaves.— Could any of your 

 readers inform me the best method of taking off the 

 cuticle of leaves of Scolopendrium, petals of the 

 Geranium, &c., so as to make them as transparent 

 objects for the microscope? I am told that 

 "nitric acid, diluted with half water, is the old- 

 fashioned way. Could any one inform me of the new- 

 fashioned, or any better way ? "—George A. Hankey, 

 Town Court Farm, Tutibridge Wells. 



Strange Conduct of a Squirrel.— One day in 

 October last, as I was walking through the Phoenix 

 Park, Dublin, I came suddenly on a remarkable sight. 

 A reddish animal was careering in rapid circles 

 around a wood pigeon which was stationed on the 

 ground, and which, in a dazed fashion, kept turning 

 slowly round and round to watch the whirligig 

 performance : in fact, the procedure was almost 

 exactly that which I have seen when a stoat, before 

 killing a rabbit, proceeds to mesmerise it by cutting 

 circles round it, except that the stoat accompanies his 

 circles by wonderful somersaults, which were lacking 

 on the present occasion. The wood-pigeon's beha- 

 viour was almost an exact repetition of the rabbit's. 

 Arriving so suddenly on the scene, I unluckily 

 startled the principal performer, who stopped ; and, 

 to my surprise, I then saw that it was a squirrel ! The 

 bird was at first so utterly bewildered that it was 

 several seconds before she sufficiently recovered to fly 

 away. When at last the wood -pigeon had flown off, 

 and not till then, the squirrel also left the scene, and 

 betook himself up a tree. It would be interesting to 

 know whether such conduct on a squirrel's part has 

 been noticed before, and what would have been the 

 upshot to the affair had it not been interrupted? Is 

 it to be supposed that the squirrel intended to kill 

 the ring-dove ? — Hugh H. Moffat. 



"Two Sides of the Medal"— With reference 

 to the note (p. 71) by Mr. Bird, it is only fair to what 

 seems the only scientific school of evolutionists to 

 state (without hazarding any personal opinion), that 

 it is only those acquired characters which affect the 

 whole organism, and more especially the reproductive 

 elements, that are deemed transmissile to the off- 

 spring. The case cited, therefore, of the two men 

 A. and B., one born with big muscular limbs and the 

 other not, is hardly to the point, at least without 

 some further exposition. The other case C. and D. 

 is completely outside the mark as it were. The 

 destruction of thumbs is not necessarily attended 

 with any disturbance of the genital organs ; and, 

 therefore, the most fervent Lamarkian would freely 

 admit that D.'s children would be just as likely to 

 have thumbs as those of^any one else. It may be 

 useful to append that the well-known researches of 

 Brown-Sequard on the effects of lesions of guinea- 

 pigs, etc., have not been, as far as I am aware, been 

 very destructively analysed or explosively bombarded 

 by any subsequent critic or experimentalist. — 

 P. Q. R. 



Natural History Vandalism. — Whilst regret- 

 ting the deplorable sacrifice of bird-life, and the 

 approaching extirpation of the most interesting 

 species, it is painful to find this mischief ascribed by 

 certain journals to naturalists. The destroyers of 

 birds are bird-nesters, bird-dealers and their emis- 

 saries, suburban louts who go out on Sundays and 

 holidays, and blaze away at everything clad in 

 feathers. Nor must we forget ignorant farmers, who 

 have latterly taken to destroying that purely insectiv- 



