BARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP, 



257 



-iind not, as "it now does, exclude — the Scoter from 

 the record of birds breeding more southward than 

 they did. — Joseph Anderson, Jun., Chichester. 



Monstrosity ov Clausilia rugosa. — I lately 

 >found a specimen of this common snail having two 

 ■mouths instead of one. Both were sinistral, and of 

 equal size, one forming the aperture of protrusion and 

 ithe other not communicating with the interior, but 

 vfully formed in every particular. I should be glad 



Fig. 213. — Monstrosity of Clausilia rugosa. 



to know if other collectors have noticed a similar 

 condition. I was impressed by the fact that the 

 •opening in use was colourless, whereas the unused 

 -one had the normal markings. The conclusion which 

 was irresistibly borne in upon my mind by this fact, 

 is that the snail having fastened himself in by his 

 patent door-apparatus, was unable to let himself out 

 ^again, and was forced to break the wall and add a 

 back-door to his residence. I should be glad to hear 

 the opinions of other conchologists on this matter. — 

 H. Downcs. 



Preserving and arranging Shells. — Allow 

 me as a collector of many years' standing to give the 

 results of my experience with regard to the safe pre- 

 servation of shells in collections. The great object 

 to be aimed at, and for which no necessary expense 

 should be grudged, is, as I have learned by sad 

 experience, to prevent the shell and the name ticket 

 from being separated. For this reason trays are very 

 Tinsafe for any shells in whose apertures the ticket 

 cannot be securely stuffed. I once lost the names of 

 the greater part of a series of species of IMitra through 

 the accidental fall of a drawer in which the specimens 

 were in cardboard trays ; but a much slighter cause 

 than this, a puff of wind, or the breath of the con- 

 chologist himself, is often sufficient to produce the 

 same result. Pill and chip boxes are so unsightly 

 that I fancy but few would care to use them. Glass- 

 capped boxes are undoubtedly the best, except for 

 very minute or very elongated shells, which are better 

 in tubes ; they are, however, very expensive. The 

 plan I have adopted as best combining efficiency 

 with economy is this. i. All shells which have no 

 opercula or teeth in the mouth, and which are large 

 enough to have the name securely placed in the 

 aperture, are loose. 2. All shells of which the 

 diameter does not exceed that of a fourteen-milli- 

 metre tube are, unless very flat, put in tubes. 3. All 

 shells too large for tubes but not large enough to 

 have their names in their mouths, or in which that is 



prevented by an operculum or teeth, together with 

 such flat shells — as Trochomorpha or Helicina — as 

 would be unsightly in tubes, I place in glass-capped 

 boxes. When I speak of tubes I mean such as have 

 one end closed. Glass tubing, in rods to be cut into 

 short cylliders by the purchaser, is most unsafe, as 

 the wool-plug at one end or the other is constantly 

 liable to be pushed out. Moreover I should imagine 

 that but few would care to take the trouble of cutting 

 up the rods for the small saving effected. Tablets, 

 except for a museum, are an abomination. Only 

 lately a dealer was unable to send me a specimen of 

 the scarce and beautiful Helix regina because he had 

 injured it in taking it off the tablet on which it had 

 been fixed. Conchologists, who can safely preserve 

 their specimens in other ways, have not the excuse for 

 putting their shells on tablets, that entomologists have 

 for carding their beetles, etc. ; though even as to 

 insects the late Mr. Frederick Smith once told me 

 that he would not have undertaken to name the 

 British Museum collection of Hymenoptera if they 

 had been carded, so many characters are thereby 

 hidden. I may add that glass tubes effect a saving 

 in two ways, they are much cheaper in themselves, 

 and they occupy much less cabinet-room than glass- 

 capped boxes. — C. P. Gloyne. 



Stranding of a Humpbacked Whale on the 

 Northumbrian Coast. — What is believed to have 

 been a specimen of the somewhat rare humpbacked 

 whale [Megaptera Iwops) was found on the North- 

 umbrian coast in the first fortnight of last month. It 

 ■was first seen floating dead off Craster, but was let 

 alone by the fisherfolk at that place, as they were 

 otherwise occupied. It then drifted more southward, 

 and was fetched ashore by the people of Boulmer. I 

 visited the carcass at this latter place ; it had, however, 

 been skinned before my arrival, but from what 

 observations I was able to make, and the intelligence 

 I gleaned from the natives, I came to the conclusion 

 that it was the species named above. It measured 

 twenty-nine feet two inches in length. The throat 

 and chest were strongly plicated with broad square-cut 

 grooves running parallel to each other in the direction 

 of the long axis of the body. The special feature of 

 this whale is the great size, or rather length, of the 

 flippers, to which its scientific designation Megaptera 

 points. They are white, whereas the colour of the 

 rest of the body is dark grey. It differs from the 

 Rorqual in being more squat in form, i.e. greater in 

 girth, in proportion to its length. The blubber and 

 whalebone are comparatively worthless, and in fact 

 this species is not, I believe, commonly pursued by 

 whalers. If, as all the available evidence seems to 

 show, this was a humpback, it will, I think, be found 

 to be only about the fourth on record for the British 

 coast. One was killed on the coast near Newcastle 

 in 1839 ; one in the estuary of the Dee in 1863, and 

 one in the mouth of the Tay, in the winter of 1883-4. 



