IIARDWICKKS SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



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inversely as their locomotive powers. Thus as far as 

 the true insects are concerned, shamming death is 

 most common among the Coleoptera, the order 

 whose locomotive faculties are upon the whole lowest. 

 Looking again at the different groups of Coleoptera, 

 we find the tendency to simulate death absent, or at 

 least very rare, among the tiger-beetles, carabs, and the 

 Geodephaga generally ; among the long-horns, which, 

 when alarmed, rise in the air almost as readily as do 

 bees or Diptera ; among the Staphylini, which both 

 fly, run, and fight well, and among the Elateridse, 

 which escape danger by a sudden leap. On the 

 other hand, the semblance of death is often put on by 

 the Lamellicornes, which are slow crawlers, blunder- 

 ing flyers, and are incapable of taking wing without 

 some time for preparation. All these properties are 

 still more decided in the genus Byrrhus, and here 

 accordingly we find simulation at its height. At the 

 mere sound or vibration caused by an approaching 

 footstep, human or brute, a Byrrhus draws in its legs 

 and assumes very effectively the appearance of a small 

 stone or rounded clod of earth. Has a Byrrhus ever 

 been taken on the wing, or recognised when flying ? 

 Among spiders the same distinction may be traced. 

 The slower and more sedentary forms, if in presence 

 of a powerful enemy, roll themselves up in a ball, and 

 may easily pass unobserved. On the contrary, the 

 wandering ground spiders, such as the Lycosse, which 

 in warm weather bound with such rapidity that they 

 are sometimes by careless observers supposed to fly, 

 rarely resort to this stratagem except when very 

 persistently teased and intercepted. — C. R. Slater. 



Pearls in Pecten maximus. — Lately my friend, 

 the Rev. H. F. Edge, was indulging in a dish of 

 scallops, when he found something which he con- 

 sidered extraneous and improper in his food, but 

 which on examination proved to be two perfectly 

 spherical pearls, one considerably larger than the 

 other, in fact as large as a small green pea, the other 

 smaller, in colour milky white, similar to what I 

 have from Ostrea ediriis. Never remembering to 

 have met with a similar case in Pecten maximus, 

 nor of the circumstance being mentioned in Jeffrey's 

 "British Conchology," I thought it would be of 

 interest to Science-Gossip. — John E. Daniel, 6 The 

 Terrace, Epsom. 



Helix lapicida, var. minor. — My young friends, 

 the Misses, are again to the fore ; they were anxious 

 to find Helix lapicida; they were successful, and more 

 than so, for they brought me a number of the variety 

 H. I. minor. Personally I do not remember having 

 ever seen it before. The type, as most of your 

 readers are aware, is, although not rare, very local. 

 The locality is a wall in Downside, Epsom. I have 

 no doubt they would gladly supply other collectors 

 in exchange for other British land and fresh-water 

 shells. — John E. Daniel, 6 The Terrace, Epsom. 



Capros aper, or Boar-fish. — In last month's 

 number of Science-Gossip you have a record of 

 specimens of Capros aper having been taken at Exmouth 

 and Swanage, and I can now add to these Eastbourne, 

 as two of my children found a fine specimen about 

 5f inches in length, on the beach close to the town, 

 which was alive when caught, and retained its 

 brilliancy of colour until put in spirits on the following 

 Monday. I believe it is the first time it has occurred 

 here. — F. C. S. Roper, F.L.S. &>c, Eastbourne. 



Boar-fishes at the Brighton Aquarium. — 

 Perhaps the following brief notes on the boar-fish 

 {Capros aper) may interest some of the readers of 

 Science-Gossip, as the subject has recently attracted 

 attention in your columns. Its occurrence in the 

 British Channel seems to be hardly so rare an event 

 as supposed by your correspondent in the May number. 

 In vol. ii. of Dr. Giinther's "Catalogue of the 

 Acanthopterygian Fishes in the British Museum," the 

 Mediterranean is given as the usual habitat of the 

 boar-fish, which is further stated to occur occasionally 

 off Weymouth, Plymouth, and Brighton, and more 

 rarely on the Irish coast. Its appearance on the 

 Sussex coast is noted in Mrs. Merrifield's "Natural 

 History of Brighton," and I believe Dr. A. Giinther, 

 F.R.S., caught the first specimen obtained off that 

 town. There are at present two healthy boar-fishes 

 in the Brighton Aquarium, captured about a month 

 ago. In the summer months, the tank generally 

 occupied by several beautiful specimens of varieties of 

 the wrasse is rendered additionally attractive by the 

 presence of this pretty little bright-coloured genus, 

 which is by no means a bad show fish, despite an 

 occasional preference for rocky corners. Its habits 

 seem to resemble those of the dorys (Zeus), for, like 

 them, it often remains nearly motionless in the water 

 about halfway from the surface, and swims in the 

 same stately manner. The boar-fishes once acclima- 

 tised are tolerably hardy in captivity, thriving well 

 on a shrimp diet, but, as might be expected, they are 

 very sensible to cold. They seem to have been more 

 than usually plentiful this season, for Mr. Lawler, the 

 curator of the Aquarium, informs me that twenty were 

 caught together a short time back. The occurrence 

 of the "poisson sanglier," according to M. Eugene 

 Deslongchamps, is a much rarer event on the 

 Normandy coast. — Agnes Crane, Brighton. 



"A Wonderful Discovery." — Under this title, 

 the " Brisbane Courier " published a long and 

 matter-of-fact-looking account of suspended anima- 

 tion, which has been republished in the English 

 newspapers, and given rise to no small amount of 

 comment. The "Courier" now acknowledges it 

 has been the victim of a hoax, and all those people 

 who have been contending for the possibility of sus- 

 pending animation for months and years at will have 

 been " sold." 



