17S 



BARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



courage, and general activity (they sometimes travel 

 twenty or thirty miles for food). Amongst human 

 beings we do not commonly encounter displays of 

 oddity amongst the gay and effervescent spirits. On 

 the contrary, peculiarities of manner, opinion, conduct, 

 etc., generally originate in severe, taciturn, grave 

 dispositions, or rather in these when placed in easy 

 circumstances, or when following a career in life 

 (such as that of a sailor) which involves no cankering 

 care, no heart-shaking anxieties, fears, and appre- 

 hensions. 



The Puffin, too, notwithstanding the apparently 

 malevolent disposition involved in the aforesaid viola- 

 tion of the rights of property vested in rabbits and 

 other animals, manifests at times great kindhearted- 

 ness and sympathy towards members of its own species. 

 When a flock of these birds happens to be assailed 

 by the fire of the sportsman, and one of them falls 

 wounded or dead into the water, its mate, or even a 

 stranger, is frequently observed to alight and swim 

 round it, vainly endeavouring, by means of pushing 

 and coaxing, to arouse it from that last long sleep 

 that will endure for ever. 



An unequivocal oddity of appearance is also ex- 

 hibited amongst sea-birds in the case of the Black 

 Guillemot (Uria grylle), with its long sharp beak, 

 elongated body, legs sticking out behind, and singu- 

 lar white patch upon the wings. In the breeding 

 apparel, the plumage of this bird is entirely tinged 

 with a deep brownish-black shade, which on the 

 upper surface is beautifully glossed with bronze and 

 purplish-red. The quills and secondary feathers of 

 the wings are tipped with grey, and there is an oval 

 patch of pure white upon the wings. The bill is 

 black ; the legs and feet are vermilion tinged with 

 carmine, and the claws black. This curious, fantastic 

 distribution of colouring conspires with the peculiarly- 

 shaped, " smart-looking " bill to impart to the bird 

 a ludicrously self-complacent, eminently self-satisfied 

 appearance. 



When the breeding duties of this sable sea-bird 

 have terminated, i.e., about the 1st of September or 

 rather earlier, it cheerily betakes itself to a career 

 upon the ocean. Frequently during the autumn and 

 winter months, towards the centre of or impending 

 over Scottish bays, creeks, estuaries, rocky islets, etc., 

 a very oblong, darkly-painted figure may be dis- 

 cerned careering over the surface of the waves. It is 

 of a bird-like shape, with long protruding beak, and 

 legs sticking out prominently behind, and seems flying 

 away in hot haste and with anxious precipitation. 

 Presently, however, this eccentric specimen of animal 

 life alights complacently upon the crest of some break- 

 ing wave, and after indulging in a little lively swim- 

 ming exercise (probably by way of digestive prepara- 

 tion, or appetite sharpening), it suddenly, and ap- 

 parently for no cogent reason in the world, makes 

 a great splashing with its wings, and then heels over 

 and disappears from view. The bird has descended 



into the watery chambers of the ocean in quest of a 

 fish, or some other equally nutritive substance that 

 may serve to quell the ragings of hunger, and to 

 furnish bodily sustenance. As the creature proceeds 

 under water a number of air bubbles cling to its 

 oily plumage ; and provided only that the liquid 

 medium be sufficiently quiet and transparent, the 

 spectacle furnished by the moving bird beneath is 

 marvellously beautiful. An oblong, beautifully- 

 modelled, blackly-painted animal form, studded, as 

 it were, with brilliant stars and diamonds, and execut- 

 ing a series of graceful manoeuvres down in the sea- 

 green depths, is a spectacle of rare aesthetic interest. 

 But the deportment of this charming little bird upon 

 the surface is none the less interesting. In the wildest 

 sea, when each wave was embossed with a creamy 

 foam, we have seen this bird, with its attendant 

 troupe of young, riding buoyantly and paddling about 

 as if beyond all measure charmed with life and its 

 enjoyments. 



The flight of the bird now under review is rapid 

 and continuous, and is characterised, moreover, by a 

 curious revolving, or rather oscillating motion effected 

 in such a manner as to occasion a curious alternation 

 of form and colour. The black painting of the lower 

 parts of the bird is, at one time, exposed to view, 

 and one would think a completely sable animal was 

 being observed. Presently, however, the flying body 

 oscillates slightly, and then the ludicrous wings, with 

 their large, oval-shaped, whitish-coloured patch, come 

 prominently under notice. 



[To be continued.) 



NOTES ON BLUE FLOWERS. 



SIR JOHN LUBBOCK makes the remark that 

 the Bees with which he experimented with a view 

 to obtaining a knowledge of their colour-sense, 

 seemed to have great difficulty in determining between 

 artificial blue and green colours. It is generally 

 regarded that gamopetalous flowers, or flowers whose 

 petals are united into a single piece, are better adapted 

 for the visits of butterflies and moths than bees. I 

 have been particularly struck with the much greater 

 proportion of blue flowers among gamopetalous plants 

 than among polypetalous, which would be compre- 

 hensible on the ground that bees could not effectively 

 determine the colour of blue so well as butterflies. 

 In that case we might reasonably expect that blue 

 flowers would have more butterfly than bee visitors, 

 and would have been gradually adapted to the latter 

 rather than to the former. Taking a rough census of 

 the colours of our British flowers, we find that only 

 ten species are marked as "blue" among the poly- 

 petalous kinds, and of these some are very doubtfully 

 " blue," such as the Vetches ( Vicia cracca, V. septum, 

 V. hirsuta, V. tetrasperma, etc.); for red has been 

 called in as an auxiliary (and red is a very luminous 



