HA RD WICKE ' S S CIENCE - G O SSI P. 



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neatly lined with moss and wool, which was worked 

 up with mud to a firm consistency. The fourth nest 

 in the ivy was very roughly made, being, I think, an 

 old jackdaw's nest "patched up," this last contained 

 four eggs in the last stage of incubation. Directly 

 under it, at about a yard's distance, was a nest con- 

 taining five young jackdaws, and these continued 

 unmolested by the hawk, sitting above them, till they 

 were fully fledged. — C. Candler. 



House-flies and their Parasites. — A friend 

 of mine, a few days ago, observed a common house- 

 fly walking with apparently great difficulty and pain 

 upon the counter of his shop. Taking a glass he 

 looked closely at it and discovered that its lameness 

 and pain were evidently owing to something upon one 

 foot, which, however, he could not clearly discern, 

 owing to the low power of his glass. Taking, how- 

 ever, the sharp blade of his penknife he pressed it 

 upon what he thought was a growth from the foot, 

 but the leg of the fly came off. This object he 

 brought to his home, when we placed it under the 

 microscope, at first under a small, afterwards under a 

 high power, 5 inch ; we then discovered what a 

 formidable creature it was, and could well understand 

 the intense pain that poor little fly must have suffered, 

 dragging with it, without any hope of shaking off, so 

 fully armed a parasite. Its length I estimate about 

 the one-twentieth part of an inch, its shape that of a 

 bottle, its snout quite pointed, and its mouth filled 

 with sharp teeth, which we could readily distinguish ! 

 under the high power of \ inch. Its body was covered 

 with apparently sharp bristles, it had four legs on 

 each side, and near its snout a pair of most terrible- 

 looking instruments exactly resembling the large 

 claws of a lobster. Its colour was that of the leg, 

 viz., dark brown. Certainly in all my researches I 

 have never seen a more terrific-looking insect, and am 

 not surprised at the fly being lame and in pain when 

 within the clutches of so minute but so powerful an 

 assailant. Have any of your readers noticed this 

 creature, and can any one give me some information 

 about it ? Is it parasitic, or is it a foe of the fly, and 

 only attacks it occasionally ? I shall be exceedingly 

 glad if any one of your numerous contributors can 

 throw any light upon it. — Rev. IV. Marsdon Beeby. 



Piping Bullfinch. — While visiting in this neigh- 

 bourhood a gentleman showed me a piping bullfinch, 

 whose plumage during the last season has turned a 

 complete dull black colour. The bird has moulted, 

 but still it does not recover the variegations of its 

 plumage ; and, although a very clever piper, has not 

 been heard to utter a note since the change came over 

 it. The bird had been in the owner's possession for 

 many years, so that no trick could have been played 

 upon him. Can any of your readers account for this 

 strange metamorphosis ? — St. Austell. 



Piping Bullfinches. — M. E. M. H. would be 

 much obliged if any one who has been successful in 

 teaching a bullfinch to pipe a tune would give her his 

 experience through these columns. She would par- 

 ticularly like to know what air he taught the bird, 

 how long it took to learn it, and whether he was 

 successful without a bird-organ ? 



Second Growth of Plants. — Under this head- 

 ing there are three notes in Science-Gossip for 

 November on the second growth of various plants, 

 and only one writer, D. Douglas, Leith, suggests 

 that the late dry summer and the moisture of August 

 "has probably something to do with the unusual 

 abundance of these curious aberrations." The second 

 growth is not confined to flowers, it extends to all 



plants when their roots do not run deep ; it may be 

 seen in cabbages, turnips, and potatoes ; the action 

 is a natural consequence of the laws of nature. Every 

 plant is a duct for moisture from the soil, under the 

 great law of attraction ; when this law has exhausted 

 all the moisture from the surface soil and surface 

 roots, the plant they belong to ceases to grow. If the 

 season continues warm, and showers fall, the growth 

 is renewed where it ceased, flowers develop more 

 petals, daisies grow double, twigs shoot out fresh 

 sprouts, and even farm roots in dry soils grow afresh 

 in strange shapes. It would be a question if the 

 seeds of the second growth could attain perfection in 

 annuals if the wet weather commences early. I do 

 not see that the action can have anything to do with 

 evolution, the phenomenon does not change the order. 

 — H. P. M. 



Teratology in a Moss. — In an old quarry I re- 

 cently found a stem of common Polytrichutn undu- 

 latum, which had four setae, bearing capsules, spring- 

 ing from its summit. — Yoiuig Jl/uscologist. 



The Crystal Palace Aquarium. — Mr. Gar- 

 diner, the secretary of the Crystal Palace Company, 

 in speaking of the admirable manner with which their 

 aquarium has been worked by Mr. Lloyd, says : 

 "Our sea-water is now more brilliantly clear and 

 healthy than it was when we obtained it, eight years 

 ago ; our animals (mostly those which we at first col- 

 lected, and of great number and variety,) are in ex- 

 cellent condition ; and we have never had occasion to 

 clean any of our tanks, &c, the labour saved thereby, 

 and the avoidance of disturbing the creatures, being 

 very great. We never remove any excrementitious 

 matters, large as is the quantity of food which the 

 creatures eat, nor do these substances accumulate. 

 They all are got rid of, or consumed chemically, as 

 fast as they are formed. Naturally, we doubted the 

 practicability of gaining these excellent results before 

 we saw them attained, because no similar aquarium 

 had before been erected in this country. Mr. Lloyd 

 is now prepared to make a further and important im- 

 provement, in the direction of manufacturing sea- 

 water for aquarium purposes, instead of sending for 

 it from the sea. He made, and used, such water, 

 with success, as recorded by him in print, more than 

 twenty years ago, even when he had not succeeded in 

 dissolving some of the ingredients of which actual 

 sea-water consists. However, I have no reason what- 

 ever to doubt what he now says of his having suc- 

 ceeded in incorporating these things which he before 

 left out, and that what he can now produce will be, 

 not merely an imitation, but an absolutely idenlieal 

 mixture. I have to add, that, in obtaining water from 

 the actual sea, unless a further and serious expense is 

 incurred of going far out from the shore for such 

 water, it is scarcely possible to obtain it clear, in 

 large quantities, and in a given time, from near any 

 coast, and consequently it arrives inland much con- 

 taminated with decaying organic matters, which have 

 to be removed before the water can be used. Here 

 this cause occasioned us some months of loss of valu- 

 able time before we could open our aquarium. But 

 in using artificial sea-water clearness and purity can 

 be obtained from the very beginning." 



Sea Anemones in Aquaria. — Our treatment of 

 Tealia crassicornis was of the simplest, as the speci- 

 men we kept for the unusual length of three years 

 was merely placed in the aquarium with the rest of 

 the anemones, occasionally fed with a bit of raw 

 meat or mussel, and the tank frequently syringed. If 

 " W. H. C." could succeed in finding one on a separate 

 stone, or in knocking off a piece of the stone with 



