HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



95 



Ventriloquism in Birds. — In a former Science- 

 Gossip of last year is a paper about "Ventriloquism 

 in Birds " which solicited the experience of the same. 

 While paying a visit to a station in Westland or 

 Kakitika (Middle Island, New Zealand), in 1876, 

 while walking in the bush I heard a very sharp clear 

 note, and my host informed me it was the "ventri- 

 loquist bird," of which I had often heard, and asked 

 me to look for it. I did so, but wherever I went the 

 voice seemed to be at one side or behind me, till by 

 chance I disturbed the bird, when it flew off before I 

 could see it plainly. From what I could gather it 

 resembles much in appearance the English blackbird ; 

 is often heard and seldom seen, owing to its natural 

 shyness and peculiar habit of disguising its voice. 

 This was in the centre of the Southern Alps, just 

 below the line of perpetual snow, and during the 

 autumn of our year. — W. E. Barker, Jesus College, 

 Cambridge. 



The Moa. — On page 40 of No. 170 Science- 

 Gossip, February i* 1879 is an article "The Moa 

 not yet Extinct (?)" The bird is said to have been 

 seen in the "province of Nelson, near lake Rotorua 

 and Cannibal Gorges," the latter I have not heard 

 of nor can I find them on the map. The only lake 

 of that name is in the province of Auckland (North 

 Island) latitude 38°io' south, longitude I76°i7' east. 

 I fancy it must be a hoax, as nearly every year false 

 reports are spread of them having been seen, very 

 often turning out to be tame emus, escaped into the 

 bush. Also, as yet very few bones, only two or three 

 I believe, have ever been found in the North Island, 

 while in the Middle Island we plough them up wher- 

 ever new ground is broken up. The only lakes in 

 Nelson (Middle Island) are lakes Pakerua, Brunnern, 

 Hochstetter, and Hawick. So I think there must 

 be some mistake. — IV. E. Barker, Jesus College, 

 Cambridge. 



Caterpillars and Onion-crops. — For several 

 years past the onion-crops in this neighbourhood have 

 suffered severely from the ravages of the caterpillars 

 and some insect. Can any of your readers suggest 

 a remedy? — P., Haslemere. 



London University, First B.A. Pass Exami- 

 nation. — Can any of the readers of Science-Gossip 

 inform me what are the best works to read on the 

 following subjects as required in the above examina- 

 tion — algebra, geometry plane and solid, trigono- 

 metry, mensuration, and co-ordinate geometry ? The 

 information would doubtless be useful to many, as 

 the difficulty in selecting from so many works as exist 

 on these subjects is considerable. — IV. J. B. 



The Colours of Twigs, Branches, &c. — Trees 

 appear purplish-red during the winter, because the 

 greater number have brown, grey, or purple twigs, 

 and the scales covering the leaf-buds are usually of 

 the same, or some brighter and warmer colour. I 

 believe that this will be found to be the case with our 

 principal trees, the oak, birch, elm, beech, alder, and 

 willow. The oak- twigs are occasionally grey, but 

 generally the same colour as the buds, which, as far 

 as I know, are always brown. The ash has grey 

 stems and black buds. The smaller trees and shrubs 

 are often very richly coloured ; the cornel justifies its 

 specific name by its blood coloured twigs ; the members 

 of the Rosacea are red, orange, and purple, in thorn, 

 bud, and leaf, with much grey on the bark of some 

 species, as the dog-rose and black-thorn. In speak- 

 ing of leaves, I refer to the blackberry, which retains 

 its foliage in many places till the spring, but the 

 leaves are nearly always bronzed-like veterans. The 

 stems of the blackberry are also very purple in hue. 



The various willows bear purple branches, and often 

 very brilliantly tinted buds. The colours enumerated 

 are not of course perfectly pure ; they are shades of 

 every degree, from orange or crimson in the willow- 

 buds just noticed, to dull brown or purplish grey. 

 The reason for mentioning so many instances is to 

 prove that the local colour of the masses of branchlets 

 is purple or brown, and to show that the colours of 

 the various twigs, buds, and thorns are such as would 

 produce a purplish-red or russet effect when massed 

 together, and crossed in every direction as they always 

 are. It was the practice, we know, of many great 

 colonists, to get a tint by "hatching and driving to- 

 gether loosely," a number of different harmonies, 

 which give, by that means, a colour which could not 

 have been formed so well in any other way. This is 

 the method of Nature. The variously tinted branchlets, 

 their light and shade, with the bluish haze of the 

 atmosphere, combined, will account, in my opinion, 

 for the hue of trees and shrubs during the winter 

 months. — M. Snape. 



NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



\ !To Correspondents and Exchangers. — As we now 

 publish Science-Gossip a week earlier than heretofore, we 

 cannot possibly insert in the following number any communi- 

 cations which reach us later than the 9th of the previous 

 month. 



To Anonymous Querists. — We receive so many queries 

 which do not bear the writers' names that we are forced to 

 adhere to our rule of not noticing them. 



W. Martin.— Get Stark's " British Mosses," with coloured 

 plates, published by Routledge & Co., at js. 6d. 



W. A. Watts (Manchester). — Your fossils are the univalve, 

 Li'iinea longiscata, from Eocene strata ; the bivalve, a Brachio- 

 pod, Prodticta striata, Carb. Limestone. 



C. McIntosh — Inquires the best method of mounting 

 butterflies' eggs for the microscope. Perhaps some of our 

 readers will answer him. 



B. B. Scott. — See article on " How to Prepare Skeleton 

 Leaves," in vol. of Science-Gossip for 1872. 



W. H. Littleton (Bristol). — The best and cheapest book 

 on British Coleoptera, is Rye's "British Beetles" (coloured 

 illustrations), published by Routledge, at iar. 6d. 



W. H. Ne.vberrv. — It is not at all uncommon to see specimens 

 of peacocks, tortoise-shell, and one or two other species of 

 butterfly, which lie up or hybernate during the winter, coming 

 forth on warm days in February and March, having been 

 stimulated into activity by the warmth. 



T. Workman. — Ask for the British Museum Catalogues of 

 the insects you mention. 



George Turvill. — Are you quite sure the "gigantic fleas" 

 on the mole are not ticks (Ixodes)? 



T. W. Dealy. — Press of matter has hitherto prevented the 

 publication of your paper, which is in hand. 



W. S. (Edinburgh). — You will find full and ample instructions 

 how to proceed in staining vegetable tissues, in the late Dr. 

 iieatty's admirable articles on "Decolouring and Staining 

 Vegetable Tissues" in Science-Gossip, vol. for 1875. 



B. Hobson. — The "London Catalogue " .is merely a well- 

 verified list of indigenous British plants. You will find specific 

 descriptions of all our British plants in Hayward's " Botanist's 

 Pocket Book ;" published by Bell & Daldy, at +r. This latter 

 is the best book of the kind we know of. 



H. Crowthek. — The specimen labelled "greensand," un- 

 doubtedly belongs to that formation. We are not so sure of the 

 numerous small specimens queried "gault," in the absence of 

 characteristic fossils, although they strongly resemble " gault," 

 still we have seen clays of other formations much like them. 

 The red specimen labelled W. looks like altered gault, and 

 very likely it is so, as we found remains of a small decapod 

 crustacean in it. The reddish-coloured sandstone belongs_ to 

 the lower greensand as the fragment of fossil pecten it contains 

 sufficiently shows. 



James Lowther. — We dare say you will be able to get a 

 good specimen of living Plumatella or Fredericella from Mr. 

 Thomas Bolton, naturalists' studio, 17 Ann Street, Birmingham. 

 He regularly supplies naturalists all over Europe every week 

 with living organisms. 



G. R. B. (Shoreham).— The "seed-like objects adhering to 

 orange-peel," are the pupa cases of Ceratites citriperda. Slack's 

 "Pond Life ".could very likely be obtained from W. Wesley, 

 the natural history bookseller, 28 Essex Street, Strand. 



