HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



no 



Feeding Bullfinches with Hempseed (p. 66). 

 — Having had several of these birds in keeping, I am 

 able to testify that hempseed has no very notable 

 effect in darkening the plumage, nor does it appear 

 to shorten their lives, as has also been insinuated ; 

 not that it is advisable to confine them solely to 

 hempseed, I have generally mixed equal proportions 

 of crushed hempseed and canary-seed, adding each 

 day a little millet or maw-seed. Rape would pro- 

 bably be unwholesome to them. It is difficult to 

 break them from the hempseed if they have once 

 been allowed to have it as part of their diet, I have 

 seen them pine under such an attempt. As the bull- 

 finch is naturally rather a greedy bird, it is well to 

 check caged birds if inclined to over-feed, especially 

 when green food cannot be got as a corrective. — 

 J. R. S. C. 



Parrots and their Eggs. — I have been advised 

 to write and tell you of a very interesting and un- 

 common occurrence. My old parrot was bought at 

 Norwich in the year 1872 ; I believe she was then 

 three or four years old. She was quite ill last week, 

 and thinking she was moulting I kept her very warm, 

 and when I left the room I covered her cage over ; 

 on my return from church last Friday morning, I 

 found an egg in the cage ; still she did not get better, 

 arid yesterday morning another was laid. The bird- 

 fanciers assure me it was a very rare occurrence for 

 two eggs to be thus laid, and that it ought to be put 

 on record.—^. J. B. W. 



Yew-trees and Cattle. — With reference to the 

 remarks in the March number of Science-Gossip as 

 to the injurious effects of the foliage of the yew-tree 

 on cattle, the following extract from the " Globe " of 

 March 21 may be interesting : " Eighteen valuable 

 beasts have died at Willingdon, near Eastbourne, in 

 consequence of eating branches of yew-tree, probably 

 through scarcity of ordinary green food." — E. Lovett, 

 Croydon. 



Gossamer. — A gentleman, a farmer in this neigh- 

 bourhood, told me that while coursing last week he 

 saw several fields of wheat and sainfoin that were 

 smothered with gossamer. I myself saw a good deal 

 floating about in the town, and noticed that instead 

 of the clotted appearance it assumes in the autumn, it 

 was in long fine threads. Would you kindly tell 

 whether this is a usual occurrence in spring, and the 

 cause ? — Arthur G. Wright. 



The Name "Primrose." — The editor of a 

 scholastic journal has recently stated, in answer to a 

 query, that the word "primrose" is a corruption of 

 primcrollc, a French word, introduced by our early 

 authors. I should be glad to know if this is probable, 

 for I have heard also the assertion that our forefathers 

 called this flower of spring the "prime-rosy," because 

 it was one of the first to appear in the season, "rose " 

 being by them used with some latitude, and applied 

 to various flowers besides the rose proper. — J. R. S. C. 



Can Worms crawl Backwards ?— Mr. J. G. 

 Wood, in a recent article on the common earthworm 

 written in a popular periodical, states that the worm 

 is so formed that it is impossible for it to crawl back- 

 wards. I am sorry to contradict so distinguished a 

 naturalist, but scientific facts do not bend to great 

 names, and I beg to say that worms can and do crawl 

 backwards. It is an unusual method of progression 

 or retrogression I allow, and is not to be confounded 

 with the sudden jerk by which they start backwards 

 into their holes, but that worms can strictly and 

 literally crawl backwards when excited by circum- 

 stances so to do, I have had ocular demonstration 

 on two particular occasions — once when attempting 



to induce a large worm to crawl into a small glass 

 tube, which I persistently placed just in front of it 

 when it, began to crawl ; irritated apparently by a 

 foreign substance being so frequently brought into 

 contact with its attenuated head, all at once the 

 worm began to crawl backward on the ground for 

 a space of four or five feet and at a rate equal to 

 about two-thirds of its ordinary forward pace when 

 progressing. On another occasion I was attempting 

 to make a worm crawl along a path in order to 

 calculate the time-rate at which a worm can crawl 

 in a mile. The worm persistently attempted to crawl 

 to the side grass instead of along the path and to 

 prevent it I continually touched its head with a little 

 stick, when this worm also apparently annoyed by 

 such constant tappings on its head, began to crawl 

 backwards a short distance on the path. Perhaps 

 some of your readers can confirm this statement. — 

 IV. Budden, Ipszvich. 



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. 



D. B. (Dudley). — It is very difficult to speak only from leaves, 

 they are so much alike, but we believe it is a Musa, perhaps 

 M. sapientum. Berkeley's ' Cryptogamic Botany ' is published 

 by H. Bailliere, 219, Regent Street, London. 



T. O. Braithwaite. — We do not remember receiving the 

 larva? of which you speak. Can you send us other specimens? 



W. A. Durnford (Barrow).— You will find full details as to 

 aquarium management, and the manufacttire of artificial sea- 

 water in "The Aquarium: its history, structure, and manage- 

 ment," by J. E. Taylor. London : Hardwicke & Bogue, price 

 6s. 



E. B. de M. — See reply concerning marine aquaria above. 

 We have no doubt you can get materials for making artificial 

 sea-water, gravity-beads, &c, at Mr. King's, Sea Horse House, 

 Portland Road, London. 



W. E. Milner.— The last edition of White's " Selborne," in 

 2 vols., edited by Professor Bell, who lives in White's old house, 

 is by far the best yet issued. 



A. Bennett. — We believe yours is the only parcel which got 

 wrong out of all our Botanical Exchange Club deliveries. We 

 will see that you are righted. 



M. H. Robson. — We do not remember having seen the 

 flagellum of Eugletia viridis terminating in a bulb before. The 

 specimens you sent reached us aliTe, and we observed that the 

 bulb was used occasionally as a kind of sucker against the glass 

 sides of the zoophyte trough. 



E. Dickson.— One of the best books we can recommend to 

 you is Penning's "Field Geology," published by Bailliere, at 

 (we believe) 5^. We are afraid there is no other way of naming 

 your fossils than by comparing them with some museum speci- 

 mens, or else borrowing the volumes of the Palaeontographical 

 Society, or such works as Professor Phillips' "Geology of 

 Yorkshire." 



T. G. H. — See reply to query as to the nature of the specks 

 on the Seville oranges in April number of Science-Gossip under 

 Notices to Correspondents, p. 95, in answer to " G. R. B. 

 (Shoreham)." Get Oliver's " Botany," published by Macmillan, 

 at 4-r. 6d., and work well at it. All will come right. Thanks 

 for your interesting specimens. 



W. G. (Tuxford). — The specimens sent are all sulphate of 

 barytes, or "heavy spar." Get Rutley's "Study of Rocks," 

 price 4s. 6d. 



George Hastwell. — The fungus is Peziza acetabulum. 

 We have carefully examined your fossil from the Millstone Grit, 

 but do not think it is an organic remain, but possibly one of the 

 numerous surface-markings we often get in beds deposited in 

 shallow water. 



J. M. Campbell. — Your zoophyte is Sertularia opcrculata. 



George Turvill. — We have received the slide. The speci- 

 men mounted is the flea of the mole, the largest known to affect 

 any animal in Great Britain. Its name is Pulex talpa, derived 

 from the animal on which it is parasitic. 



George Linton. — Your specimen is an echinoderm, shorn 

 of its spines, known as the common heart urchin (Amphidotus 

 carda/usj. 



