HA RD WICK'S* S S CIENCE- G SSI P. 



283 



was, as usual, planted with potatoes. The past 

 twelve months were sufficiently gloomy in every 

 respect for a purely agricultural district sown with 

 wide breadths of corn ; and visitation by such 

 "casuals" at the commencement of a period of 

 great trial and depression, and again later, though 

 it is to be feared not at the termination of it, might, 

 in Eastern Europe, have been interpreted as an evil 

 omen. Great average longevity of the pauper in- 

 mates has not, however, yet been perceptibly de- 

 creased by these heralds of the destroying angel. 

 One resident stood for the militia drawing some 

 eighty years since, and well remembers the bells 

 of Alresford and the surrounding village churches 

 being rung, night after night for a week, and then, 

 occasionally, in commemoration of the great victory 

 at the Nile in 1 798 ; he continues hearty and well 

 in spite of Acherontia Atropos. — M. O. 



History of the Apple-tree. — Having seen 

 myself quoted in a recent article "On the Apple- 

 tree" in your magazine, as "the late Mrs. Bayle- 

 Bernard," allow me to ask you to contradict the 

 statement implied, since J. do not wish the world 

 to be told that I have quitted it while it is still in 

 my power to be, yours, &c. — E. G. Bayle-Bcrnard, 

 Author of" Our Common Fruits." 



Harvest Mice reared in Captivity. — A 

 month ago, a mouse of this species was brought 

 to me, which I considered would shortly become 

 a mother. Knowing full well that to turn her into 

 the large cage with my other harvest mice would 

 mean death to her progeny, she was placed in a 

 cage by herself, with a good nest of dry grass and 

 straw. The same night she gave birth to some 

 young ones — how many was not discovered till they 

 emerged into public life. The next morning (wait- 

 ing, of course, till the mother was out of the nest in 

 the playground), I parted the straw — already gnawed 

 into shreds and woven into a covering — with a new 

 pen, as being an implement not likely to have any 

 smell about it that might rouse her anger, in order 

 to ascertain whether, in consequence of her recent 

 captivity and solicitude for her offspring, she had 

 become an infanticide. This contingency was the 

 more probable, because she had been roughly 

 handled by the boy who caught her. However, 

 there were some pink specks down at the bottom 

 of the nest, moving slightly. Then I at once shaded 

 the cage entirely with a cloth, which was only 

 removed for a few moments, once every day, when 

 a fresh supply of food, consisting of bread and butter, 

 meat, flies, wheat, &c, and clean water, was placed 

 in the playground — on which occasions I took a 

 hasty peep at the nest to see that all was going on 

 well. When thirteen days old, the young mice, 

 three in number, and about the size of a cockchafer, 

 first popped their heads out of the nest, anxious to 

 test the strength of their incisors on anything they 

 could find to nibble at, and exercise their delicate 

 prehensile tails. They were then of a dull brown 

 above, and dusky white beneath ; and though now 

 three parts grown, have not yet assumed the red 

 colour peculiar to the upper parts of adult harvest 

 mice, the stomach and thighs of which are pure 

 white. It is worthy of record that through all their 

 thirteen days of babyhood, the youngsters, though 

 close at hand in my study, were not once heard to 

 squeak. This is the first time with which I am 

 acquainted, that the young of the harvest mouse — 

 the smallest mammal in England, and probably in 

 the world — have been reared in captivity. — A. II. 

 Malan, Jif.A., Pcrra?i-Arivort/taI 



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. 



To Dealers and others. — We are always glad to treat 

 dealers in natural history objects on the same fair and general 

 ground as amateurs, in so far as the " exchanges " offered are fair 

 exchanges. But it is evident that, when their offers are simply 

 disguised advertisements, for the purpose of evading the cost of 

 advertising, an advantage is taken of our gratuitous insertion of 

 "exchanges" which cannot be tolerated. 



W. G. Daish. — The object you enclosed is a fungus called 

 Clava ria fusiform is. 



A. J. Chamberlin. — The objects on the leaves are com- 

 monly called "oak-spangles." They are galls, formed by a 

 species'of Cynips. For an account of them, see Taylor's " Half- 

 hours in the Green Lanes," page 197. 



W. J. Colebrook. — It is not very common to find lilac leaves 

 growing in malformed pairs like those you sent us, and we are 

 much obliged to you for them. You can join the Quekett Club 

 without living in London. Write to the secretary for rules, &c, 

 enclosing stamped and addressed envelope for reply. 



J. A. Bather. — The following are excellent works on blow- 

 pipe analysis of minerals : — " Determination of Minerals by the 

 Blowpipe." by Dr. C W. C. Fuchs (translated by T. W. 

 Danby, F.G.S.), price 5-r., London : Field & Tuer, 50 Leaden- 

 hall Street ; and " Blowpipe Analysis," by J. Landauer, price 

 4s. 6d., London : Macmillan. 



O. P. Cambridge. — The pretty diminutive red fungus is 

 Pliysaruni rubiginosum. 



G. T. Harris. — There are some scholarships in botany, we 

 believe, in connection with the London hospitals. We do not 

 think the Science and Art Department can open out to you any 

 office. The "Journal of Botany," price is. 3d., is a monthly 

 serial devoted to botany, published by West, Newman, & Co., 

 54 Hatton Garden, London. 



E. E. Edwards. — The following are good books on British 

 zoology :— Yarrell's " Fishes," Couch's " Fishes," .Yarrell's 

 " British Birds," Bell's " British Quadrupeds," Forbes' " British 

 Starfishes," Gwyn Jeffreys' "British Conchology " (5 vols.), 

 Gosse's "Marine Zoology" (2 vols.), Bell's "Stalk-eyed 

 Crustacea." As to the rest, Carpenter's "Animal Physiology," 

 Huxley and Martin's " Physiology," Flower's "Osteology," &c. 



Miss E. C. (Woburn). — The specimens sent go by the name 

 of "artichoke galls," on account of their resemblance to those 

 vegetables. They are caused by a species of Cynips piercing 

 the young leaf-buds of the oak, so that they develop abnormally 

 fast, and assume the artichoke shape. 



F. Hepburn. — You may get a capital student's microscope 

 for about five pounds, from any of the makers whose advertise- 

 ments appear in our columns, and all of whom we can equally 

 recommend for good workmanship and reasonable prices. 



A. Davidson. — Smith's "Ferns, British and Foreign" 

 (fourth edition), is published at 7*. 6d., London : David Bogue. 



R. Oakeshott. — Newman's "Insects," Wood's " Insects 

 at Home," Rye's " British Beetles," are all good elementary 

 books. We hope to publish the article you mention before long. 



J. A. C. (Rugby). — See an answer to your question about 

 damping pupae, &c, in a note by Mr. Henry Miller, entitled 

 " Keeping Pupae," which appeared in Science-Gossip, vol. viii. 

 page 261. 



W. H. Warner.— Your bat is the pipistrelle, or " flitter- 

 mouse " [Vesfcrtilio jhifistrellus). 



EXCHANGES. 



Wanted, fossils, for marine shells, from north-east coast of 

 Australia. Exchange in nine months if offer is accepted. — 

 George Martin, Market Street, Gainsborough, Lincolnshire. 



Eggs of sparrow-hawk, landrail, moorhen, coot, common 

 snipe, common sandpiper, and mountain linnet for exchange. 

 Eggs of English birds preferred. Apply to W. M. L. Brown, 

 The Orchard, Carluke, N.B. 



Young of swan-mussel, foraminifera, &c, in exchange for 

 other well-mounted objects, or good material. — William Low 

 Sarjeant, 6 Dagnall Park Terrace, Selhurst, S.E. 



Mosses. — A few duplicates of Ceylon mosses (correctly named), 

 to exchange for rare British mosses. — T. W. N. Beckett, Tan- 

 y-Gop, Llanddulas, Abergele. 



Carpenter on the Microscope, third edition, offered for the 

 "Leisure Hour," for either of the years 1865, 1866, or 1867. 

 The latter to be in monthly pa^ts, or in the publishers' cloth 

 boards. — S. A. H., 17 Longton Grove, Sydenham. 



Wanted, good works on natural-history subjects, sport, and 

 travel, in exchange for lepidoptera and good eggs, all in first- 



