April 1, 1S69.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



SO 



ZOOLOGY. 



Cynips aptera— At the meeting of the Ento- 

 mological Society (February 1st) Mr. F. Smith 

 stated that he had on one occasion found a mass of 

 barnacle-shaped galls on the bole of an oak in 

 Bishop's Wood, Hampstead, from which a number 

 of specimens of a wingless Q/nips had been produced, 

 which could not be distinguished from Q/nips 

 aptera, reared from the currant-like galls on the 

 rootlets of the same tree.— Gard. Chron. 



Daddy Longlegs again.— For the last week or 

 two the Hackney Downs have presented a singular 

 appearance from an eruption of the brown larvae of 

 Tipula oleracea, which have " wriggled " out of the 

 turf in myriads, and, swarming on the paths, have 

 been crushed to death in thousands by the passers 

 by. They are especially numerous around the 

 lamp-posts, lying in strata quite an inch in thick- 

 ness, the dead and dying masses of larvae affording 

 by no means an agreeable spectacle. Immense 

 numbers of the perfect insect occurred on the 

 Downs and other open fields in this neighbourhood 

 last autumn, as was humorously recorded by 

 " S. B. J. S." in the November number of Science- 

 Gossip. The ugly little animals, now so prematurely 

 making their debut, are doubtless the unfortunate 

 descendants of that long-legged host, whose light- 

 seeking propensities will perhaps account for the 

 masses of their bairns at the -lamps ; although, the 

 ground there being gravelled and quite destitute 

 of grass or roots, it is somewhat difficult to conceive 

 how they found sustenance, unless, indeed, the 

 passion of their race for enlightenment is developed 

 so strongly in the adolescent " daddies " as to impel 

 them to quit their burrows in the turf and seek it 

 even on the paths of death. A considerable 

 number of a species of coleopterous larva accom- 

 pany the tipulse. — W. Cole, Clapton. 



The Moa or Dinornis.— Two very valuable ad- 

 ditions have recently been made to the museum of 

 the Natural History Society in Newcastle-on-Tyne. 

 One is an almost complete specimen of Binornis 

 casuarinus, and an almost perfect leg, foot, and 

 pelvis of a larger species, Binornis robustus. The 

 former bird stands a height of upwards of five feet, 

 and the leg of the latter is more than five feet in 

 height, and must have belonged to a bird of not less 

 height than ten feet. The bones which when united 

 form the specimen of B. casuarinus do not belong 

 to one bird, but have been gathered and classified 

 from a large miscellaneous collection of Dinornis 

 bones received from New Zealand, and presented 

 to the museum at various times by Mrs. Dodd, 

 Captain Collinson, and Captain Llyte. Skeletons 

 of six species of Dinornis are exhibited in the Can- 

 terbury Museum, New Zealand ; one or more speci- 



mens of Dinornis are exhibited in the British 

 Museum; a very fine specimen is, I believe, exhibited 

 in the York Museum ; and, so far as I know, no 

 other provincial museum, except ours in Newcastle, 

 possesses a complete specimen of this reputedly 

 extinct gigantic bird, the New Zealand Moa. The 

 bones of the Newcastle specimen are in a tolerably 

 good condition of preservation, but, owing to their 

 having lain for a considerable period in swampy 

 marshy localities, they are somewhat friable, and 

 require great care and skill in fitting up the skeleton, 

 to avoid the breaking or seriously damaging the 

 bones. Mr. J. Hancock, with his usual skill, has 

 accomplished a very difficult self-imposed task, and 

 deserves credit for his patience and skill. — T. P. 

 Barkas, Newcastle-on-Tyne. 



Parrakeet Breeding. — A lady with whom I 

 am acquainted had two pairs of the small Australian 

 ground or warbling parrakeets {Psittac'uhe) brought 

 over by her son last year. Towards the end of the 

 year one pair became very restless ; she therefore 

 put in the corner of their cage the outside case of a 

 cocoa-nut, with a small aperture for them to enter, 

 and, on looking into it some days after, to her agree- 

 able surprise, she found two bluish-white eggs had 

 been laid. The hen bird sat on the eggs very 

 closely for some days until a young parrakeet 

 made its appearance, much to the joy of its parents. 

 It is now about a month old, and is in perfect 

 health. The plumage is the same as the full-grown 

 birds, but not so brilliant. The remaining egg was 

 addled, and the old birds ejected it from the nest.— 

 E. B. Burton. 



Nesting of the Lesser Bedpole. — Yarrell 

 gives Halifax as the southern limit of the lesser 

 redpole in the breeding season. This, however, 

 would seem to be an incorrect statement, for even 

 in that writer's time Mr. Woileyhad found the bird 

 breeding anuually in Nottinghamshire. Since that 

 time nests have been found in Derbyshire, Stafford- 

 shire, and (as it is reported) in more southern coun- 

 ties. Perhaps some of your ornithological readers 

 may feel interested in the testimony which I can 

 give as to the lesser redpole breeding in Leices- 

 tershire. Some time ago, when on a nesting excur- 

 sion with my friend Mr. W. Theed, of Carlisle, I 

 found a nest of the lesser redpole, placed in a 

 thorn hedge, on land belonging to Mr. Kirby, of 

 Humb'erstone, in Leicestershire, within a few feet 

 of the frequented bridle-path leading from that 

 village to Barkby. There was little, if any, attempt 

 on the part of the bird to seclude its nest ; for, 

 although well matted in by thorn on the hedgeside, 

 it was glaringly conspicuous to even the casual 

 stroller along the field, if near the hedge. Moreover, 

 I failed to perceive the elegance of structure which 

 is apparent in the usual architecture of this bird in 

 the nest in question, the chief materials employed 



