Aug. 1, 1869.] 



HARDWICKE'S SC IENCE-GO SSIP. 



ISc 



keepers shoot all hawks, as here, no wonder one's 

 fruit is all eaten by swarms of blackbirds and 

 thrushes. They take our strawberries, through the 

 netting-, while green. — B. 



The Deep-Sea Dredging Expedition. — 

 H.M.S. Porcupine arrived here on the 12th inst., 

 after a most successful cruise from Killybegs, our 

 last station. Dredgings have been carried on during 

 the past fortnight outside the Rockall Fishing 

 Bank, at the following great depths :— 1,215, 1,263, 

 1,360, 1,366, 1,3S0, 1,443, and 1,476 fathoms. This 

 places the dredging achieved by the officers and 

 crew at the head of all such enterprises, the Por- 

 tuguese having dredged 300 fathoms, Norwegians 

 450, Americans 517, and H.M.S. Lightning (last 

 year) 650. The rope is drawn up with the aid of 

 the donkey-engine at the rate of 100 fathoms every 

 five minutes. Two cwt. of material has on several 

 occasions been taken from the bottom, which is a 

 clayey foraminiferous mud, consisting almost entirely 

 of Globigerinee, Orbulinse, &c, sponges and other 

 minute organisms ; small crustaceans and anneli- 

 des of brilliant scarlet, and other colours, were 

 found, besides echinoderms, mostly naked. The 

 mollusca are for the most part bivalves, and nearly 

 all new to Britain, and of a northern type in 

 general, consisting of Ledse, Nucula3, and Solenellae, 

 and the fry of Isocardia, Cora, Dentaliae, &c. Mr. 

 Gwyn Jeffreys is now relieved by Prof. Wyville 

 Thomson, of this town, and it is proposed to get 

 dredgings in still deeper water.— B. Sturges Dodd, 

 Belfast. 



A Poor Prisoner. — While taking a walk along 

 the banks here on Sunday afternoon (July 11th) 

 I heard an unusual chirping among the small birds 

 in the vicinity of a clump of whins, and on going up 

 to the place where they were, I was surprised to 

 find a bird entangled in its own nest ; and the sight 

 which presented itself to me was one which I, or I 

 dare say any other person, never saw before. The 

 nest was that of a hedge-sparrow, which had long 

 since flown, but one poor captive had been left. 

 The claws of one of its feet had got so entangled 

 among a portion of the wool with which the nest 

 had been lined, that its escape was impossible. 

 In its endeavours to get free it had broken one of 

 its legs at the thigh, just a little above the joint, 

 and was hanging by a small portion of flesh. I re- 

 leased the poor sufferer, and amputated the broken 

 leg ; then set it at liberty. It must have been in 

 that position for a long time, as the nest was 

 literally filled to overflowing with its excrement : it 

 must have been fed by its parents all the time of its 

 captivity— .4. II. F., Bast Nenk o'Fife. 



It may be of some interest to the readers of 

 Science-Gossip to know of the capture of a very 



curious white variety of the Little Blue {Polyom- 

 matus alsus) in this neighbourhood by a friend of 

 mine. I saw the insect a little time after its cap- 

 ture. The whole upper surface of the wings was of 

 a creamy white, the under of the same colour, but 

 with the eyelike spots peculiar to the "Blues" 

 generally. — W. A. Forbes, Winchester. 



A SwORD-FlSH TAKEN OFF Ne"WHAVEN. — On 



the night of Saturday, June 26th, some Eastbourne 

 fishermen captured in a net, off Newhaven, a 

 sword-fish about ten feet long. — T. W. Wonfor. 



The Cuckoo seems this year to have departed 

 from his usual custom of changing his tune in the 

 month of June. I heard his well-known cry in 

 Buckinghamshire on the 25th of June, and in Surrey 

 on the 6th of July. — W. B. Tate, 4, Grove Place, 

 Denmark Hill. 



Moths in a Candle. — The Japanese say that 

 all other night-flies, moths, &c, fall in love with one 

 particular night-fly, which is exceedingly beautiful, 

 who, to get rid of their importunities, maliciously 

 bids them, under the pretence of trying their con- 

 stancy, to go and bring to her fire. And the blind 

 lovers, scrupling not to obey her command, fly to 

 the nearest fire or candle, in which they never fail 

 to burn themselves to death. — Pinfeerton's Voyages. 



Fleas. — We read in " Purchas's Pilgrims" that 

 the Jews were not permitted to burn fleas in the 

 flame of their lamps on Sabbath evenings. 



Spider Silk. — De Azara states that in Paraguay 

 a spider forms a spherical cocoon for its eggs, an 

 inch in diameter, of a yellow silk, which the inhabi- 

 tants spin on account of the permanency of the 

 colour. The ladies of Bermuda make use of the 

 silk of the silk spider (Epeira clavipes) for sewing 

 purposes. 



A Chrysalis Flying.— Happening to be in my 

 garden about the middle of June, I took to 

 watching some butterflies flying among the cab- 

 bages. My attention was attracted to one by 

 having as it seemed to me something strange on its 

 back ; I thought at first sight that it was being 

 attacked by some ferocious insect ; but on capturing 

 it, which I succeeded in doing without difficulty, 

 as its flight was a little heavy, I was not a little 

 surprised to find that the poor cabbage-butterfly 

 (Pieris Etpa) was encased in its own chrysalis, its 

 thorax and wings being out and its body within the 

 chrysalis. I tried to extricate it from its peculiar 

 position, but I found that its body was so com- 

 pletely fixed inside the chrysalis, that I could not 

 get it out without injuring the butterfly. I killed it 

 just as it was, and pinned it out ; so it just looks 

 like a chrysalis with wings. — A. II. F., Bast Neuk 

 o'Fife. 



