Oct. 1, 1SG9.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



233 



ZOOLOGY. 



Mice on the Sill. — An old Quaker friend told 

 me the other day she was once nursing her father 

 in a quiet parlour in their house in the " close," 

 when she observed, on the window-sill, a couple of 

 mice sunning themselves. She put some crumbs for 

 them next morning, and, finding they were taken 

 away, continued to do so daily. The animals came, 

 and in due time brought young ones, which partook 

 of the meal. During the season three young broods 

 were thus brought to the window-sill and taught to 

 feed themselves. If one dropped a crumb carelessly 

 it was sure to be chastised with a smart rap, when 

 it took up the crumb and carried it away. The nest 

 was close by in a hole in the wall, made by the 

 chance removal of a brick. The sight, she said, was 

 very pretty. The mice ran up by the stems of a 

 asmine, which grew by the wall up to the window. 

 — L. B. 



Sympathetic Puss.— The same person who 

 narrated the mouse anecdote to me said she had an 

 old lady friend who was grievously afflicted with 

 rheumatic gout in the hand ; her fingers and joints 

 were quite distorted and drawn up like claws. But 

 she managed, somehow, to write, and sat at her 

 desk painfully making the letters. Close beside 

 her, hour after hour, sat her favourite cat watching 

 the process. In course of time puss had kittens, 

 which, strange to tell, had their paws all drawn up 

 and distorted precisely like the old lady's hands. 

 They were malformed in every case, and the whole 

 batch had to be drowned. My Quaker friend, who 

 narrated this to me, is one who weighs her words, 

 and carefully adheres to the truth, so that I can 

 speak after her with confidence. — L. B. 



An Affectionate Tortoise. — I dined a few 

 days ago at a gentleman's house in this vicinity, 

 and was asked if I would like to go out into the 

 grounds and see the tortoise. We found the 

 creature, a very large one of its kind, basking in 

 the sun on the upper terrace grass walk, and it 

 evidently knew the master's voice right well, for 



directly Mr. took it in his hands and lifted it 



up, the tortoise put out its fore-feet up against his 

 breast and stretched forth its long neck, laying its 

 face on his cheek in the most confiding way, just as 

 a tame cat, or any other domestic animal, might do 

 in order to be caressed. I truthfully could not (had 

 I not seen it) have believed it possible for the eye 

 of a tortoise to have expressed such affection ; but 

 he evidently did not approve of strangers taking 

 liberties with him. Immediately any of the ladies 

 present, or myself, touched him, he withdrew into 



his shell house with great dignity. Mr. told 



me the tortoise came into his possession some thirty 

 years ago, but during a part of this time he had lost 



sight of it for a period of six years, when one day a 

 workman on the estate came to ask him to look at 

 " a wonderful big toad — a toad with a stone back." 

 The toad was the long missing tortoise, whom old 

 Baird had turned up in a neighbouring field. The 

 tortoise has ever since lived comfortably in the 

 grounds, always making his appearance in summer 

 on the same terrace to be treated with fruit, which 

 he much enjoys. The lack of knowledge respecting 

 natural history shown by some of the lower classes 

 is really most remarkable. " A toad with a stone 

 back " reminds me of a tale told me yesterday of an 

 old man who lived not very far from here. His 

 master, a Pembrokeshire squire, took him up to 

 town the year of the Exhibition. Jack was never 

 trusted out alone lest he should lose his way ; but one 

 evening his master sent him to a tobacconist's shop 

 close by for some of the weed. Jack had the order 

 written down ; while the shopman turned to weigh 

 out the article, Jack laid half a crown on the counter, 

 and a large monkey quietly swept it into the till. 

 Jack having received the parcel waited for change ; 

 the shopman, who had not noticed the laying down 

 of the money, waited for payment. Jack talked 

 Welsh, the man English, and at last a boy was sent 

 home with Jack, his master being known to the 

 shopkeeper. Then came Jack's explanation to his 

 master, which translated was as follows : " I did put 

 down the silver, and the gentleman's father, the old 

 man as sits on the counter, did put it in the till and 

 the gentleman did give me no change."— Helen E. 

 Watney, Gws Cwm. 



Voracity of the Jack.— On Tuesday last Mr. 

 Thomas Taylor, of the George Hotel, Halstead, 

 whilst spinning for jack, in the Colne, near Box-mills, 

 captured one weighing 3 lb. Noticing that its body 

 was an unusual size he opened it and found in its 

 pouch a young moor-hen and nine roach ! One of 

 the roach weighed a quarter of a pound.— Halstead 

 Times, August 14. 



Insects in 1869.— Is not the clouded yellow 

 (Colias edusa) unusually plentiful this summer ? and 

 are not the small tortoise-shell (Vanessa urtica), 

 and the painted lady (Cynthia cardui) rather 

 scarce ? 1 saw a specimen of the clouded yellow 

 on the road from Flushing to Mylor Bridge in 

 Cornwall, the other day ; another at St. Keyne, 

 and, I think, another between this place, Lyme 

 Regis, and Axminster. The painted lady (Cynthia 

 cardui) I saw on the road from Lyme Regis to 

 Charmouth on the 1st of March, and the small 

 tortoise-shell here on the 10th of April, the weather 

 being then fine and warm. I do not remember 

 seeing either since. I noticed several common 

 white and blue butterflies at Elushing this summer, 

 but I fancy the former has not been so common 

 in this neighbourhood as it was last year. The 



