238 



HABDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Oct. 1, 1869. 



for the first office in their new abode — comb-build- 

 ing ; and a bee when gorged with sweets of any 

 kind is never disposed to attack. It is by thus 

 absorbing their attention, or directing it exclusively 

 to one object, that a bee master is enabled to exer- 

 cise unlimited control at any time over his little 

 subjects, especially in a bar-hive. I can make my 

 bees in a few minutes as harmless as peas, and 

 handle them with bare hands as if they were so 

 many black currants, and this without any anaes- 

 thetic means whatever. Again, sticks are useful in 

 a hive only as a support to the combs in excessively 

 hot weather, or in transferring a hive to keep the 

 combs steady, but they are rather a hindrance to the 

 bees, and grievously annoying to the honey taker in 

 cutting out the comb, as the dragging them through 

 tears the cells, and causes the honey to run 

 vexatiously about. In reply to "F. S.," the queen 

 bee has merely taken possession of the cup or 

 super for breeding purposes (also a common case, 

 but may be prevented as suggested by " D. D. B."), 

 but "F. S." must be careful in removing it lest he 

 lose her ladyship. The better plan would be to 

 remove such super temporarily. If the bees in 

 the stock hive after a short time exhibit symptoms 

 of restlessness or confusion, and those in the cap 

 are at ease, the queen is in the cap and it must be 

 replaced forthwith, and the experiment renewed at 

 another time. If, on the contrary, the bees readily 

 leave the cup, it need not be returned at all. The 

 same remarks apply to the glass. In answer to 

 " D. D. B.," permit me to add that there are no 

 hybrid drones — they are either all ligurian or all 

 black, those produced by a bastardised ligurian 

 queen being invariably ligurian. An unimpregnated 

 queen of either species lays only drone and eggs, 

 like a semi-developed worker, and fecundates alone ; 

 at the time of its deposit appears to convert the 

 drone egg to a worker egg, and the treatment alone 

 of the worker worm seems to affect its capacity for 

 future impregnation : the first depending (possibly) 

 on the-will of the queen, the second on that of the 

 little nurse bee. This, therefore, is hardly perhaps 

 a case analogous to that of the crossing of what are 

 termed distinct species, though even these in domes- 

 ticity do sometimes produce offspring prolific inter 

 se. Query, are these bees distinct species at all ? — 

 /. W. Stroud, Plymouth. 



The Holly-tree.— The disciples of Zoroaster 

 believe that the sun never shadows the holly-tree. 

 There are still some followers of this king of the 

 Magi to be found in the wilds of Persia, and some 

 parts of India, who, when a child is born, throw in 

 its face water which has been put in the bark of a 

 holly-tree. — Sylva Florifera. 



The Ivy. — At the marriage ceremonies of the 

 Greeks, when the young couple arrived at the tem- 

 ple, the priest presented them with a bunch of ivy, 

 symbolical of the tie which should unite them, and 

 the omission of which at the wedding of Proserpine 

 was said to cause the Cocytus to flow only with 

 waves of tears.— Sylva Florifera. 



Popular Description. — The other day I was 

 visiting the Zoological Gardens, Regent's Park, 

 and I heard, when in the Aquarium House, an old 

 gentleman give an amusing character to some sea- 

 anemones there. "You see," he said, "what curious 

 animals they are, between a vegetable and a fish, 

 half and half, and they are always in the same place, 

 fixed for life, aud they can't move, and yet they are 

 alive. Wonderful ! "— W. K. 



Food eor Bullfinches.— Having kept a Bull- 

 finch in perfect health and plumage for six years, 

 perhaps my experience with regard to his treatment 

 may be of some service. _ His daily food is rape and 

 canary seed, the proportion being about one-fourth 

 only of the former ; occasionally a little millet, and 

 very rarely a hemp-seed or two, given as a treat. It 

 is absolutely necessary to be very particular about 

 the cleanliness of the cage, especially the perches, as 

 Bullfinches are subject to diseased feet, and a bath 

 two or three times a week is greatly conducive ;to 

 their health ; also a constant supply of groundsel, 

 chickweed, or apple paring, and a thistle-head gone 

 to seed, or a few ripe haws, will be much appre- 

 ciated. — C. E. F., Bedla?id, Bristol. 



Food for Bullfinches (p. 215). — Bechstein, in 

 his admirable work on " Chamber Birds," treating of 

 bullfinches, says, " That they remain most healthy 

 and live longest when they have neither sugar nor 

 pastry, nor other delicacies given to them, but are 

 fed constantly upon rape-seed, intermixed occa- 

 sionally, by way of treat, with hemp, and occasionally 

 a little green food, such as water-cresses, a bit of 

 apple, berries of the service-tree, or salad, which 

 cleanses their stomachs. That they are more 

 healthy _ also if they have some water and sand 

 placed in the cage, that they may pick up grains, 

 to assist in the process of digestion;" and he recom- 

 mends, as a remedy for " moulting," a rusty nail 

 placed in the drinking-vessel, good food, and ants' 

 eggs, if accustomed to the latter when young. — 

 J. R. Eldridge. 



Bullfinches. — I think that management has 

 more to do with L. C. Whelan's bullfinches than 

 food. I brought up from the nest this year a 

 pair which (from the time they eat seed) had rape- 

 seed for the first few weeks soaked. One had a 

 deformity in its neck and died, but the other is very 

 healthy and beautifully feathered, and now has the 

 usual mixture of canary, rape, and a few hemp seeds 

 with the other birds. — W. D. B. 



Cockroach Eggs. — Have any of your correspon- 

 dents ever been favoured with a view of the Cock- 

 roach in the act of laying its egg ? The size of the 

 egg is, as nearly as 1 can describe it, f to i of an 

 inch long, and £ in diameter, with parallel sides, 

 circular at each end,lin section circular, with a well- 

 defined ridge in one part from end to end ; and 

 this ridge, when the egg is laid, is quite perpendicu- 

 lar to the body of the Cockroach, instead of being, 

 as I should have supposed, at one side or the other. 

 Some one knowing the anatomy of the Cockroach 

 better than I may be able to favour me with a 

 reason. I may say that I was able to catch the 

 insect at the time with the greatest ease with my 

 fingers ; it did not avoid me, as they usually do. — 

 Robert T. Andrews, Hertford. 



Carpels of Geranium (p. 211). — Will Mr. 

 Williams give the name of the Geranium, the " per- 

 sistent stigmas" (!) of which behave in the remark- 

 able manner recorded in your last ? Before writing 

 my paper on " Cranesbills " I carefully examined 

 nearly all our British species, and I have since in- 

 spected those in the herbaceous ground at Kew, 

 but have failed to detect a single instance of the 

 "spiral twisting" to which he refers. Such a cir- 

 cumstance must, I imagine, be somewhat rare in 

 Geranium; inasmuch as one of the distinguishing 

 marks by which Erodium is determined is this 

 " spiral twisting," which is stated to be wanting in 



