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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Nov. 1, 1869. 



Cuttle-fish. — In the article in your October 

 number, entitled "A Chapter on Cuttle-fishes," our 

 common Cuttle-fish of this coast is mentioned two 

 or three times. The article is from The American 

 'Naturalist, and it does not appear clear whether an 

 American or an English Cuttle-fish is described ; but 

 if the latter, the description does not at all apply to 

 the Sepia officinalis (figured ou p. 219), which is in- 

 variably spoken of as "the common Cuttle-fish." Any 

 member of the genus Loligo or of Ommastrephes 

 may be intended, but probably one of the latter (0. 

 todarus) is meant. I have taken this handsome 

 animal twice this year — once in April, near Hartle- 

 pool, and again (several specimens) in July, near 

 Lerwick, Shetland. The following dimensions of 

 the Hartlepool specimen, which was a very fine one, 

 may be interesting to 'some of your readers : — 

 Extreme length from tip of tail to end of tentacle 

 2 ft. 1 in., length of trunk 1 ft., girth of ditto 7 in., 

 length of tail 5^ in., width of ditto 6h in., length 

 of head 2h in., ditto of each tentacle 11$ in., ditto of 

 shortest arm 5f in.. At least three species of each 

 of the genera Loligo and Ommastrephes have been 

 taken in the British seas, and all of them are called 

 " squids."— Robert Morton Middleton, Jun. 



Otters and Badgers in South Wiltshire. — 

 No less than four Otters have been killed, to my 

 knowledge, in the valley of the Nadder, within 

 fifteen or sixteen months, one of them, a fine dog, 

 having on one of his feet when captured a trap 

 which had been set for members of his fraternity the 

 evening before, in a meadow between three and 

 four miles distant. My brother has now in his 

 possession skins of five badgers, all killed, I believe, 

 by himself in the same neighbourhood within the 

 same time. A friend, also, on whom I can rely, has 

 told me that five young ones were reared in a copse 

 about a thousand yards from his house last spring. 

 —A. G. Tisbury. 



Eossils at Walthamstow.— In July, 18GG, as 

 I was searching for freshwater shells in the copper- 

 mill stream in the valley of the river Lea, at 

 Walthamstow, I observed a heap of fossil bones 

 which had been cast on the bank from a dredging- 

 barge : they belonged to three species of mammalia — 

 the two first-named are extinct— the long-fronted ox 

 {Bos longifrons), the gigantic Irish deer {Megaceros 

 Hibernicus), and the wild horse {Equus Caballus). I 

 have since found the remains of the Megaceros Iliber- 

 nicus in nearly every excavation I have visited in 

 this valley, extending from Lower Clapton to Wal- 

 tham Abbey. The remains are found from fourteen 

 inches to twelve feet beneath the surface ; but the 

 largest quantity is yielded by a bed of grey silt ge- 

 nerally found at a depth of about four feet. A few 

 days ago I discovered, near Higham Hill, Waltham- 

 stow, two lower jaws of this species, several frag- 



ments of pottery, and two cut bones, all in juxta- 

 position, and lying at a depth of only seventeen 

 inches. Has the Megaceros Hibernicus lived down to a 

 more recent period than that allowed by most geo- 

 logical writers ; or has the deposition of sediment 

 been very slow in this valley ? A writer on this 

 subject says : " Its extinction in Ireland has occur- 

 red so many ages past, as there remains among us not 

 the least record in writing, or any manner of tradi- 

 tion, that makes so much as a mention of its name." 

 If the same observations hold good with regard to 

 England, I cannot possibly account for the associa- 

 tion of the remains of the Megaceros Hibernicus with 

 works of art at so slight a depth in an English river- 

 valley, a fact which I have not read of in any geolo- 

 gical work. — R. E. Olliver, S/ierboro' House, Stam- 

 ford Hill, 



Elycatcher's Nest. — This year a Elycatcher 

 built her nest in the hinge of an unused door of my 

 coach-house, and in time my httle boy found four 

 eggs in it, of which he took one for his collection. 

 We watched for the hatching of the rest, but after 

 a long delay, finding that the bird had given over 

 sitting, we examined the nest, and found that a 

 second nest had been made inside the first, and on 

 the top of the old eggs. In the new nest four eggs 

 were laid, and eventually hatched. — A. A. 



Leucania vitellina (Brighton Delicate). — A 

 specimen of this rare moth was captured at Sugur 

 on the 20th of September, near Brighton, by a 

 working naturalist named Gates, and sold under the 

 impression of its being only a variety of L. pal/ens, 

 to a Mr. Vaughan, of London, for seven shillings 

 and sixpence. According to Newman, but two have 

 been taken in England before. He took the same 

 evening two dozen Agrotis saucia. — T. W. Wonfor, 

 Brighton. 



Morning Visitors. — Every morning, before 1 

 am out of bed, there may be seen feeding on one of 

 the window-sills of my bedroom, a pair of nuthatches, 

 a pair of great-tits, a pair of cole-tits, a pair of blue- 

 tits, a pair of marsh-tits, and a pair of chaffinches, 

 and sometimes a robin, a blackbird, and a sparrow 

 or two. They have a small pan of water, and their 

 food comprises hemp-seed, nuts, cheese, bread-and- 

 milk, and meat; all which are placed at their dis- 

 posal by my wife overnight, or by six o'clock in the 

 morning. You know how near we are to the high 

 road ; passers-by must be astonished at the sight 

 outside our window. — W., Sundridge. 



Oriental Locust. — A fine specimen of the 

 Oriental locust {Locusta migratoria), similar to those 

 caught at St. Austell and Truro on Saturday last, 

 has just been captured on Marazion green, by Mr. 

 John Kinsman, Penzance, who has preserved it 

 alive. — Western Morning News, Oct. 12. 



