Jan. 1, 1868.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



2c 



Hedgehogs.— I must confess myself sceptical as 

 to the hedgehog purposely rolling itself upon fallen 

 apples and pears, in order to transfix them with its 

 spines, so that it might carry them away to its re- 

 treat for food. In the first place, I very much question 

 whether the hedgehog would eat food of this kind ; 

 for though Gilhert White says it will grub for and 

 cat the roots of plantain, yet its appetite is a very 

 carnivorous one, and its general food consists of 

 insects, worms, slugs, eggs, &c. In the second 

 place, I cannot but think the alleged operation most 

 difficult of performance. With a soft fruit, like the 

 arbutus, the feat might be more easy of accomplish- 

 ment ; but having got the fruit thus skewered on 

 its back, how is the animal to get it off again ? It 

 cannot reach its back with either feet or mouth, 

 and additional rolling, instead of detaching the fruit, 

 would but drive them further on the spines. — 

 W. J. Sterland. 



Cheap Breeding Cage.— The following is a 

 cheap and efficient breeding cage for the larvae of 

 Lepidoptera : — Take an ordinary flower-pot, put 

 some drainage at the bottom, and then fill it one- 

 third full of light earth. Procure a piece of thick 

 galvanized iron wire, and bend into a ring slightly 

 larger than the rim of the flower-pot, sew a piece 

 of leno to this ring, so as to form a shallow bag 

 about two or three inches deep. This cover when 

 dropped over the rim of the pot forms a close and 

 neat lid. The stems of the food plants may be in- 

 serted into the earth, which may be damped when 

 necessary without fear of mildew, if the pot has been 

 properly drained. I have used pots with a pane 

 of glass by way of a lid, but the glass is liable to be 

 shifted or broken, and, as far as my experience 

 extends, many larva? do not feed kindly under g ass 

 — they ramble about and spend a large part of their 

 time in fruitless endeavours to make their escape 

 through the glass, evidently not being able to com- 

 prehend its nature. — T. H. W., Ludlow. 



Yiper's Lair. — I am not much of a naturalist : 

 I am not quite sure that I know a viper from a 

 snake when I see one : but I do know Poundbury, 

 and was rather surprised to find that your corre- 

 spondent, C. H. Bingham, does not consider it a 

 likely place for this reptile to have been found on. 

 It certainly is open and wild enough for any viper 

 to bask in the sun on. I have just read a very good 

 account of the viper, in an admirable little book 

 called " British Reptiles," and I do not find any- 

 thing mentioned there calculated to make me doubt 

 a viper or vipers selecting Poundbury for their 

 habitation; but Poundbury was certainly not the 

 scene of the death alluded to by your correspondent 

 Mrs. Watney. I do not think it at all probable that 

 foyo places in the immediate vicinity of Dorchester 

 witnessed so sad an accident ; and I perfectly re- 

 member hearing, when staying at Dorchester three 

 summers ago, of a woman having been bitten by a 

 viper on Maiden-Castle, and of its having caused 

 her death. Mrs. Watney probably alludes to this 

 circumstance. — A. C. J., 



Spiders and Ants. — In a recent communication 

 from India, it is said the spider attacks the white 

 ant. It reminds me that I was watching a desperate 

 fight between two ants on my garden-wall last sum- 

 mer, when one of the ants happening to touch the 

 thread of a spider's web, the spider popped out like 

 lightning, and took them both in-doors, where I 

 presume he soon settled their little difference. — 

 W. G. S. 



Yellow Violets grow in the greatest profusion 

 on the mountain on which is situated Port Mira- 

 boue, between Bobbio and the Bergerie de Pre, also 

 in the Porest of St. Nicolas near Courmayeur, and 

 sparingly on the Petit St. Bernard. Some roots 

 brought home from the forest above named wea- 

 thered the cold of last winter and are now as 

 strong plants as any other in the garden. I should 

 be glad to know if others had made the same ob- 

 servation. My brother-in-law in Thebes saw the 

 seed-vessels forming and ripening without any ap- 

 parent blossom. It would have been impossible to 

 have watched plants more narrowly than I did 

 mine during the few months I was travelling about 

 with them, yet I frequently saw a seed-vessel suc- 

 ceed a very small bud. None of these violets had 

 any scent. — L. Jeffreys Law, Bath. 



Death's Head Pup^e. — As to the power of pro- 

 ducing sound possessed by pupae of Acherontia 

 otropos,! bred three specimens last December, by 

 forcing them near my sitting-room fire. I observed 

 that for about twenty-four hours before they emei - ged, 

 they continued to squeak at intervals. This noise they 

 increased when handled. The noise became so loud 

 one day, when I had placed the box in a closet in 

 our kitchen, that the cook came to tell me that a 

 mouse had got in beside "them nasty black things." 

 I have heard the pupa squeak at other times, but 

 not near so loud or frequent as for a day before 

 emergence. — /. M. Hick. 



Lizards' Tails. — I have frequently seen the 

 small brown Lizard of the lliviera drop its tail when 

 escaping from my boys at Mentone a few winters 

 ago. 1 have in my possession, in spirits, a lizard 

 with two tails which were both adhering to the 

 body when caught, but one of them dropped off 

 afterwards. The animal had evidently faded in 

 entirely getting rid of its old tail, and the other had 

 grown out of the part of the body from which the 

 old one had been separated: both tails are about the 

 same size. — H. W. 



Spider doings, — Father Babaz, who has spent 

 some fifteen years in observing the doings of spiders, 

 has just communicated to the Prench Academy of 

 Sciences some new and remarkable facts connected 

 with those interesting insects. He has discovered, 

 for instance, that spiders have the poAver not only 

 of spinning a web, but of projecting one to any given 

 point, as far off as six or seven yards. That is to 

 say, a spider, lying upon a table, can shoot a film up 

 to the ceiling and escape by it. He has also dis 

 covered that some kinds of spiders can swim in the 

 air without any web at all. To perform this feat 

 they turn their back to the ground, and keep their 

 legs closely folded up on their body, and in this 

 posture sail about with perfect ease. — Birmingham 

 Laity Post. 



Geatis !— It is the voice of nature, speaking from 

 the fulness of her large heart. The word is written 

 all over the blue heaven. The health-giving air 

 whispers it about us. It rides the sunbeam (save 

 when the statesman puts a window-pane 'twixt us 

 and it). The lark trills it high up in the skyey dome ; 

 the little wayside flower breathes gratis from its 

 pinky mouth ; the bright brook murmurs it ; it is 

 written in the harvest moon. Look and move 

 where we will, delights— all "gratis," all breathing 

 and beaming beauty— are about us ; and yet how 

 rarely do we seize the happiness — because, forsooth, 

 it is a joy gratis ! — Jerrold's " Chronicles of Clover- 

 nook." 



