July 1, 1868.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



1G1 



Rare Micro-lepidoptera.— Like many another 

 lepidopterist, I am apt to neglect the " micros," 

 while I am wanting the larger species ; but one day 

 last month my little girl detected on a tree trunk 

 in our public garden here a small moth, which, from 

 its great beauty, I was induced to " pillbox." I 

 find it to be Pseudotomia Tranniana" pi. S3, fig. 19 

 (Humphries and Westwood), and therein said to be 

 cr very rare." On visiting that tree most mornings 

 since, I have been pretty certain of taking one, 

 sometimes three specimens, and I now muster 

 twelve in series. I thought a notice of its occur- 

 rence might interest. — W. Hamlrough. 



P.S. Of course " legs " should have been " wings" 

 of Colias edusa, as your correspondent "G. B. C." 

 surmises, in last month's number. I am induced to 

 send you drawings of the wings of two specimens 

 of C. edusa which I took in the Isle of Wight last 

 year, differing unusually in the size of the black 

 discoidal spot, as well as in other particulars. 

 No. 1. is a strikingly handsome specimen. 



Cuckoo. — Six years ago I took a young cuckoo 

 in a hedge-sparrow's nest, at the same time a nest 

 of young blackbirds, five in number, about three 

 times the size of the young cuckoo. Thinking the 

 blackbirds much crowded in their nest, and plenty 

 of room for one in with the cuckoo, I placed one in 

 the nest with him. He appeared very uneasy, and 

 instantly commenced shuffling in a backward 

 direction to the blackbird, until he got quite under 

 the blackbird, and by a sudden jerk threw the bird 

 over the nest. He then did not appear to have any 

 use in his legs ; and as I frequently tried the same 

 experiment to show any friend who came in to see 

 it, and he always acted in the same way immediately 

 the bird was placed in the nest, I must conclude the 

 young cuckoo ejects the young hedge-sparrow, if it 

 is able to eject a bird three times its size. I may 

 add, in conclusion, the young cuckoo never had the 

 use of its legs, as it remained six weeks in the nest, 

 and then died. It appeared to support itself on the 

 knee-joint, and moved its body from the thigh-joint 

 only. — George Gray. 



Ceylon Spiders. — I have recently received some 

 curious spiders' nests from Ceylon ; they are con- 

 cealed in the bark of the Hibiscus populneus so 

 effectually that a minute observation alone leads to 

 the discovery of two trap-doors, with perfect hinges, 

 which admit ingress and egress to the inhabitants. 

 They are lined with some soft white material. They 

 were packed separately in small boxes, each box 

 enclosed in paper and tied round with string, and 

 forwarded by sailing vessel on February 9th, and 

 received by me on May 29 th. On opening them I 

 found one nest contained a full-grown spider alive, 

 and it is still so (June 13th). Another contained 

 two smaller spiders, both alive when I unpacked the 



case, but have since died. The third was tenant- 

 less. Can you tell me the name of these spiders, 

 and account for their remaining so long alive with- 

 out any apparent means of sustenance ? Neither in 

 Wood's Natural History, nor in any other to which 

 I have yet referred, can I find any account of this 

 curious trap-door spider. — S. B., Parsons Green. 



Spiders' Webs. — The paper on the alimentary 

 system of the house spider, with which Mr. Ponton 

 has favoured us in the number for last month, seems 

 to call for some observation on my part, directly 

 contravening as it does my assertion in the May 

 number (p. 10G), that the web of the house spider 

 is non-viscid. The assumption was made on the 

 authority of Kirby and Spence, who especially 

 mention this web as an example of the non-viscid 

 kind, confirmed by my own observation of the web 

 under a microscopic power giving 50 diameters (the 

 common one-inch power). A further examination with 

 a power of 300 diameters has now convinced me of 

 the curious fact that the extremely fine cross threads 

 are closely set with globules of very minute size, but 

 little larger than the diameter of the thread, and that 

 the web is correctly described as viscid. The correc- 

 tion is welcome for the truth's sake, and the more 

 so because it enables me still to claim the so-called 

 "renal organ" as the source of the viscid fluid. 

 That the globules are knobs of the silk secretion, 

 and therefore of the same consistence as the thread, 

 cauuot be so easily admitted. The simple experi- 

 ments detailed in my first paper, which any one can 

 repeat, demonstrate them to be fluid, and of a 

 saline character. Mr. Ponton's supposition that the 

 threads are homogeneous, and not made up of 

 numerous threadlets, may be as easily tested. If a 

 spider is kept in a box with glass top and sides, it 

 will soon spin a web of some kind ; and then, look- 

 ing through the glass with the microscope at the 

 bases of the threads, at their junction with the 

 glass, it will be seen that they are composed of 

 numerous threadlets, each the issue of a particular 

 spinning tube, which unite to form the threads. — S. S. 



Weaver Birds. — I have had a pair of " weaver 

 birds" for a few years past, and who are at this 

 moment in beautiful plumage. They have regularly 

 every year built nests from grass supplied them. 

 Last year they built three from the same perch, two 

 of them back to back, but communicating by a side 

 entrance. When finished, they for a few days re- 

 sort to them, but beyond this they never go near 

 them. I have always been expecting to see eggs, 

 but have been disappointed. Can any of your 

 correspondents tell me what is required to induce 

 the hen bird to sit ? Their food is principally 

 canary seed ; occasionally some green food, and 

 always a little warm soaked bread in the morning, 

 of which they are very fond. Would separation 

 do any good ? — R. D. 



