ISO 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Aug. 1, 1S6S. 



There is another proceeding on the part of the 

 neuters that is well worth watching, and that is 

 their opening the cocoons when the young ant is 

 matured. I have seen one of them running round 

 and round and over a cocoon, and then nibbling 

 away at one end till an aperture was made, and the 

 juvenile creature made its appearance. These at 

 first are quite white, and run about in a lively 

 manner ; they soon, however, become of a darker 

 hue, and then set to work in good earnest. The 

 eggs, as they are laid in little bunches by the queen 

 or female ant, are carried off by the neuters and 

 carefully looked after; indeed, their solicitude on 

 behalf of them is extreme. I used to get a bit of 

 fine wire, and insert it into the gallery where I could 

 see some eggs stored up, and then watch the con- 

 sternation that was produced. The eggs, however, 

 were very soon all carried off to a more secret and 

 secluded spot. 



I used to put a Little knob of loaf sugar in occa- 

 sionally, moistening it with a few drops of water, 

 and this they seemed thoroughly to enjoy, for it 

 was almost immediately covered by them, each one 

 plying its mandibles, and keeping its antennae con- 

 stantly vibrating. 



The ants that I kept were quite harmless ; but 

 sometimes when watching them in the garden at 

 somewhat close quarters, with a good many running 

 over me, I have felt a slight nip where the skin is 

 very thiu, as on the back of the hand, but it is only 

 momentary. The Formica rafa, I believe, is the 

 only species in England possessed of a veritable 

 sting ; but I have never been stung by one of these 

 as yet. 



This insect, too, presents many points full of 

 interest to the microscopist : the antennae, the 

 structure of the mouth, the formidable forceps it 

 possesses, and the curious comb-like process at- 

 tached to the tibia), not unlike the toothed claw of 

 the spicier, — each and all will well repay any one for 

 a careful examination. 



I will only add, that if any of your readers in 

 trying the same experiment meet with any difficulty, 

 I should be happy to hear from them ; at the same 

 time I can assure them that the whole affair is so 

 easy as to render failure almost impossible. 



Frederic H. Ward. 



Springfield House, near Tooting. 



VIPERS. 



TN April last the gardener at Rosemerryn (about 

 ■*- three miles from Ealmouth) mounted on a 

 ladder to prune the creepers on the front wall of 

 the house, and whilst intent on their flowers and 

 leaves was surprised by the fall of a viper on his 

 hat, and thence to the ground, after he had stamped 

 on it with his foot whilst it was hanging on a stave 

 of the ladder. The creepers did not reach to within 



six feet of the widely-projecting eaves of the roof. 

 It is possible that the viper, in a search after 

 unfledged sparrows, may have crept up through the 

 ivy on the side wall of the house ; but even there it 

 would have had a difficulty in reaching the slated 

 roof; but it may have crept along a little ledge on 

 the margin of the eaves. It is not easy to account 

 for his having chosen to avail himself of the 

 gardener's head and ladder for his descent. The 

 viper, which I have seen, was a large male. 



With respect to the effects of vipers' poison, I 

 was acquainted with a mason who had been crippled 

 for life by the bite of one. About two years ago 

 a little girl of eight years, whilst gathering flowers 

 in a wood near Liskeard, was bitten by a viper, and 

 died in consequence, as I have been informed. 

 Some years ago one entered a cottage in my plan- 

 tation, and attempted to swarm up a leg of the 

 kitchen table. The children retreated to an inner 

 room ; the viper sought a hole in the wall of the 

 large chimney-corner, after biting the little dog in 

 the house, which died of the wound. On the 

 following morning a mason was sent for to dig out 

 the intruder. 



A late servant of mine often took up vipers from 

 the ground and allowed them to creep through his 

 hands ; but on one occasion he was bitten before he 

 had touched the animal. He sucked the wound ; I 

 then enlarged it and poured in a caustic alkali. The 

 arm swelled and became discoloured, but the effects 

 of the poison were not perceptible after a few days. 

 I have known as many as four young green lizards 

 (Lacerta viriclis), which I had acclimatized, drop 

 out of the mouth of a viper when held up by the 

 tail. It reminds one of the received opinion among 

 husbandmen that young vipers find a refuge in 

 their mother's mouth. 



A young lady, seeing a viper in one of my 

 garden walks, threw a stone at it, which completely 

 cut it into two parts at about one-third of its 

 length from the tail. The head and longer portion 

 turned abruptly from the walk through the grass 

 down a steep bank. The tail followed at a distance 

 of about nine inches, with various contortions, as if 

 the nervous ganglions of the extremity had received 

 the impulse of the animal's volition at the moment 

 of its determining to escape. 



There is a cottage in the parish of St. Cleer from 

 which successive families have been driven by vipers, 

 which were sometimes found in their beds : a high 

 bank of loose rubbish abutting against one of the 

 walls seems to have been the haunt of these 

 reptiles. 



A French gentleman whom I lately met in North 

 Africa told me that the negroes in Brazil, where he 

 had passed eleven years, rubbed their legs with cut 

 bulbs of garlic as a sufficient protection from 

 venomous serpents, which, they asserted, always 

 turned away on perceiving its odour. One would 



