1S6 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Aug. 1, 1SCS. 



Sea-Houses, or Hippocampi.— All who have not 

 yet seen the living sea-horses in the possession of 

 Mr. G. H. King, of Great Portland Street, should 

 not lose the opportunity. They are called "sea 

 horses," but are in reality odd little fishes, and for 

 some information about them we refer our readers 

 to the two or three communications entitled " Odd 

 Pishes " contributed to our volume for I8G6 by Mr. 

 J. K. Lord, especially the remarks at page 100. 

 Mr. King has made several excursions in search of 

 these oddities, and his last trip was eminently suc- 

 cessful. 



American Blight (ScMzoneura lanigera). — "It 

 was first noticed in England in 1787, and appeared 

 in Prance in 1S12, and in Belgium in 1S29. The 

 first generation proceeding from an egs in the 

 spring, is followed in the course of the year by nine 

 successive generations, and as each generation is 

 multiplied one hundredfold, in the next, the tenth 

 will amount to one quintillion, and as each indi- 

 vidual of these deposits on an average thirty eggs, 

 there will be thirty quintillions of eggs laid up for 

 the next year." The wingless viviparous female 

 when very young is pale red, narrow, flat, linear. 

 "When full-grown it is dull dark red or brownish- 

 red, oval, plump, shining and covered with white 

 powder and filaments : there are two rows of 

 tubercles along the back. The antenna; are four- 

 jointed, setaceous, and about a quarter or one-sixth 

 of the length of the body; the rostrum reaches a 

 little beyond the hind coxa; ; the legs are short. In 

 the beginning of June it becomes extremely abun- 

 dant, and large clusters appear enveloped in masses 

 of cottony matter with little globules of whitish- 

 green gluten. — F. W. 



The w t iiite Cabbage Butterfly (Tontia 

 Irassica) is more plentiful this year than I ever 

 remember to have seen it. At the time of my 

 writing, I can anywhere see as many as a hundred 

 examples from any spot about my parish, and with 

 these is a small sprinkling of some half-dozen rarer 

 species. Already the cottagers' cabbages are suffer- 

 ing from the earlier brood of the larva; of these 

 pests to the garden ; and where not hand-gathered, 

 they soon destroy the whole hopes of this useful 

 crop. The way to save the cabbages, greens, &c, 

 is to examine the under parts of the leaves from 

 time to time, and to crush the little bunches of 

 yellow eggs with the finger. Once show a child 

 how to do this, and very little difficulty will be 

 experieneed in keeping the grubs in check. The 

 present warm season has caused the appearance of 

 the Humming-bird Hawk-moth, Mucroglossa stella- 

 tarum, in some quantity. In the warm summer of 

 1863 this moth abounded in Dorset; but that it is 

 only occasionally plentiful will be shown from the 

 fact that visitors to "Weymouth readily yielded 



to a tariff of 4d. each for specimens of these 

 creatures, and it has not been since theu, until 

 the present summer, that we have observed it in 

 any quantity. — /. B., Bradford Abbas, July 15, 

 1868. 



Animal Sagacity.— The following is from an old 

 newspaper, under date 1816:— "I was exceedingly 

 amused with the article on Animal Sagacity in a 

 late paper ; such iustances bring the animal very 

 closely to the human species, in reason and good 

 conduct. They are nearly as surprising as that 

 anecdote (related by Goldsmith, I believe) of a 

 venerable dog, who had been brought up and 

 instructed in the family of a strict Roman Catholic, 

 and who, at the close of his life, was sent across the 

 channel into Wales, to finish his days in the family 

 of a Protestant. Such, however, was the force of 

 habit, that nothing, from the moment he entered 

 the Protestant circle, would tempt him to eat meat, 

 either on Wednesdays or Fridays. But the 

 following instance of sagacity in the canine breed 

 is far more astonishing. It was related to me by a 

 Prussian officer, who lately visited this metropolis, 

 as an undeniable fact, and names of persons and 

 places attended the relation of it. A German 

 count had a very valuable dog, a large and noble- 

 looking animal ; in some description of field sports 

 he was reckoned exceedingly useful, and a friend of 

 the Count's applied for the loan of the dog for a few 

 weeks' excursion in the country; it was granted; 

 and, in the course of the rambles, the dog, by a 

 fall, either dislocated or gave a severe fracture to 

 one of his legs. The borrower of the dog was in 

 the greatest alarm, knowing well how greatly the 

 Count valued him ; and, fearing to disclose the 

 fact, brought him secretly to the Count's surgeon, 

 a skilful man, to restore the limb. After some 

 weeks' application, the surgeon succeeded, the dog 

 was returned, and all was well. A month or six 

 weeks after this period, the surgeon was sitting 

 gravely in his closet, pursuing his studies, when he 

 heard a violent scratching at the bottom of the 

 door ; he rose, and on opening it, to his surprise, he 

 saw the dog, his late patient, before him, in 

 company with another dog, who had broken his leg, 

 and was thus brought by his friend to be cured in the 

 same manner. I have heard before now a farmer 

 say that he had a horse in his stable who always, on 

 losing his shoe, went of his own accord to a farrier's 

 shop, a mile off; but I never yet heard of a horse 

 taking another horse to a farrier for the purpose. 

 In the case of the dogs there must have been a 

 communication of ideas ; they must have come to a 

 conclusion before they set out ; they must have 

 reasoned together on the way, discussing the merits 

 of the surgeon, and the nature of the wound. — 

 T. B., Gray's Liu, Dec, 1S16." 



