25S 



HAHDWICXE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Nov. 1, 1S6S. 



country where the plant seems to be [generally 

 cultivated : I have noticed several fields of lucerne 

 about Folkestone and Dover. Can this be a reason 

 for Hyale and Lathonia being more frequently 

 found on this part of the coast than elsewhere ? 

 I firmly believe that were these fields, where they 

 occur, searched more dilligently, more than three or 

 four Lathonice per annum, and a stray Daplidice, 

 would be captured. I see in the present month's 

 (October) number of Science-Gossip, page 233, an 

 account, by Mr. Leslie, of the capture of two 

 Queens of Spain (Fritillaries), and an observation 

 of the frequency of Hyale this year, at Deal and 

 Dover, which seem to corroborate my opinion. — 

 T. Cosmo Melvill. 



Migeatoky Instinct in the Domestic Goose. 

 — The natural instincts of animals are wonderfully 

 persistent. Centuries of domestication, giving little 

 opportunity, and certainly no necessity, for their 

 display, are unable to obliterate them. Thus my 

 little pet spaniel, of King Charles's breed, whose 

 ancestry and training tend to suppress such a habit, 

 makes certain most unnecessary gyrations before 

 settling himself to rest on the sofa, just as I suppose 

 the aboriginal dog did in his bed of rushes. The 

 goose has been long domesticated, and yet I observe 

 yearly the old migratory instinct still in force. At 

 Polperro, on the south-east coast of Cornwall, it'was 

 common for the geese of the littoral homesteads to 

 take long flights to sea about this time of the year 

 (September), and their owners had some difficulty 

 in reclaiming them in boats. On the midland moors 

 of Cornwall I have just observed a long and well- 

 sustained flight of geese, evidently under this im- 

 pulse, and confident in their newly-developed 

 pinions. — Thomas Q. Couch, Bodmin. 



Eel Babbing. — Another way of taking eels, and 

 by far the more ingenious, is that known as " bab- 

 bing/' or "bobbing." A series of large worms are 

 strung on cobblers' worsted and coiled into a knot. 

 This is fastened to the end of about six feet of strong 

 cord, and a weight is attached about three inches 

 above the bait. The line is then tied to the end of 

 a stout hazel pole ; and, provided with this simple 

 tackling, about nine o'clock in the evening you row 

 to a part of the river or Broad, where there is a, 

 tolerably clear bottom. Having made fast the boat, 

 and, of course, lit a pipe as a preliminary, you gently 

 let down the line until you feel the bottom with the 

 weight. It is then drawn up again until the bunch 

 of worms just trads on the ground. Many minutes 

 will not have elapsed before you feel an electrical 

 sort of jerk travelling down the pole into your right 

 arm. Another tug, more powerful than the former, 

 and quickly, but without any plucking, you raise the 

 line over the boat, and in flops a big eel ! I have 

 known a couple of " babbers " to take as many as 



four or five stone of eels in a single night. No 

 small amount of practice is required to drop your 

 prey into the boat. If the eel happen to be un- 

 usually large, the chances are that you tug at him 

 so strongly that, when you lift him out, the impetus 

 carries him over the boat, and drops him in aqua 

 pura on the other side. I have enjoyed few sports 

 more than "babbing." The clear starlight over- 

 head, the sighing and soughing^of the wind among 

 the reeds, the ripple of the water against the boat, 

 and the strange sounds which break upon the ear at 

 night, are calculated to produce an effect upon the 

 mind never to be forgotten. — "Norfolk Broacls," in 

 St. Pauls Magazine. 



5 Sphinges Convolvuli have appeared in consider- 

 able numbers this year in our neighbourhood. On 

 the evening of the 20th of August I saw six in our 

 garden, three of which I captured. They are all very 

 fine specimens, one of them in particular being as 

 perfect, in every marking on the wings and cdia, as 

 if newly from the pupa ; thus, I think/proving them 

 to have been bred in the immediate neighbourhood. 

 They all came to a bed of gladioli (about fifty 

 spikes of which were in bloom at that time), never 

 stopping to look at beds of geraniums or verbenas 

 which were close by. They sailed beautifully round 

 the bed, then, suspiciously eyeing me, gave a wheel 

 or two round my head before settling down to the 

 flowers. So I learned to keep quite stdl till they 

 had fairly commenced to dive their long probosces 

 into the corollas of the gladioli, when I could go 

 quite close up to them without disturbing them. 

 They invariably began at the lowest flower of a 

 spike, and going up flower by flower till they had 

 tried every bloom in the spike, making a loud, 

 deep humming with their rapidly vibrating wings, 

 which I could hear distinctly about ten yards off. 

 After the 20th the evenings were either cold, wet, 

 or windy ; so I saw no more of my visitors till either 

 the 26th or 27th, when, on going to my gladioli bed, 

 I heard one humming, but it was too dark to see it. 

 On creeping round the bed, and trying to see it 

 against the sky, I was startled by a sudden rush 

 amongst the plants, and, on looking round, I saw 

 my cat dart into the house. So I followed it, and 

 found pussy had been too quick for me ; but she 

 came and laid it down at my feet, evidently quite 

 proud of her capture. She had killed it, but had 

 injured it very little as a specimen. Last year I 

 observed two in the same manner, at gladioli ; but 

 it was later on in the season, I think the second 

 week in September. I have never seen the cater- 

 pillar of this fine moth, I shoidd like to know if 

 it has been observed this year by any person. — 

 Amos Mitchell, Wokingham, Durham. — A very good 

 specimen of this ^moth was brought to mc about 

 the 20th of September, caught near Oxford. — B. B. 

 Scott. 



