March 1, 1870.] 



HAJUYDICKE'S S CI E N C E- GO SS I P. 



c; 



The Dinornis. — At a recent meeting of the 

 Zoological Society of London, a communication was 

 read from Professor Owen, containing a letter re- 

 ceived from Dr. Haast, F.R.S., on the discovery of 

 cooking-pits and kitchen-middens containing remains 

 of various species of Dinornis, in the province of 

 Canterbury, New Zealand. 



Puppy Propensities. — A pup spaniel of King 

 Charles's breed, nursed by a cat, is as afraid of 

 rain as his foster-mother. He licks his feet two or 

 three times a day for the purpose of washing his 

 face, which operation he performs in the true cat- 

 tish position, sitting up on his tail ; he will watch 

 a mousehole for hours, &c. — Miss Mitford, vol. ii. 

 p. 277. 



Lytta yesicatoria.— I wish to record the capture 

 of a fine specimen of Lytta vesicatoria here in May, 

 1S69. It was crawling on the road in the sun. lam 

 aware it is occasionally taken in the south of England 

 (Eye), and Curtis gives Norwich, Cheltenham, Isle 

 of Wight, and Cambridgeshire as localities. I 

 should be glad to hear if any of your readers 

 have taken it in 1SG9.— % Lc. H. Fox, M.B. 

 (Zond.). 



Sagacity of Bees.— Call it instinct or what we 

 may, the fact I am about to relate seems to be very 

 nearly akin to reasoning power ; indeed, I cannot 

 myself detect wherein the difference lies. It may 

 be quite familiar to many of your readers, therefore 

 some apology may be necessary to them for repro- 

 ducing it here; but in all probability there are many 

 others to whom, as to myself, the curious circum- 

 stance 1 allude to is unfamiliar and new. My 

 attention was casually directed last summer to a 

 plant of the common Fuchsia blooming outside my 

 window, which attracted a number of bees to its 

 pendent flowers. I observed them to be very rest- 

 less and apparently dissatisfied with their persever- 

 ing attempts to rifle the flowers of their saccharine 

 juices. Now these juices are contained in a little 

 bulbous cell at the base of the corolla, and at such 

 a distance from the expansion that the insect finds 

 it very difficult, if not impossible, to reach the 

 coveted store. In this dilemma what was the ex- 

 pedient adopted ? Burning apparently with anger, 

 it ceased its ineffectual attempts from below, and 

 mounting the outside of the corolla, actually pierced 

 a hole through into the bulb, giving it direct access 

 to the iuterior, and an easy extraction of the sweets. 

 The circumstance appeared to me as a uotable 

 instance of sagacity closely allied to reason.— W. 

 Smart. 



Natural History of Folkestone. — The 

 Natural History Society of Folkestone have just 

 issued a list of the Butterflies and Moths of the 

 neighbourhood, by Dr. H. G. Knaggs. This is in- 



tended to be followed by lists in other branches of 

 natural history. Legitimate work for a local 

 society, and likely to prove very valuable if well 

 done, as this has commenced. Let the promoters 

 go on and prosper. 



Bearded Titmouse.— (Panes biannichts, Linn.). 

 — This species is scarce in Turkey ; it breeds in the 

 iuterior of the country, at Varna and on the borders 

 °f inland lakes, amongst the reeds, and is sometimes 

 taken at Smyrna on its migration. — The Levant 

 Times. 



Larya of Goat-moth. — A few springs back, as 

 a carpenter in Sussex was fixing some park-palings 

 along an old fence, in clearing the ground at the 

 foot of au oak-tree he found a nest of worms, as he 

 called them ; but which, from his description and 

 the disgust he evinced at his discovery, were, I 

 doubt not, larva? of the Goat-moth. There were 

 about forty of them, which he speedily immolated. 

 I visited the spot, and saw where they had scooped 

 out their winter's domicile, but not until then did I 

 know, or had heard, that the larvse are gregarious 

 in their habits of hibernation. Is it a known fact ? 

 — IF. Smart. 



Solitary Snipe (Gallinago major). — Two speci- 

 mens were shot in the neighbourhood of Killarney 

 three or four weeks since.— E. B., Jan. Ylth, 1870. 



Something like a Sw t arm of Flies. — As some 

 peasants were busy planting trees on the heights of 

 Esperon (a portion of the Cevennes range), on the 

 7th of September, they were startled by a dull 

 hollow noise, not unlike that of a distant storm. It 

 wanted still two hours of sunset, and the atmo- 

 sphere was clear and bright. On endeavouring to 

 ascertain the cause of this unusual sound, it soon 

 became evident that it proceeded from a dark cloud 

 enveloping a low hill at a distance of some ten 

 kilometres (six miles). Their first thought was 

 that it must be a column of smoke issuing from a 

 large fire ; what then was their surprise, on drawing 

 nearer, to find that the dark cloud 'was really an 

 enormous swarm of flies, measuring not less than 

 five hundred metres in length, fifty in height, and 

 thirty in breadth. This monstrous phalanx was 

 moving slowly in a westerly direction. — Annie 

 Scientifique, par L. Figuier. 



Birds, Affection in.— At Brymbo, Denbigh- 

 shire, during a very heavy shower of hail, a lady and 

 gentleman, whom I know, were standing at a window, 

 when they observed a bird like a wood-pigeon, fly 

 into a large tree which grew close to the house, and 

 where his mate was sitting on her nest, and exposed 

 to the storm; the cock bird immediately spread 

 out his wiDgs as a covering, and kept them spread 

 until the shower was over. — Samuel W. Brenan, 

 Vicar of Gushendun. 



