Jan. 1, 1S70.J 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



ZOOLOGY. 



Cats. — In your Notes and Queries of last month 

 you gave some curious instances of sagacity in cats. 

 I can add a few which may amuse as well as in- 

 struct some of your readers. I give cats credit for 

 more power of thought than is usually believed in. 

 Eor instance, a friend of mine, in this neighbourhood, 

 has a young dog and a cat. Puss was left totally 

 without education, but the puppy, I suppose, 

 because he was considered a more promising pupil, 

 received careful instruction in the art of begging. 

 Now, the fact I wish to record is this, that the cat, 

 without any teaching, and simply from observation, 

 discovered that that was a means of obtaining food, 

 and took to sitting up too. Another case seems so 

 improbable that I suppose many will doubt its 

 truth. Indeed, I would not believe it myself until 

 I had seen the performance with my own eyes. 

 Several months ago I was dining with a relative at 

 Wandsworth Common, and the dining-room door 

 being open I heard a single knock at the garden- 

 door. This was repeated several times, and one of 

 the family remarked, " there is Tib." My relatives 

 were used to this knocking, and they thought no 

 more of it than that it was an amusing habit ; but 

 it seemed to me so remarkable that I made inquiries 

 about the animal. She was a young thing just 

 arrived at cat-hood, had never been taught, and no 

 one can say how she first acquired the habit ; but 

 when she wants to come in from the garden, and 

 finds the door closed, she always knocks once, and 

 repeats the knock more and more rapidly until 

 answered. The door has glass in the upper part, so 

 the knocker is low, and she just reaches it by stand- 

 ing on her hind feet ; she leans one fore-paw against 

 the door, and uses the knocker with the other (as 

 the maids say) like a " Christian." She continues 

 the habit to the present time, having grown up and 

 become the mother of some promising kittens. If 

 not trespassing too much on your space, I might 

 mention a singular accident which befel a cat of 

 mine a few weeks ago. At my premises, in London, 

 my foreman has a fine cat which was noticed to be 

 in a very miserable condition one day, evidently in 

 great pain, and having what the men thought to be 

 a worm protruding from one nostril. She was 

 caught, and after a good deal of pulling, as you 

 may imagine, this was got out, and proved to be a 

 rat's tail, minus the skin, but otherwise intact. She 

 must have bolted this, big end first, and her stomach 

 rejecting it, it passed up the throat, but was 

 " shunted " on to the wrong line, and so passed into 

 the nostril, where it became fixed. It just strikes 

 me that some of your sceptical readers may 

 designate this a still greater proof of feline sagacity, 

 inasmuch as the cat rejected a tail she could not 

 swallow. — James Yogan. 



Richard's Pipit in Norfolk. — Through the 

 kindness of Mr. Gunn, a bird-stuffer in this city, 

 I had the opportunity, a few days since, of ex 

 amiuing a beautiful adult male Richard's Pipit in 

 the flesh. It was killed on, or a day or two before, 

 the 3rd December, near Yarmouth, whence so many 

 rare birds have been obtained, and is, I believe, the 

 fifth Norfolk example on record, all of which oc- 

 curred about the same locality on the following 

 dates: -22nd November, 1841; April, 1842; 21th 

 April, 1843; 28th December, 1866, and 3rd Decem- 

 ber, 1869. Its stomach (like the 1842 and 1S43 

 birds) contained the remains of Coleoptera, one 

 small species of ladybird being entire ; it weighed 

 200 grains (19 grains less than half an ounce). As 

 the measurements of this species, given by various 

 authorities, differ so considerably,— Macgillivray 

 stating the total length, from bill to tail, to be 6| ; 

 Yarrell, 6| ; Morris, 6|, 7i, Th, and 8 inches ; and 

 Mr. Fisher (Zool. O.S., p. ISP), Ik and 7f — the 

 last two measurements being those of the 1842-3 

 birds mentioned above,— I append the principal 

 measurements of the two most recent Norfolk 

 specimens, taken in the flesh (and not from skins or 

 stuffed specimens, as I fear some of the others 

 were), adding for comparison the corresponding 

 measurements of the other three species of pipit as 

 taken by Mr. Gunn, also from birds in the flesh.— 

 J. Southwell, Norwich, December, 1869. 



[As we never insert tables or lists under any 

 circumstances, the table alluded to is omitted-.— 

 Ed. S. <?.] 



Longtailed Titmouse (Pants caudatus, 

 Linn.).— This species is widely distributed in 

 Turkey in Asia Minor and Europe. They are 

 scarce in numbers, and not many of them have yet 

 been taken. This bird is much lighter on the crown 

 of the head and front than the bird found generally 

 in South-western Europe ; the , young are also 

 lighter in colour. They are similar in habit and are 

 found in the same localities as the South-western 

 bird, and are constant residents in Turkey.— The 

 Levant Times. 



Laurel-berries for Destroying Thrips.— 

 Two years ago, when discussing with a clever prac- 

 tical man the merits of the various known and sug- 

 gested remedies for the destruction of the thrips, 

 he said that once he had bruised a quantity of 

 laurel-leaves in a house occupied with specimen 

 Azaleas, and the action of the poison disengaged in 

 the process of bruising had such an effect upon him 

 as to produce stupefaction, and render him incapa- 

 ble of getting out of the house without assistance. 

 The effect upon the Azaleas was even more disas- 

 trous, for they lost all their leaves, and several 

 plants were a long time in recovering from the 

 injury received. The thrips were killed certainly, 



