Oct. 1, 1S70.] 



HARWDICKE'S SCIENCE GOSSIP. 



233 



sailed Narbonne honey be genuine, and be not 

 common honey flavoured with oil of Neroli. If, 

 then, ice can detect difference of perfume in honey, 

 it is quite possible that bees, whose chief business 

 of life is the collection of honey, should perceive 

 differences of smell that are quite inappreciable to 

 us ; and that, carrying about with them a peculiar 

 odour of the first honey they collect, they should 

 only stop at such flowers as have a similar perfume. 

 This would be one way of accounting for the 

 strange instinct that has been observed. 



On the same page (215), I see that Mr. McIIine 

 records the fact of bees decidedly moving from one 

 species, or even genus, to another. No doubt they 

 sometimes do so ; and it may be that, during this 

 exceptionally dry season, scarcity of food may have 

 induced them to do this. Bees are in bad plight ; 

 try them with some sugar and water, and see how 

 they will crowd around it, even whilst you are feed- 

 ing them. Thus they may be driven by necessity 

 to visit any kind of flower that comes in their way. 

 — Robed Holland. 



Queen of Spain Fritillary. — I am not aware 

 that a specimen of Argynis Lathonia (the Queen of 

 Spain Fritillary) has ever been taken in this neigh- 

 bourhood, until I had the pleasure of capturing a 

 very good specimen on the lltli Sept. It was sun- 

 ning itself on a flower of the Scabious in a cornfield 

 at the edge of a wood, about a mile from hence. 

 Being a young collector, I was somewhat doubtful 

 ef my prize, until I had shown it to a neighbour 

 much more experienced. As this butterfly is rare 

 as "a native," I think you may possibly like to 

 notice my capture in the next number of Science- 

 Gossip. — John G. Butler, Hungerford, Berks. 



Swarji of Beetles. — The town of Leicester is 

 in a state of siege ; we are beleaguered by millions 

 ©f small beetles ; and, as our town is an " open " one, 

 we have not been able to keep them out of our 

 streets ; but we are resolved to conquer or die ! We 

 are trampling the invaders under our feet ; 

 thousands perish daily ; the flagged foot-pavements 

 are spotted everywhere with coleopterous blood. In 

 the fields outside the town, the air is filled with 

 Lilliputian armies. The little plagues, about a quarter 

 of an inch long, black-headed and brown-winged, 

 with pale legs and short antennae, creep into your 

 beard, and tickle your cheeks, and settle all over 

 you, and if you open your mouth to speak, silence 

 you in a very unpleasant manner. The name of our 

 enemy appears to be Aphodius sphacelates, one of 

 the smaller dung-beetles.— T. T. Moll. 



D. Galii and D. Livornica at Brighton.— 

 The very warm summer seems to have been favour- 

 able to these moths, the capture of specimens of 

 which are recorded from all parts. As far as I can 

 find by inquiry, about nine or ten of each have been 



taken in or about Brighton and Lewes. I have 

 also heard of their larvae which have turned out fine 

 moths. As often happens, the captures have in most 

 cases been made by little boys. — T. W. Won/or, 

 Brighton. 



Age of the Salmon. — On the 28th of July last, 

 a salmon, twenty-nine pounds in weight and four 

 and a half feet long, was caught in the Stoke nets 

 on the sandy coast of Belhelvie, seven miles north 

 of Aberdeen. On each side of the body, a little in 

 advance of the tail, was a depression of the size of 

 a sixpence, and destitute of scales. The depressions 

 were opposite each other, and the substance of the 

 fish between them was so thick as to be quite 

 opaque when held up to the light. Suspecting this 

 to be an artificially-marked fish, I wrote to Mr. 

 Marshall, of the Stormontfield Salmon - breeding 

 Ponds on the Tay, near Perth. He has no doubt, 

 from the description sent, that the fish in question 

 had been bred in the Stormontfield ponds. It is 

 now seven years since smolts were marked before 

 being let into the Tay. For two or three years 

 before this they were marked with a small silver 

 ring put through the fish just above the tail, but none 

 have ever been heard of as having been caught with 

 the ring in situ. The fish caught on the Belhelvie 

 coast must be eight or nine years old, and must 

 have migrated along at least seventy miles of coast. 

 Some years ago, a good many of the Stormontfield 

 smolts were marked by cutting off the dead fin. 

 Many of these, so marked, were caught afterwards 

 as grilses or salmon. Most of them returned to the 

 Tay, but some were caught in the Forth and Tweed, 

 and on the Aberdeenshire coast. — Alexander Cruiclc- 

 shank. 



Colour in Frogs. — One of my pet frogs having 

 died this morning, I take the opportunity of writing 

 to mention an unusual circumstance concerning him. 

 He came into my possession from Maresfield, in Sus- 

 sex, on July 8th, 18G7, and was originally, like the 

 Wedding Guest in the "Ancient Mariner," "one of 

 three." Of this noble triumvirate, one soon went to 

 the shades, another still survives ; but of neither of 

 them is there anything remarkable to record. My 

 recently departed friend, however, some time after 

 he had been with me, underwent a singular change 

 of colour ; his breast and throat became of a bright 

 red-brown or chestnut hue, not unlike that some- 

 times seen in a cow. It was so vivid that he always 

 went by the name of "the Bobiu." For some months 

 after his capture, he showed no peculiarity of tint, 

 but as he grew from a small to a rather large frog, 

 especially in width, this bright colour developed. 

 He was a favourite from his tameness, sitting con- 

 tentedly on the hand, and eating anything that was 

 given him, besides a good deal that was meant for 

 his companions. — G. Guyon, Vent nor. 



