7° 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



This at once explains the whole matter, and it ought 

 to have occurred to me before, as I have read about 

 its habits, but never had the opportunity of observing 

 them. The same gentleman, who is well acquainted 

 with these little animals, gives the following account 

 of their mode of feeding. "I have often seen the 

 shrew diving for large specimens of Limne^a 

 auricularia and Planorbis coriicus ; and the heaps of 

 shells I sometimes come across, testified to the 

 success of their efforts. They also dive for the 

 caddis-worm, of which they are very fond, bringing 

 each one separately to the bank and devouring it, 

 then diving for another. I have frequently watched 

 them when thus engaged. Their appearance under 

 water, like that of the water-spider, resembles a ball 

 of silver." I therefore beg to publicly withdraw my 

 insinuations against the character of the water vole, 

 and thus leave it no ground for an action for libel. — • 

 F. Haywood Parrot, Aylesbury. 



Beetles' Burrows. — On turning over a stone, 

 which lay on the roadside, in the month of September 

 last, I noticed two holes in the ground similar to 

 those made by dor beetles under patches of cow and 

 horse dung, and on digging into them, I found in 

 each a specimen of Gcotmpcs stcrcorarins. Perhaps 

 some reader will kindly inform me whether these 

 beetles are in the habit of making burrows under 

 stones, as well as beneath dung. — R. W. Goulding. 



Birds Killed on Telegraph Wires.— It seems 

 to be a fact that many of our birds must perish by 

 knocking themselves against the telegraph wires when 

 they are flying at night ; the wires being unseen by 

 them. In the summer of 1870, when wandering at 

 night, I started a flock of partridges, which in their 

 rapid flight from me struck themselves with great 

 force against a set of five telegraph wires, making the 

 wires bend considerably, and several of the birds fell 

 to the ground. What was the fate of those birds 

 that fell I did not search to see, as the wires were 

 within a railway enclosure ; but I could hear them 

 give out their wounded cries of suffering from pain. 

 During the last autumn I examined two birds of the 

 family Scolopacidae that were killed on telegraph 

 wires in this neighbourhood. One of these was a 

 woodcock {Scolopax rusticola), and the other a jack- 

 snipe [Scolopax gallinitla). The woodcock was found 

 dead on the morning of the 7th of November, 1SS4, 

 and the jacksnipe on the 13th of NovemlxT. Both 

 these birds in general rest during the day and come 

 forth during the night ; but in the case of the jack- 

 snipe it is believed that they rest a portion of the 

 night, and fly in the mornings and evenings, except 

 when the moon is very clear. The nocturnal habit 

 of the woodcock is well made out, and the fact is well 

 known to lighthouse keepers : the woodcock in flights 

 reach our coasts by night, and in their bewilderment 

 with the light of the lighthouse, they are taken by the 

 keepers. Flights of them continue to come for seven 

 or eight nights in succession, and hundreds perish by 

 striking against the lamps. At first thought it appears 

 strange that these night-flying birds should strike them- 

 selves against telegraph wires and be killed ; but an 

 examination of my meteorological register shows 

 that on both nights when the birds were killed fog 

 prevailed. A dissection of the two birds showed 

 their wounds to be on the same parts of their body, 

 viz., the base of the bill, back and wing. The birds 

 had been in perfect health, and were very fat, and 

 the gizzards in both were about empty ; but the in- 

 testines were full of chyle. The total weight of the 

 woodcock was ten ounces three drams, which is a 

 light bird when compared with Dalgleish's weights 



of the woodcock shot at Gartincaber, near Doune, 

 Perthshire, between i860 and 1870, the average being 

 between 11 and 12 ounces ; the heaviest 14J ounces, 

 and lightest 75 ounces. Whether the death of the 

 woodcock or the jacksnipe on the telegraph wires is 

 the most remarkable, it is difficult to hazard an 

 opinion. The flight of the jacksnipe is wavering, 

 somewhat bat-like, but swift ; and it can turn on 

 wing with the utmost ease ; but the night when the 

 specimen under consideration was killed, the fog was 

 remarkable. In the afternoon and evening it was 

 calm, very humid, rain-drops hanging on every twig, 

 and the Valley of the Clyde was covered by a dense 

 nimbus cloud that was only a few feet from the 

 ground, a circumstance that naturally causes birds to 

 fly near the earth. That afternoon, when out about 

 four o'clock, I witnessed a flock of lapwings and 

 rooks nearly get entangled in the telegraph wires, 

 and these birds were accustomed to flying in the 

 same locality. The jacksnipe is but a winter visitor, 

 being here only between October and April, and 

 none of them ever remain with us to breed. The 

 woodcock is abundant with us in winter. In the 

 autumn of 1883 it was very abundant in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Johnstone Castle, and in the last autumn 

 it was more abundant there than it has been for the 

 last seven years. The woodcock breeds in this 

 neighbourhood, and has also been observed doing so 

 from Wigtonshire to the Orkney Islands. On the 

 night when the woodcock was killed, the fog was not 

 remarkably dense. — Taylor, Sub-Curator, 'AIusciuii, 

 Paisley. 



Tomatoes. — The fact that insects avoid ground 

 where tomatoes are planted is well known. Indeed, 

 our cucumber-frames and marrow-beds always have 

 a row of tomatoes planted in them, to preserve the- 

 vegetables from insects. — C. F. W. 



Lion and Tiger. — Mr. Brenan's curious note on 

 the Felidae (p. 46) will, I am afraid, not bear much 

 serious criticism. It is to be regretted that in dis- 

 cussing a question of classification, in which accuracy 

 of definition is of the first moment, the terms "genus, ' 

 " family," and " class," should have been used as con- 

 vertible synonyms. The position of the lion in the 

 zoological scale is briefly this : Class, Mammalia ; 

 Order, Carnivora ; Family, Felidse ; Genus, Leo. 

 Taking it for granted that the class and order are 

 not called into question, although it is literally 

 contended that lions should have a separate class, we 

 may premise that the basis of classification is 

 structural intimacy, rather than similarity of habit 

 and appearance. It will therefore be clear that the 

 family is rightly chosen, as the only, or at any rate 

 the chief digitigrade carnivorous families besides the 

 Felidse (cats), are the Canidse (dogs) and the 

 Mustelidse (weasels). ■ The comparative scarcity ot 

 molars and premolars, and the presence of recurved 

 papilla; on the tongue — typical of the lion — are two of 

 the most unmistakable marks of the Felidre. 

 Dealing with the points of difference referred to, it 

 may easily be shown that as departures from the 

 normal type, they are not confined to the lion. He 

 is charged with not having (a) the power to climb. 

 But the tiger, an undoubted feline, is no climber. 

 (/') A retractile claw. But, granting this to be true, 

 and it is open to grave doubt, the claw of the cheetah 

 (Gucparda jiibata) is, on the authority of many, only 

 partially retractile, if at all. (<) A sylvan halm. 

 But this is the case, to much the same extent, with the 

 puma (Leopardus concolor). (d) A marked skin. 

 But the puma is only so marked in infancy, acquiring 

 with age a skin as plain as the lion's. In fact one 



