HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



181 



Limnaa truncatula. Var. albida is said to have 

 been taken in Surrey. At Bickley I have found a 

 specimen with two broad whitish bands below the 

 periphery. One of my largest specimens is from a 

 small rivulet in Camden Park, Chislehurst, which is 

 dried up for the greater part of the year. L. trim* 

 catula is fossil at Crayford. 



Ancyhts Jluviatilis. In our district, at any rate, 

 this shell varies little except in size, and the same 

 may be said of A. lacustris. The latter species, 

 however, is occasionally compressed at the sides. 



T. D. A. COCKERELL. 

 (To be continued.) 



reaching description, his vigilance is indefatigable, 

 and let but pressing danger be apprehended, and lo I 

 he dives beneath the water with marvellous prompti- 

 tude and dexterity. Where is the sea-fowler that can 

 overmatch the astuteness and agility of this beautiful 

 bird ? The gun is presented, and well and truly 

 pointed ; the trigger is pulled, but ere the com- 

 paratively sluggish shot can reach its mark, the 

 creature has vanished — disappeared, as if by magic, 

 to nestle in the chambers of the deep, completely 

 out of sight and in security. 



During the dry and parching summer season, the 

 red-breasted merganser (for that is the name of this 



Fi° 



125.— Red-breasted Merganser [Mergus Merganser), Yarrell. (The larger bird after Morris.) 



THE RED-BREASTED MERGANSER. 

 By P. Q. Keegan, LL.D. 



ABOUT the period of the autumnal equinox, at 

 the time when the winds, let loose from their 

 summer-caves, sweep with wild and fitful fury over 

 land and sea, then away among the quiet, retired 

 recesses of some sheltered bay, there may frequently 

 be discerned a most beauteous sea-bird. Arrayed in 

 an apparel of the most gaudy and varied hues, with 

 neck and head and movement correspondingly 

 beautiful and graceful, the appearance and deport- 

 ment of this bird may challenge universal admiration. 

 His accomplishments, too, are by no means to be 

 despised. His sight is of the sharpest, most far- 



beauteous sea-bird) sojourns for the most part amid 

 the desolate solitudes of the Arctic regions. The 

 cares and anxieties attendant upon the breeding 

 duties harass him then ; but let no one suppose that, 

 at this time, his lot is unhappy and difficult to bear. 

 Let no one think that there he encounters no warmth 

 or geniality of climate, no green vegetation, no sunlit 

 skies or gleaming sea. We know that there is a 

 broad space around the pole — a "thrilling region of 

 thick ribbed ice " where, during certain months in 

 summer, the sun perpetually shines, his light never 

 fades, never gives way to night, though sometimes it 

 is seriously intercepted by fog, which, however, 

 chiefly occurs seaward ; he careers all day and night 

 in the heavens, and thereby concentrates such an 



