HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE- GO SSI P. 



213 



felsitic dykes intersecting the country for miles. 

 The mode of occurrence of granite in other localities 

 also seems to him to furnish evidence in the same 

 direction. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



The Polecat. — It was with great interest and 

 amusement that I perused the graphically described 

 yet ludicrous account of your correspondent, W. 

 Hambrough, in Science-Gossip, of an encounter 

 with that pugnacious little animal the Polecat. I 

 can corroborate his statement with regard to the 

 ferocity, irritability, and daring disposition of its 

 nature. In fact, it was lucky for his person that he 

 thought discretion the better part of valour, and 

 made at once a precipitate retreat, although it was 

 on the site where ancient deeds of valour were per- 

 formed, or else he would have had as tough a fight as 

 ever Roman and Briton had in mortal combat. I 

 was once staying at a house where they kept a pole- 

 cat (the last animal I should like to own). What with 

 the obnoxious odours that issued from its place of 

 confinement, and its rancorous inclination, it was a 

 task of considerable difficulty to approach within a 

 respectable distance of the animal, and still more so 

 to feed it, at which time it would stick up its back 

 in a curved position, making its fur almost stand on 

 end, at the same time hissing and spitting in a most 

 terrific manner ; and I often noticed, instead of 

 taking the food at once, it would make a desperate 

 snap at the leg or arm of the person who fed it. 

 After fruitless attempts to try and tame this wretched 

 beast, the owner was going to give it away, when 

 one day it made its escape and was never seen after. 

 I also remember being told some years ago by a 

 scientific gentleman, whom I happened to know at 

 the time, of a labourer being attacked by a polecat, 

 which in this case jumped upon his chest and clung 

 there, damaging his neck considerably, with the 

 dogged obstinacy of a bull-dog. He was not able 

 to extricate himself, till, with a well-aimed blow of 

 his stick, he felled the contumacious beast to the 

 earth— C. P. Hall, Woolwich. 



The Newt. — There seems to be a little uncer- 

 tainty in the minds of some of the contributors to 

 Science-Gossip with regard to the manner in which 

 the Newt lays her eggs. I can confirm " G. S.'s " 

 statement that they are laid singly. I have reared 

 large numbers of this amphibian from the ova, and 

 they have been invariably laid separately on the 

 leaves of Anacharis alsinastrum, the leaf being 

 folded round the egg to protect it, I should imagine, 

 from the sharp eyes of a hungry fish. At the present 

 time I have in the garden several females of the 

 Smooth Newt, who have, for the last two years and 

 a half, roamed about a fernery there, resolutely 

 declining to remain with their relatives in the 

 aquarium, although it is well stocked, I having for 

 several years adopted the plan (recommended by 

 " G. S." in your last) of never changing the water. 

 I should like to know if any of your readers have 

 experienced the same repugnance to an aquatic life 

 in this reptile. So far as my observation has ex- 

 tended, the habit is confined to the female; and in 

 ihose individuals that have pursued a terrestrial life 

 for some time the skin has a soft velvety appear- 

 ance. Have any of your readers observed any ten- 

 dency to cannibalism in the Newts ? Of those born 

 in my aquarium a large number were from time to 



time divested of their caudal appendages by their 

 adult kindred, and this, in most cases, resulted in 

 death. — E. Step, Southicark. 



Notes on the Aquarium. — " G. S." wishes me 

 to tell him whether I change the water in my 

 aquarium, and says that " most probably this very 

 change of water is one of the primary causes of 

 fatality" amongst fish and tadpoles. In answer to 

 this I can confidently state that the water had not 

 been changed since the aquarium was filled in 

 February, 1876. I certainly did occasionally take 

 about one quart of water out and replace it with 

 fresh, but I did this more for the purpose of getting 

 the dust off the surface of the water than for any- 

 thing else. I have never had any rock-work in my 

 aquarium, and I shall be glad if " G. S." will tell me 

 how I ought to arrange it, as I intend to put some 

 in. The statement which I made in reference to 

 the appearance of frog spawn a week earlier than 

 usual last year, was made upon the authority of an 

 acquaintance of mine, who saw some in a pond while 

 out botanizing on the 2nd or 3rd of April, 1876, 1 

 am not quite sure which of the two days it was. I 

 have not read " The Common Frog" through, but, 

 from what I did read during the short time 1 had it 

 in my possession, I can confidently recommend it 

 to all who take an interest in the study of our 

 British reptiles, and to young students especially. — 



h. a a m. 



Variety of the House Sparrow. — The follow- 

 ing extract from Mr. Cordeaux's "Birds of the 

 Humber District " (Van Voorst) will be of interest 

 to " C. H." and other readers of Science-Gossip :— 

 " Mr. Boulton, in Zoologist for 1865, page 9531, 

 speaks of a breed of black sparrows at Leven, in 

 Holderness, the males deep blackish brown, so 

 black as to be only distinguished from that colour 

 when in hand ; the females are a shade lighter, 

 young covered with slaty-black down. White and 

 party-coloured varieties also occasionally occur. A 

 common form is with more or less of the primaries 

 white."— W.G.B. P., Hull. 



The Clouded Yellow Butterfly (Colias 

 Edusa). — This elegant butterfly seems certainly to 

 be becoming commoner than formerly in the South 

 of England, an agreeable exception to what is 

 generally prevalent amongst British butterflies, the 

 rarer species of which have undergone a sad reduc- 

 tion these late years. In many fields about North 

 Kent it was pretty plentiful this summer, occasion- 

 ally appearing in company with the scarcer C. Hyale. 

 I do not know that there is now an increased produc- 

 tion of clover, else that might account for the 

 butterfly's thriving. Some specimens I saw on the 

 wing by a roadside on the last day of September 

 flew to languidly that I caught two with my fingers, 

 their demeanour being strangely in contrast with 

 the usual celerity of the species. It has been much 

 debated whether C. Edusa hybernates or dies off ere 

 the winter sets in. Ttie dilapidated appearance, 

 however, of late individuals rather suggests that they 

 had not vitality to carry them on to another season. 



—j. r.s. a 



Enormous Puff-balls.— Although the puff-ball 

 I described in the December number of Science- 

 Gossip seemed to me very large, I have since read a 

 description of some puff-balls of such a size that in 

 comparison with them my specimen was almost in- 

 significant. The description of them may be found 

 in the Zoologist for October, 1875, communicated by 

 John Sclater, Castle Eden, Durham. He says that 



