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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSir. 



aceous films. They are ornamented with a series of 

 pucker-like depressions when seen from theiuterior, 

 or with a number of wart-like eminences when 

 viewed externally. The latter are the scars of the 

 points of issue of the vascular bundles passing to the 

 leaves. Along the margins are seen spines or thorn- 

 like projections, which may be the leaves or their 

 bases ; these are apparently arranged in spiral rows. 

 Some stems appear to show dichotomous branching. 

 The authors discuss the relationships of these re- 

 mains with other described Devonian forms, and 

 regard them as most nearly allied to Psilophyton 

 princeps, Dawson. They describe the plant with 

 doubt as a species of Psilophyton. 



"Notes on the Diamond Eields, &c, of 

 South Africa." By E. J. Dunn, Esq.— These 

 notes are intended to serve as additions and cor- 

 rections to the author's paper read in 1S73. 

 Further mining operations at De Beer's show that 

 the "pipes" are more recent than the sheet of 

 dolerite and other intrusive rocks surrounding them. 

 At this mine the only instauce of a dyke traversing 

 the " pipe " occurs. Though the rock composing 

 it was too much decomposed to be determined, it 

 was still quite distinct. As the mines are worked 

 out they disclose a form less circular than at first 

 supposed. The first effect of the disruptive force 

 was to cause a rent in the rocks, the sides of which 

 were afterwards torn away in the weaker parts by 

 the intrusive rock until the present form resulted. 

 The " cores or pipes " have decomposed downwards, 

 being darker coloured and less decomposed at 80 

 or 100 feet from the surface and towards the centres. 

 Several small freshwater shells were discovered in 

 Kimberley Mine, in an apparently undisturbed 

 deposit. Gold is mined for at Leydenburg and 

 Eersteliug, in the Transvaal Republic. The rocks 

 in which it occurs are generally barren-looking, and 

 vary very much in strike. The alluvial gold at 

 Leydenburg has doubtless been supplied from two 

 distinct sources ; it is coarse and nuggety as a rule, 

 well rounded, and generally coated with oxide of 

 iron. Lumps up to 10 lb. weight have been found ; 

 it is of good quality, worth from 76 fr. to SO fr. 

 per oz. The auriferous rocks at Ecrsteling are 

 steatitic and chloritic schist resting on gneiss, and 

 overlain by rocks which at Leydenburg are auri- 

 ferous. Cobalt is found near Oliphant River, in 

 fine-grained felsite rocks. It does not occur in 

 lodes, but in small threads and lenticular veins, 

 running parallel to a dyke of fine-grained dolerite. 

 The widest vein of ore was 8 inches thick. More 

 than 100 tons of ore have been sent to London. 



"The crystalline lens of the eye, which is soft in 

 quadrupeds and cartilaginous in fishes, is very solid 

 in the cephalopoda." 



NOTES AND QUERIES- 



A Tame Cuckoo. — A fortnight ago a friend sent 

 me a young cuckoo, which he said would be from 

 two to three months old. It appeared very healthy, 

 and fully feathered, with the exception of the tail, 

 which was short. I kept it in a cage several days, 

 and then sent it by my brother-in-law right 

 away into the country to be liberated. The farm- 

 house where he resides stands alone in the fields, 

 having a small wood about 150 j r ards distant. 

 Directly he arrived at home, he at once went to the 

 wood and liberated the bird, and then returned to 

 the house ; but in less than half an hour afterwards, 

 to the surpriseof all, the bird flew through the 

 open doorway into the kitchen, and would not 

 leave. It fed itself by picking up crumbs or any- 

 thing that fell in its way, and finished by giving up 

 the ghost on the fourth day. — </. B. P. 



The Cuckoo's Eggs. — Mr. Taylor is not singular 

 in the opinion that the cuckoo has the power of 

 laying eggs similar in colour to those of the species 

 in whose nest she_ lays. In 1S53, Dr. Baldamus 

 published a paper, in which he maintained that the 

 eggs of the cuckoo partake of the colour of the 

 foster parents. However, this opinion has not been 

 confirmed by subsequent investigation, and it has 

 been found that the eggs of the cuckoo vary less in 

 colour than those of most other birds of passage. 

 Birds have little discrimination as to the colour 

 or character of their eggs, and ^he barn-door fowl 

 will sit on chalk eggs, duck eggs, pheasant, par- 

 tridge, guinea fowl, or even goose eggs, as I have 

 seen the latter frequently hatched by a hen. I 

 dare say the same will apply to any other fowls. 

 Many years ago I observed a magpie's nest in an 

 ash-tree; I removed her eggs, and substituted those 

 of a barn-door fowl, which were duly hatched by 

 the magpie, and the chicks were afterwards removed 

 by me, and reared without difficulty. Although the 

 eggs of the cuckoo may be deposited in the nests of 

 all the kinds mentioned by Mr. J. S. Copeman, 

 yet the nest of the Meadow Pipit appears to be 

 its favourite, at least in the north of England, as 

 more than half the number of the eggs are found in 

 the nest of this species. Some of the nests in which 

 the eggs of the cuckoo are deposited are so small 

 that it is impossible for it to enter ; for instance, 

 that of the Willow Wren whose nest, is domed, and 

 the entrance at the side so small as to be just 

 of sufficient size to permit the wren to pass in and 

 out. Dr. Jenner mentions a case, in Montagu's 

 " Ornithological Dictionary," of a cuckoo's egg 

 being found in a Wagtail's nest, in a hole under the 

 eaves of a cottage, in which the difficulty is just as 

 great as in the case of the eggs in the Willow Wren's 

 nest. Now, the question arises how are the 

 cuckoo's eggs deposited in nests where it is quite 

 impossible for that bird to enter ? The naturalist 

 Vaillant obtained pretty satisfactory evidence that 

 one at least of the African cuckoos carries the eggs 

 in her bill. It is therefore evident that such must 

 be the case with our European species. When the 

 egg of the cuckoo is deposited in the nest of another 

 bird, it always happens that the young of the foster 

 parents are thrown out a day or two after they are 

 hatched ; and the cuckoo being at that period quite 

 naked and without even down upon it, one would 

 naturally suppose that it had not the power to 

 accomplish such a feat. Yet such appears to be the 

 case. Dr. Jenner published an account of this per- 



