HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE- GOS SIP. 



2G3 



Large Bream.— On Thursday, May 4, I bought f 

 a 4 lb. bream which had been taken out of the 

 Trent, at Keadby, the day before. It was the 

 largest, finest, and best-fed fish of the kind I had 

 ever seen. When cooked, its flavour far surpassed 

 that of fishpond-fed bream. The. Trent has been 

 long famous for its salmon ; if it could produce 

 mauy bream of this kind, it would be soon famous 

 for it also. Is not this an unusual size for a 

 bream ?— A. P. 



Singular-looking Stones near Tichborne. 

 —I accompanied a party of friends to some races 

 held on Tichborne Down several weeks ago. 

 "We drove from Petersfield, and a large heap 

 of stones was pointed out to me as the memorable 

 " cairn " mentioned in the trial ; but I was more 

 struck with the appearance of some enormous 

 blocks which stood on a waste piece of ground 

 on the other side of the turnpike road. They were 

 placed in a circle, forming a kind of cromlech or 

 Druidical temple (on a small scale of course), each 

 big transverse block being supported by two or 

 three smaller upright ones. I should much like to 

 know the history of this Hampshire monument — 

 Helen E. Watney. 



Culverkeys — In reply to W. G. Piper's 

 question, Science-Gossip, page 118, I would beg 

 to sav that the " couplet ^identifying Culverkeys 

 with Pigeon Peas," appeared a few weeks ago in the 

 Staffordshire Advertiser, published at Stafford, the 

 birthplace of Isaak Walton. The paragraph further 

 stated that there was some reason as well as rhyme 

 in the two lines — 



" Culverkeys, Culverkeys, 

 Why they are Pigeon Peas." 



Culver being, as before stated, the Anglo-Saxon 

 for a pigeon, and key is a seed-vessel, and the 

 flowers of the vetches are for the most part blue, 

 " azure." The wild pigeons feed on vetches, which 

 are of the same natural order as the "pea" ; there- 

 fore, we presume, it may be more than probable 

 that Isaak Walton alluded, as suggested in the 

 extract, to the tufted vetch, when he spoke of 

 " azure culverkeys," instead of the " tuberous pea" 

 (Orobus tuberosus), as formerly stated in Science- 

 Gossip, page 94. Vicia cracca, the tufted vetch, is 

 called in Gaelic " Pessair luch-na-coille." Dr. Plot, 

 in his " Natural History of Staffordshire " (p. 204), 

 says, "that the tufted and wood vetch advance 

 starven or weak cattle above anything yet known." 

 The " Gentle Angler" mentions the word "culver- 

 keys " twice in the " Complete Angler" ; first in 

 the lines alluded to in Science - Gossip (p. 94), 

 where they occur at the end of the first chapter 

 of his book, and then again in the fifteenth 

 chapter, where, as alluded to by Dr. Johnson in his 

 Dictionary, it is said, "Looking down the 

 meadows, I could see here a boy gathering lilies 

 and ladysmocks, and there a girl cropping culver- 

 keys and cowslips, to make suitable garlands to 

 this present month of May." I venture here to 

 remark that all the flowers named in the lines 

 quoted from the "Complete Angler," Science- 

 Gossip [(p. 94), may be found flowering in May. 

 The present "data" in my possession will not 

 allow of more being now said on the subject of 

 these interesting plants ; perhaps opportunity may 

 arise for doing so at a future time. — E. Edwards. 



Age op Eels.— Can you, or any of your readers, 

 tell me how many years eels are supposed to live ? 



I have had one, the common sharp-nosed eel 

 (Anguilla acutirostris), in my aquarium upwards 

 of twenty years, and although it has often, when 

 the aquarium has been too full of water, got out 

 at night, and been found in the morning stiff and 

 dry upon the hall floor ; it seems as if it would live 

 another twenty years, for it is as fresh and vigorous 

 as ever. Its meals have been irregular enough to 

 have killed it a dozen times ; for with the excep- 

 tion of what it gets out of the water, and a minnow 

 or stickleback or two, it is not often fed ; but when 

 it does get a worm it seems to have great satisfac- 

 tion, retiring beneath the shingle, with its head just 

 above the bottom, it lies quietly for a day or two 

 while digestion goes on. It will swallow a worm 

 eight or nine inches long, with a relish, providing it 

 be fresh and clean, free from slime, and not breed- 

 ing. It prefers to swallow it head first, for when 

 it takes it by the tail it will sometimes disgorge it, 

 and wait an opportunity to seize it by the head. 

 What the poor worm thinks of the process I often 

 wonder, for it can be seen through the skin of the 

 eel wriggling about in the stomach in a most 

 uncomfortable manner. During the twenty years 

 it has been in the aquarium, it has grown about 

 seventeen inches ; it was about three inches 

 when first put in, and is now twenty inches long, 

 and weighs only 2i ounces. It is too large now for 

 its home, but I am very reluctant to part with it, 

 and as 1 should like it to die in the cradle of its 

 youth, among its old associates, minnows, carp, 

 sticklebacks, roach, &c, 1 shall be glad to know 

 how long it may be expected to live. — Ben Plant. 



Birds' Eggs. — In reply to the query of 

 " E. B. T.", 1 beg to offer my opinion. I should 

 think the egg in question is probably a starling's, 

 laid by it, after its nest had been taken, and it has 

 been obliged to lay it in the place found by your 

 correspondent. I have frequently found starlings', 

 blackbirds', and wheatears' eggs under similar con- 

 ditions : the colour might be occasioned by ex- 

 posure to the weather, as a wheatear's, which I 

 found on an old wall, was as white as snow, and 

 deformed.-!?. E. B. 



How to Manage a Eormicary. — Three or four 

 days ago I stocked my formicary with the Formica 

 nigra taken from a large nest, found in the some- 

 what sandy soil of the kitchen garden. In about half 

 an hour after their introduction, they set to work 

 excavating in every direction, so that in an hour or 

 two all the eggs and cocoons had disappeared below 

 the surface. Their exertions are continued night 

 and day, so that the soil is in many places quite 

 honeycombed. Every morning, however, I find 

 fresh occupants of the water surrounding their 

 domicile. I have not observed any attempting to 

 commit suicide, and they could not have been 

 washed overboard. At intervals they carry the 

 corpses and drop them over the sides of the landing, 

 just as they occasionally do with the pieces of 

 earth. I think it is that they do not eat sufficiently. 

 They have refused everything yet tried. Lump 

 sugar, a former correspondent in your columns 

 suggested, flies, raw flesh, meat, earwigs, which 

 I have often seen them struggling with in their old 

 haunts, fruits, &c. One or two appear to relish 

 their dead relations, but they are few and far 

 between. I should be glad if you could give me 

 any information through the medium of your 

 columns, as their interesting movements amuse my 

 leisure, and I should be loth to part with them or 

 lose them.— F. C. 



