HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE- GO S SI P. 



270 



for this purpose, being in the shape of a wedge, 

 the thin edge of which they get under the bird they 

 want to get rid of, and when it is fairly on its 

 back they throw it overboard. Often have I found 

 a young cuckoo by my eye being caught by a dead 

 nestling at the bottom of a hed^e or ditch. Cuckoos 

 in general lay their eggs on the ground, and after- 

 wards carry them in their bill to the nest they 

 wish to place them in. I have often been brought 

 to see a "cuckoo's nest," and always found that 

 it was a sparrovvhawk's nest, a hen sparrowhawk 

 and a cuckoo being very similar. A young cuckoo 

 is fed quite differently to the young of any other 

 bird that I have seen. Its tongue being a flat 

 movable table that it can shove in and out at plea- 

 sure, on this table the foster-parent places the 

 food, and never in the young bird's mouth. Young 

 cuckoos are very easily reared, and make good pets, 

 but invariably die in the winter if kept in confine- 

 ment— (?. H. K. 



The Cuckoo's Eggs. — I formerly had good 

 opportunities of observing the habits of the cuckoo, 

 having been born in a country-place where ; there 

 were a great many of those birds. I do not think 

 the cuckoo can " voluntarily influence the character 

 of her eggs." I am rather of opinion that she lays 

 eggs of divers colours, and that when she has laid 

 one, and after she has seen it, she carries it in her 

 bill to the nest of some other bird whose eggs corre- 

 spond most nearly in colour to her own, and therein 

 deposits it. Sue may not always find an egg exactly 

 like hers, so takes that which is nearest ; and many 

 birds are not at all particular as to what they sit 

 upon. The cuckoo generally chooses a nest of 

 large birds. I never knew an instance of a young 

 cuckoo being found in a wren's nest. — John Carrie, 

 Bolton. 



The Colias Edusa. — The county of Dorset fur- 

 nishes many a locality in which this charming insect 

 is usually common ; but in this respect there is so 

 much difference in seasons that we cannot resist a 

 trifle of gossip upon the subject. It will be remem- 

 bered that, last year (1S75) the summer was remark- 

 ably wet and unsettled, it was then a matter of 

 difficulty to meet with a specimen in a long journey. 

 How different it has been with the present hot and 

 dry season may be judged from the fact that on the 

 very morning of our writing no less than eighteen 

 specimens were captured in about an hour. While 

 residing in Dorsetshire, we have observed that the 

 frequency or unf'requency of the Colias is a matter 

 of temperature, as we have observed that in wet 

 and cold summers it has been difficult to procure 

 specimens, while in our summers of drought they 

 are always abuudant. — J. Buckman. 



Colias .Edusa. — With reference to the remark 

 of your correspondent, Ed. Lovett, that Colias 

 Edusa does not hybernate, I wish to inform him that 

 a specimen of this insect, much battered, was taken 

 on a road near Winchester in the beginning of June 

 this year. — Frank Johns, Winton. 



Large Bream.— Though the bream your corre- 

 spondent, "A. P.," describes was, without doubt, a 

 fine fish, still I should not consider it out of the 

 common, more especially had it been caught in a 

 pond, instead of the Trent, 'lhere are mauy ac- 

 counts on record of very tine bream having been 

 caught. In one of our smaller works on angling, 

 which, however, has gained a name for its accuracy 

 and truthfulness, is mentioned the fact, that " In 

 the north of Europe this fish [the Bream] has been 



known to reach the weight of twenty pounds ; and 

 in 1749 there were taken at a single draught, out of 

 a large lake in Sweden, five thousand bream, the 

 aggregate weight of which was 18,000 lb. We have 

 ourselves caught them four or five pounds _ in 

 weight, and have heard of other people catching 

 them still larger; but this size is by no means 

 general."— (See "Angling.; or, How to Angle and 

 Where to go," by Robert Blakey, p. SI.') The fol- 

 lowing I take from a book now, I suppose^ seldom 

 met with ; namely, " The Art of Angling," by R. 

 Brookes, M.D. My edition, which is the seventh, 

 bears date 1790. Under the head of Bream the 

 Doctor says: — " Gesner tells us he saw one that 

 was a yard long and two feet broad ; another was 

 caught with angling in the Mersey, which weighed 

 nine pounds." Though an angler myself, I have 

 never had any sport with bream, nor do I think I 

 should care to, as long as we have so many other 

 freshwater fish that f?ive really good sport. While 

 angling at Nailsea Ponds, near Bristol, last Whit- 

 Tuesday, I saw a man land a very nice bream, which 

 weighed by my scale 2r lb., and was considered by 

 all preseut to be a very nice fish. Few writers 

 speak well of the Bream from a cook's point of 

 view, though our good old father, Izaak Walton, in 

 his first edition of " The Complete Augler," speak- 

 ing of the Bream, says, " He is by Gesner taken to 

 be more pleasant or sweet than wholesome." — (See 

 the fac-simile reprint of the first edition of " The 

 Complete Angler," p. 174, recently published by 

 Elliot Stock, 62, Paternoster-row, E.C.— Charles 

 Williams, Redland. 



Black-and-white Crows (?)— Early this month, 

 as I was walking through the park of one of our 

 neighbours, I was surprised to see what I at first 

 thought was a speckled Hamburg hen pecking 

 about on the grass amongst a number of crows. 

 Approaching nearer, I saw it was a black-and- 

 white crow, most beautifully marked, in large spots 

 of black and white, all over its body. On my get- 

 ting close to it, it flew away. Anxious to see it 

 again, I followed the crows for some distance across 

 the park, and saw it once more on the grass amongst 

 the flock 1 had disturbed. On returning home, and 

 saying what I had seen, I could see it was thought 

 1 had made a mistake; but to my great delight, 

 about a fortnight afterwards, as three of us were 

 driving on the high road, with the park on our 

 right, and some fields on the left hand, the coachman 

 suddenly made an exclamation, and, pointing with 

 his whip, we saw amongst a number of crows my 

 black-and-white one. it flew just in front of the 

 horse's head, from the fields into the park, so we 

 had a good view of it. It is rather smaller than the 

 black crow, but is an exceedingly handsome bird, 

 the white spots contrasting so startlingly with the 

 black. Would you kindly let me know, through 

 the medium of Science-Gossip, whether or not 

 black-and-white crows are of rare occurrence? — 

 F. M. C. Whittaker. 



Land Shells. — During a recent tour on the 

 Continent in August and September, 1876, I 

 found the following shells : — Helix arbustorum and 

 H. obvoluta,sX the falls of the Rhine; the latter 

 also in the neighbourhood of Thusis. //. lapicida, 

 in Gorge de Trient, Vernayaz ; //. rupestris and 

 Pupa avenacea together, in abundance on a sunny 

 wall near luterlaken ; II. pomatia, common; I 

 found a fine specimen at Kohleren, near Thuu ; also 

 another close to the celebrated falls of the Pisse- 

 vache, Vernayaz. — //. /. Taylor. \ 



