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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Natural History Notes. — Autumn Primroses. 

 — On November 2, 1882, while driving between 

 Cushendun and Cushendall, I observed a Prim- 

 rose in flower ; it was growing on a bank (facing 

 west), by the roadside. Seasonable Notes. — Starling 

 singing October 8, 1882, Cushendun. Thrush singing 

 in Leeson Park, Dublin, December 3, 1882. 1883 ; 

 Cushendun, frog-spawn, February I. Snowdrops 

 and hepaticas, January 16. Ribes bursting into leaf, 

 January 25. January 31, fuchsias, and hawthorn 

 showing signs of vegetation. February 8. gooseberries 

 sprouting. February 10, hazel catkins bursting into 

 il., and primroses and dandelion in fl. February 12, 

 crocus in fl. 23rd, celandine and coltsfoot in fl., 

 Daffodils in fl., February 22. Ribes in fl., February 

 21. House-fly and blue-bottle seen, February 26. 

 Specimens of tortoise and white-butterflies seen (in 

 houses where they seemingly hybernate), in January 

 and February. Swifts seen, September 2, r882, at 

 Cushendun. Cuckoo seen near the Rock, co. Tyrone, 

 September 9, 1882. — S. A. Brenan. 



Pond Life in Winter. — I wish to add my 

 testimony to that of the Rev. H. Carrington Lake 

 that there is abundance of (microscopic) life in ponds 

 during the winter months. For several winters 1 have 

 examined pond-water in this locality, and have found 

 almost as much life there as in summer. I have 

 always found cyclops, daphnise, vorticellse, Rotifer 

 vulgaris, Pterodina patina, Cothurnea imberbis and 

 many others. Last January I found some tardigrada, 

 and last week some stentors. I have never been 

 fortunate enough to find Volvox globator in this 

 locality, though I am always looking for some. — Louisa 

 M. Bell. 



The Late Transit of Venus. — I noticed the 

 cauliflower stalk of Venus — just inside sun's disc. 

 Proctor says this is the puzzle of astronomers. 

 Possible solution of this. First, no telescopic lens 

 has a true mathematical curve, as the metal changes 

 with every variation of temperature, and there are 

 also the errors of manufacture. This is one defect. 

 Secondly, Dr. Litton Forbes, lecturing at the United 

 Service Institution, July 2, 1882 (see U.S.J.G. vol. 

 26, No. 118, page 821), describes there what he calls 

 astigmatism, that is, the mesial and longitudinal 

 curves of the human eye, are in an abnormal condi- 

 tion. If you hold out your hand before one bright 

 light, bringing the thumb and fore-finger as close 

 together as possible without touching and look 

 between them, then the black drop of Dr. Forbes 

 (see U.S.J., page 827), will be seen plainly as a dark 

 bridge between the fingers. This is the cauliflower 

 stalk of Venus.— A. II. Birkett. 



Orchis mascula (p. 53).— I don't understand Mr. 

 Malan's statement that the orchis bears no pollen. 

 I have often looked at it. Like some others, it 

 adheres together in a heap. Is it not so ? — Edward 

 Henry Scott. 



Spontaneous Generation (p. 70). — Will some 

 advocate of this, it seems to me, absurd idea, tell me 

 how there can be spontaneous generation when there is 

 nothing to act spontaneously ? — Edward Henry Scott. 



Land-shells near Winchester. — The following 

 are some of the rarer sorts of gasteropoda found 

 within two or three miles of Winchester, during the 

 last season: A. lacustris ; B. perversa ; C. rolphii ; 

 B. leachii ; B. obseurus (white var.) ; C. elegans ; 

 Helices aculcata, lapicida, obvoluta, sericea, Cantiana ; 

 P. fontinalis ; P. carinata, contorta, nitida ; V. 

 pygmcca ; Z. crystalliuus, fulvus, radialulus ; P. 



vivipara. Altogether Winchester can boast of sixty- 

 five species out of the total number of British 

 mollusca, or rather more than half, and probably 

 there may be several others, e.jj. of the Vertigos and 

 Pupoe, still to be observed. The watery nature of 

 the ground affords locality for numbers of freshwater 

 shells, and the chalk attracts special land -shells, 

 so that there is a double field for observation.— i?. 

 Tomlin. 



Sea Birds near Cambridge. — Mr. A. H. Waters 

 mentions in your February number the fact that 

 many sea birds are observed round Cambridge in the 

 winter. During the summer months, usually, I think, 

 before rain or stormy weather, sea-birds may be 

 heard passing continually for a considerable time over 

 the town by night. And at Abingdon, ten miles 

 over the Gogmagog Hills, I have observed gulls 

 wheeling over the valleys in August. May this not 

 be an instance of instinctive habit ami inherited 

 memory in birds from the time when north of the 

 Cam was the Isle of Ely, and the wide fens (then 

 undrained) clothed either bank of the river ? It is 

 stated in Charles Kingsley's " Prose Idylls " that the 

 tide was evident within ten miles of Cambridge in 

 bygone days. If this is not the correct explanation, I 

 fail to see what can induce sea-birds to travel so far 

 inland during the summer as well as the winter 

 months. — A. S. E., Cambridge. 



Pigs Swimming. — I believe that there is about as 

 much truth in the saying that a pig cannot swim, as 

 there is in another old saw, i.e., "That a pig sees 

 the wind." I have seen pigs swim across a pond 

 when they have been taken to be well washed. Pigs, 

 although they like to " wallow in the mire," enjoy a 

 bath and a scrub, and fatten better when well washed. 

 Some wash their pigs in buttermilk, I allude to 

 gentlemen who keep fancy pigs, and the poor people 

 in water ; if near the seashore, they always try to give 

 the pig a salt-water bath before they put it up to 

 fatten. The pig's forelegs are curiously formed and 

 placed, so it is just possible that the creature could 

 not swim a long distance so well as a dog can. It 

 does not strike out well, and I have heard the saying 

 W. H. I. quotes as to a pig's cutting its own throat 

 in swimming very often in South Wales, but not 

 a scratch did I even see on the throat of any piggy 

 that was thrown into the " Bryn Mor pond for a 

 swim." — Helen E. Watney. 



Vinegar Eels.— Surely these little things are like 

 "paste eels" and "wheat eels." Is not the right 

 name " nematoid worms," or entozoa ? Some people 

 I know, term them Vibrios ; but I lately read that this 

 term was a misnomer, and I in another work saw 

 that Vibrios were now considered to be micro- 

 scopic plants, "Algae of the tribe of Oscillatoriceae." 

 One thing is certain, good vinegar, that is vinegar 

 free from mucilage, and possessed of the proper 

 addition of sulphuric acid, is free from the vinegar 

 worm or eel. Paste eels are most unnatural monsters, 

 they eat their mothers up alive, and then run about 

 inside her skin until the latter bursts, allowing them. 

 to escape from their ' ' prison house." I believe the 

 vinegar worm does the same, but no doubt some of 

 the scientific readers of Science-Gossip will be 

 able to give Mr. Smith a clear explanation. — Helen 

 E. Watney. 



Vinegar Eels. — The small eel-like animals men- 

 tioned by W. Finch, jun., as occurring in vinegar, 

 belong to the species Anguillula acetica, or the 

 "vinegar-eel." They always swarm in enormous 

 numbers in bad, stale vinegar. The dark internal 



