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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



ZOOLOGY. 



Cleaning Birds. — The new American publication 

 " Science" says that, when obliged to wash birds, 

 collectors will find it an advantage to use salt and 

 water instead of plain water. The salt prevents the 

 solution of the blood-globules, and consequent diffu- 

 sion of the red haemoglobin. 



"Extracting minute Snails" (S.-G., No. 218, 

 P- 43)- — Permit me to say that the plan here recom- 

 mended is not the proper one to adopt, inasmuch as, in 

 boiling out the creature, you destroy the epidermis of 

 the shell also ; and as in many instances the character 

 of the species depends upon keeping this intact, it is 

 of the first importance to preserve it ; e.g. Helix 

 aatkata, Planorbis albus, P. nautileus. Again, it 

 should be the object of the collector to preserve the 

 shells in their natural condition, with all their 

 distinctive peculiarities about them. Very minute 

 shells (Vertigo, Pupa, &c.) cannot be emptied of 

 their animal contents successfully. The best plan, 

 supposing the collector is determined to try, is to 

 put the living molluscs into tepid water, and allow 

 them to protrude their foot to the fullest extent ; then 

 add suddenly boiling water, when with considerable 

 care and labour part may be extracted— the muscular 

 more opaque mass, foot, &c. My own experience 

 teaches me that in the case of shells too small to be 

 cleared of the animal by the ordinary method of 

 scalding and picking out, there is no necessity to 

 attempt the operation, as the creature will dry up 

 sufficiently to leave the shell transparent enough to 

 satisfy the student. I have Clausilia rugosa, var. 

 albida, C. laminata and albida, Planorbis lineatus, 

 and others, all semi-transparent forms, from which 

 the creatures have not been extracted, quite clean 

 enough to please the most fastidious collector. My 

 advice is, carefully clean your shells of all extraneous 

 dirt you can, by washing, before mounting them in 

 your cabinet, leaving those too minute to clear of the 

 mollusc to thoroughly dry (in a pill-box) ; but if you 

 are desirous of retaining the natural beauty and 

 character of the shell, do not use caustic potash. I am 

 quite sure you will be satisfied with the appearance 

 of the shells. If you are not convinced as to the 

 correctness of my remarks, come and see my cabinets, 

 and I think the shells will do what I have failed in — 

 G. Sherriff Tye, Handsworth. 



Admission of Land-shells to the British 

 List.— Mr. Sherriff Tye will, I trust, excuse me if I 

 presume to express opinions opposed to the spirit of 

 the remarks which he contributed to the December 

 number of Science-Gossip (p. 278), on the desira- 

 bility of admitting certain species of land-shells into 

 the British list. I fully agree with him as to the 

 definition of the term "indigenous," viz. not having 

 been introduced by human agency ; but when he states 



that, "in the absence of any information to the 

 contrary, we have to consider Helix villosa, H. per- 

 sonata, Clausilia parvula, and C. solida as coming 

 under that head, albeit there are at present very 

 slight grounds for supposing them so," I must differ 

 from him entirely. He says further, " Two specimens 

 of //. villosa, I believe, have been taken near Cardiff, 

 one dead shell of H. personata at Newcastle in 

 Ireland, one specimen of C. solida near Bristol, and 

 several shells of C. parvula at Kniver, Worcester- 

 shire." Now it seems to me that the grounds on 

 which Mr. Sherriff Tye wishes us to admit these 

 species as indigenous are so extremely slight that 

 they point to a conclusion directly opposite to that 

 which he has arrived at. I have not before me the 

 original records of the discovery of these specimens, 

 but I would point out that the three first were all 

 met with in the immediate proximity of seaports ; and 

 as, taken altogether, only four specimens (one of them 

 dead) have been found, I think the only rational 

 conclusion which it is possible to come to is that they 

 have been introduced — most likely with ballast. At 

 Cardiff, where two specimens of //. villosa have been 

 found, there is, if I have not been wrongly informed, 

 an accumulation of ballast so immense that the owner 

 of the adjoining land (the Marquis of Bute, I believe) 

 has benefited largely by extending his house-property 

 over it ; and my friend Mr. Thomas Rogers, of Man- 

 chester, has found on the ballast-heaps there quite an 

 extensive, non-indigenous flora, containing so many 

 representatives of plants from far-distant parts of the 

 world that I should be altogether afraid to state the 

 number of species from memory. The Newcastle 

 in Ireland where a single dead specimen of //. per- 

 sonata was found is, I presume, the seaport of that 

 name in Dundrum Bay. It is especially unlikely that 

 a species which has never been found in England 

 should have occurred in Ireland ; and I can only 

 conclude that this solitary specimen, like that of 

 C. solida which was found near Bristol, was intro- 

 duced by shipping. It is true that conchologists 

 are not a numerous body ; but they are, I think, 

 sufficiently abundant to have detected, before this 

 time, other specimens of the foregoing species if they 

 were indigenous to Britain, especially as attention has 

 been called to them. The foregoing remarks, how- 

 ever, do not apply with equal force to C. parvula ; and 

 the fact of several specimens having been found so 

 far inland as Worcestershire, suggests the question 

 whether some collectors may not have mistaken this 

 common continental species for Clausilia rugosa. 

 An examination of a large series of specimens is 

 desirable. It seems to me Mr. Sherriff Tye has 

 arrived at a most illogical conclusion as to the distri- 

 bution of these species. He says : " Reeve tells us 

 the theory of migration points in a north-westerly 

 direction ; if therefore these species be really indi- 

 genous (their recorded habitats being continental), we 

 should expect them to be found in south-east 



