HARD WICKE' S S CIENCE- G SSIP. 



but, unfortunately, I lost them before they were 

 identified ; and repeated search in the same locality 

 failed to produce any more specimens until last 

 November. Being again at Mousehole, hunting 

 chiefly for polyzoa, at the verge of low-water mark, 

 I happened to turn over a remarkably fine specimen 

 of the large starfish {Uraster glacialis), and on the 

 under side found a small family of these bugs, of 

 which I secured three mature examples and a small 

 larva. There were more larvae, but they escaped. 

 Immediately on my return home, I forwarded a 

 living specimen to Mr. Edward Saunders, who at once 

 pronounced it A. Bonnairci. Why this little colony 

 should have selected this particular uraster to locate 

 themselves upon is a puzzle, because I have ex- 

 amined dozens at various seasons of the year in the 



Fig. a. — Under surface of A. Bonnairei. X 16. 



same' spot, without even seeing an insect upon any. 

 Those I found two years ago were under a small 

 stone among seaweeds. 



It is worthy of note that the original specimens 

 discovered by Signoret in the He de Re, as well as 

 the Jersey ones, occurred under stones deeply im- 

 bedded in mud or loose gravel, whereas mine were 

 found where there is neither one nor the other, but 

 simply rocks and stones at the extreme point of low- 

 water mark. At this moment of writing I have two 

 specimens, an imago and a larva, which, with a 

 fragment of ulva, have been confined in a closely- 

 corked homoeopathic tube of the diameter of an 

 ordinary lead pencil, for eighteen days, and they are 

 still lively. 



The figure in Science-Gossip will serve to give a 

 general idea of the insect, but it is inaccurate in one 

 or two details : the abdomen is proportionally too 

 wide, the thorax should be more square in front, the 

 elytra should join the thorax and be attenuated 

 posteriorly at the sides ; the eyes are much more 



prominent, and the claws double, not single, as 

 represented. 



I ought perhaps to mention, that the Mousehole 

 rocks are situated about a couple of miles from 

 Penzance, and quite fifty miles west of Polperro. 



Alphington, Exeter. 



GOSSIP ON CURRENT TOPICS. 



By W. Mattieu Williams, F.R.A.S., F.C.S. 



TCEBERG WARNINGS.— On turning back for 

 -L reference to " Nature " of last year, I find 

 (August 13) a valuable suggestion made by Mr. 

 Lawton, of Hull, that appears to have been neglected. 

 As everybody knows, many tall ships annually dis- 

 appear very mysteriously, and there is little doubt 

 that one of the most frequent causes of such calami 

 ties is collision with icebergs. The evidence of this 

 is supplied by the narrow escapes which almost 

 every sailor of much transoceanic experience has en- 

 countered. In many cases a sudden cooling of the 

 air on a dark and misty night has given warning, but 

 such warning only comes when the danger is much 

 too close, when escape is only possible if the course 

 of the ship is not directly head-on to the berg. 



Mr. Lawton's suggestion is that the echoes pro- 

 duced by icebergs should be specially studied, in 

 order that on dark nights in iceberg regions the 

 steam whistle, ship's bell, guns, etc., should be used 

 for feeling the approach of such danger. I have had 

 some curious experiences of night echoes, and have 

 observed the phenomena with some curiosity. 

 Applying them to this case, my belief is that a steam 

 whistle sounded in short sudden screams, as ex- 

 plosively as possible, will, with a little practice, 

 enable the mariner to estimate roughly, not only the 

 direction, but the distance of any such object as an 

 iceberg ; the distance being of course determined by 

 the interval between the call and the answer. In 

 steamships, which are the most subject to this danger 

 the whistle is always available. 



A Carnivorous Pitcher Plant. — The experi- 

 ments made a few years ago by Mrs. Mary Treat, an 

 American naturalist, on the Sarracenia variolarh are 

 very interesting. At sunrise the cup is filled with a 

 sweetish liquid, about half of which evaporates in the 

 course of the day while the lid is open. Ants, flies, 

 and insects generally, take the liquid with avidity, 

 become stupid, unsteady on their feet, and tumble 

 over when they attempt to clear their wings by 

 brushing them with their legs. In plain English, 

 they get very drunk. If removed from the bottle 

 they return to it immediately they are released, and 

 walk down its mouth never to return. Even large 

 insects are guilty of similar disreputable proceedings. 

 Mrs. Treat describes as follows the fate of a large 



