HARD WICKE ' S S CIE NCE - G SSIP. 



19 



by J. G. Goodchild, H.M. Geological Survey, F.G.S., 

 F.Z.S. " On the connection in time of changes in 

 Fossil Floras with those of Faunas," by Professor G.S. 

 Boulger, F.L.S., F.G.S., &c. "A list of Genera 

 and Species of Bivalved Entomostraca found in the 

 Carboniferous Formations of Great Britain and 

 Ireland, with Notes on the Genera and their distribu- 

 tion," by Professor T. Rupert Jones, F.R.S., F.G.S., 

 and James W. Kirkby, Esq. (Illustrated). 



".British.Petrography." By J. J. Harris Teall, 

 M.A., F.G.S. (Birmingham : Messrs. Watson Bros, 

 and Douglas). Part 10 of this splendid work has 

 been issued. The Igneous rocks are continuously 

 •described as to their microscopical mineral characters. 

 The Pyroxene and Pyroxene-Hornblende rocks are 

 •dealt with, and the exquisite coloured plates help 

 the student amazingly. We wish Mr. Teall would 

 reconstruct the horrible terminology of British 

 Petrography. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



The Red-Backed Shrike {Lanius collurio) in 

 Northumberland. — In June, last year (1885), at 

 Harnham, near Belsay, Northumberland, I had the 

 pleasure of seeing and making a few notes on the 

 appearance and habits of this rare visitant to this 

 country. According to Mr. John Hancock, in his 

 " Catalogue of the Birds of Northumberland and 

 Durham" (1874), this species is "a rare casual 

 visitant. Two specimens were killed, near Kenton, 

 on the Newcastle Town Moor, in the summer of 

 1829. These are mentioned in Mr. Selby's Cata- 

 logue, and are now in my collection. Another ex- 

 ample, also in my collection, was shot at Horsley, 

 Northumberland, May, 1834." These are all the 

 instances of its occurrence mentioned. The indi- 

 vidual bird seen by me was a male, and was first 

 observed on the evening of June 10th, in a thick 

 hedge along the bottom of a moist meadow. On the 

 following day I again saw it, when it again admitted 

 of a near approach without exhibiting any signs of 

 alarm. Perched first on a bare projecting branch in 

 the hedge, and afterwards on a young ash, the shrike 

 sang softly and very sweetly. I thought the bird 

 imitated the song of the skylark and the sedge 

 warbler, as well as having other sweet notes of its 

 own. On this latter occasion I was directed to the 

 point in the hedge at which the shrike was located, 

 by the continuous chicling notes of a sedge warbler, 

 which obviously looked upon the large strange bird 

 as an intruder upon its domains, and possibly knew 

 it to be an enemy. On the former occasion, too, a 

 sedge warbler, or a common white-throat, kept up an 

 incessant stream of harsh chiding notes so long as the 

 .shrike was in its neighbourhood. Almost every day, 

 for some weeks subsequently, I rambled along by this 

 hedge, and others near by, but never again saw the 

 shrike, which I was at first in hopes might be accom- 

 panied by a mate, and that their nest would be built 

 in the neighbourhood. — Charles Robson, Elswich, 

 Nciucastle-011- Tyne. 



Dytiscus marginalis in a Draper's Shop. — 

 Many are the disappointments of the most careful 



collectors, and many are their "finds" under the 

 most unpromising conditions. For some years, whilst 

 collecting in the neighbourhood of Hull, it has been 

 my custom to try every pond that lies in my path for 

 Dytiscus marginalis, and with singularly disappointing 

 results. Some eight or ten years ago two specimens 

 fell to my net, and since then I have captured two 

 or three larvae, otherwise my search has been 

 unavailing. Two specimens have, however, come 

 into my possession in a rather curious manner. A 

 few years ago my little daughter noticed a beetle 

 near the water-tap in the yard, and of course brought 

 me the news with the usual childish excitement. 

 The stranger was a fine male specimen of Dytiscus 

 marginalis. Last night (Sept. 1st) I heard some little 

 stir in the shop. "It is a bat — a bee — a bee — a 

 moth ! " All the guesses were, however, incorrect, 

 for when I was called in to capture the intruder, I 

 found it to be a very fine male specimen of Dytiscus 

 marginalis. It had flown through the doorway with 

 considerable noise, and settled on a lady's apron. 

 On being removed, it gnawed viciously at my fingers 

 with its strong mandibles, and I deposited it in a 

 large bell-glass, the quarters of five sticklebacks, 

 vainly imagining that they would elude its attacks 

 during the night, and intending to remove it in the 

 morning. When morning dawned, however, I found 

 that my hungry visitor had devoured three of the 

 sticklebacks, the only remains of the defunct being 

 the clean-picked spines of the individuals. The 

 beetle must have travelled some distance, as I am 

 not aware of any habitation in the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood of my residence. — E. Lamplough, Hull. 



Hornet and Wasp. — In some ivy on a wall 

 to-day (Sept. 20th) I heard a loud buzzing, and, on 

 looking to see the cause, I found a wasp in the grip 

 of a hornet. I could not see that either used their 

 stings ; but the hornet held the wasp in such a 

 position that probably he could not sting him. Two 

 pairs of the hornet's legs were wound firmly round 

 the wasp's body : the back of the wasp's body and 

 head being held tightly against the hornet's body, 

 the tail of the wasp being in the air. Having got 

 his victim thus "in chancery," the hornet sawed 

 away with his mandibles at the thin part of the 

 wasp, where the tail is united with the body. After 

 about one minute of this sawing the tail of the wasp 

 dropped off, and in about another minute the hornet 

 had devoured the head and body of the wasp, and 

 flew away. — IV. Dotcncs, Combe Raleigh Rectory, 

 Honiton. 



Rat's Teeth. — What Mr. Lee notes in last 

 Science-Gossip (p. 214), relative to the curving 

 inwards of the upper incisors of the rat, is not an 

 uncommon occurrence. I have noticed this in 

 several animals, but notably in the case of one 

 rabbit, where the animal succumbed an emaciated 

 victim to the curving upwards of its two anterior 

 upper incisors in the bony substance of the maxilla. 

 Perhaps it would not be an uninteresting matter to 

 say here that Mr. Sutton, in his recent lectures to 

 the Royal College of Surgeons on " Pathology and 

 its Relation to Evolution," promulgated, as in his 

 opinion, that the singular curving in the vertical 

 direction, and then backwards and downwards of 

 the canine teeth existing normally in Porcus as a 

 distinctive specific character, and from which it has 

 received its native name, which signifies "deer-hog," 

 in reality started as a pathological occurrence, as in 

 the case of Mr. Lee's rat, and became slowly and 

 gradually developed during the long lapse of the 

 ages first as a singularity, then as a common spec- 



