HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSS IP. 



23 



ran round its prey, and appeared to sever the thread, 

 for the fly was at once loosed, and swung freely. I 

 looked a day or two afterwards, hoping to renew our 

 acquaintance, but the housemaid's brush had rudely 

 swept spider, fly, and web away. — J. Herbert Allchin , 

 .Sutton Valence, Kent. 



Note of the Cuckoo. — The cuckoo commonly 

 utters the three notes " cuck-coo-coo " mentioned 

 by Mrs. Taylor. I believe it is generally when 

 flying. Possibly the movement through the air with 

 the beak open causes this. — H. Lamb, Beaver Street, 

 Maidstone. 



Lunar Rainbow. — At Staplehurst, Kent, on 

 November 13th, at 7 P.M., I noticed a rainbow 

 (which, I believe, is rarely to be_ seen_ at night) 

 arising from the refraction and dispersion of the 

 coloured rays of the moon in the drops of rain — for it 

 was raining lightly at the time. Although faint, a 

 little more than half the bow was distinctly visible 

 for about three minutes, and then gradually dis- 

 appeared. — R. F., Dover. 



" Electrical Absurdities." — I was rather 

 surprised to see a paragraph under this side-heading 

 in your paper. There is nothing newjin the fact of 

 electricity being employed to propagate plants, 

 shrubs, or flowers. An interesting account of such 

 -experiments are given in Dr. Priestley's " History of 

 Electricity," published 1794, in which it states that 

 a Mr. Mainsbury, of Edinburgh, in 1746, made con- 

 tinuous experiments, applying electricity to develop 

 vegetation. From this account it appears that 

 myrtles so treated showed an earlier growth than 

 those which were out ; also, that flowers bloomed 

 earlier. It might be curious, however, to know why 

 these experiments were discontinued if they were 

 successful. Was it found that the application of 

 electricity exhausted prematurely the natural pro- 

 ductive resources of the plant ? This very pertinent 

 question was asked at our recent " Science-Gossip 

 Club," where we had a paper read on the " History 

 of the Early Researches in Electricity " ; but no 

 information could be afforded at the time. A biblio- 

 graphical and technical history of this new science 

 would, no doubt, find numerous readers, — W. Alex. 

 JSothem, Norwich. 



White Sparrows in London. — It may interest 

 some of your ornithological readers to know, that 

 yesterday I saw a white sparrow in London. It was 

 feeding in the road with several others of the ordinary 

 •colour, and, so far as I could judge, seemed to be 

 rather over the average size. It was not perfectly 

 white ; in fact, it is extremly doubtful whether any 

 London bird could attain more than a dirty cream 

 colour ; but it possessed very few feathers of the normal 

 hue. There was a dark patch at the top of the head, 

 near the beak, and a ring of brown passed almost round 

 the throat. The lower portion of the abdomen near 

 the tail was, perhaps, the darkest part of the body, 

 with the exception of a few brown feathers in each 

 wing, which were most conspicuous when the bird was 

 flying. The tip of the tail was also brown. — W. C. 

 Flood. 



The Extirpation of Lepidoptera. — I decidedly 

 concur with Mr. Slater's averment, that fearful and 

 unwarrantable destruction of insect-life is perpetrated 

 annually by "mere collectors"; but the "mere 

 collectors " do not by any means consist solely of 

 boys ; I believe that quite as many of these un- 

 thinking people are members of natural history and 

 ■entomological societies. I am acquainted with not 



a few, and do not forget, when an opportunity 

 presents itself, to express my mind to these so-called 

 entomologists. They are not justified in taking the 

 lives of beautiful butterflies and moths for the sake 

 of belonging to an entomological society. I am 

 convinced that this is the sole ambition of many. 

 They imagine themselves clever in being able to 

 rattle-off, parrot-like, a number of scientific names ; 

 they know nothing of the principles on which classi- 

 fication is founded, nothing more of the insects than 

 their names ; they collect butterflies and moths as a 

 school-boy does postage stamps. It is a great pity ; 

 but, if their own conscience does not condemn them, 

 I am afraid any censure from me or any one else will 

 not meet with aught but contempt. — F. A. A. Skuse, 

 Beech Cottage, Bow, E. 



Another Use of Bee Stings. — Under this 

 heading, Mr. T. Winder, writing in your issue for 

 December last, seems to have fallen into a consider- 

 able mistake with regard to the sting of bees and 

 wasps, when he describes the wasp's sting as barbed, 

 and the bees like a fine cambric needle. It seems 

 pretty evident that Mr. W. has lived in a very happy 

 state, never to have found out by experience another 

 use for bees' stings, for, if he had, he would most 

 surely have discovered that the sting of the bee is 

 barbed, and therefore is torn from the insect and left 

 in the wound, while that of the wasp, being like the 

 needle, is withdrawn at once ; his remarks regarding 

 the sting tearing the cap of the honey cell are there- 

 fore so erroneous, that I feel compelled to correct them, 

 in the interest of the many young readers of your 

 most interesting paper. — IV. E. Harper, Maidenhead. 



Rock Sections. — If any reader of Science- 

 Gossip has any of the following rock sections in his 

 possession, I shall be obliged if he will send them 

 to me to photograph. I will, in return, give him 

 a photograph of each section, gratis. Muscovite 

 granite, Hornblende granite, Granitite, Biotite granite, 

 Graphic granite, Gneissen, Luxullianite, Quartz fel- 

 site, Rhyolite, Pitchstone, Perlitic Pitchstone, Sye- 

 nite, Trachyte, Diorite, Quartz Diorite, Quartz 

 andesite, Hornblende andesite, Augite andesite, 

 Enstatite andesite, Porphyrite, Nepheline phonolite, 

 Lucite phonolite, Noseau and Haiiyne phonolite, 

 Gabbro, Leucite Basalt, Augite Basalt, Chiastolite 

 slate, Mica schist, Hornblende schist, Chlorite schist, 

 Red Gneiss, Grey Gneiss, Quartzite, Coals, etc ; 

 also other rare or interesting rocks. The slides will 

 be returned as soon as possible, in good condition. — 

 R. St. Stephens, A.R.SM. 



The Australian Fringed Lizard. — I should 

 be obliged if some reader of Science-Gossip would 

 kindly give me some information of this lizard 

 (recently discovered, I believe), also where could I 

 get a drawing of the same 1 Any information will be 

 specially welcome. — Fred Challis. 



Can Freed Cage-Birds Survive? — Isitreason- 

 ble to suppose that British birds that have been 

 reared by hand and kept in cages would, if turned at 

 liberty in a proper locality and season, be likely to 

 survive it ? I put this question before two of your con- 

 temporaries, recently, and got for reply "Yes" and 

 " No" respectively. I think Bechstein supports the 

 latter theory, adding (if I remember rightly) "if they 

 manage to live through the summer, they are almost 

 sure to die the following winter ! " Other authors I 

 have perused do not touch the subject at all. I should 

 be very glad of information, on this very (to me) 

 interesting point, from a practical source. — J. JVdds- 

 worth. 



