HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



3i 



should be stuck into a small cube of white pith 

 which is then gummed upon the end of a card, a 

 stronger pin passing through the other end of the 

 card, and the card raised up the pin to a convenient 

 height. One of my objections to carding is the lack 

 of uniformity of appearance noticeable in collections, 

 owing to some entomologists pinning and others 

 carding the same species. 



(To be co nii lined.) 



NATURAL HISTORY RAMBLES. 



By H. Wallis Kew, F.E.S. 



No. IT— In the Woods. 



MANY afternoons have I spent in rambling 

 about in Burwell Wood, which lies along 

 the eastern foot of the Lincolnshire chalk wolds, 

 not far from the little market town of Louth ; on 

 each occasion, however, some new point of interest 

 presents itself — very often an insect, a shell, or a 

 flower, not before taken there, is brought home. 



Burwell Wood is mentioned by the celebrated 

 Dr. Martin Lister in his " Historian Animalium 

 Anglian," dated 1678, where he records the taking of 

 the pretty land-shell Cyclostoma elegans, which is still 

 to be found in the locality. On page 123 of the old 

 work mentioned above, the author, speaking of 

 Zonitcs fitlvits, says : — "I have found it more than 

 once in moss at the roots of large trees in Burwell 

 Woods, in Lincolnshire, yet the creature is very 

 scarce." I have searched for this little shell, but am 

 unable to find it now. 



On the afternoon of the 4th of September, 1886, 

 I had taken train to Authorpe Station for the 

 purpose of walking home via Burwell Wood, and 

 while going down the road, soon after leaving 

 the railway station, a large wheel-shaped spider's 

 web, such as are constructed by members of the 

 family Epeirides, was observed hung from the 

 foliage over the ditch by the hedge side. By beating 

 the herbage and holding the net beneath the web, 

 a fine female example of the extremely beautiful 

 Epcira scalaris was obtained. As the prejudice 

 against spiders, which have been much neglected by 

 the general run of natural history observers, is so 

 strong, it may be well to give a brief description of 

 the colours of the species mentioned above, which is 

 a large spider, females sometimes measuring eight 

 lines. The abdomen of the female is very large, of 

 a beautiful yellow colour, with a broad, clearly 

 defined, rich brown band, with undulating edges, on 

 the hind half of the upper side, which becomes 

 narrower as it runs backwards. Along the same 

 hedge another orbicular snare was noticed, this 

 time with a garden spider (Epcira diadcmata) at rest 

 in the centre. 



Leaving the road and crossing over some fields, 

 a pond was passed in which Bythinia tentacittata 

 appeared to be the most plentiful fresh-water shell ; 

 shortly after this Burwell Wood was reached, one or 

 two notes being made on the way, viz. : — 



A common blue butterfly (Lyccetta icants) seen on 

 the yellow flowers of fleabane. 



A sting-fly (Ilcematopota pluvialis, L.) seen, but 

 fortunately not felt ! 



The celadine (Chclidonium majtts) in flower by the 

 hedge side in the village of Muckton. It was 

 probably an escape from the cottage gardens. 



Zilla atrica ( = Epcira calophylla, Blackwall) 

 abundant on holly and furze-bushes. 



As soon as I had entered Burwell Wood a fine 

 plant of the musk-mallow (Malva moschatd) in full 

 flower was found. My object was to cross the entire 

 wood so as to arrive at Grisel Bottom, a very beauti- 

 ful valley on the opposite side, one bank of which is 

 wooded and the other grassy. While crossing the 

 wood two specimens of the spider, Epcira quadrat a, 

 which is said to be the handsomest as well as one of 

 the largest of British spiders, were obtained, to- 

 gether with another specimen of Epcira scalaris. 

 The red berries of the woodbine were very con- 

 spicuous in the wood. 



I now arrived at Grisel Bottom, and while going 

 down its steep wooded side found dead shells of 

 Cyclostoma elegans ; the banks of this valley may 

 have been the very place in which Dr. Lister found 

 the shell in 1678. On flowers of Agrimony (Agri- 

 monia eupatoria) here a ruby tail (C/irysis ignita) was 

 observed, and curiously it was being preyed upon by 

 a crab-spider (Xysticus cristalns). 



On a thistle near, numbers of the peculiar larva? 

 of a tortoise beetle (Cassida viridis I believe) were 

 noticed. In a moist place in the bottom ofj this 

 valley, large brownish slugs (the variety rufa of 

 Arion ater) were very plentiful amongst lesser spear- 

 wort (Ranunculus fiamviula), Mentha aquatica, and 

 prostrate rushes. The money- wort (Lysimachia 

 nummularia) was in flower here. 



After leaving Grisel Bottom and while walking 

 homewards round the border of the wood, a number 

 of the common mouse-moths (Amphipyra tragopo- 

 gonis), perhaps fifteen or twenty specimens, were 

 found under the loose and partly decayed bark of 

 an ash-tree. A specimen of the slug Li/nax niaximus, 

 var. fasciata, was also obtained under the same bark. 



Louth, Lincolnshire. 



We are deeply grieved to have to record the death 

 of an old friend, and an eminently able man, at a 

 comparatively early age, Mr. H. M.Jenkins, F.G.S., 

 the Secretary of the Royal Agricultural Society. In 

 the earlier part of his life he was Secretary to the 

 Geological Society. 



