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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



see in every street in London, and think he had 

 furnished a wonderful improvement." Boswell says 

 of him, in his " Life of Dr. Johnson," chap, xviii. : 

 " His desire of imaginary consequence predominated 

 over his attention to truth." Johnson had but a 

 poor opinion of Goldsmith as a naturalist, for on one 

 occasion when Goldsmith had taken lodgings at a 

 farmer's house in the Edgware-road (so that he 

 might have full leisure to study natural history), a 

 Mr. Mickle and Boswell went to visit him, but not 

 being at home they went in and found in his 

 apartment, curious scraps of descriptions of animals, 

 scrawled upon the wall with a black-lead pencil. 

 And yet this is the man your correspondent seems 

 surprised should make a mistake. Why he did not 

 make more mistakes can be easily accounted for. — 

 Mark Antony. 



Birds near Dublin. — The interesting note from 

 a Hampshire rectory about a grey wagtail that came 

 day after day to a window, reminds me of a green 

 wagtail that I used to see coming to a window in 

 the same manner. This was in Ireland, between 

 Dublin and Swords. There were many trees in the 

 neighbourhood of the house, and birds were numerous. 

 From the windows could be seen herons sitting on 

 their nests in high beech-trees, the nests consisting of 

 a few bits of stick, on which the birds appeared to sit 

 astride, with their legs hanging down. In another 

 part of the place was a wood of tall trees inhabited by 

 myriads of rooks ; from which three immense flights 

 used to go out for food each morning, in three 

 different directions. Their return at dusk was a 

 sight to behold, the numbers being so unusually 

 large ; and the noise of cawing they made in settling 

 for the night, reverberating from the front of the 

 house, sounded like the roaring of the sea. Hooded 

 crows and jackdaws were frequent ; also green- 

 finches, chaffinches, great tits, cole tits, torn tits, 

 and others ; the white owl, brown ivy owl, dab- 

 chick, and moor-hen. Wood-pigeons were common ; 

 when shot, their crops were found stuffed with 

 cabbage from the fields. Gulls often flew over ; in 

 one, the crop was found full of worms from the 

 ploughed fields. Partridges and quails were in the 

 neighbourhood. One winter hundreds of peewits 

 came, and remained three days, feeding or resting on 

 the grass. On the outskirts of the flock were observed 

 twenty or thirty golden plovers, and about as many 

 grey plovers. — W. E. C. Nonrse. 



Toads in Rocks. — Mr. Sykes asks, at p. 22, 

 " How is it that the stone or coal which is invariably 

 reported to retain ' the exact impression of the little 

 creature ' can never be produced ? " In the Great 

 Exhibition of 1862, one of the exhibits was a large 

 block of coal which had contained a living toad. 

 After the lapse of so many years it would be unwise^to 

 speak positively, but my impression is that the block 

 was split into two parts, and that the small cavity had 

 been divided by the line of fracture. So far as could be 

 decided by an inspection of the parts, no possible 

 means of communication had existed between the 

 cavity and the outside of the block. Nor was there 

 any reason to doubt that the toad had really been 

 found in the cavity. The toad was shown, beside the 

 block, but was dead when I saw it. It was alive, I 

 fancy, when first placed there. In periodicals of the 

 time interesting references might probably be found. 

 Such cases are very singular, but, I am, nevertheless, 

 like Mr. Sykes, an unbeliever. — IV. y. JV. 



The Australian Fringed Lizard. — Under 

 this heading, Mr. F. Challis, in your issue of January 

 last, asks for a description of a lizard of this name. 



Does he not mean the frilled lizard {Chlamydosaurus 

 kingii) of Australia one of the Iguanas of the Old 

 World (Agamidae) ? Its usual length is about two 

 feet, witli a large frill-like fold of skin round the 

 neck, which the animal can erect or depress at 

 pleasure. It is said to jump by means of its 

 powerful hind legs and tail like a kangaroo. There 

 is an excellent drawing of this lizard in the Natural 

 History Museum Guide Book to the Reptilia. 

 Should this not be the animal that is meant, I must 

 apologise for the above description. — H. A. Crossfield, 

 South Hackney. 



Wrf.SPS. — The scarcity of wasps noticed by Mr. 

 Waddell, at p. 21, was observed all over the British 

 Isles last autumn, and commented on in the " British 

 Bee Journal," where several correspondents attri- 

 buted it to the queen wasps not having been 

 fertilised before retiring to their winter quarters. 

 They were thus, as numerous as ever in spring, but 

 in the majority of cases failed to rear brood. Perhaps 

 the cold and wet autumn of 1885 was an assisting 

 cause. Another reason is given in Science-Gossip, 

 Vol. I. p. 257, a disease having attacked the larvae 

 and destroyed them in large numbers, perhaps what 

 beekeepers call "foul-brood." — H. IV. Lett, M.A. 



Wasp. — At 3 p.m., on the 29th of January, I took a 

 live wasp (which is now in the Sheffield Museum) 

 from a garden wall here ; the day was remarkably 

 warm and sunny.— Thos. Winder, Sheffield. 



Male Wasps. — In answer to a query of Mr. 

 Reginald W. Christy in the February number : the 

 males of the common wasp can be found by digging 

 up the nests in September, or in some cases at the 

 latter end of August. They are rather lazy in their 

 movements. Occasionally they may be captured at 

 the same time of year, as they fly about leisurely in 

 the sun. There are thirteen joints in the antenna of 

 the male against twelve shorter joints in those of the 

 queen and worker. In Vespa vulgaris the male's 

 antenna is half as long again as the queen's. While 

 all the males of the British vespse have the first 

 joint of the antenna yellow in front, the queens of 

 the three commonest species are without this dis- 

 tinctive feature. The queen is a stouter insect, its 

 abdomen being shorter and more tapering posteriorly, 

 with six segments against seven in the male. Of 

 course Mr. Christy knows that the male has no sting. 

 — F. W. Elliot. 



Wasp Stings. — I think W. E. H. is incorrect in 

 stating that wasps' stings are not barbed. They are 

 barbed, but not so much as those of the honey bee. 

 — Gresham F. Gillet. 



Scarcity of Wasps and Plague of Flies. — I 

 have frequently dug up wasp nests and found them 

 infested by dipterous and other larvae which prey 

 upon the grubs and pupae of the wasps. The maggots 

 force their way through the paper cell - walls and 

 devour the helpless inmates, sometimes completely 

 destroying the colony. But with the perfect insects 

 the tale is reversed, for, as every one knows, wasps 

 are rather partial to their fully-developed enemies. I 

 do not know whether they eat diptera in the earlier 

 stages. Thus we can trace a double connection 

 between a scarcity of wasps and a plague of flies. If 

 in the early summer there is an extra number of fly 

 maggots many wasps will be cut off in their infancy, 

 fewer of them remaining to keep down the flies. 

 There are only seven British species of Vespa, so 

 that if the Rev. S. A. Brenan has more than six he 

 has them all. In this neighbourhood (Buckhurst 



