i88 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



it has black sides and an orange keel and foot, the 

 contrast between the two colours being very marked. 

 The variety called nigrescens is an allied, but not 

 identical form, being dark grey with an inconspicuous 

 keel. On May 30, Mr. Fenn and I found Arion 

 bonrguignati in two new Middlesex localities, Hayes 

 and Hanwell.— T. D. A. Cockerel!, Bedford Park. 



The Parietal Eye in Fishes. — In "Nature" 

 for July 14th, Mr. J. Beard announces the discovery 

 of the parietal eye in certain fishes, such as the 

 Lamprey {Petromyzon planeri) and P. marinus, the 

 Hag-fish (Myxine), Bdellostoma, and Ammocetes. 



ANIMAL PSYCHOLOGY. 



A Curious Instance of the Parental In- 

 stinct in Young Birds. — On the second day of 

 June a remarkable instance of the above came under 

 my notice. In a cottager's cage in the country, I 

 saw six young thrushes, the product of two nests, one 

 yielding two, the other, four birds. The two were 

 the elder, and appeared to be about seven weeks old, 

 the younger about four weeks ; not more, I think, as 

 they were unable to pick sufficiently for themselves. 

 I was informed by their owner that when the younger 

 birds were brought home, they were under the 

 necessity of putting them into the same cage with the 

 others, though fearing they would be regarded by the 

 older birds as trespassers on their domain, and 

 consequently would be treated roughly by them. 

 However, it proved that their fears were utterly 

 groundless, for, as soon as the surprise occasioned by 

 the new arrival had passed away, to the great 

 pleasure of those concerned, the older birds evinced 

 the tenderest solicitude for the welfare of their new 

 friends, and commenced billing and cooing them, 

 which very soon elicited a mutual docility and attach- 

 ment from the younger birds. Scarcely had these 

 friendly greetings ended, when the older birds com- 

 menced feeding the younger, and regarding them 

 with the responsibility of parental affection. Now, 

 although I have possessed not a few birds, young, 

 old, home, and foreign, in my time, I had never 

 witnessed such a scene. I naturally enough expressed 

 my surprise at the circumstance related, upon which 

 I was invited to watch the birds for a few minutes, 

 when, to my great satisfaction, I saw the foster- 

 parents feeding their young charges with all the 

 adroitness which their own parents would have exer- 

 cised. If either of the younger were backward in 

 opening its beak to receive the prepared morsel, it 

 immediately received a prompting by a chuck under 

 its beak from that of its foster- parent. Nor was that 

 all, for I observed that if the quantity taken up were 

 too great, it was not cruelly thrust into the receptacle 

 of the younger, as I have seen some thoughtless 



urchins do, to the evident inconvenience and discom- 

 fort of their pets, but it was carefully divided into 

 suitable sized pellets in the mouth, and then dealt out 

 to the nursling as it was prepared to receive it. 

 What greater care, affection, and intelligent solicitude 

 could have been evinced by the parents of these 

 nestlings, than was displayed by these baby-parents I 

 cannot imagine. My main object in writing on this 

 matter is to elicit whether this be a common event. 

 Doubtless some of your numerous readers can inform 

 me. — Alfred T. Dow ell. , 



BOTANY. 



The Flowering of Crocuses. — The flowering 

 of crocuses in spring might lead one to ask why they 

 are not used in bunches like the snowdrops, violets, 

 and primroses, which are commonly to be had in 

 houses and streets, far from the places where they 

 grew. The obvious reason is that the flower of a 

 crocus has no stalk by which to hold it. During 

 summer the plant exists as a corm, which may live 

 underground from year to year, or may be taken up 

 as in the practice of your correspondent J. W. D., 

 when the leaves and flower are gone, and the seed is 

 ripe, to be planted again in the autumn, where it is to 

 flower in the ensuing spring. The plant is not one 

 that rambles about like the creeping buttercup ; but 

 grows from a corm like that of the common butter- 

 cup which is called sometimes bulbous, bulbs having 

 been formerly so defined as to include corms. The 

 crocus differs again from that buttercup which it most 

 resembles, in that it forms no aerial stem. Leaves 

 and flowers before appearing above ground are 

 enclosed in a membranous sheath which is in some 

 degree transparent, so that if grown in a pot or glass 

 of water like a hyacinth, the colour of the blossom 

 is visible before it rises above the top of the sheath. 

 When fully developed, the perianth consists of six 

 coherent sepals, if we may use a word which we do not 

 often meet with, but which would give precision in 

 the description of petaloid endogens at least. These 

 coherent sepals form a cup or vase, the inner surface 

 of \yhich bears the stamens, in the midst of which 

 appears the trifid stigma borne upon a style, the base 

 of which does not appear to those who only see the 

 flower, as it is seen by passers by or even by the bees 

 (I cannot well add butterflies, for crocuses flower 

 before butterflies come out). The style is very long, 

 and reaches from below the stigma through the tube 

 at the bottom of the blossom to the ovary which forms 

 its base. The ovary does not rise above the ground, 

 at least till after it is fertilised. Then sometimes it 

 happens that a stalk is formed under the ovary which 

 lifts it above the surface where it opens to shed the 

 seeds upon the ground. This growth of a stalk after 

 the floral organs borne upon it have decayed, affords 



