2l8 



HA R D WICKE ' S S CIENCE- GOS SIP. 



stoops. Probably it had fish in view, for fish abound 

 in the Neckar. 



Seeing some fine blooms of Iris pseiidacorus at the 

 edge of the river, I went down to gather some, and 

 was almost startled by the sudden rush of a wild duck 

 from some reeds almost at my feet. It was interest- 

 ing to notice the reluctant way in which she flew up 

 the river, looking anxiously back from time to time, 

 as if to ascertain whether I had found her young 

 ones, which, no doubt were concealed close by, but 

 I could neither see nor hear anything of them. 



Just as the duck rose a fine stork passed over my 

 head, at no great height, making for Wieblingen, 

 where there was a nest of young ones, almost fully 

 fledged. Just as the old bird reached the village a 

 gun was fired near by, that scared him greatly, for 

 he immediately rose in circles to a great height, 

 turning his head from side to side, and peering 

 anxiously down, as if trying to discover the source of 

 the noise that had so alarmed him. 



By this time it was past mid-day, and I sat down 

 on the bank beside the path to eat my luncheon. 

 I had hardly seated myself when I caught sight of 

 an almost full-grown caterpillar of Deilephila eu- 

 phorbia-, feeding on the spurge [E. paralias) which 

 grows in great abundance all along the path I had 

 been following. As I had never before taken— 

 though I had once before seen — this handsome 

 caterpillar, this discovery was as pleasing as it was 

 unexpected. I may add that a day or two after- 

 wards, I made an excursion purposely to look for 

 these caterpillars, with the result that I found nearly 

 a hundred of them, in all stages of growth. 



I do not know whether the difference arises from 

 the difference in sex of the larvse, but the fact is, that 

 in at least ten per cent, of those I found the usual 

 red markings were replaced by yellow ones. 



Just after luncheon I came across quantities of 

 caterpillars of Z. minos, and one of II. fuciformis, a 

 rather common species in the neighbourhood of 

 Heidelberg. This was feeding on Scabious (its 

 usual food plant), but, though the plant was in 

 abundance here, I could find no more caterpillars, 

 its habit of hiding by day making it difficult to dis- 

 cover. 



Before I got quite opposite Wieblingen, I came to 

 some low-lying ground, covered in places by willow 

 bushes, which I searched for caterpillars of S.pavonia, 

 minor, as I had been told that only a day or two 

 before they had been found there in considerable 

 numbers by the boys from Nennenheim College. 



Twenty or thirty pairs of keen young eyes had, 

 however, done their work very thoroughly, for I failed 

 to detect a single specimen, and the only result of my 

 search was a small brood of fully-grown larvae of 

 V. Io, of which I took half-a-dozen, but they all 

 turned out to have been "struck" by the ichneumon. 



When I got opposite Wieblingen, I found the 

 banks alongside the path almost denuded of herbage, 



which had no doubt been cut by the peasants for their 

 cows, and as I could not see any butterflies about, I 

 had just made up my mind to return by the river, 

 over the old ground, when my eye fell on a small 

 caterpillar of P. machaoii, which was on a little 

 stunted plant of the common carrot, that, being on 

 the edge of the path, had escaped the scythe. 



This was a welcome find, as I wanted half-a-dozen 

 of these for a friend. I therefore determined to see 

 whether I could not find a few more. But it was 

 more than an hour before I could find a second ; a 

 third, however, turned up directly afterwards, and, 

 after another long interval, a fourth, and then a fifth ; 

 but the most persistent search failed to bring the half 

 dozen. I was, however, fortunate enough to find a 

 very fine full-fed larva of S. pavonia minor, the only 

 other find worth notice. 



As it was now getting rather late, I resolved to 

 take a short cut home across the plain, instead of 

 returning by the river-side. And I was very glad 

 that I did this, for as I was passing an apple-tree, 

 which was at no great distance from the path, a bird 

 about the size of a thrush, and showing a good deal 

 of white about the wings, tail, and underparts, flew 

 from the top of the tree, straight away from me. I 

 saw at once, from its peculiar flight, which was 

 rather like the dip-dip of the green woodpecker, that 

 it was a bird new to me. 



Whilst I was wondering what it could be, I was 

 surprised to see it suddenly pause in its flight, 'and 

 hover for a few seconds, like a kestrel. This puzzled 

 me very much, and I began to think that, notwith- 

 standing its unhawklike flight, the stranger must be 

 a hawk, the species of which I could not identify. 



However, the mystery was soon solved, for the 

 bird alighted on another tree a few hundred yards 

 away, and I managed by making a careful stalk to 

 get near enough to obtain a clear view of my un- 

 known friend, and I could then plainly see that he 

 was the greater butcher bird (L. excubitor), with 

 whose portrait and stuffed skin I was perfectly 

 familiar, though I had not previously had the good 

 fortune to see him in the flesh. 



St. leonards-on-Sca. 



RUDIMENTS AND VESTIGES. 



SOME months ago I was struck by the free use 

 of the term "rudimentary," made by Mr. 

 Darwin, in reference to certain organs of the human 

 body ; and I was interested to see by your recent issue 

 that exception had been taken to the application 

 of the term by the American naturalist, Mr. J. A. 

 Ryder. 



That an evolutionist should adopt such a term in 

 the sense in which it is repeatedly to be found in the 

 "Descent of Man," is a strange contradiction of the 



