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HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OS SIP. 



the earth had cut across another part of the band of 

 meteors which astronomers tell us it passes through 

 each year, about the 13th November — H. W. Lett, 

 M.A., Ardmore Glebe, Ltirgan, Ireland. 



Shooting Stars.— On Nov. 27th, along the 

 littoral a very brilliant sight was witnessed, from 

 soon after sunset till about midnight, when the sky, 

 which had been slightly obscured by a light haze, 

 became quite overclouded, the stars seemed to fairly 

 shower down ; many of the visitors compared it to a 

 display of sky-rockets, and one more curious than the 

 others counted over forty-five in the space of a minute. 

 The country people round here are very superstitious, 

 and, from the unusual abundance of shooting stars, as 

 compared with previous years, believe that some 

 great evil is about to happen. The generally accredited 

 event is a war in Europe : it only remains for us to 

 wait and see if their prediction be true or no. — 

 J. R. M., Mentone. 



The Practical Naturalists' Society. — This 

 society has now been in existence for two years, and 

 numbers nearly four hundred members in all parts of 

 the British Isles, as well as a few in France, Germany, 

 Switzerland, Canada, India, Australia, and other 

 countries. The society is managed by a committee, 

 who discuss their various matters of business by post, 

 and all the members are postally connected. There 

 is a postal reference library, a postal reference 

 collection of natural history specimens, and a body 

 of referees who name specimens and answer questions 

 through the post. With the nominal subscription of 

 sixpence per annum, the society has done some good 

 work, and promises well for the future. The secre- 

 tary, Mr. H. Snowden Ward, Ilkley, offers to send 

 particulars of the society to anyone who encloses a 

 penny stamp to him. 



Mimulus luteus. — F.H. Arnold will be interested 

 to know that I found the above-named plant this last 

 summer well established at one end of Cofton reser- 

 voir in Worcestershire. A lady to whom I mentioned 

 this told me that she knew of it growing somewhere 

 — I forget the place — in Oxfordshire. — K. D., Cofton. 



Mimulus luteus. — Mr. Arnold, staying last year 

 in August at Tintagel (in Cornwall), came upon this 

 plant flowering abundantly along the banks of a 

 stream, which ran down a neighbouring valley to the 

 little cove of Trebarwith. This is the only time I 

 ever saw it growing wild. — B. Tomlin. 



AjUGA REPTANS. — I saw, during the last summer, 

 a large patch of some fifty or more spikes of the 

 white variety of this flower in a damp field here. — 

 K. D., Cofton. 



Fly Catchers. — A. Kingston's anecdote of the 

 fly catchers and the stuffed fox reminds me of 

 what I think is at least as striking a verification of 

 the old proverb, " Familiarity breeds contempt." A 

 scarecrow, dressed up in an old coat and hat, was 

 put in the garden of a relative of mine to frighten 

 the birds. It may have been very effective with 

 other birds, but a pair of redstarts took advantage of 

 the snug opportunity offered them, and made their 

 nest in the coat pocket. — K. £>., Cofton. 



Instinct (?) of Spiders.— I have noticed some 

 time ago a curious habit of a certain species of small 

 spider. I say habit, because I believe it to be really 

 a habit or instinct. Thus, I found in a gentleman's 

 greenhouse, in certain crevices of the woodwork, 

 nests of spiders containing numerous eggs. These 



nests were woven around " bunches " of small pupse 

 or chrysalids. Evidently pupse of some small fly or 

 ichneumon. Can it be that these pupse or rather the 

 imagos proceeding from them, were intended by the 

 spider as food for her offspring? The question is, 

 would the pupse produce imagos simultaneously with 

 the hatching of the spider's eggs. If so, I think the 

 spider's object would be undoubtedly evident. On 

 examining the pupse I found them to be alive and 

 healthy, and giving promise of attaining to maturity. 

 If my surmise be correct, what a wonderful instinct 

 is shown in this action of a spider, a little creature 

 whom we look upon as devoid of all sense or reason ! 

 And yet God, in His great goodness, has not forgotten 

 to provide even the little spider with that instinct 

 which enables her thus to provide, as it were, so 

 wisely for her helpless offspring. Unfortunately, I 

 was not able to follow up my discovery, to see if my 

 ideas were correct. However, some other of your 

 readers may have noticed and further observed this 

 matter. I shall be glad to hear their opinion of it. 

 — William Finch, Nottingham. 



Cuckoos and their Eggs. — Is it the practice for 

 the cuckoo to lay its egg on the ground and then 

 carry it about in its mouth until it finds a suitable 

 nest to place the egg ? — J. B. IV. 



Mice as Burglars. — Is it a common thing for 

 field mice to frighten small birds away from their 

 nests, when they have been sitting for some time, and 

 then steal their eggs ? I have to-day found two nests 

 deserted and mice in possession. The one was that 

 of a long-tailed tit, who had been sitting for some 

 time, and whose nest was in a hedge in a field ; the 

 other, that of a robin on a bank in a wood. On 

 going to visit my little friend the tit, I expected to 

 find her a very busy, happy, little mother with a 

 large family to provide for, instead of which I found 

 a very different state of affairs. No little " mother- 

 bird " was to be seen. There was a look of desertion 

 about the home, as of burglars having been at work. 

 I carefully put in two fingers to feel if the eggs were 

 there all right. Out ran a small mouse, through a 

 hole which he had made in the nest. My fingers 

 came out somewhat hastily, not having expected to 

 find the thief at work ! All the eggs were gone, not 

 even the remains of the shells being left ! When I 

 first saw the robin's nest, I took out one egg — leaving 

 two or three — the one which I took had been pushed 

 almost into the side of the nest, and I had a little 

 difficulty in getting it out. The bird returned to the 

 nest, for on going to-day to see how the little birds 

 were going on, I found four or five eggs, but quite 

 cold and deserted. I noticed that another egg was 

 in the same curious position, so I examined it more 

 carefully and found that it had been drawn halfway 

 through a small round hole. Suspecting, from the 

 neat way in which the hole was made, that a mouse 

 had done it, I removed the nest and found that it was 

 a mouse's hole, into which he had evidently _ been 

 removing the eggs. The robin, no doubt, too indig- 

 nant at such treatment to remain at his post, had 

 deserted it. To show my deep sympathy for poor 

 robin, I deprived Mr. Mouse of his expected feast ! 

 — M. E. Thomson. 



Swallows and their Young. — The early 

 autumn which came on us so suddenly last year seems 

 to have had a bad effect on the morals of the swallows. 

 A number of them, having nests under the eaves of a 

 cottage in this parish, migrated, leaving their young 

 ones (about twenty) behind them. Most of these, 

 forced I suppose by hunger to leave the nest, fell 



