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HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G 0SS1P. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Jackdaws. — The following facts seem of sufficient 

 interest to obtain a place in your ornithological notes. 

 A friend of mine is in possession of a jackdaw, 

 which was taken as a nestling from the nest in the 

 summer of 1874 f " rom Hadleigh Castle in Essex ; it 

 has been reared in a cage ever since, and has become 

 tame enough to go about the room, and the garden, 

 but is always very spiteful to strangers. It was 

 always believed to be a male bird ; as it had till 

 this year never laid an egg. On one occasion last 

 spring, some time between May 24 and June 23, on 

 cleaning out the cage, my friend noticed some yelk of 

 an egg, and a few days afterwards she observed the 

 bird to be sitting about in an unusual manner, and 

 the next morning, a Saturday, she found an egg ; 

 and on the succeeding Monday, she found a second 

 one. I give measurements of one egg : greatest 

 length if§ inch ; greatest width jjj inch. Since then 

 the bird has laid no more eggs. The bird has been 

 constantly in the care of the same person, so that it 

 would be impossible for any previous laying, if such 

 had occurred, to have escaped her observation. I 

 should be glad to know whether such an occurrence 

 as I have described is unusual or not. — Herbert 

 Taylor. 



The Water-Ouzel. — Your correspondent F. 

 Burman, on p. 262, is quite right in his remarks on the 

 water-ouzel. I have written on the same subject 

 myself in much the same strain, and if he will get 

 "Oology," vol. i. page 78, Sir William Jardine, that 

 practical naturalist, says : " For the ova of any kind 

 of fish we have never detected in their stomachs or 

 intestines ; and we deem it almost impossible that 

 they could reach it after it was impregnated and 

 covered in the spawning bed." 



Accidents to Birds. — It may be interesting to 

 many readers of Science-Gossip, as also serviceable 

 to any who have birds which they prize, to know 

 that I have been most successful in setting a broken 

 leg. The particulars are briefly these. A young 

 lark, which I have reared from the nest this year, 

 accidentally broke its leg. For a week I looked upon 

 it as a sprain, but, as the lameness did not improve, 

 but grew worse, I examined the leg more attentively, 

 and found that the tarsus-bone was broken high up 

 and just below the ankle, which is commonly mis- 

 taken for the knee. With the lustre of the eyes gone 

 and the feathers wet and matted together — probably 

 from perspiration occasioned by the pain — it looked 

 a pitiable object. I doubted if I could save its life. 

 I resolved to try the experiment to set the bone ; so, 

 with the assistance of a second person, I cut a piece 

 of thin post-card, and, having damped it, I folded it 

 round the leg from the ankle to the foot, allowing 

 the edges to just lap over. I then firmly bound a 

 considerable amount of darning worsted round the 

 card splint, and put the bird back into its cage. This 

 I did about three weeks ago, and it is now so far 

 better that it can open its claws and put its leg 

 down to steady itself. Before I put this splint on, 

 the leg, which was very hot and red and slightly 

 swollen, was drawn up and the claws folded into a 

 ball, while it supported itself by dropping its wing. 

 I hope very soon to have the satisfaction of seeing it 

 quite well. — I Falter T. Cooper. 



The Violet Quotation. — In the course of my 

 reading I have come across two passages containing 

 the same idea, namely, an expressed desire that the 



violet should giow out of the ashes of a dead person. 

 I cannot find a note, in any annotated edition which 

 I possess of either work, which gives any reason for 

 the birth of such an idea, and am in doubt whether it 

 is merely the result of chance that two authors should 

 have fixed upon the same flower — the violet — to 

 mention in connection with the burial of a corpse ; 

 or whether there is some tradition, or a natural 

 peculiarity of choice of locality connected with that 

 flower, which would lead one to expect its appearance 

 on a grave. One of these passages is from "Hamlet," 

 act v. scene 1 : — ■ 



" Lay her i' the earth, 



And from her fair and unpolluted flesh 



May violets spring." 



The other is from " In Memoriam," canto xviii. : — 



" We may stand 

 Where he in English earth is laid ; 

 And from his ashes may be made 

 The violets of his native land." 



Perhaps some of your readers may be able to aid 

 me with a satisfactory elucidation. — P. Q. Learite. 



Mean Temperature and Rainfall. — I feel 

 obliged to Mr. Mattieu Williams for his courteous 

 reference in last year's Science-Gossip, p. 269, to 

 my paper on the Sequence of Mean Temperature and 

 Rainfall. I beg leave to point out two verbal errors 

 (possibly printers' errors) which should be corrected, 

 for the sake of any of your readers who may be in- 

 clined to follow out this interesting subject. I. In- 

 stead of "It is very rarely that a dry August is 

 followed by a wet September," there was shown to 

 be a strong probability for a very dry August to be 

 followed by a "more or less wet September." This 

 is remarkable as being the only instance in which a 

 tendency towards opposition between one month and 

 the next, and between one season and the next, is 

 found to exist, whether as regards their temperature 

 or their rainfall. 2. When either of the months, 

 April, June, July, August, September, December, or 

 January, is very cold, the succeeding month tends 

 to be cold, not, as stated, a " dry one." — FT. Conrtenay 

 Fox, M.R.C.S., F.R.M.S. 



Arsenic and Malaria. — Whatever may be the 

 virtues possessed by Eucalyptus as a protective 

 against malaria, Dr. Tommasi-Crudelii is certainly 

 right in advocating the use of arsenic. As an 

 employe at the Cornwall Arsenic Company's works 

 at Bissoe for nearly forty years, I have had every 

 opportunity for making observations on this subject. 

 During that time I have never known a single case 

 of cholera or any other zymotic disease to occur in 

 that part of the valley where these extensive works 

 are situated. When the cholera, fever, smallpox, Sec, 

 have visited the county, many cases have occurred 

 in the same valley two miles below the works and 

 the same distance above it, but I have never known 

 a single case nearer the source of these deadly 

 fumes. — Stephen FT. Davey, Ponsanoot/i, Cornwall. 



Lunar Rainbows.- — It has been said, " that man 

 is fortunate who has seen more than three lunar 

 rainbows during his lifetime." If this be true, I 

 have been favoured in this matter beyond the or- 

 dinary race of mortals. During thirty years I have 

 seen fifteen. Referring to my meteorological note- 

 book, I find three of more than ordinary brightness : 

 Dec. 22nd, 1868; Sept. 6th, 1870, and Sept. 27th, 

 1885. The last was the most brilliant I have ever 

 seen ; it was not only large, but of uniform brightness 

 throughout. There were two others the same night, 

 but not so perfect as the first. Night rainbows are 



