HA RD WICKE' S SCIENCE- G OSS I P. 



"5 



A Group of Rotifera. — In connection with this 

 article in April Science-Gossip, a transposition of 

 two of the figures took place at the last moment. 58a 

 should >be 590, and 59a should be 58a. A careful 

 perusal of the text will show this. 



Albinism. — The following newspaper (Feb. 2, 

 1886) clipping will, I think, be interesting to those 

 who, from time to time, have corresponded in 

 Science-Gossip, on the subject of albinoes. "In 

 Germany an unusual number of white varieties of 

 animals are noticed this winter. A white chamois 

 was shot in the Totengebirge, a white fish otter was 

 caught near Brunswick, and a white fox was killed in 

 Hessen." The present winter has been distinguished 

 for falls of snow heavier than have been experienced 

 for a considerable number of years, and in this 

 paragraph we are told of an unusual number of 

 animals clothed to meet it in suitable winter coats of 

 white.— H. W. Lett, M.A. 



GEOLOGY, &c. 



The Pliocene Beds of Cornwall. — A paper 

 on this important discovery has just been read at the 

 Geological Society by Messrs. Robert Bell and 

 Kendal. It consisted of a description of the beds 

 exposed at St. Erth, a list of the molluscan fossils 

 identified, and is a continuation of that by the late 

 Mr. S. V. Wood, read to the Society in November 

 1884. The only important fossiliferous bed is a blue 

 clay, and fossils have only been obtained in one spot, 

 though the beds have been traced over an area of 

 about 120 acres. The fossils are well preserved, and, 

 with a few unimportant exceptions, are of inverte- 

 brate forms. The authors considered that the fossils 

 agree in age with the middle or lower portion of the 

 Red Crag, but that whilst many species having a 

 southern character are present at St. Erth, and 

 wanting in the Crags of the east coast, the Boreal 

 and Arctic forms found so abundantly in the Crag 

 are absent at St. Erth. In explanation of this re- 

 markable fact, it was suggested that when the St. 

 Erth beds were deposited, although the North-Sea 

 area was in direct communication with the Arctic 

 Ocean, the western part of the British Channel was 

 not, that the British Isles were joined to the continent 

 of Europe on one side and to Greenland on the other, 

 the Shetland and Faroe Islands and Iceland being the 

 remnants of the barrier that formerly divided the 

 Atlantic from the Arctic Sea. Evidence is given in 

 support of this view from the present submarine 

 configuration of the North Atlantic. It was also 

 shown to be probable that the St. Erth area in 

 Pliocene times was more directly connected with the 

 Mediterranean than at present, by a marine channel 

 that traversed France. 



The Anniversary of the Geological Society. 

 — On the above occasion the Wollaston Gold Medal 

 w r as presented to Professor Descloiseaux ; the Wollas- 

 ton Donation Fund to Mr. Starkey Gardner, for his 

 researches in fossil botany ; the Murchison Medal to 

 Mr. William Whittaker, B.A., F.G.S., for his con- 

 tributions to geological science and literature ; the 

 Murchison Geological Fund to Mr. Clement Reid, for 

 his researches in East Anglian geology ; the Lyell 

 Medal to Mr. William Pengelly, F.R.S., for his 

 cavern and other researches ; the Lyell Donation 

 Fund to Mr. D. Macintosh, for his labours in glacial 

 geology ; and to Dr. H. J. Johnston Levis the 

 Barlow-Jamieson Fund, for his studies in Vesuvian 

 volcanic products, and the Ischian earthquake. 



" British Petrography." — Part 3 of this ori- 

 ginal and splendid work has just appeared. Mr. 

 Teall deals with the chemical characters of igneous 

 rocks, and the two beautifully coloured plates show 

 sections of picrite, scyelite, hornblende-picrite, etc., 

 with key-plates to each. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Instinct in Parrots. — Dr. Kegan, for one, will 

 not admit that the lower animals have any right to 

 what we call " reason." When a child he has 

 probably been taught by the womenkind (as most of 

 us are) that men have reason and animals instinct 

 only, and this theory having become thoroughly 

 ingrained in him, I am afraid no amount of facts 

 would ever convince him to the contrary — no, even 

 if Balaam's ass were to talk to him, he would still 

 call it instinct. It is all very well to assume that 

 had the cage been open the parrot might have 

 pitched the encumbrance outside altogether, and run 

 the risk of starvation, but the contrary might also 

 have been the case ; he won't allow any poor animal 

 a modicum of sense ; it is always " an association of 

 ideas " with him, as if we human beings were not 

 subject to the same complaint. We don't expect 

 animals to be " marvellously clever," but many of 

 us do claim for them a certain amount of intelligence, 

 and I, for one, could give several instances thereof, 

 but, so far as our friend is concerned, I am afraid I 

 should only have my trouble for nothing. — H. M. 



A Clever Bird. — It may interest the bird-loving 

 readers of Science-Gossip to know that a Norwich 

 canary in my possession has acquired the songs — 

 perfect in every detail — of the following birds : 

 African green singing finch, siskin, and chaffinch, 

 also the final notes of the song of the Virginian 

 nightingale. All these birds I kept a short time 

 since in an aviary with the canary. It is a strange 

 thing, too, that the canary has only sung these 

 songs since the departure of the other birds. He 

 commenced to sing them about two weeks after I 

 had sold the small birds mentioned ; whilst the 

 Virginian nightingale had been dead six months or 

 more, thus showing a very retentive memory. No 

 one scarcely would credit it unless they heard him. 

 He reproduces the songs of the birds above men- 

 tioned in the minutest detail ; and one could readily 

 believe that my old friends were still the occupants 



