HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



117 



inhaling ammonia. As I watched the symptoms, I ob- 

 served that once or twice her sides heaved, she made 

 a spasmodic attempt to vomit, and then the limbs 

 stiffened, the sides swelled up to a monstrous size, 

 and poor Jenny breathed her last before our eyes. I 

 looked at my watch as I returned to the house, and 

 saw that just twenty minutes had elapsed since I set 

 my watch at the window. — L. A. 



Caterpillars of Papilio Helenus. — I have 

 several caterpillars of Papilio Helenus, bright-green, 

 beautifully marked, and wonderfully painted false 

 eyes. They feed on the orange leaf, and, on being 

 irritated, protrude a pair of pink, waxy, snail-like 

 tentacles, which give out a strong and delicious scent 

 of orange. On looking at these caterpillars one 

 morning, I found one of them almost covered with 

 little oval, white, woolly pupre, which apparently 

 must have come out of the body of the caterpillar 

 during the night ; and on another occasion I saw one 

 of the caterpdlars with only a little woolly substance 

 about the middle of the body, but on examining 

 it through a lens I saw little transparent, amber- 

 coloured protuberances, which I laid hold of with a 

 fine pair of pincers, and drew out one at a time, in 

 all, thirteen larvae of some ichneumon fly, somewhat 

 similar to those I saw before, but not covered with 

 any woolly substance. The question is, Did the first 

 batch coir.e out of the body of the caterpillar, or were 

 they placed round to devour it afterwards ? because 

 the caterpillar I first took out of this woollen wrapper 

 of apparently small chrysalises lived till it turned 

 into a chrysalis, and afterwards changed into Papilio 

 Helenus. Can you inform me if there is any work I 

 can consult on caterpillars, more especially with 

 reference to this scent-tentacle, which I believe only 

 occurs in the Papilionidse ? I only find slight 

 reference to this peculiar scent-organ in Packard's 

 American work and Duncan's " Metamorphoses of 

 Insects." Pouchet doesn't mention it, and our new 

 book on Indian butterflies, by Marshall and De Nice- 

 ville, has not a word on the subject. However, I 

 manage to keep them protruded ; what is the best 

 medium to mount them in for the microscope? — ■ 

 G. C. E., Coonoor, A T ilgiri Hills, Madras Presidency. 



Gallinula chloropus. — One of my pets is a 

 tame moor-hen. She has lived for some months 

 past in an aviary constructed specially for her, and 

 in which is a miniature pond for her to bathe in. 

 She thrives very well on boiled potatoes, meat cut 

 into small morsels, bread, a little corn, and occasion- 

 ally snails, slugs, and earth-worms. She seems 

 quite indifferent to cold, and will go into her bath, 

 after I have broken the ice for her, when the 

 temperature is such that the water must almost 

 freeze on her. Her evolutions in the water are very 

 amusing to watch ; she ducks her head repeatedly 

 under the surface, and seems thoroughly to enjoy her 

 bath. She much prefers to pick her barley out of 

 the water to eating it dry, and likes it best when it is 

 well soaked. — Albert H. Waters. 



"A Remarkable Robin." — May I suggest that 

 the supposed variety of the robin, described under 

 the above title on p. 95, was a specimen of the snow 

 bunting {Plectrophanes nivalis), flocks of which are 

 not very infrequent during the cold weather in 

 Britain, more particularly in the north? — T. D. A. 

 ■Cockerell. 



The British Slug List. — Referring to Dr. 

 Williams's useful and interesting papers, now ap- 

 pearing in your columns, on the variation and 



continental distribution of our slugs, I notice the 

 author states that the var. albo-lateralis, Roebuck, of 

 Avion atev, " is only known from North Wales and 

 Sussex." I am pleased to inform him that I met 

 with this variety near Oswestry, Salop, in June last, 

 and sent specimens to Mr. Roebuck as Recorder for 

 the Conchological Society. About eight miles farther 

 north, just within the borders of Salop, I also took 

 a specimen of the somewhat rare mollusk, Limax 

 cineveo-niger. — B. Hudson . 



Electric Eel. — Perhaps the following will be of 

 interest to Mr. C. L. Jackson, as he has " never seen 

 in print before " the fact that electric eels exert their 

 power through the water. I copy this from " Animal 

 Physiology," by the late Dr. W. B. Carpenter, F.R.S. 

 He says (p. 341, 1864 ed.) : " This power is employed 

 by the fish (gymnotus) to defend itself against its 

 enemies, and even, it is said, to destroy its prey 

 (which consists of other fishes) at some distance, the 

 shock being conveyed by the water as a lightning- 

 conductor conveys to the earth the effects of the 

 electric discharge of the clouds." It is different in 

 the case of the torpedo : this fish must be touched in 

 two places before any shock is felt ; if it is only 

 touched in one place it will turn itself so as to make 

 another part of its body touch the intruder, and so 

 " complete the circle." — A. W. Harrison. 



The Shard-borne Beetle. — "The shard-borne 

 beetle, with its drowsy hum" (Geotrupes vernalis, 

 fam. Scarabseidoe), has many names in common. It is 

 also called the "watchman's clock," etc. Gray, in 

 his " Elegy Writtenin a Country Churchyard," alludes 

 to it.— H. H. Westei-field. 



A Kitten resembling a Rabbit in its Hind- 

 Quarters. — The following was narrated to me by a 

 resident in Cushendun, who heard it from a farmer, 

 John O'Hara, Crooknacraw. O'Hara's cat left the 

 house for several weeks, and returned with kittens, 

 the hinder part of one resembling a rabbit. It was 

 killed, as it was considered unlucky. On looking 

 over Loudon's "Magazine of Natural History,'' 

 (vol. v. p. 275), there is a similar statement which 

 occurred at Newark, at a farm called Meering, in 1831. 

 That two animals of such opposite natures as the cat 

 and rabbit should unite, and the produce partake in 

 so distinct a manner of both species, is remarkable in 

 a physiological point of view. This, I think, is worth 

 inserting in Science-Gossip, when some of your 

 readers may be able to furnish more light on the 

 subject. — Rev. S. A. Brenan, Gle?idun Lodge, Cush- 

 endun, co. Antrim. 



The Cuckoo. — A gentleman, who lived at 

 Brymbo, North Wales, for some years, communi- 

 cated to me a curious fact, which some of your 

 readers may be interested in : namely, that the cuckoo 

 lays her eggs in the nest of the ring-dove or wood- 

 quest. I have never heard or seen an account of this 

 before, except in the Rev. Gilbert White's " Natural 

 History of Selborne," letter xxx., where he writes 

 that " the excellent Mr. Willoughby mentions the 

 nest of the palumbus ring-dove." My friend told me 

 that he wanted to rear a young wood -pigeon, and 

 climbed to one of the nests, and found two eggs, one 

 totally different from the other, which greatly surprised 

 him. When the young were hatched out, the parent 

 birds ejected them from the nest, and so they perished. 

 Differences in eggs were observed in other nests. 

 Could there be another bird who lays eggs similarly 

 to a cuckoo ?— Rev. S. A. Brenan, Glendun Lodge, 

 Cushendun, co. Antrim. 



