HARD WICKE ' S S CIE NCE - G O SSI P. 



119 



have been from starvation and consequent weakness, 

 the dead birds picked up being little but skeleton, 

 skin, and feathers. I knew of several fieldfares 

 captured alive, in a weak state and unable to fly. 

 With the change in weather, however, a total change 

 of scene has followed. Fieldfare and redwing have 

 gone north, missel-thrushes to the woods, while the 

 blackbird and the song-thrush are now (March 28) 

 building their nests, as is also the robin. Hedge- 

 sparrows are courting, while the greenfinches and 

 chaffinches, which usually build in the garden, are 

 constantly before us in sight and hearing. Wrens 

 are singing against each other as if for a wager ; and 

 a pair of red wagtails, which have nested for several 

 years in an old stem, are carefully inspecting their 

 old quarters. The mischievous house-sparrow, too, 

 is quarrelling over nesting quarters, and pulling 

 straws out of the thatch of the summer-house roof 

 for some one else to clear up. Already two of our 

 summer migrants have turned up. Several chiffchaffs 

 were seen and heard on the 22nd of March, and a 

 pair of sand-martins on the 25th. — William Jeffery. 



Otters in the Eastern Counties. — I am not 

 aware that the otter has been met with in Cambridge- 

 shire in recent years, and most naturalists believe it 

 to be extinct in the county, but one, if not two, have 

 been lately captured not far from the borders of 

 Cambridgeshire. A fine female was caught on 

 February 23rd near Mildenhall, in Suffolk. — Albert 

 H. Waters, B.A., F.S.Sc. 



Lambs Killed by Otters. — In March, on the 

 banks of the Dovey (Montgomery) a farmer lost seven 

 or eight young lambs. Not being able to account for 

 it, he watched, and saw an otter kill two. He then 

 complained to one of the river- watchers that his 

 otters were killing all his lambs. The keeper said it 



was nonsense, and impossible, and would not believe 

 it, till the farmer told him he had seen the otter 

 do it. Is this an uncommon occurrence ? — M. E. 



Thomson. 



Flowers of Azalea. — What is probably the 

 reason why some of the flowers upon an azalea shrub 

 should, year after year, be of a very much darker 

 shade of colour than the majority, which are of a light 

 pinkish shade ? Those of the dark are in a mass 

 together. — A. P. 



Cleaning Echinus Spines.— Which is the best 

 way of cleaning the spines of Spatangi without 

 injuring them, so that they will show well for 

 mounting ? — W. M. Ranson. 



Food of Weasels. — Jesse, in his " Scenes and 

 Occupations of a Country Life," says that "keepers 

 have informed him that weasels kill and feed oft- 

 times upon snakes." I should be glad were some one 

 to personally confirm this — T. W. Williams, D.L.S. 



A curious instance of protective sagacity was 

 shown in the prescience, as it would appear, of a pair 

 of swans, who in July of 1884 had completed their 

 nest on the bank of a dyke at Washingboro', near 

 Lincoln, preparatory to the laying of eggs ; but on 

 the fourth day of the month were observed by some 

 labourers to set to work afresh and raise their nest 

 till the structure was piled up two feet higher, as 

 though conscious of the great storm that was 

 approaching. On Thursday, the 5th, rain fell in 

 torrents (accompanied by thunder and lightning), the 

 whole land was flooded, and their nest would in- 

 evitably have been swept away but for this precaution. 

 The eggs were saved and the nest left high and dry 

 after the subsidence of the waters. — C. M. V. 



NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



To Correspondents and Exchangers. — As we now 

 publish Science-Gossip earlier than formerly, we cannot un- 

 dertake to insert in the following number any communications 

 which reach us later than the 8th of the previous month. 



To Anonymous Querists. — We must adhere to our rule of 

 not noticing queries which do not bear the writers' names. 



To Dealers and others. — We are always glad to treat 

 dealers in natural history objects on the same fair and general 

 ground as amateurs, in so far as the "exchanges" offered are fair 

 exchanges. But it is evident that, when their offers are simply 

 disguised advertisements, for the purpose of evading the cost of 

 advertising, an advantage is taken of our gratuitous insertion of 

 " exchanges " which cannot be tolerated. 



We request that all exchanges may be signed with name (or 

 initials) and full address at the end. 



G. W. C. — The Government of Ceylon have published a 

 work on the Lepidoptera of that island by Mr. F. Moore, F.L.S., 

 in two volumes, price £6 10s. Inquire of Messrs. Lovell Reeve 

 & Co., Henrietta Street, Covent Garden, London. 



W. F. C. — The photograph you sent us is evidently that of a 

 mite which probably infested the dipterous insect. 



West Kirby (Liverpool). — The minute shells are Hydrobia 

 ulvce, common nearly everywhere on the British coasts. See 

 vol. iv. of Dr. J. Gwyn Jeffreys' " Manual of British Mol- 

 lusca." 



F. W. — We stated in error last month that the " Journal of 

 Conchology" was published monthly; we ought to have said 

 quarterly. 



T. W. W. — The best text book on botany is by Professor 

 Sachs, translated and edited by Professor Thistleton Dyer and 

 Mr. A. W. Bennett, and published by the Clarendon Press, 

 Oxford, price i%s. 



C. L. S. — You had better apply for information concerning an 

 exchange list of British land and freshwater shells of the editor 

 of the " Journal of Conchology," Hunslet New Road, Leeds. 



G. F. G. — The following are capital books of reference : 

 "British Bees," by W. E. Shuckard, price 10s. 6d., published 

 by Lovell Reeve & Co.; "Ants and Bees," by Sir John Lub- 

 bock, price 5.J., published by Kegan Paul & Co. (one of the 

 International Scientific Library Series). Consult also " British 

 Insects," by E. F. Staveley, price 14^., published by Lovell Reeve 

 & Co. ; also " Insects at Home," by the Rev. J. G. Wood, price 

 18^., published by Longmans & Co. 



H. H. — You will possibly obtain a copy of Waterhouse 

 Hawkins' large diagrams of extinct animals, by applying to 

 such scientific booksellers as Mr. William Wesley, 28 Essex 

 Street, Strand, London, or Mr. W. P. Collins, 157 Great Port- 

 land Street, London, W. 



G. A. G. — You will find a capital introduction to the British 

 freshwater Alga; in Dr. Cooke's " Ponds and Ditches," price 

 2s. 6d., published by the Society for the Promotion of Christian 

 Knowledge. 



T. H. C. H. — We are always pleased to insert original papers 

 if they contain anything of value, but we cannot undertake to 

 return manuscripts unless accompanied with stamps. 



EXCHANGES. 



Wanted, Coleoptera from foreign correspondents. Will 

 exchange other Coleoptera and natural history objects, etc. — 

 D. Dods, 47 Chepstow Place, Bayswater, London. 



Large microscope with accessories, including series of Ross 

 objectives. Also portable stand and student's stand, with good 

 i-inch and i-inch ; present owner no further use for them. — 

 F. W. Stoddart, Bristol. 



Pectens from Hastings in exchange for other shells ; also 

 many duplicates of foreign shells. — C. L. S., Melrose, Quarry 

 Road, Hastings. 



Offered, "Nature," 1885, unbound; Cassell's "Natural 

 History," vol. i. (Apes, Lemurs, Chiroptera, and Insectivora), 

 unbound. Wanted, insect store boxes, also Lepidoptera and 

 Coleoptera or tropical land shells. — B. Hudson, 15 Waterloo 

 Road, Middlesbrough. 



Micro material: what offers for hairs from musk-rat's tail ? 

 Wanted, Lepidoptera and Coleoptera. — B. Hudson, 15 Waterloo 

 Road. Middlesbrough. 



Wanted, any books or pamphlets relating to Ventriculites ; 

 good exchange. — F. Challis, 10 Broomfield Road, Chelmsford. 

 Scotch Graptolites offered in exchange for foreign shells, 

 land or marine.— Miss F. M. Hele, Fairlight, Elmgrove Road, 

 Cotham, Bristol. 



For exchange : 1883-4-5 of Science-Gossip, unbound, 

 clean, and as good as new ; aLo vols, iii., iv., v., and vi. of 

 " Boy's Own Paper," unbound, with plates and indices. Wanted, 

 a good hen canary. — W. S. Castle-Turner, 6 Dagnall Park 

 Terrace, Selhurst, S.E. 



Fossils from the quartzite pebbles of the drift of Birmingham 

 in exchange for fossils from Cretaceous, Red Crag, or offers. — 

 A. T. Evans, 171 Cooksey Road, Small Heath, Birmingham. 



