126 



HARD WICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



and he laughed heartily at the tenacity with which 

 my little captives would cling to the meat. 



One day I put one of my fingers into the water ; it 

 was soon surrounded by my ever-hungry pets, who, in 

 their efforts to gain nourishment from it, caused a 

 titillation not altogether pleasant to bear for any 

 length of time. After I had tried them every day for 

 a week they would not come near it, they were 

 evidently conscious from past experience that my finger 

 was too hard for their little horny processes to make 

 any impression on. 



Sometimes I have seen two tadpoles meet and put 

 their mouths together and remain in that attitude 

 towards each other for quite one minute, as if they 

 were holding some friendly communion ; then they 

 would separate, slowly gliding past each other. 

 Often I have seen one go off at full speed as if some 

 sudden frenzy had seized it, and go the round of the 

 globe several times, and then as suddenly stop. 

 Could it have been in pursuit of anything ; or could 

 a sudden fear have seized it, or only a little exu- 

 berance of spirits ? 



For some time before their posterior limbs pro- 

 truded, they, as well as the fore-limbs or graspers, 

 could be seen forming underneath the translucent 

 skin which envelopes the tadpole ; then the toes 

 protruded, and in a few days the whole of the 

 posterior limbs and the body assumed the form as 

 represented in Fig. 77. In some three or four, and in 

 others only one day would intervene before the 

 graspers would be suddenly put forth, and then the 

 body, head and posterior limbs would assume a more 

 rounded appearance, as represented in Fig. 78. At this 

 stage of their life-changes they presented a most 

 helpless appearance, constantly panting and resting 

 un the aquatic plants near the surface of the water, 

 with their graspers in the position shown in Fig. 78. 

 Many died, and were greedily devoured by their 

 surviving relations not yet so far advanced as them- 

 selves. I never found any eating those which were 

 in the same stage of development as themselves. 

 When the tadpoles arrived at the stages represented 

 in Figs. 79 and So, they found their way on to the cork 

 which had been placed on the top of the water for 

 the reception of the young batrachians. I then found 

 it necessary to remove them (if I wished to save any 

 from the jaws of death) to a vessel where there was 

 less water and a larger resting-place ; but not any 

 lived longer than six weeks. The difficulty was how to 

 feed them. 1 procured small insects off plants, gave 

 them crumbs of bread, and tried them with minute 

 pieces of beef, and upon one occasion I induced one 

 nog to eat a piece. I have been told since that they 

 can be kept alive on boiled livers. 



The tadpole's tail did not become absorbed so 

 quickly as I had been made to expect : it went through 

 quite three stages, until nothing of it was to be seen 

 but a knol) at the lower part of the back of the young 

 frog, and even that took some time before it disappeared. 



I took sketches and watched particularly these 



latter transformations of the tadpole, because I was 



told that they dropped their tails and turned into 



frogs, and I find many educated persons (even men) 



believe such is the case. On showing my sketches to 



a gentleman, he asked if I was quite sure they were 



not different families of the same species. How is it 



educated persons know so little of what are common 



objects of natural history? Because " ea sub. 



oculis posita negligimus ; proximorum incuriosi 



longinqua sectamur." I ask, Why disdain to study 



those things which nature broadcasts around us, 



simply because they are common, as long as their 



habits and economy (which are most wonderful and 



interesting) are as great a mystery to many of us as 



those of the rarest ? 



Clara Kingsford. 



Canterbury. 



T 



LEriDOPTERISTS' WORK FOR JUNE. 



By W. Finch, jun. 

 HE beautiful leafy month of June is now at hand, 



JL and the numbers of insects are steadily in- 

 creasing. The lepidopterist to fill his boxes and to 

 study his captures will have to work night and day. 

 Indeed, in the midst of the mass of work around him, 

 he will very often have to stop to consider what he 

 shall do next. The energetic worker and true lover 

 of nature will by this time have a pretty numerous 

 collection of insects, and should be able to show a 

 quantity of notes in his diary. Let him not fail in 

 this latter respect, for he will derive much pleasure 

 from the perusal of them at the end of the year, and 

 will also be instructed by them what to do and the 

 best way of doing it, in the following season. 



We must now be out in the hot sunshine with the 

 net ; out in the darkness of night with the net, lamp, 

 and treacle-pot ; up early in the morning setting 

 out our captures of the previous day or night, and 

 then off for an hour at the fences and tree-trunks. And 

 so on throughout the whole season, work, work, 

 work ; from now it will be all hard work. But you 

 may depend, that however much we may feel inclined 

 to grumble now at the continual worry and work, we 

 shall not do so at the end of the season, providing 

 that we have had moderate success. 



Many and varied are the beautiful forms of life we 

 shall see this month, some of them too are curious ; 

 all of them teach lessons, and I believe were meant 

 to do so when they were first created. If not, then 

 why was so much care and wisdom shown in their 

 construction? How each little life is complete in 

 itself, and yet is merely the forerunner of another life 

 to come, each more and more wonderful than the one 

 left behind. In the insect life, and especially in the 

 life of the lepidopterous insects, I always feel that 

 God intended a parable. For the lives of these small 



