II A R D WICKE ' 5 5 CIE NCE- G OSSIP. 



follow the winding circling zig-zag course back to the 

 hive. Goldsmith makes quite as great a blunder, 

 when he tells us that the fresh-water gudgeon and 

 eel have no air bladder. I happen to know they 

 have : the gudgeon, a beauty. After all, it would 

 appear that bees only fly in a direct line on their 

 return to the hive. Apologising for taking up so much 

 of your valuable space — Mark Antony. 



Migratory Birds and their Old Haunts.— 

 Mr. Taylor writes in a recent number of Science- 

 Gossip, upon this subject ; mentioning a cuckoo with 

 a peculiar threefold note. While I do not wish to 

 challenge his statement that the bird in question 

 returned to its old haunt, I should like to point out 

 that this particular note is no great rarity. Some 

 years ago, I heard several cuckoos uttering it on the 

 sand-hills near Wallasey, and a friend who lived in 

 Liverpool wished to persuade me — whether in jest or 

 earnest I know not — that the cuckoo with three notes 

 was a distinct species peculiar to that locality. Since 

 then I have heard the sime note in various parts of 

 the country, and am inclined to think, from personal 

 observation, that it is oftener uttered after the bird 

 has " changed his tune " than in the earlier part of 

 the season. — H. Snowden Ward, Ilkley. 



Greek Tortoise.— Mr. Mattieu Williams's note 

 on the tortoise parasite reminds me of several I found 

 on a Grecian tortoise [Testudo Graeca) about two 

 years ago. They were certainly not so large as the 

 specimen he describes, but were hooked on their host 

 in the same place, i.e. between the leg and abdomen, 

 They are apparently a species of Amblyomma (Koch), 

 the one in question being probably that to which 

 Cuvier refers as " fastening upon various quadrupeds, 

 and even the tortoise, burying its suckers so completely 

 in its flesh that it can hardly be detached by force, or 

 by tearing away the portion of skin to which it is 

 fastened " — the accuracy of which I can confirm. 

 Amongst others received from the Red Sea littoral, I 

 have one which seems to be similar to that of Mr. 

 Williams ; but as to its host I have no information. — 

 Harry Moore. 



Fertilisation of Plants, etc.— I was very 

 pleased to see that your correspondent Mr. Robert 

 Paulson had noticed that bees do not always enter 

 the throat of the flower to extract the honey, or, 

 rather, the juice which is eventually changed into 

 •that article. Three or four years ago I had a bed of 

 broad beans, and every flower was pierced at the base. 

 I have watched bees for hours at various times, and 

 in some cases I have seen two, three, and even four 

 bees break through the same flower at different 

 places with their strong mandibles. I think this is a 

 pretty good proof that the bee that last visited the 

 flower had no knowledge of previous visits from other 

 bees. Your correspondent thinks differently, I see. 

 Can Mr. Paulson inform me if bees possess this intel- 

 ligence when extracting honey in the ordinary way ? 

 There are several deeply interesting questions opened 

 \\p by your correspondent which will take some 

 answering, methinks. I must remind him that the 

 great bee student, Huber, was well acquainted with 

 the above facts.—Mark Antony. 



A Query. — Supposing a bee extracted the honey 

 from a scarlet-runner flower on August 1st, howlong 

 would the flower be before it was ready to be visited 

 by another bee ? From the very interesting remarks 

 of Mr. Paulson, it would appear that the honey— if I 

 may be allowed the expression— actually exists before 

 the flowers have expanded. Does this remark apply 

 to every flower ? I was certainly under the impression 



that the juice of the flower intended to form the honey 

 could not possibly be developed until the flower had 

 expanded. But it appears I am wrong. The following 

 remarks may interest Mr. Lett. In that delightful 

 book, "Ants, Bees and Wasps," by Sir John Lubbock, 

 p. 278, he says : "I have been a good deal surprised 

 at the difficulty which bees experience in finding 

 their way." At p. 275 : On a beautiful June morning 

 he took a bee which was just starting out, took it to 

 his room, a distance of " only two hundred yards," 

 gave it some honey, which it enjoyed. In a few 

 minutes it flew away, but did not return. At the 

 same page he says : "Indeed, I rarely found bees 

 return to honey if brought any considerable distance 

 at once." But he says — and this seems to me impor- 

 tant — " By taking them, however, some twenty yards 

 each time they came to the honey, I at length trained 

 them to come to my room." On p. 284 he says : 

 " Bees are much affected by light. . . . One evening, 

 having to go down to the cellar, I lit a small covered 

 lamp. A bee which was out came to it, and, flying 

 round and round like a moth, followed me the whole 

 of the way there." It seems to me impossible that a 

 bee without any previous experience could take a 

 flight of two miles in a straight line, and Sir John 

 seems to be of the same opinion. — Mark Antony. 



Cytris and Melicerta. — A few days ago, when 

 I was looking in my microscope, where I have some 

 pond-weed, to which are attached several rotifers of 

 various ages, I saw a Cypris attack one of them, a 

 full-grown Melicerta ringens. The Cypris at first 

 seemed to be digging its claws into the bottom of the 

 tube, as if to tear it from the leaf; then it climbed 

 up 'and scratched one side for some time, then the 

 other, about half-way down, until there was a large 

 hole in it. It then went to the bottom of the tube, 

 and whilst there the Melicerta came out at the top, 

 and expanded its discs. The Cypris immediately 

 climbed to the top, and the Melicerta as suddenly 

 disappeared ; and the Cypris, with its head down and 

 its claws stretched out, began to scratch the middle 

 of the tube again, until part of it broke off, leaving 

 half the Melicerta exposed. The Cypris then left it, 

 and a number of minute, round, transparent bodies 

 appeared, which seemed to settle upon the Melicerta 

 as it swayed backwards and forwards in its uncovered 

 state. The next day the Melicerta was very lively, 

 and was busy repairing its tube, as if nothing had 

 happened. — E. Roberts. 



Exploding Gunpowder.— I have been trying 

 to explode gunpowder, etc., with the dark rays of the 

 sun, excluding the light rays by smoked glass, also 

 with glass painted with lampblack from a water- 

 colour paint-box, but can get no heat at all. Can 

 some reader inform me through your instructive 

 paper how to proceed and to get the desired results 1 

 — W. J. Paul. 



Stots on Sycamore Leaves. — Mr. Drummond 

 seems to refer to spots which he has seen only on 

 Sycamore leaves. If so, he probably means the black 

 patches produced by a fungus, Rhytisma acerinum 

 ("Handbook of British Fungi," p. 756). With the 

 editor's permission, I will send sketches of this for 

 the next number of Science-Gossip.— W.B. Grove. 



Viburnum Lantana and Viburnum Opulus. 

 —The wayfaring-tree and the guelder rose. Our 

 hedges and woods are bright with the berries of these 

 shrubs. Have they any use ? Are the former poison- 

 ous ? I see Johns mentions that it is said the latter are 

 sometimes fermented and eaten. — //. L. Damfrier, 

 Rochester. 



