HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



! 45 



difference, (in colour especially) between the several 

 specimens that I have had under my care, and as 

 each came from a different locality, the most feasible 

 solution of the variations is soil and climate. 



I named my little lacertian, "Tommy," after his 

 proud captor. 



A fish-globe served him for a permanent home, 

 which I thickly garnished with sand, then placed in 

 it a tuft of grass, a large stone (for the lizard loves to 

 lie under the latter), and a saucer of water. 



On bright sunny mornings Tommy was to be seen 

 basking in the sun, stretched out full length and 

 looking so broad and flat. How his dark bright eye 

 would follow me about, and if I failed in providing 

 him the required pabulum, he would become very 

 demonstrative ; would rise and crawl about with his 



"" v'i W *i| 





Fig. 154.— Viviparous Lizards (Zootoca vivipard). 



nose down, his face increasing with his 'disappoint- 

 ment ; on finding nought, he would raise his anterior 

 legs, as on tiptoe, hold up his head, at the same time 

 opening his mouth so wide and looking at me so 

 appealingly, yet when I answered his appeal with 

 insect food, he would not catch it whilst I looked on. 

 He appeared too intent on watching me. However, on 

 my retiring to a little distance behind him, he would 

 immediately plant his posterior limbs firmly down, 

 raise his anterior ones, and stretch forward his neck, 

 and in this attitude he would watch his prey until it 

 was nearly out of reach, when he would suddenly 

 dart forward and catch it in his mouth, immediately 

 shake it, and, if a fly, gradually turn it round until the 

 head pointed towards his throat. The reason why the 

 lizard adopts this method of swallowing a fly is very 

 apparent, for, as the luckless insect is being swallowed, 



its wings gradually fold over its back, thereby pre- 

 venting any inconvenience from the protruding of its 

 wings on either side of the reptile's mouth. A cater- 

 pillar or meal-worm was always seized in the middle, 

 well shaken whilst it was being munched and 

 squeezed, and gradually turned round, until, as in the 

 case of the fly, the head pointed towards the throat. 

 A spider, on the contrary, was swallowed the reverse 

 way, with a view of detaching, if possible, the body 

 from its head and legs. Whilst munching and 

 squeezing its prey, the lizard continually rubs first 

 one side of its jaw and then the other on something 

 hard, with the view of furthering the detaching of legs 

 or wings, or any portion of its prey which it does not 

 desire to swallow. 



Spiders and insects must have wonderful vitality, 

 for, upon several occasions, I have seen an individual — 

 either of the class Arachnidte or Insecta, wholly 

 hidden and munched in Tommy's mouth for a much 

 longer time, and in such a manner, as I should have 

 thought would have precluded any chance of future 

 activity on its part — make its escape apparently totally 

 unharmed from the jaws of death, and run or fly off 

 as the case might be. 



GOSSIP ON CURRENT TOPICS. 



By W. Mattieu Williams, F.R.A.S., F.C.S. 



Underground Waters. — The Report of the 

 Committee of Enquiry into this subject which was 

 read by Mr. C. E. De Ranee to the British Associa- 

 tion has considerable practical, as well as scientific, 

 interest. The more we study the subject of river 

 pollution, and the question of domestic water supply, 

 the more and more evident becomes the danger of 

 depending on the rivers of our thickly-peopled 

 country. This report, and the previous labours of 

 Mr. De Ranee, who has so industriously and skilfully 

 applied himself to this subject during many years, 

 prove that we have under our feet an abundance of 

 naturally filtered water which we may obtain and use 

 on one condition ; viz. that those who seek for it 

 understand the subject. A man may be a very 

 eminent engineer and yet be quite ignorant on this 

 matter. The engineer employed to sink for water, 

 however eminent, requires to know which are the 

 water-bearing strata, where they exist, and how to 

 tap them. Making a deep hole in the backyard of a 

 brewery is not sufficient. Mr. de Ranee and his 

 committee have shown, that the strata of this country 

 absorb from one to twelve inches of rainfall annually, 

 and that every inch thus absorbed supplies 40,000 

 gallons daily to every square mile ; thus the actual 

 underground flow varies from 40,000 to 480,000 

 gallons per day to every square mile. 



This flow does not occur at random ; the water 

 selects the most porous and the most accessible rocks 



