HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



2S1 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Aquarium Notes. — One of your correspondents, 

 Mr. J. Collins, in August, expressed surprise at the 

 destructive habits of minnows. For a short time I 

 have had an aquarium, and have also been surprised 

 and astonished at these impudent fishes. I have 

 tried various aquatic plants and grasses, but all to no 

 purpose, they ate up and destroyed all, and even 

 pulled them up by the roots. Dace are equally de- 

 structive, and I believe killed themselves by eating 

 so much. I have been very much annoyed at the 

 pertinacity of the minnows to devour everything. 

 Lemna minor disappeared rapidly. I tried a few 

 snails ; Paludina seemed to hold out well, but suc- 

 cumbed. Planorbis holds out very well, but many 

 have disappeared. Limncza stagnalis have no chance 

 whatever. I had a few beetles ; Dytiscus, a diabolical 

 rascal, harried the Limna:a very much also ; but the 

 minnows gave them no peace, they disappeared 

 wholesale. The whirligig beetle, a very pleasing 

 object, but no chance whatever, snapped up rapidly ; 

 although they contrived various modes of escape, their 

 fastness and diagonal movement availed them nothing. 

 Newts seem docile objects for the aquaria, but less 

 interesting. Tadpoles far more interesting in the 

 various changes. When the newt sheds his skin, 

 the minnows often help him to divest himself and eat 

 up the skin. The final struggle in mine seems to 

 have been with the Dytisci, of which I had several. 

 One day I found one destroying his brother in 

 the coolest way — very soon demolished him. Two 

 days afterwards, we found them all dead, as if there 

 had been a keen battle. I have one large water 

 beetle left, but he seems very inoffensive so far. The 

 minnows and the beetle are in full possession. I 

 have tried gold-fish, but failed with them. I should 

 much like to know of some water-plant that minnows 

 would not eat. — H. D. 0. F. 



Viviparous Lizard (Zootoca vivipara). — On 

 July 21st, 1885, I caught a fine gravid female of this 

 species of lizard as it lay basking in the sun in a 

 drystone dyke. After killing it by putting it into my 

 insect-killing cyanide bottle, where it was soon 

 rendered unconscious and shortly died, I dissected it, 

 and was surprised at the number of ova it contained, 

 there being no fewer than fourteen, each of which 

 contained a well-formed young lizard with a goodly 

 portion of yolk and albumen, the envelope being 

 membranous. Mr. Bell, in his " History of British 

 Reptiles," says, " the usual number "of young brought 

 forth by this lizard " is from three to six." Before 

 dissecting the lizard, I took its dimensions, and made 

 a short description of it ; and, as it differs somewhat 

 from the description of the female, as given by Mr. 

 Bell, whilst in the coloration of the under surface it 

 nearly agrees with that given by him for the male, I 

 append it, thinking it may be of some interest to 

 erpetologists. Dimensions : entire length, 5§ inches; 

 colour : the dorsal surface is lightish olive, bounded 

 laterally by a narrow stripe or line of bright yellow, 

 which is continued a little way along the tail, with a 

 line of connected dark-brown spots along the median 

 line, and a row of dark-brown smaller spots just 

 within the narrow yellow lateral line. Sides of the 

 body and head are dark-brown, bounded beneath by 

 a narrow yellow stripe or line which commences 

 beneath the eye, runs along the side of the head and 

 neck ; and thence along the side of the body in a line 

 with the insertion of the limbs. The anterior limbs 

 are entirely brown-coloured above ; the posterior 

 ones have a few small dull-yellow spots. The entire 



under-surface from the throat to the tip of the tail, 

 including the limbs, is of an orange-yellow colour : 

 the under-surface of the tail and the hinder limbs 

 with a small portion of the posterior part of the 

 abdomen, is speckled with black. Mr. Bell says, 

 " The under side of the body and base of the tail in 

 the male are bright orange, spotted with black ; in 

 the female these parts, as well as the tail, pale greyish- 

 green, without spots." The four narrow stripes or 

 lines of bright yellow, formed a striking feature in the 

 coloration of the lizard, as it lay basking in the 

 bright sunshine of the early evening. — Charles Robson, 

 Elswick, Naocastlc-on- Tyne. 



Peculiar Prunella. — While visiting a friend in 

 North-east Gloucestershire, I was introduced to a very 

 queer variety of Prunella. Expressing a wish to 

 see it growing, if possible, we started together to the 

 top of one of the wolds, and there found the plant. 

 It was too far gone in fruit for any one to be able 

 to form a proper estimate of its peculiar characters. 

 As near as we could see, they were as follows : — 

 Root leaves, with petioles, l-i£ inch in length, and 

 very much the shape of the ordinary form ; stem 

 slightly angled and hoary, with short stiff hairs, 

 particularly at the angles. Calyx, as in ordinary form. 

 Corolla, cream-coloured, almost yellow, large and 

 full. Spike globose, with two lanceolate and two 

 reniform bracts, opposite, in pairs ; not quite so 

 dense as ordinary form. Should be glad to know if 

 this has been observed before by any of your readers ? 

 — John Taylor. 



Albino Varieties.— -.Epilobium hirsutum: two 



patches ; very strong and healthy, with pure white 

 blooms ; Quennington, Gloucestershire. Epilobium 

 montanum : several tall plants ; Swindon, Wilts. 

 Ononis arvensis : one plant among several others of 

 the ordinary colour ; Blunsdon, Wilts. Centaurea 

 nigra: pure white blooms; Green Hill, Fairford, 

 and Kempsford, Gloucestershire. Scabiosa arvensis : 

 rather weakly specimen, with white heads of bloom ; 

 the plant was covered with fungi ; Calluna vulgaris ; 

 Woolford Heath, Gloucestershire, several plants. 

 Carduns nutans : numbers of plants by hedgeside 

 all with white blooms ; Swindon, Wilts. With 

 regard to Epilobium hirsutum I may state that all 

 the white-flowered plants grow by the side of a small 

 stream that carried off formerly the refuse of a 

 paper-mill. Is it possible that this fact may in some 

 way account for the change of colour ? — John Taylor, 



House -Flies. — A correspondent in Science- 

 Gossip of September writes that "he and many 

 friends have remarked the immense numbers of 

 house-flies last summer." I can vouch for the same 

 plague in this neighbourhood ; but they did not 

 come into the house. We have had a very cold, dry 

 summer, a month late in vegetation. Queen-wasps 

 were very numerous in April and May ; hardly a 

 wasp to be seen in the autumn I never remember 

 such a scarcity. I remarked tadpoles in September at 

 Pomeroy, co. Tyrone — is this unusual? — S. A. Brenan. 



Light Attraction for Moths. — I have found 

 light attraction for moths a decided success this 

 season ; but this is owing to the favourable situation 

 of the house which I entered into last Christmas. 

 My bedroom window overlooks a cornfield and a 

 potato-field, and there is nothing to intercept the 

 view for a long distance. In July and August, in 

 particular, I reaped a good harvest of moths. On 

 several occasions I sat up till two o'clock in the 

 morning busily catching moths all the while, with 

 the window open and the gas turned full on. In one 



