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HARD Wl CKE 'S S CI EN CE-GO SSIP. 



England, made its appearance in Hungary, and 

 attacked the corn-fields, which it had done to a less 

 degree in two or three previous years, and this year 

 they had attacked the wheat-fields of Moldavia, as 

 appears by a late paragraph in the Times newspaper. 

 Many instances are recorded of great damage being 

 done by them, both in England and Scotland, by 

 destroying plantations, of which Mr. Jesse described 

 a notable instance in New Forest and Dean Forest 

 some time ago. These examples prove that they do 

 not confine their attacks to pastures and woods, and 

 it is possible that they might, under favourable circum- 

 stances, betake themselves to our corn-fields. It is 

 therefore worth consideration whether our game- 

 preservers should not be more forbearing towards the 

 hawks, owls, and weasels, which are nearly extermi- 

 nated in many places, although they live almost entirely 

 on these and other small creatures. Sir Walter 

 inquired whether anything similar had been seen in 

 Ireland ; also whether, as moles and hedgehogs were 

 the natural enemies of the vole, they should not be 

 spared ; and with reference to a statement in " Bell's 

 Histoiy of British Quadrupeds " (last edition) that the 

 hedgehog was not found in Ireland, whether this was 

 really the case ? Several speakers said that the hedge- 

 hog was very plentiful in all parts of Ireland. 



Dr. Scl.vter on Specific Names. — In answer 

 to Robin Goodfellow, in Science-Gossip, p. 189, I 

 would observe, that it is a great error to suppose that 

 specific names must necessarily be adjectives. In 

 many cases they are substantives, and may then be of 

 a different gender from the generic name, e.g. Turdiis 

 merula, and Cervus damn. This is the case with 

 the now scientific name of the common robin, 

 which has puzzled R. G.'s little boy, and which is 

 correctly written Erithacus rubecula, rubecula being 

 a substantive like Erithacus, and standing in appo- 

 sition with it. In the same way Linnceus called the 

 Kestrel Falco Tiniutnculus, the Bell Falcon, from 

 its bell-like cry. But a recent systematist, under the 

 same misapprehension as R. G., has proposed to 

 alter Tinnunculus into Tiununada ( !) because the 

 genus to which he referred it, Cerchneis, is feminine. 

 — P. L. Sdater. 



The Earth-worm. — Professor Paley has added a 

 great many interesting facts to the little-known habits 

 of the earth-worm, but he has not exhausted the 

 subject, and I shall only be too glad if I can add 

 an item to what has been recorded. After some 

 very wet days in the month of last June, I spent 

 several hours in the dusk of evening carefully 

 noting their actions, my great object being to discover 

 by what means earth-worms dragged leaves, string, 

 twigs, &c, along the ground into their holes. I 

 knew, for I had often seen them clasp objects by 

 their prehensile heads, twining their finely-pointed 

 heads firmly round the object, and so draw it towards 

 their hole, but I had reason to suspect that this, No. 1, 



was their ordinary but not their only method. Very 

 carefully and quietly placing a candle on the earth 

 where a number of large worms were foraging round 

 their holes, I look care to place decayed leaves, Sic, 

 within the radius of the circle swept by their opera- 

 tions. The objects placed within their reach were, 

 however, too much the colour of the soil accurately 

 and distinctly to be sure of the modus operandi, the 

 thought suddenly occurred to me to try white paper. 

 Tearing up little strips about three inches long, I 

 gave them a single fold, and placed one within the 

 reach of a foraging worm. Very soon its elongated 

 head came in contact with the paper, and instead of 

 twining its head round the paper I saw it put its head 

 underneath. Carefully watching, I saw a lip on each 

 side of the paper, which being compressed between 

 the two, the paper was held firmly as in a vice, and 

 so dragged to its hole. Continuing the experiments 

 with my paper bait, I saw distinctly that the worm 

 can compress and almost flatten its head as easily as 

 it can elongate it. When the head is rendered obtuse, 

 it can extend it on each side of the mouth so as to 

 form two large distinct lips, between which it took 

 hold of the papers and dragged them to the hole ; but 

 this is only method No. 2. There is yet another, 

 which at first I could scarcely understand. Observing 

 a worm place its head under the white paper, so that 

 its operation was invisible, I saw the paper, without 

 any apparent means of motion, slowly, ghost-like 

 moving along the dark ground to the hole of the 

 worm. Its head was not round it, nor did its lips 

 enclose any part of the paper, and yet it moved. 

 Quietly and carefully, by candle-light, continuing for 

 hours my observations, I saw that when it suited the 

 creature's purpose best, it had yet a third method of 

 attaching itself to its baits. The worm having retracted 

 its head in the same way as when forming its lips, 

 firmly pressed it for a moment on to the paper, and 

 then apparently forming a sucker of its mouth, the 

 paper was firmly attached to it, and so without being 

 held, except as the leathern toy attaches itself by 

 exhaustion of air to the stone, the paper followed the 

 retreating worm and was dragged to its hole. I am 

 perfectly satisfied as the result of my patient and 

 tiring watching therefore, that the earth-worm can 

 secure its object just according to which method best 

 suits the thing it desires to obtain, either by encircling 

 a part of it with its prehensile head, by pressing it 

 between two expansions of the head-like lips, or by 

 attaching its head and mouth in the way of a sucker. 

 — W. Budden, Ipswich. 



Notes of Great Tit. — Gilbert White, in his 

 " Selborne," says the curious notes, resembling the 

 whetting of a saw, are the early spring song of the 

 Marsh Tit. I have always taken it to be the Great 

 Tit's note. Can any reader of Science-Gossip 

 inform me to which of these birds the song belongs ? 

 — C. C. 



