HARDWI CKE ' S S CI EN CE-GO SSI P. 



269 



particularly with regard to its orthography. Many 

 peculiarities will be noticed in the extracts we have 

 given ; for example, the indifferent use of v and u ; 

 the occasional reduplication of the final consonants in 

 nouns, to which an e is sometimes added ; the termi- 

 nation ness, with only one s ; and the omission of 

 the ' in the possessive case. Some of the woodcuts 

 are fairly well executed, and occupy a whole page. 



The book concludes with an epilogue to the reader, 

 in which he says : " I do require al men of consieence 

 that shall euer read or see these Histories, or wish 

 for a sight of the residue, to help vs with knowledge, 

 and to cei tifie their particular experiences in any kinde 

 or any one of the liuing Beastes, and with all to con- 

 sider how great a task we do vndertake, trauelling 

 for the content and benefit of other men, and there- 

 fore how acceptable it would be vnto vs, and procure 

 euerlasting memorie to themselues, to be helpers, 

 encouragers, ayders, procurers, maintainers, and 

 abettours to such labor and needfull endeuour as was 



never before enterprized in England 



Farewell. " 



A NEW COLLECTING BOX. 



SOME time ago you did me the honour of admit- 

 ting to your pages illustrations of the " Sear " 

 collecting bottle, which I have reason to know has 

 been useful to many naturalists. I now beg to 

 introduce to them a little contrivance which I have 



Fig. 221. — New Collecting Box, 

 i full-size, closed. 



boxes, all of which are like the top A, made of fine 

 wire gauze, and thus the specimens are kept separate 

 while air passes freely to all. The collector can 

 open his case hours or even days after his excursion 



Fig. 222. — Ditto, § full-size, 

 open. 



tested, and found good for practical work, in the form 

 of a light tin collecting box. The annexed sketches 

 are almost self-explanatory. The notches at a a a 

 allow the introduction of "small deer" without 

 imperilling the escape of previous captures. The 

 dotted circles show the position of the bottoms of the 



Fig. 223. — Annular Top of ditto, with wire lattice, full size. 



without the certainty which exists in pill-box captures 

 of finding half his subjects smothered, and the other 

 half destroyed by ferocious companions. 



The box is very strong, very light, and inexpensive, 

 and may be obtained of Messrs. Thomas Bentley & 

 Co., of Margate, to whom I have given the pattern. 



W. Lane Sear. 



A FEW WORDS ABOUT A LITTLE GNAT. 



ON the 1st July a friend gave me two ounces of 

 Thames water, which had been drawn from the 

 cistern supplying his house ; and this small quantity 

 contained more than thirty worm-shaped creatures, 

 which, upon examination, I found to be the larvae of 

 some kind of gnat : the largest were about a quarter 

 of an inch long. 



V- 



Fig. 224. — Larva of Gnat, natural size j-inch. 

 The larva of this species has a brown head, with 

 the eyes, mandibles, and a fine line round the neck, 

 dark brown; the thorax and the abdomen pale greer. 

 Two prolegs project from the under side of the 

 prothorax, and two from the last segment of the 

 abdomen, which has also, at its extremity, three 



