ss 



HARD WI CKE 'S S CIENCE - G O SSI P. 



adequate occasion for such an accident might be fur- 

 nished by throwing the mail-bag from a waggon to 

 the pavement, or transferring it to or from a rapidly- 

 moving train. It was therefore decided to reject the 

 wooden rack altogether, and instead to support the 

 slide by the whole of its edges and much of its sides 

 by cloth, leather, indiarubber, or other soft and 

 evenly-yielding material. This may be attained with 

 the common boxes by removing the racks, lining the 

 top, bottom, and ends with thick, soft cloth, and 

 arranging folds of the cloth, glued or stitched in place, 

 like a rack at each end of the box so that a double 

 thickness of the cloth shall extend between the slides 

 from each end one inch towards the centre. It i s 

 better, however, to have the boxes made for this use 

 somewhat larger than the customary size, so that very 

 thick beaver cloth can be used for the packing. For 

 six slides a box may be made of hard wood 3-l6ths 

 of an inch thick, 3§ inches long, \\ wide and \\ deep 

 inside measurement. The folds of cloth should be so 

 arranged that not more than an inch in the centre of 

 the slide is unsupported, except when large cover- 

 glasses are to be used, when more space should be 

 left to avoid pressing on the cover. The outside of 

 the box is covered with strong thin cloth. The com- 

 parative safety of this method is indicated by the expe- 

 rience of the American Postal Club. During a trial 

 of several months in many of the circuits, not one 

 slide is known to have been broken while packed in 

 this manner, while to slides in the ordinary boxes 

 with wooden racks, accidents are unfortunately fre- 

 quent. For sending by express, these boxes should be 

 made of thicker wood, or enclosed in larger cases, to 

 prevent crushing by the weight of heavy packages 

 among which they may be carried. 



Actinocyclus Barklyi. — I believe this form 

 has not been published, at least in a scientific sense. 

 Some dozen or more years ago a diatomaceous 

 deposit was discovered in or near the Yarra Yarra, 

 Melbourne, Australia, and was distributed under the 

 name of the " Yarra deposit." The form about which 

 " C. V. S." inquires received the MS. name of 

 Coscinodiscus Barklyi, in honour, I believe, of one 

 of the governors. It was originally referred to the 

 Coscinodisci from the supposed absence of the mar- 

 ginal nodule. It is, however, to be detected by careful 

 examination, although very minute; it is situated on the 

 extreme edge of the disc, and when the inner surface 

 of the valve is uppermost, it is often invisible. Cos- 

 cinodiscus fuscus, Norman, is supposed to be identical 

 with the above species. — F. Kitton. 



Sap Crystals.— The sap of the Scotch fir contains 

 very beautiful crystals ; they may be obtained at this 

 season of the year by cutting a slice through the bark, 

 from the under side of the branch ; in a few days the 

 sap will flow containing the crystals. — S. C. Hincks. 



Cleaning Diatomace.e. — I have followed "Da- 

 vis" in his manner of cleaning diatoms, but cannot 



get rid of the flocculent matter and the sand, — in fact, 

 my slides are sand interspersed with diatoms, &c. 

 I have washed, and washed, and washed, till there is 

 very little left out of a rich gathering ; can you give 

 me any help ? — //. G. IV. 



The Resolution of Diatom Tests. — At a 

 recent meeting of the Royal Microscopical Society, 

 Mr. Adolf Schulze, of Glasgow, read a paper on "A 

 new and simple Method of Resolving the finest Bal- 

 sam-mounted Diatom Tests." The author described 

 the success which had attended the examination of 

 this dass of objects by means of the reflex illuminator, 

 and the immersion paraboloid moistened with Castor 

 oil instead of water. The lines on Amphipleura pel- 

 hicida were in this manner shown in order to illus- 

 trate Mr. Schulze's method. 



ZOOLOGY, 



The Golden Oriole {Oriolus ga!bula).—Cz.n 

 any of your readers supply information respecting the 

 notes of this bird ? It is asserted by those who have 

 heard it in Austria, that it has three definite notes, 

 and that those notes follow each other in the follow- 

 ing musical order : 



^g^a 



If this can be verified, it will elucidate a remarkable 

 statement made by Nieremberg in his Natures 

 Historia, 1635, in which he speaks of a bird called 

 the Tritono Ave, and to which the late Canon Kings- 

 ley refers in his Life (vol. ii. p. 332). It is worthy 

 of remark that Bechstein states that the male bird's 

 notes resemble "a flourish of trumpets," and very 

 curiously the above notes are a common bugle-call. 

 It will also be noticed that the last two notes are 

 those of the Cuckoo. If there be any truth in the 

 statement advanced, a very singular musical question 

 is solved, that a bird possesses the power of uttering 

 a " common chord " ! This was observed by Shield 

 in his treatise on Harmony (1S00), and which first 

 attracted the attention of the writer of this notice. — 

 IV. II. C. 



Parasitic Worms in Leg ok Grebe. — When 

 skinning a Little Grebe (Podkeps minor, Pen.), on 

 November 25th, 1874, I came upon a cluster of 

 nematoid worms amongst the muscles and tendons of 

 both legs— exactly in the same place in each — near 

 the lower part of the tibia. From their larger size 

 they appeared to have been longer in the left leg than 

 in the right. They were rather hard and stiff — not 

 soft and flabby— of a regular spiral form, of about 

 six turns, tapering to each end, the largest about 

 three-quarters of an inch in length — not following the 

 turns of the spiral : if straight, they would be about 

 an inch long. They seemed unable to straighten 



